How much longer can photographic film hold on?

[Curt]

Until we have to buy film by the pound or have to ask for half a roll at a time.

 

[KanFotog]

It's probably wishful thinking but I think we're going to see a resurgence of sorts in film.

A dealer here in Mumbai was telling me Lomo is planning to launch in India. Their target date seems to be somewhere in July or August this year.

Going by that I figure once people have used the Lomos, maybe they'll be interested in the regular stuff too?
*crosses fingers*

 

[lxdude]

I'll give you five.

Pay me and I'll take them off your hands.

 

[Steve Smith]

Pay me and I'll take them off your hands.

I can't compete with that. You have them!


Steve.

 

[thegman]

It's probably wishful thinking but I think we're going to see a resurgence of sorts in film.

A dealer here in Mumbai was telling me Lomo is planning to launch in India. Their target date seems to be somewhere in July or August this year.

Going by that I figure once people have used the Lomos, maybe they'll be interested in the regular stuff too?
*crosses fingers*

That would be very cool indeed, if Lomo can get success in India like they have in Europe and USA, then maybe film could even become a growth market again.

 

[michaelbsc]

I'll give you five.

Pay me and I'll take them off your hands.

Drat! Sniped on APUG.

 

[lxdude]

Heh-heh-heh...

 

[jgjbowen]

Over the 2010 holidays I walked into the local Urban Outfitters and was quite shocked to find a huge display, just inside the door, of all things retro. The display included Holgas, Lomo cameras, and these weird platterss with spindles that held some plastic disk and made sounds

If we can get the kids to believe retro is cool (do kids today still say cool?) film will have a much longer life. Everybody buy your kid/grandkid a Holga or Lomo camera this year!

 

[michaelbsc]

Over the 2010 holidays I walked into the local Urban Outfitters and was quite shocked to find a huge display, just inside the door, of all things retro. The display included Holgas, Lomo cameras, and these weird platterss with spindles that held some plastic disk and made sounds

If we can get the kids to believe retro is cool (do kids today still say cool?) film will have a much longer life. Everybody buy your kid/grandkid a Holga or Lomo camera this year!

Find them a Brownie Hawkeye with a real lens and hope like crazy they catch the fever. I'm in the camp that believes the Holga fad won't sustain itself once the novelty wears off

 

[eclarke]

No new cameras doesn't mean no film, or no new films, IMO. The digital revolution brought a huge amount of perfectly fine film cameras on the second-hand market and that killed the market for new film cameras. Film sales certainly declined but did so with a very different pattern. That's not to say that film sales haven't been shrinking in the last ten years, they surely have, but at by far a different rate than film cameras.

If I get all the figures more or less right - I'm going by heart here, don't quote my figures - film cameras virtually ceased selling already in 2002 - 2003. Ten years after the "revolution", there are only a couple camera producers (Cosina and Nikon, maybe Canon) in the consumer market. Then there are all the Leica, Rolleiflex, Alpa, Arca-Swiss, Hasselblad and many others and all the LF producers. It's niche market but it is meaningful they are still alive. The fact that some firms producing enlargers still produce them today is also noticeable.

Film products, on the other hand, is mostly still alive. Practically all film producers that were alive 10 years ago are alive now, with the exception of Konica - Sakura. Agfa still produces film (as an OEM). Most chemicals producers are still alive.

Some are just prematurely singing the de profundis to an industry in a sad anticipation of a death which so far did not knock at the door.

If you see it in terms of "surviving catalogue", as far as film cameras are concerned possibly 98% of the year 2000 catalogue is out of production, while in the film and chemistry sectors probably 95% of the year 2000 catalogue survived.

Actually if we get an "almanac" of the photographic market of the year 1990, some twenty years ago, we might discover that film offering is much broader now than it was then.

Personally I have worries only about the continuation of mass-market laboratories, which I see as the weak ring in the chain.

Film cameras are very easy to manufacture: just take a digital camera (any), and adapt it. When the demand for new film cameras rises again, producers will be easily able to produce film versions or their digital cameras. Or maybe even Jeckyll-Hyde versions, with interchangeable backs, one for film, the other for digital (à la Leica R9 or better).

The sky is still solidly resting on its feet

Digital photography allowed me to buy a ton of medium format gear I never would have bought..Evan Clarke

 

[CGW]

Film products, on the other hand, is mostly still alive. Practically all film producers that were alive 10 years ago are alive now, with the exception of Konica - Sakura. Agfa still produces film (as an OEM). Most chemicals producers are still alive.

Some are just prematurely singing the de profundis to an industry in a sad anticipation of a death which so far did not knock at the door.

If you see it in terms of "surviving catalogue", as far as film cameras are concerned possibly 98% of the year 2000 catalogue is out of production, while in the film and chemistry sectors probably 95% of the year 2000 catalogue survived.

This is a bit silly. "Not dead yet" isn't much use in understanding the dive in film sales/output over the past decade. That's what matters. Film may not be dead but it's beginning to smell funny.

film cameras are very easy to manufacture: just take a digital camera (any), and adapt it. When the demand for new film cameras rises again, producers will be easily able to produce film versions or their digital cameras. Or maybe even Jeckyll-Hyde versions, with interchangeable backs, one for film, the other for digital (à la Leica R9 or better).


Not sure I want any of the stuff you're smoking.

 

[Diapositivo]

CGW, the interchangeable back road is what allows MF gear to be used for film and digital. I can't see why this cannot be done in the future in 135. Leica did it once and did not make it for the M series for a different set of problems.

Pessimism is the attitude of the loser.

 

[CGW]

CGW, the interchangeable back road is what allows MF gear to be used for film and digital. I can't see why this cannot be done in the future in 135. Leica did it once and did not make it for the M series for a different set of problems.
Pessimism is the attitude of the loser.

Perhaps you were napping when this happened:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0209/02091903siliconfilmagain.asp

Pessimism(more like realism here) isn't in the DSM-IV but delusional disorder is. Cheers!

 

[Diapositivo]

Perhaps you were napping when this happened:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0209/02091903siliconfilmagain.asp

Precisely yes I was taking pictures using film, if you call this "napping". When I use film - and I also use digital, incidentally - I am not too concerned in what will happen in ten years. I am using film today because I find it. When I don't find it anymore, THEN I will not use it anymore.

We have to die one day, but if we constantly think about death, we cannot live any more. Live the day.

You know the saying: Who is afraid dies every day. The hero dies only once.

Don't be afraid. Die once.

 

[Film-Niko]

It's probably wishful thinking but I think we're going to see a resurgence of sorts in film.

A dealer here in Mumbai was telling me Lomo is planning to launch in India. Their target date seems to be somewhere in July or August this year.

Going by that I figure once people have used the Lomos, maybe they'll be interested in the regular stuff too?
*crosses fingers*

They are not only going to India in the next months. Some days ago they have opened a new shop in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Next they will go to the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Suisse, Turkey, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipines.
And will extend their operations by openning new shops in USA, England, Germany, France, China.
Lomo it not a fad. This movement is 20 years old. And still rapidly growing.
Because they do an very effective marketing, and do a great job in encouraging people to use film.
Not like lots of apuggers here, which definitely discourage new users to use film by all their permanent doom and gloom and sky is falling praying.

Do you want to join a club which is permanently debating it's own closure? Of course not!
You will go on and join a club with a positive outlook.

That is what Lomo do: Their slogan is "the future is analogue". They have a positive outlook, that is attractive for young people.
Lomo know very well that economics is 50% psychology. If people believe in the future of a system, they will buy.

 

[Diapositivo]

[...]
Because they do an very effective marketing, and do a great job in encouraging people to use film.
Not like lots of apuggers here, which definitely discourage new users to use film by all their permanent doom and gloom and sky is falling praying.

Do you want to join a club which is permanently debating it's own closure? Of course not!
You will go on and join a club with a positive outlook.

That is what Lomo do: Their slogan is "the future is analogue". They have a positive outlook, that is attractive for young people.
Lomo know very well that economics is 50% psychology. If people believe in the future of a system, they will buy.

Words of wisdom.

 

[C A Sugg]

Check out this article I found today on the net.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20110530/D9NHUNV00.html


Something that jumped right out:

"George Eastman transformed photography from an arcane hobby into a mass commodity with his $1 Brownie in 1900"

Unless my sense of it's history is way off, wasn't photography still largely business at that point? Though I suppose it could be seen as a hobby with the well off "early adopters" of the original Kodak roll camera and amateur artists.

 

[CGW]

They are not only going to India in the next months. Some days ago they have opened a new shop in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Next they will go to the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Suisse, Turkey, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipines.
And will extend their operations by openning new shops in USA, England, Germany, France, China.
Lomo it not a fad. This movement is 20 years old. And still rapidly growing.
Because they do an very effective marketing, and do a great job in encouraging people to use film.
Not like lots of apuggers here, which definitely discourage new users to use film by all their permanent doom and gloom and sky is falling praying.

Do you want to join a club which is permanently debating it's own closure? Of course not!
You will go on and join a club with a positive outlook.

That is what Lomo do: Their slogan is "the future is analogue". They have a positive outlook, that is attractive for young people.
Lomo know very well that economics is 50% psychology. If people believe in the future of a system, they will buy.

It's a nano-trend. I don't think the Lomo fad is exactly an engine of macro-economic growth anywhere by hiring a few people in large cities around the planet--their site listings for work aren't exactly brimming with opportunity. Lomography is simply an attempt to "brand" film photography. As I've said elsewhere, I've met Diana-totting trendoids who had no idea 120 film fit anything available outside a Lomo emporium. I'm enthusiastic about film and work to promote it in my community but I'm not delusional. What's the point of these splenetic rages here and elsewhere on the site, particularly your latest against dr5? It's neither productive or indicative of a realistic understanding of the industry in 2011.

 

[stavrosk]

I don't think film will vanish altogether. The availability will be rare and the types of film may decrease like Kodak combining nc and vc etc, but film will be available, like vinyl records still exist and like manual cars still exist.
It is just not going to be the most popular way of creating photographs like it is not today.
But that is all the best for us. There will be digital image creators and photographers. Film photography will become even more of an art form, a more exclusive way of creating images.

 

[removed account4]

who cares how long they will keep making film
for the average person chemical based photography is just about dead ...

 

[dpurdy]

This has probably been addressed before but I wonder if in end sheet film will outlast roll film. I could be happy with only 4x5 and 8x10 sheets.
Dennis

 

[kb3lms]

there were no film manufacturers, it would represent a large gap in the market which someone would fill.

100% absolutely correct.

 

[kb3lms]

...People kvetch now about rising film/paper prices. I'm thinking your future won't be much fun--or affordable.

There's all kind of hobbies and niche markets that are a lot more expensive than analog photography. Amateur radio comes to mind, but there are plenty of other examples. I'll bet that I could keep myself in photography for the rest of my natural life for the cost of one new (digital!) middle-of-the-road HF transceiver, and they have no problem selling them all over the world. The only difference being those manufacturers aren't set up to build their products in the millions.

Ever think about what it costs to maintain a horse? There's no shortage in the market for horses, including the buggy whips. For what it costs to actively be in the horse hobby for two or three years with one horse you could probably buy any camera you ever wanted and have enough change to keep that camera loaded with film forever.

People have money for anything for which they want to have money.

 

[Steve Smith]

and like manual cars still exist.

Over here (and probably the rest of the world) manual cars probably make up at least 90% of the total.


Steve.

 

[Steve Smith]

There's all kind of hobbies and niche markets that are a lot more expensive than analog photography. Amateur radio comes to mind

Amateur radio can be almost free as transmitters and receivers can be made from a few valves and other bits and pieces electronics hobbyists have in their spare parts drawers/cupboards. My grandfather made a superb superhet, multi band receiver with military 'spares' he brought home after the war and used a variety of self made single valve transmitters..... Or you can buy ready made equipment and spend a fortune.




Steve.