Breaking news: Analog wins. Film at 11.

[Theo Sulphate]

Haven't seen this article posted here ("The Elephant in the Digital Darkroom"). The article is about why the motion picture studios want to save film production.

http://leicaphilia.com/the-elephant-in-the-digital-darkroom/

I especially liked this sentence: "In addition to digital’s lack of tangibility, digital hardware and storage media are much less stable than 35mm film."

 

[heespharm]

I've been on my analog soapbox preaching about this... Save your baby pictures, shoot film


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[Ken Nadvornick]

Actually, the quote that got my eye...

"We were very close to the difficult decision of having to stop manufacturing film..." said Jeff Clarke, Kodak’s chief executive, according to the Wall Street Journal. —TIME, Feb 5, 2015

Not that we all didn't already intuitively know, but that they finally stated it publicly.

Ken

 

[snapguy]

Great

Great stuff. "Digital extinction." Very good. The vast majority of silent films have disappeared because the early nitrate, non safety, film burns up or crumbles into dust when not stored just right.

 

[John_A]

I've been on my analog soapbox preaching about this... Save your baby pictures, shoot film

Yes, I've learned this the hard way.. A massive powersupply failure that took out both the harddrive and backup drive at the same time. Thought I could rescue most of it, but when inspecting the image library, almost all files were distorted. Corrupted data, banding in green, black and pink, and in some cases half or 2/3s of the image data is gone showing mostly black. Many 100s of pictures on my kids, now useless. Most of my interest in digital photography died at this point. Now I'm back using film, happily smelling the familiar fumes in the darkroom while the kids are using the computer playing games.


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[OptiKen]

Loved reading this.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Black Dog]

Thanks from me too.

 

[paul_c5x4]

Caught a piece of BBC news this afternoon on the problems of preserving digital memories: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31450389

Perhaps as mainstream press starts to highlight the issue, we may see an increase of more traditional image capture.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Great stuff. "Digital extinction." Very good. The vast majority of silent films have disappeared because the early nitrate, non safety, film burns up or crumbles into dust when not stored just right.

Yes. Some media are better than others. Yet, I have a tintype and other photos that are well over 100 years old. I'm fond of any media that doesn't require me to power up an electronic device and run an application in order to view an image.

 

[Besk]

I too have been promoting film for years. Especially b&w on polyester base.

 

[summicron1]

Caught a piece of BBC news this afternoon on the problems of preserving digital memories: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31450389

Perhaps as mainstream press starts to highlight the issue, we may see an increase of more traditional image capture.

I work in a museum and, I guarantee you, the dark age is already upon us -- file formats that you can't open because someone saved them to a zip disk whose drive developed the "click of death," and good luck finding another one that works.

Museum curators all over the world are struggling with this right now. Things are disappearing right now. While digital may be faster/cheaper to make films, storing those same digital movies costs thousands of dollars a year, vs hundreds a year for film movies.

Cost-conscious bureaucrats will do what bureaucrats have always done, and history will be lost.

 

[Trail Images]

An excellent read with very powerful points made.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

As much as I like tangible artifacts, nothing is immune to total destruction:

"The Moscow library known as INION—the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences—went up in flames on the evening of Jan. 29. ..."

http://qz.com/336926/a-moscow-libra...slavic-texts-and-14-million-books-is-on-fire/

This is a major loss!

 

[DBP]

I've long wondered why someone doesn't offer a service to save digital images onto film.

 

[megaman49]

I've long wondered why someone doesn't offer a service to save digital images onto film.

Check out https://www.gammatech.com/home.html . They offer exactly that.

 

[AgX]

That article starts in the first sentences with a major error:

Kodak is the last company to make motion picture film, which some filmmakers prefer for aesthetic reasons.“

Agfa, Filmotec and Fuji too manufacture cinematographic films aimed at the movie industry.

True is that Kodak is the only company left that manufactures cinematographic colour camera films.
But that has not much to do with the long-discussed archiving issue, as in current major productions it is not the camera films that are archived.


Of course, keeping a emulsion making and coating plant running will help survive knowledge for other more niche products, but that is valid for all manufacturers in that business.


Furthermore, that cinematographic business ís difficult. Whereas some cinematographers today call for the survival of film as medium, they refused a new product when offered to them.
Kind of crodiles' tears...


Keep in mind that things may be vastly different than portrayed by the media.

 

[DBP]

Check out https://www.gammatech.com/home.html . They offer exactly that.

Thanks. Wish they had a bulk rate. $5 per slide means I need to be very selective with what I archive. We're shooting about 3 digital to 2 film with the new baby. About 700 shots in his first 4 months. Archiving 400 of those at $5 per slide is way beyond what the budget will support.

 

[bsdunek]

Thank you, motion picture industry!

 

[CropDusterMan]

I am tired of the digital age personally. Corrupt cards, images being lost or computer problems...has anyone
ever had their zen time while hunched over a computer doing endless hours of photoshop? Film in film looks
much better to me...and frankly, I am so tired of the cooked, hyper-real look that has become the norm in both
photography and film...I sincerely hope that the art of using film stays alive. Called me old fashioned, but
the recent "modernization" of the digital film age has caused me nothing but grief...buying printers, only made and supported for a year or two, then they break, and you're out another 500$ to replace it...inks cost a ton...hard drives
taking a dump...yet, if you asked me to pull out 665 polaroid negs or films shot a decade and a half ago...voila!

 

[ME Super]

Thanks. Wish they had a bulk rate. $5 per slide means I need to be very selective with what I archive. We're shooting about 3 digital to 2 film with the new baby. About 700 shots in his first 4 months. Archiving 400 of those at $5 per slide is way beyond what the budget will support.

Dwayne's Photo. $1.10/slide from negatives or CD, $0.50/slide from slide film. Their chemistry is spot-on too. These guys were the last lab in the world capable of developing Kodachrome commercially with actual K-14 chemicals. Visit http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/ then click Order Forms -> Slide Film -> Prints from Slides for the order form.

Dwayne's has done slides from CD for me, and they did a nice job.

 

[DBP]

Dwayne's Photo. $1.10/slide from negatives or CD, $0.50/slide from slide film. Their chemistry is spot-on too. These guys were the last lab in the world capable of developing Kodachrome commercially with actual K-14 chemicals. Visit http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/ then click Order Forms -> Slide Film -> Prints from Slides for the order form.

Dwayne's has done slides from CD for me, and they did a nice job.

Thanks. I use them for developing, but had never noticed the slides from CD service.

 

[JamesPage]

http://leicaphilia.com/beware-the-digital-dark-age/

 

[JamesPage]

I've long wondered why someone doesn't offer a service to save digital images onto film.

They do. its called film photography!

 

[shutterlight]

A fellow photo student (we're both graduated now, but that's beside the point) had a hard drive fail on her several years ago. Because most of her work was on film, she was able to rescan the the essential negatives, and better than before, since she was more adept at scanning by then. A backup would have helped, but Pixar was supposed to have an official backup for Toy Story 2 and was saved only because one of the lead people took a copy of the film home with her. The backup had failed as well.

Sometimes there's no substitute for having something in tangible, organic form.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I've been on my analog soapbox preaching about this... Save your baby pictures, shoot film

+1

OP Thank you for sharing and thank you movie industry.