True diehards can build their own film coating machine, (the blueprints
used to be available on line). It would take a great deal of dedication
to do but, for black and white film at least, there's nothing that would
be insurmountable.
On 2/8/2015 6:21 PM, Mark C wrote:
If you are going to get back into film then this is probably the time
to do it.
I do not see film doing well in the long term. The modest resurgence
in film types and brands in the past few years is probably just a dead
cat bounce. Once the market shook out the surviving manufacturers were
able to retreat a little less, and put some new labels on the market.
Some facts that do not bode well for film -
1. Film prints of movies have declined drastically. This was a huge
driver of the film market. It is questionable whether consumer demand
for film can drive the market.
2. Very few film cameras are still made. The second hand market will
support users in the short term, but without cameras that use film,
the demand for it will die.
3. Its doubtful that the market demand will justify building new film
manufacturing facilities. Many existing facilities are quite old and
cannot be repaired, Efke abruptly stopped making film when their
decades old manufacturing facility reached the point where it was not
operable.
4. The price of film now is much higher than in the past, and it will
continue to increase as demand drops. Higher price = less demand.
I expect film will survive for a few more decades and that B&W film
will be last to go, with color transparency being the first to go.
Eventually, I would expect that hand coated glass plates will be
around longer than film, simply because hobbyists can make a plate
with a modest investment but film can only be made in industrial
facilities that probably will be cost prohibitive to build in the future.
If the future is one of great prosperity where people have a lot of
disposable income and the trade in luxury goods is very high - well
then maybe film will survive.
Mark
On 2/8/2015 3:15 PM, Malcolm Smith wrote:
Mark C wrote:
I use a bit of 35mm B&W film - probably about 75 rolls last year. I
shoot maybe 15 to 20 rolls of color 120 film in either the 6x7 or a 6x6
TLR and a similar number of 120 B&W film. Digital has replaced my 35mm
color work completely (I used to shoot lots of 35mm transparencies).
I don't think that demand for film has increased, at least not on a
long term basis. It seems to me that demand has stabilized and is
declining more slowly than in past years when the demand dropped
drastically. On the supply side, a lot of suppliers have dropped out of
the market and those that remain have reduced their product lines. But,
the surviving manufacturers are facing less competition.
Many for my favorite films of the past - Agfa APX, Neopan 400, Neopan
SS, Plus-X, HIE have been discontinued. While there has been a mild
resurgence in the varieties of film in recent years and some new brands
appearing on the market the selection is still nowhere near where it
was at films peak about 15 years ago.
I enjoy the process of shooting and developing film (B&W) and also
scanning it and applying digital enhancements to scanned negs, which is
slightly different than for digital captures. For certain niches of
photography I think that well handled 120 film in 6x7 format can
produce superior resolution and detail than my DSLR's, but that gap has
gotten very narrow and I expect will disappear with my next DSLR
upgrade.
Ok, film is alive and well, and complementing digital use. Very
interesting.
The one thing I really miss which digital just doesn't give me the
pleasure
of, is 35mm transparency film and it will that that I will go for. I
couldn't find any a few years back, but now it is there I would like
to see
how it compares again with digital - not just in terms of the end
result,
but for me I suppose the journey is important.
Malcolm
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