Film didn't die with Kodak's Chapter 11

Richard S. (rich815) · Jan 24, 2015

Film didn't die with Kodak's Chapter 11

Published on Jan 4, 2015
Kodak's Chapter 11 filing in 2012 was believed to spell the death of film photography. Only a few manufacturers now make film and much less of it, but celluloid appears to be making a comeback. The FT's Steve Ager investigates the resurgent interest in analogue.

http://youtu.be/LWWUFYjlGmQ

SchwinnParamount · Jan 24, 2015

Embrace the hipster. He may be the dude that saves our film.

snapguy · Jan 24, 2015

Sub-set

Film photography is now a sub-set in the broad array of visual arts, like silkscreens, wood block printing and many more obscure disciplines. We don't need no faux hipsters to preserve the art. The Masses always took crummy photos with crummy cameras (remember the Instamatic) and so nothing has changed.

Trail Images · Jan 24, 2015

A neat video and some interesting thoughts presented here. Thanks for sharing it, Richard.

gone · Jan 24, 2015

Nothing wrong w/ crummy pics from crummy cameras. Most people are just taking snaps anyway, as was pointed out to me on this forum recently. I think the whole film issue is way over blown. Looked at the Freestyle website lately, or over at ebay? There are a LOT of great films still being made, and a lot of the old stuff will still be good for a long time. Personally, I'm glad to see the sub par stuff gone. Quality, not quantity. Film has never been the problem, nor equipment. The problem is making meaningful work. It's always been like that. Art stores are just full of paints and canvases and such, but finding a work of art that has something to say is like looking for a needle in a haystack. As it should be.

Kodak needed to do what they did. They had gotten far from their original ideas, and were being run by the wrong people. I expect them to come out w/ some new films at some time (although to my mind, who needs more than Tri-X anyway?) What I'm discovering is, if you will just spend a small amount of money and time, and I mean small, you can dial in even the budget priced films to give beautiful results once you figure out which developer suits you. I'm getting really good stuff from Microdol-X (which they stopped making how many decades ago?) and cheap Arista Ultra films.

ME Super · Jan 24, 2015

Don't dismiss the lowly instamatic. Most of the photos my parents took during my childhood were taken with a Kodak instamatic. On Kodachrome!! They are snapshots, but they look just fine.

JimCee · Jan 24, 2015

Thanks for posting this video, Richard. It definitely has some interesting perspectives on the state of analog photography today. I don't think film photography will go away for a very long time, although the number of available films will obviously be diminished by the manufacturers as they analyze their sales and costs for manufacturing.

We have a lab in Tucson, Photographic Works, that quite actively promotes film photography with processing and sales of cameras like the Holga and the new Impossible film and cameras. I don't process my own film and I take all my film for processing by Photographic Works. For $15.00 they process a 36-exposure roll of 35mm C41 film and provide prints plus a CD. That's definitely not so expensive.

Jim

shutterlight · Jan 24, 2015

All I need is Portra 400. I can subsist for a very long time on only that film.

Wing · Jan 25, 2015

shutterlight said:
All I need is Portra 400. I can subsist for a very long time on only that film.

Yes!!

AgX · Jan 25, 2015

As always: the same myth about the founding of Impossible...

Concerning the increase in interest: I do not see this at all locally. Still.

MattKing · Jan 25, 2015

Doug Thomson said:
Hmmm ... have been away from APUG for some time and it's nice to be back. The thing about analogue photography is that it is a physical process based on very well known chemistry. If every film manufacturer departs the scene it is still possible to create one's own photosensitive materials at a much more advance level than ever dreamed of by Wedgwood, Niépice, Daguerre and their ilk. I could work for 3 lifetimes and never produce a CMOS chip, memory, or write the software to control the same, but I can coat a glass plate or a piece of mylar and compound a developer to bring out an image exposed on that medium. In fact, it is fun to do. I could never produce a digital camera, but I can put together an analogue camera that will produce a pretty good image. I can even make a rudimentary lens.

Of greater concern to me in this rather strange world in which we live is the difficulty in obtaining the basic chemistry. Our paranoid and regulation encumbered world seems to believe that the average person shouldn't be able to obtain the basic chemistry to do this stuff. Photographer's Formulary and Digital Truth still provide chemistry, but I can't find a single supplier in Canada. Well, that's not true, I can obtain research chemicals, but a gram of exotic hydroquinone that tips the scale at about $1200.

Of course experimenters find ways and we now see the advent of coffee and vitamin "C" as developing agents.

Welcome back.

A number of people here on APUG have recommended Nymoc: http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/suppliers/chemicals-kits/nymoc-products-co

Rudeofus · Jan 26, 2015

Doug Thomson said:
Photographer's Formulary and Digital Truth still provide chemistry, but I can't find a single supplier in Canada. Well, that's not true, I can obtain research chemicals, but a gram of exotic hydroquinone that tips the scale at about $1200.

If you have access to research chemicals, you should be able to find HQ much much cheaper than $1200 per gram, unless you meant some other Dollars.

John Bragg · Feb 4, 2015

Thanks for the post Richard. It was worth watching. Any news about the stabilization of the market for film and the possible increase in the market is good news. I am a film diehard and have never owned a digital camera, except in my cellphone. Perhaps we should all introduce someone new to film photography and see where that brings us ?

Richard Man · Feb 4, 2015

AgX said:
As always: the same myth about the founding of Impossible...

...

So... what is the "truth"?

AgX · Feb 4, 2015

That neither the idea nor the technical knowledge to start that enterprise came from those people or their investors.

DREW WILEY · Feb 4, 2015

The lion's share of film was always made by only a few manufacturers to begin with, and they're the same ones still making it! Hmmm. The
camera store down the street still sells film in yellow and bright green boxes. They don't paint those themselves.

Film didn't die with Kodak's Chapter 11

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