Does film have a future?

[Paul Goutiere]

When the 60 megapixel camera could be found from thrift shop for 1 dollar , I will never use film again

Don't say that!!

Right now I can buy a used 3.5 megapixel camera at our little thrift store for $5.00.
It may be possible that within your lifetime, sir, you may actually find a 60 megapixel camera in a thrift store for 1 dollar.

 

[Sean]

Some entrepreneur will always find a way. Even in the absolute worst case scenario I believe a bio-printer could be slightly modified to lay down perfectly uniform photographic emulsions (films and papers). That would create an industry similar to the growing artisan cheese industry where small shops begin outputting a variety of emulsions with only a small workshop required.

 

[batwister]

What are we going to do with all that plastic and metal when film is no longer available? That's a question you don't often hear. What about the environment!

 

[SkipA]

Now wouldn't that be fascinating? We go to PE's emulsion class, learn all the tricks of emulsion making, go home, mix up a batch, pour it into our bio-printer, program it, and make cheap 20x24 sheets of film. Or, maybe we buy a pint of the Arista Bio-Printer Code-a-Chrome 25 emulsion, and coat it on any film base we like. I like that.

 

[CGW]

Some entrepreneur will always find a way. Even in the absolute worst case scenario I believe a bio-printer could be slightly modified to lay down perfectly uniform photographic emulsions (films and papers). That would create an industry similar to the growing artisan cheese industry where small shops begin outputting a variety of emulsions with only a small workshop required.

Not sure about yours, but artisanal cheese here isn't uniformly wonderful and I suspect film would be the same.

 

[SkipA]

Well, not all commercial film is uniformly wonderful to everyone either. But the greater the variety you have available to you, the more likely you are to find one to your taste.

 

[EASmithV]

It'll be around. And there will probably still be some slide and negative material, made by Rollei. If Kodak and Fuji cease production, I expect another company like Foma to try and come out with a color film to capitalize on the lack of competition. And i'm confident that we'll always have Ilford, so I wouldn't worry.

 

[Sean]

I expect another company like Foma to try and come out with a color film to capitalize on the lack of competition.

That would be a good niche market too, especially if they had a licensing agreement with the lomography guys.

 

[BrianShaw]

... the lomography guys.

Are they a coherent business entity? I always thought the reference to "lomo guys" was like calling a computer science person a 'computer geek'.

 

[ME Super]

Computer Geeks

Funny you should say that. There's a local (to me) business called "Nerds on Call."

 

[batwister]

Funny you should say that. There's a local (to me) business called "Nerds on Call."

Apparently they're good in sticky situations.

 

[brofkand]

As long as there is an APUG (meaning a group of individuals buying the product) the product will exist. The manufacturers will come and go, the emulsions will wane and wax, but there will be at least a small selection of films, papers, and chemicals to buy. And as others have mentioned, we can always make our own D-76 and emulsions. Certainly paper and glass aren't going anywhere.

 

[zsas]

^Well said

 

[RattyMouse]

A lot of people here talk about making their own film if it should come to that. I know nothing about this so have to ask, for what type of camera can you make your own film? 35mm? 120? larger? That seems VERY complicated, but then again, I dont know much about this.

 

[Benoît99]

To ask a question like this on a forum that's devoted entirely to film photography is like walking into a church and enquiring where the nearest mosque is.

The analogy is flawed. If you asked people at the Marie Guyart Roman Catholic Chapel on the campus of Laval University in Québec, Canada, they would direct you to the Cardinal Newman Hall in the Chapel basement.

For over 30 years, the Hall has been used every Friday as a mosque by the University's Muslim students and professors.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Does the fax have a future?
Does traditional stamped mail have a future?
Oil shocks/"cars have no future".
Any others? Must be.

All the doomsayers, the strongest in the ranks of instant digital professionals, would beat the dead horse to a pulp to convince the world that film is dead. It's one of the funniest (and most absurd) conclusions anybody could hope to find. It's no at all true and there really is nothing to argue about. There will always be film no matter what the quantity, maybe not the film we as individuals love and cherish, but always something to dabble with as an alternative and I see it being quite likely some new films will come out in the future. It all looks very interesting to me.

 

[nicholai]

I believe we will see the downfall of modern society before film, and i will use my trusty film camera to document it! When the zombies take over the world, there won't be any electricity, and so i cannot be trusted with a digital camera.

 

[Diapositivo]

You care about the future of film if you intend to invest in analogue photography related stock.

If you are a photographer rather than an investor, the question is irrelevant because you can stockpile years and years of provisions and ask the same question in five or ten years time.

I like capers and eat them. I don't care whether other people like capers and if they are still around in 10 years. What other people do does not regard me. If I couldn't grow capers myself, I would stockpile them and again make the question irrelevant.

 

[mr rusty]

Well, it might be just an impression, but it seems to me that every week there is at least one new thread along the lines of "been shooting digital, now coming back to film" or "had a dark room years ago, just setting a new one up", or "I'm a youngster trying film for the first time". Sean - how about a sticky "poll" so that people doing this could check in - would be nice to try and get a handle on how many newbies and returnees there are.

And another thing - and again Sean might be able to put some numbers behind my impression - but it seems to me that when I first joined this site, if you posted a picture in the gallery, it stuck around on "page 1" for quite a while. Now, it seems it falls off the bottom of page 1 a helluva lot quicker.

 

[Roger Cole]

When the 60 megapixel camera could be found from thrift shop for 1 dollar , I will never use film again

You should be good until at least next summer, then.

I would still shoot film if the best 100 MP MF digital camera was free.

 

[Benoît99]

Film photography will likely prove to be just as persistent as buggy whips, which are still around.
http://westfieldwhip.com/carriage.html

 

[Prof_Pixel]

It was the millions of consumer 'memory capturers' that made high volume color film and paper production possible (not 'photographers'). They now seem to have moved to smart phones to do this. For many years it's been my hope that people would recognize the limitations digital images have in longterm image storage and retrieval and recognize that silver halide film materials offer the ideal archiving medium properties (long life and human readable). Sadly, this doesn't seen to be happening, and this new market for silver halide material that could keep the manufacturing volume up will never develop.

Sorry, but buggy whip manufacturing equipment requirements have nothing in common with film.

 

[RPC]

I would still shoot film if the best 100 MP MF digital camera was free.

My feeling exactly. The hype in the marketplace for digital cameras is always more megapixels. How often do you see "better exposure lattitude" or "better color reproduction without photoshopping"? That's where I see the technical problems with digital lie, not in lack of resolution or megapixels. Until those problems are significantly improved on, I would always choose film over digital.

 

[Phileas_Fogg]

It was the millions of consumer 'memory capturers' that made high volume color film and paper production possible (not 'photographers'). They now seem to have moved to smart phones to do this. For many years it's been my hope that people would recognize the limitations digital images have in longterm image storage and retrieval and recognize that silver halide film materials offer the ideal archiving medium properties (long life and human readable). Sadly, this doesn't seen to be happening, and this new market for silver halide material that could keep the manufacturing volume up will never develop.

Sorry, but buggy whip manufacturing equipment requirements have nothing in common with film.

Your post does remind me of a notable Mark Twin quote:

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.


The discussion is not whether film will regain its once mighty status. No, that ship has sailed. But whether film will remain a viable product and choice for photographers, be they pro and serious amateur for some time to come or even indefinitely. For that it will hold a place and will just as vinyl records, buggy whips and wagon wheels are still made keep its place. It may ebb and flow in popularity but it as a niche shall small or larger still remain.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

How often do you see "better exposure lattitude" or "better color reproduction without photoshopping"? That's where I see the technical problems with digital lie, not in lack of resolution or megapixels.

Sigh..... that may have been true in the '90s, but it's not true today.