There's a huge market of vintage and new record players. Of course, some investors might buy records and never use them, putting them away to resell later at appreciated prices.
And 50% of the buyers don't even have a record player. Or at least that's what a headline said a month or two ago...
Thanks for both lists. I agree that if you stretch "film manufacturing" to a wider definition, the list can approach and probably even exceed 10. The definition would then have to include things like "may or may still not be manufacturing film that's not intended for photographic purposes, but used for it by some", "marketing film they don't actually manufacture", "are a trade name but not a legal entity as such that manufacture photographic film". And perhaps some other variants.
To name a few:
* ORWO: is not really one discernable legal entity; unclear who does the actual manufacturing, although some people in the German industry evidently know
* Lomo: does not manufacture film.
* Rollei: idem; is not a manufacturer
* Arista: same thing
* Kentmere: same
But alright, even if you were to compile a correct list, it would still exceed 5, but end before you'd reach 10. Calling that 'loads' is a bit of a stretch.
How many manufacturers were actually coating film before the digital revolution say in 1999?
I can think of the following off the top of my head:
Kodak
Ilford
Fuji
Konica
Agfa
Depending on how you count it, Polaroid.
How many manufacturers were actually coating film before the digital revolution say in 1999?
they've announced that they're resuming production of their films
No, they announced that they are resuming ordering for their films in Japan.
To sell, you must produce.
And 50% of the buyers don't even have a record player. Or at least that's what a headline said a month or two ago...
I believe that is an out of date observation. 10 years ago it might well have been true, but today is sloppy "journalism". There certainly was a trend for people to buy vinyl records in order to have something to handle and perhaps put on display. Now they're played. Not always on sufficiently good equipment, but they're played.
I believe that is an out of date observation. 10 years ago it might well have been true, but today is sloppy "journalism". There certainly was a trend for people to buy vinyl records in order to have something to handle and perhaps put on display. Now they're played. Not always on sufficiently good equipment, but they're played. The same may not be true of the smaller but extant rise in sales of cassette tapes, they are mostly not being played by the young folk buying them. A bit of a shame because the few new releases that I've bought have been well duplicated. While I cannot buy film or cassettes at my local supermarket, there is a reasonable choice of LPs there. And it's been quite some years since I needed to "worry" about weather an anticipated new release from a favourite artist would be available on vinyl or not.
as for the cost of records Vs CDs....just look at the process to manufacture each item. A CD costs a few pennies to manufacture. A vinyl record actually costs a few dollarpounds. The vinyl will also in most cases be specially mastered for the format, sometimes by an expert mastering engineer
I don't know why Kodak's B&W film is significantly more expensive than Ilford's....except that the B&W film is Ilford's main product and a bit of a minority one for Kodak. What I don't do is envisage a fat executive in a large chair stroking a long-haired, white cat and dreaming up the next Kodak price increase. It's as "cheap" as it can reasonably be. We know their profit margins ain't big on film.
as for the cost of records Vs CDs....just look at the process to manufacture each item. A CD costs a few pennies to manufacture.
Don't forget Ferrania in the beforetimes, possibly the single biggest producer of amateur C41 films in the world at the time....but often overlooked because most of their production was sold under other names.
Worth noting that someome recently pointed out that only four companies ever really mastered production of C41 colour film
Kodak, Agfa, Fuji and Konica. While Ferrania made tons of the stuff and I did like Ferrania Solaris 200, the 400 and 800 were below par in terms of grain and colour saturation compared to the "big 4".
But yes there were smaller, Eastern European and Chinese companies such as Forte, Efke, Lucky doing film before "the great crash". So really it wasn't very many companies who were doing it by the 1990s, and only four (or five) ever got the hang of C41.
@albireo I totally agree regarding vinyl. For a well mastered and manufactured LP compared to the CD of the same material the difference is like day and night. The only digital format that ever came close was DVD-Audio (24-bit, 192kHz sampling rate at best). I firmly believe the red book CD is just not capable of capturing music adequately. By suitable equipment really I mean anything a step above those Crosley style things on sale in supermarkets with the red ceramic cartridge. They damage records over time and sound poor to begin with. My turntable at home is a 32 year old Systemdek. It's predecessor was a generic 80s plastic thing which was sold under the Memorex brand, and actually sounds OK. It now lives in my office at work. I knew the tide had turned when my cousin's kid, some 15 years ago, saw some of my record collection and said "Oh vinyl, did you know they sound better than CDs"....I work in a school and the teenagers all know what vinyl records are, but other than instax the film bug hasn't caught on.
@Alan Edward Klein 128kbps refers to the bit rate rather than sample rate I was mentioning. 128kbps is a pretty low resolution, highly compressed MP3 most likely.
Red book CD is 16-bit, 44.1kHz sampling rate uncompressed and around 1400kbps. DVD-A at full resolution, 24-bit, 192kHz can be up to 9Mbps but typically was half that.
Of course we all know the ultimate music format is analogue reel to reel tape. But none of this is directly relatable to film, letalone Kodak B&W film nd whether people are buying it. Though in a world where people are paying 400 dollarpounds for a pre-recorded reel of tape, people will buy Kodak B&W film. Just not so many of them.
@Alan Edward Klein when you copied your cd using your computer, your software encoded the music at that bitrate (128). Amazon provides higher bitrate encodings. It hardly matters, though. In my case, my hearing isn't good enough to discern the very slight difference between the lowest encoded mp3 and the same some straight off a cd.
Sort of. Like everything else, once the demand for CDs drops to an unsustainable level, they will cost more to manufacture. It really doesn't look like it has much time left on the market, since no one uses them for computers, anymore (most computers do not have a cd or dvd drive, now) and streaming services and mp3 downloads have killed physical music sales.
View attachment 342609
Soon, CDs will be harder to get than peel-apart Polaroid film.
Well, it is also coated and similar to film in a way. It would be interesting to listen to a low generation master tape. For music I am quite happy with digital formats but one has to do a lot of checks as to get a non brickwalled master.Of course we all know the ultimate music format is analogue reel to reel tape. But none of this is directly relatable to film, letalone Kodak B&W film nd whether people are buying it. Though in a world where people are paying 400 dollarpounds for a pre-recorded reel of tape, people will buy Kodak B&W film. Just not so many of them.
What is Red Book?
@Alan Edward Klein 128kbps refers to the bit rate rather than sample rate I was mentioning. 128kbps is a pretty low resolution, highly compressed MP3 most likely.
Red book CD is 16-bit, 44.1kHz sampling rate uncompressed and around 1400kbps. DVD-A at full resolution, 24-bit, 192kHz can be up to 9Mbps but typically was half that.
Of course we all know the ultimate music format is analogue reel to reel tape. But none of this is directly relatable to film, letalone Kodak B&W film nd whether people are buying it. Though in a world where people are paying 400 dollarpounds for a pre-recorded reel of tape, people will buy Kodak B&W film. Just not so many of them.
... Did I read this correctly? Is that 1/4, 1/2, or 1, 2 inch tape? Standard reels? Damn! I should have kept those reels of Ampex 456!!
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