Film Ferrania - Developments from October 2023 onward

[dcy]

New website. Some friends lost. Some friends gained. But APUG's heartbeat still echos in Photrio.

 

[pbromaghin]

APUG hasn't said a whole lot since it went out of existence.

There's no place like APUG.
There's no place like APUG.
There's n

 

[foc]

There's no place like APUG.
There's no place like APUG.
There's n

 

[flavio81]

New website. Some friends lost. Some friends gained. But APUG's heartbeat still echos in Photrio.

There's no place like APUG.
There's no place like APUG.
There's n

I am from APUG and this will always be APUG for me.

 

[Agulliver]

What will happen is people will crawl out of the woodwork claiming they were ripped off and defrauded because they "ordered colour film" when in reality they donated funds to save equipment. But there's no telling these people.

Then you'll get the demands for a Kodachrome-like film at 1960 prices in all possible formats.

Personally I'll be happy to see P30, P33 and Orto back with steady work towards more products. Of course, in time, I'd love to see colour film. I'd love to see 8mm cine film, actually P30 in the 8mm format would be amazing stuff. But slow progress is better than no progress.

 

[abruzzi]

What will happen is people will crawl out of the woodwork claiming they were ripped off and defrauded because they "ordered colour film" when in reality they donated funds to save equipment. But there's no telling these people.

Then you'll get the demands for a Kodachrome-like film at 1960 prices in all possible formats.

Personally I'll be happy to see P30, P33 and Orto back with steady work towards more products. Of course, in time, I'd love to see colour film. I'd love to see 8mm cine film, actually P30 in the 8mm format would be amazing stuff. But slow progress is better than no progress.

If all we get is those three films in 120 I'll be happy. I will be even more happy if they make some sheet film, but I know that LF shooters are a tiny minority of a tiny minority.

 

[Agulliver]

Under the previous management the focus was in 135 and 120 with other formats possible in the future. Part of the Kickstarter funds went to saving the 127 finishing machinery but it's not been used in many years and would need a complete overhaul to bring back into operation. Sheet film might just be more easy. Time will tell what the focus is under Jake Seal. Film Ferrania has a successful niche product in P30 while P33 began to acquire a good reputation too.

 

[abruzzi]

Under the previous management the focus was in 135 and 120 with other formats possible in the future. Part of the Kickstarter funds went to saving the 127 finishing machinery but it's not been used in many years and would need a complete overhaul to bring back into operation. Sheet film might just be more easy. Time will tell what the focus is under Jake Seal. Film Ferrania has a successful niche product in P30 while P33 began to acquire a good reputation too.

yeah, I don't expect sheet film because its unlikely to be a moneymaker, though I suspect it would lose less money than 127, 110, or all the other rare, no longer manufactured formats that people want them to make. (I'd prefer a financially solvent Ferrania with no sheet film to a couple boxes of sheet film before they go under.)

 

[dcy]

yeah, I don't expect sheet film because its unlikely to be a moneymaker, though I suspect it would lose less money than 127, 110, or all the other rare, no longer manufactured formats that people want them to make. (I'd prefer a financially solvent Ferrania with no sheet film to a couple boxes of sheet film before they go under.)

Polaroid has an interesting approach to financially unviable film formats: Typically they don't make any, but every once in a while they switch over the machines to make a batch. They do not make a lot of profit from it, but it helps keep the format alive.

The prominent example for them is 8x10 Polaroids. Not a lot of people shoot that. Right now they are out of stock, as they usually are. But once in a while, they'll make a few, and the few shooters that do shoot 8x10 Polaroid will snatch them up quickly.

Ferrania could do something similar with sheet format. You'd definitely have to buy it directly from them of course. You couldn't buy a niche rarely-produced product from B&H Photo. But I bet that if Ferrania did this, you would buy some. They could have a mailing list to let interested parties know when there's a new batch available.

Ferrania could even have a sign up sheet where people give them their credit card details and sign up for X sheets of film. When the number of requested sheets reaches some threshold, they can make a new batch and immediately charge those credit cards and send out the product.

 

[pbromaghin]

Polaroid has an interesting approach to financially unviable film formats: Typically they don't make any, but every once in a while they switch over the machines to make a batch. They do not make a lot of profit from it, but it helps keep the format alive.

The prominent example for them is 8x10 Polaroids. Not a lot of people shoot that. Right now they are out of stock, as they usually are. But once in a while, they'll make a few, and the few shooters that do shoot 8x10 Polaroid will snatch them up quickly.

Ferrania could do something similar with sheet format. You'd definitely have to buy it directly from them of course. You couldn't buy a niche rarely-produced product from B&H Photo. But I bet that if Ferrania did this, you would buy some. They could have a mailing list to let interested parties know when there's a new batch available.

Ferrania could even have a sign up sheet where people give them their credit card details and sign up for X sheets of film. When the number of requested sheets reaches some threshold, they can make a new batch and immediately charge those credit cards and send out the product.

Ilford does this same thing annually.

 

[Tel]

Ilford does this same thing annually.

As does Keith Canham with Kodak sheet film, though on a not-so-regular basis