Sadly Pertinent

Keep in mind that 10 years ago I was buying LPs in mint or near perfect condition for as low as 4 for a dollar. At the same time I found it was difficult to locate a turntable. Today, LPs are $2 each at thrift stores and all the high school kids buy them. Second and Charles sells the LPs for even more, sometimes up to $30 each for newly issued. Turntables at all levels are readily available. Maybe, all is not lost.
 
Steve Bellayr said:
Keep in mind that 10 years ago I was buying LPs in mint or near perfect condition for as low as 4 for a dollar. At the same time I found it was difficult to locate a turntable. Today, LPs are $2 each at thrift stores and all the high school kids buy them. Second and Charles sells the LPs for even more, sometimes up to $30 each for newly issued. Turntables at all levels are readily available. Maybe, all is not lost.
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I agree. It's funny, turntables and cartridges are at an all time high as far as quality, and vinyl LPs are dirt cheap. Once you pick up a decent record cleaner machine, life is good. See www.audiogon.com for great deals on all kinds of analog equipment.

Maybe nothing ever dies.
 
I had my half-yearly dental cleaning today. Sometime between the last one and this one, the dentist's office had switched over from analog (film) to digital x-rays. As more of that happens, that further undermines the consumer analog photography infrastructure/supply chain, since medical radiography, like Hollywood movie-making, was another unseen (to mass consumers) big chunk of supporting demand.

Digital oral x-rays, by the way, strike me as a bit icky. Everyone chomps down on the same bite-wing sensor. Yes each patient gets their own disposable plastic-film sleeve wrapped around it, but I do still hope they're cleaning these with alcohol every so often. Quick Googling seems to indicate these sensors cost about $5000 (?!), so they'll have to save a lot of film/chemistry to break even, and hope that nobody's kid bites down hard and destroys one.

--Dave
 
RBruceCR said:
I still have two bulk rolls of TMax 100 and 400. Now the issue is going to be when will they stop selling chemicals to develop!
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The basic chemicals used in film processing are also used for industrial processes that have nothing to do with film. This is true for color and BW negative. Those chemicals will be available for a very long time. If there is demand, someone will package them for film development. They could become rather expensive (though I doubt it), but the required chemicals will be sold.
 
robklurfield said:
Is it possible that Winogrand was sloppy and liked to proscratinate? That he liked being outside shooting better than he liked going through file drawers? Did he maybe find the task of sorting through all that stuff -- 2,500 undeveloped rolls -- kind of daunting? Wouldn't you? And, anyway, what's wrong with that? He did produce a rather staggering and very fine body of printed work. Do you think that maybe he had hoped to live past the age of 56? What would any of us leave behind in life if our number came up prematurely like that? Is Vermeer less of a painter because we only know of a small quantity of finished canvasses? Did Gary maybe prefer shooting to printing? Who knows?
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Winogrand was a major figure in popularizing street photography, he inspired many and produced many images. That is it.
 
Calzone said:
Your assumption about digital is not the case either. Tomorrow I get delivery of a Leica Monochrome. Already bought an Epson 3880 to take advantage of a $250.00 rebate. This weekend I intend on buying a fully loaded 15 inch Mac Book Pro with Retina Screen. Just completed building out the room for my digital studio that involved about $1K in furniture. A NEC 721W with spectraview is about $1.5K, but that will have to wait.

Also no debate film verses digital: to me they are two separate mediums. And yes I know that photography is a demanding activity because I take what I do very seriously, but also know that the only person I need please is myself. No need to impress anyone else.

Cal
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Hopefully you got delivery of your M Mono. Now you will have a more involved photography experience because you can see the results right away. But of course there is no reason you cannot carry a film camera as well and combine the best of two... There is too much of either/or mentality in photography these days.
 
upceci said:
Hopefully you got delivery of your M Mono. Now you will have a more involved photography experience because you can see the results right away. But of course there is no reason you cannot carry a film camera as well and combine the best of two... There is too much of either/or mentality in photography these days.
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A more involved photography experience because he can see the results right away? That sounds like it could go straight on a marketing brochure. I fail to see how ability to chimp helps one become an innately better photographer. It doesn't work that way.
 
clayne said:
A more involved photography experience because he can see the results right away? That sounds like it could go straight on a marketing brochure. I fail to see how ability to chimp helps one become an innately better photographer. It doesn't work that way.
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I think he meant that it's just easier to see them after you photograph because you can process them that night on your computer (as opposed to developing film and then printing). Also, the person who that comment is directed towards (Calzone) has a huge backlog of film to print, so the comment was regarding the fact that digital will be more immediate for him to see his results.

Chimping? That a personal thing... it's neither bad nor good unless you let ego come into play.
 
upceci said:
Hopefully you got delivery of your M Mono. Now you will have a more involved photography experience because you can see the results right away. But of course there is no reason you cannot carry a film camera as well and combine the best of two... There is too much of either/or mentality in photography these days.
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Thanks. The Monochrom is a very practical camera for me, and it does seem like Leica especially designed this camera especially for me.

Just know that I still intend on shooting as much film as I can, and that a light table is plenty good for me to do a "rough cut" as far as editing is concerned. I'm exceptionally good in inverting a negative into a positive in my mind, and never made contact sheets. Also I like seeing the negatives in 50-60 roll batches after a delay. Something to be said for seeing the images much later with fresh eyes.

Cal
 
clayne said:
A more involved photography experience because he can see the results right away? That sounds like it could go straight on a marketing brochure. I fail to see how ability to chimp helps one become an innately better photographer. It doesn't work that way.
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To add to jsrockit's reply which clarified my post, I should also add that chimping is a term coined by sports photographers because in their line of shooting constant concentration and always being ready to grab the moment is essential -- chimping can be a negative habit for those people. For amateurs and casual shooters to use such terms like chimping only makes them look uninformed and pro-wannabe.
 
Calzone said:
Thanks. The Monochrom is a very practical camera for me, and it does seem like Leica especially designed this camera especially for me.

Just know that I still intend on shooting as much film as I can, and that a light table is plenty good for me to do a "rough cut" as far as editing is concerned. I'm exceptionally good in inverting a negative into a positive in my mind, and never made contact sheets. Also I like seeing the negatives in 50-60 roll batches after a delay. Something to be said for seeing the images much later with fresh eyes.

Cal
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I have not used the M Mono but I'm sure its a great camera. In my own personal experience of shooting film and digital, I have to say for me the end result really did not warrant shooting film anymore. And I was shooting B&W only. Things as small as limited frames, changing film, inconsistent development and exposure, not to mention scanning really did not justify for me the trouble of film. I'm not lazy, I'm just careful where I allocate my energy and resources... But another factor that put me off from shooting b&w itself was its ubiquity. Today people turn an image into b&w because its color version does not appeal to them. to me this has been a major reason why i slowly lost interest in b&w shooting. Digital is the current medium and i'm one of those people who's more interested in today rather than the past or the future.
 
upceci said:
I have not used the M Mono but I'm sure its a great camera. In my own personal experience of shooting film and digital, I have to say for me the end result really did not warrant shooting film anymore. And I was shooting B&W only. Things as small as limited frames, changing film, inconsistent development and exposure, not to mention scanning really did not justify for me the trouble of film. I'm not lazy, I'm just careful where I allocate my energy and resources... But another factor that put me off from shooting b&w itself was its ubiquity. Today people turn an image into b&w because its color version does not appeal to them. to me this has been a major reason why i slowly lost interest in b&w shooting. Digital is the current medium and i'm one of those people who's more interested in today rather than the past or the future.
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Thanks for the explaining a good point: in particular "end result." Perhaps this is where you and I differ. I make negatives for wet printing, and perhaps the density is too much for many scanners. Also know that I always intended on printing big, and that I also shoot mucho medium format.

My intent is/was to stay 100% analog, image capture became the priority, and as a result of mass repetition I get very consistent results. Someone I deeply respect who shoots large format looked at one of my 6x9 negatives stated, "With negatives like these you don't need a 4x5."

Now with the Monochrom nothing really changes, except that I am learning a totally new medium. My intent is to become a good digital printer, and my approach is digital is a separate medium. At this point I must be very humble because digital is all new to me.

Cal
 
upceci said:
I have not used the M Mono but I'm sure its a great camera. In my own personal experience of shooting film and digital, I have to say for me the end result really did not warrant shooting film anymore. And I was shooting B&W only. Things as small as limited frames, changing film, inconsistent development and exposure, not to mention scanning really did not justify for me the trouble of film. I'm not lazy, I'm just careful where I allocate my energy and resources... But another factor that put me off from shooting b&w itself was its ubiquity. Today people turn an image into b&w because its color version does not appeal to them. to me this has been a major reason why i slowly lost interest in b&w shooting. Digital is the current medium and i'm one of those people who's more interested in today rather than the past or the future.
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Highlight 1: Why were your development and exposure inconsistent? These are not difficult to master.

Highlight 2: Scanning? Well, that's why I still have a proper darkroom.

Highlight 3: So are many of us. Which is why many of us still prefer film.

Highlights 4/5: So is film. If you can't handle/don't like film, fine, but at least allow those of us who prefer film to insult you the same way you insult us.

Cheers,

R.
 
The invention of digital photography was a godsend to people who want their photography to be easy, with little or no physical effort or cerebral involvement.

Some of these ''enlightened'' souls even say that oldtime human judgements like exposure evaluation and focussing are best left for onboard electronics to sort out, as they ''get in the way'' of artistic appraisal and impede the immediacy of the decisive moment .. (!)

And as for spending hours in smelly darkrooms, no way, Josie !

I take some comfort in the knowledge that there are still a goodly number of other die-hard film users out there who feel as I do - that we live in an increasingly spoon-fed, computer-led world, and we're all the poorer for it...
 
There's one thing a digital camera/workflow absolutely needs that using film does not.......electricity. With the recent debacle surrounding the cruise ship that lost power for 5 days I'll bet the images produced by the people on board dwindled drastically during the last couple of days due to dead batteries. I can't imagine many people (if anyone) were using film in their cameras. (Not that we may want to see what was going on during the last couple of days)
 
Bob,

The way to big and heavy Nikon D700 would easily last 10 days with two OEM batteries. This assumes one is reasonably selective and wouldn't run around the ship pressing the shutter indiscriminately. It also assumes limited chimping, not using an IS lens and judiciously using the flash. Documenting the onboard experience for five days without AC power would be easy, but it would not be fun!

I just paid $51 for a portable USB charger. This unit is as about the size of a portable hard drive. It will charge an smart phone/tablet a couple of times. Again, with thoughtful use fortaking photos for five days without access to AC power would not be a problem.

During 5 years of switching to digital I ran low on batteries once. I ended up using live-view mode for five hours and I had planned for three. I finished the gig with about 15% of my third Nikon battery left.

It would be easy for an inexperienced person to kill their camera batteries the first day. Running out of film may or may not be an issue too.

I prefer using a film camera to a digital camera. This would be especially true for large format film compared to a DSLR. But battery technology has developed to the point where battery life is not an issue.
 
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