Film is not dead: Demand soars for vintage cameras in developing trend

[VinceInMT]

When I got my first color printer, I was amazed at how great one of my pictures printed. I can understand how people are amazed by the darkroom. But getting an 8 1/2"x11" print in a couple of minutes is pretty terrific too.

That appeal to immediate gratification is what Polaroid capitalized on.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I liked the Thrifty ice cream.

When it was announced that Kodak was discontinuing UltraColor 400 film, I walked over to Thrifty and asked the manager if I could just buy all the film in the UltraColor section to free up his shelf space. I no longer remember what I paid, but I bought 5 feet of shelf space, three rows high for not much money per roll at the time. I still have that film frozen in my freezer.

Don't you have to pay the ISP for the internet cable connect?

Yes, but I already had an ISP for internet so that cost did not go up.

 

[Sirius Glass]

20 or so years ago, one could get 35mm amateur color film just about anywhere: department stores, drug stores, convenience stores, hotels, airports, you name it--even gas stations. And in just about any town that had a traffic signal. In Los Angeles there were one-hour photo labs almost on every block in every strip mall. And Fotomat kiosks in supermarket parking lots. Dozens of camera stores selling everything from disposable cameras to high-end amateur gear. And dozens more selling professional equipment. Ads for camera gear with hundreds of times listed tiny type every week in the newspaper (oops, those are gone, too). This is not coming back. Freestyle has moved to a location that is maybe less than half the size of their old store. Samy's just shut down their store on the westside. You can call me a naysayer, but those are the facts. Fuji no longer makes color film. Agfa has disappeared. Whatever blip there may be in film sales is just that. I am not celebrating the fact that film is slowly fading, I need it to be available, Actually, I am more concerned that so many film photographers do not develop or print their photos. So darkroom chemistry and photo paper are the more likely victims. And if they go away, I would take down the darkroom and drop film altogether.

Samy's closed that store because the property owner would not renew the lease. The property is undergoing major construction.

 

[faberryman]

Samy's closed that store because the property owner would not renew the lease. The property is undergoing major construction.

Did they reopen the store at another location?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Did they reopen the store at another location?

No the store has not been replaced. The other nearby stores pick up its business and much more than that.

 

[albada]

[...] Whatever blip there may be in film sales is just that. I am not celebrating the fact that film is slowly fading, [...]

Neither pessimism nor optimism is realism. Realistically, film has declined into a niche product, and is now increasing due to the young crowd.

 

[markjwyatt]

Neither pessimism nor optimism is realism. Realistically, film has declined into a niche product, and is now increasing due to the young crowd.

The piece emphasized the young crowd, but also less young people (such as myself) are restarting with film also. Many of the new people coming to Photrio are in that category (and it is not a huge number, but a steady trickle- based on the introductions section).

 

[Pieter12]

No the store has not been replaced. The other nearby stores pick up its business and much more than that.

Pleas tell me where those stores are. I'd love not to have to drive halfway across town to be able to browse for something I probably don't really need. Or discover that I needed all this time but didn't know. Samy's is the only "real" camera store I know of in the area, either Fairfax or Pasadena.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Pleas tell me where those stores are. I'd love not to have to drive halfway across town to be able to browse for something I probably don't really need. Or discover that I needed all this time but didn't know. Samy's is the only "real" camera store I know of in the area, either Fairfax or Pasadena.

Find Samy's Camera store locations, hours, and contact details across California. Visit us in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Ana, and more.

Most orders over $49 ship free. Find your local Samy's Camera & their hours. With 4 camera store locations in California & always open online.

www.samys.com

 

[Pieter12]

Find Samy's Camera store locations, hours, and contact details across California. Visit us in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Ana, and more.

Most orders over $49 ship free. Find your local Samy's Camera & their hours. With 4 camera store locations in California & always open online.

www.samys.com

I guess I misunderstood. I thought you were referring to other camera stores, not other Samy's locations. I know where those are.

 

[gone]

I can't help on the locations, but I've been buying cameras, film and paper online from Sammy's for a long time. They're great people to buy from.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I can't help on the locations, but I've been buying cameras, film and paper online from Sammy's for a long time. They're great people to buy from.

So Lower Earth is Southern California

 

[Pieter12]

So Lower Earth is Southern California

Don't tell Samy I said it, but he does look a bit like a jolly (if tall) Hobbit.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Don't tell Samy I said it, but he does look a bit like a jolly (if tall) Hobbit.

I am short enough that I do not need to duck when I go through the doors at Samy's.

 

[Timo Schön]

Shut the lights off.

Lights off and a red filter in front of the laptop screen

 

[Huss]

..Fuji no longer makes color film.

Sorry to bum you out but they do. My fresh stock just bought 200 and 400 say made in japan.

As much as you want film photography to die, it has not.

 

[Huss]

 

[Huss]

Pauls Photo and Silvios are two great stores in Torrance

 

[Moose22]

Sorry to bum you out but they do. My fresh stock just bought 200 and 400 say made in japan.

As much as you want film photography to die, it has not.

My 200 is made in USA, but I bought that 8 months ago.

The 400 I got recently is Made in Japan. I found some Fuji in the Wal Mart and it was Made in Japan as well.

Fuji is making film, still.

 

[Roger Cole]

I have a Roku TV, and watched Antenna TV on it for 2 years before figuring out it could connect to the internet. That's turned out to be a huge step backwards. In many ways its worse than Antenna TV because the TV/internet/"smart" phone/laptop are all one now. Advertisers hound and track me day and night.

It's ridiculous. I don't see the benefits. Cable at least was reliable. Streaming works only as well as your connection at that moment in time.

Then you just didn't do it right.

I have a TV upstairs, and a home theater with an Epson 5050UB projector, 150" screen, and surround sound downstairs, no regular cable, streaming only, and NO ads, none, zip, zilch, nada. I collect movies I really want to own on physical media, currently somewhere around 450 on Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray (the projector does excellent 3D) and 4K UHD disc, not counting the ones only available on DVD which I will buy if that's the only way to get them but watch only on the smaller upstairs TV (they look awful even upscaled on a 150" diagonal screen) and have multiple streaming services. For the services that have ad supported tiers I ALWAYS pay a few bucks more for the no-ad tier. No ads, EVER, one of the things I love about doing only streaming and physical media movies.

I DO have a few streaming news channels though (well, two) that I pay a bit for. I'm not sure why I'm still paying, since I literally never watch them and get all my news online.

 

[Roger Cole]

Don't you have to pay the ISP for the internet cable connect?

Sure. But I'd have that ANYWAY.

I could live without streaming way easier than I could live without the Internet and, in any event, I work 100% from home. I MUST have high speed Internet.

 

[Roger Cole]

Actually, I am more concerned that so many film photographers do not develop or print their photos. So darkroom chemistry and photo paper are the more likely victims. And if they go away, I would take down the darkroom and drop film altogether.

Me too. If I couldn't develop and print my own film I wouldn't bother with film at all. It's really the darkroom work that I enjoy so much.

 

[Helge]

Me too. If I couldn't develop and print my own film I wouldn't bother with film at all. It's really the darkroom work that I enjoy so much.

It’s not realistic for the average person to print all of the work they want to have as viewable.
Scanning serves many functions.

- A good replacement for contact sheets and drugstore prints, to simply see what you got.
- A way to share your work with others quickly and in a multitude of ways.
- A way to print really big without having to master that and get giant trays.
- A way to do with all the data on the film, what would be hard or impossible to do in a darkroom.

What’s more colour/RA4 is not as accessible as B&W to the beginner. So it’s a good way to get colour prints, if and only if the scan is good.

Scanning is here to stay. You might as well embrace it. You have almost all the benefits of film combined with the benefits of digital manipulation.

What’s more, other processes in the past and today for capturing and reproducing film images also involved steps and media that didn’t have the characteristics of photo paper or was in some respects almost digital.
Various types of printing for books, magazines and posters come to mind.
Never heard sneering or particular bias towards those.
On the contrary photo books are very respected as reproductions of an artist oeuvre. Whether captured from prints or directly from the negative or chrome.

 

[Agulliver]

Scanning and hybrid workflows are here to stay. Back when the only realistic way to see what you'd photographed was a darkroom contact print and then final enlargement (or shooting reversal and getting out the projector) things were different.....but we've come a way since then.

I love being alone in my makeshift darkroom for a few hours making prints. But you know what? I've already scanned those negatives, weeks or even months in advance, posted the ones I like on social media and sent them electronically to people....and then comes that special occasion when I can temporarily convert a room into a dark room, get out my enlarger and spend a few blissful hours printing. And hopefully those precious prints will look gorgeous in a way that the scans couldn't quite match. Both served a purpose.

Nothing wrong with shooting wet plates, but most people moved onto dry plates and then film. If a fully analogue way floats your boat, that's great. There's nothing wrong with that. it's laudable even. But you're now in a minority even in the hobby of film shooting.

 

[faberryman]

But you're now in a minority even in the hobby of film shooting.

That's what I thought. Yet the owner of CatLABS in the recent thread hawking his new film told me I was wrong when I said most young film enthusiasts don't have darkrooms. Sometimes it's hard to know what's true on the internet.