Why would Ferrania have to provide film development service? There got to be at least one such lab left in Italy (and most other developed countries), and Ferrania could conveniently point inquiries to these labs. Rise in film use or not, most E6 labs currently operate in or close to hibernation mode, and the absolute last thing such a lab needs is a film maker announcing "reference film development service" in their facilities.
There are several left, but of none one can be certain that they will continue operating in the future. In order to make an "investment" (start a serious multi-jear project, for instance) one needs certainties. What I meant is the important effect of "anchoring of expectations", as a central bank manager would say. The present state of affairs gives you several laboratories in Italy, and no certainties.
In some case, in the relation with a lab they could establish a take over in case of them going out of business. A few new labs were established after one shut down, taking over (some) machinery and starting another operation. I think that given the excess capacity of E6 labs, they can just refer customers to them or in case of prepaid processing; having them run it. Just like Dwaynes-Kodak used to.
And well, nothing is certain!
If demand for slide film is as strong and growing as the reentry of two market players suggest, then there's a good chance that most processing labs will hang in there. If one of the new market players tries to grab a fair share of the processing market, though, then all bets are off. If I was Ferrania, I would not even dare think loudly about offering E6 processing to the general public, at least not before the very last processing lab in the country publicly announced its closure.There are several left, but of none one can be certain that they will continue operating in the future.
Why would Ferrania have to provide film development service? There got to be at least one such lab left in Italy (and most other developed countries), and Ferrania could conveniently point inquiries to these labs. Rise in film use or not, most E6 labs currently operate in or close to hibernation mode, and the absolute last thing such a lab needs is a film maker announcing "reference film development service" in their facilities.
E6 is not in a healthy state at this time. If it is to survive into the medium-term, a huge lot of E6 film across all manufacturers that we currently have must be consumed. The fact that throughput is so small through commercial processors is worrying enough because the process is filthy and wears out machines; the more films going through them, the better their operation over the longer term. Once the machines are clapped out through lack of use, they are very rarely (if at all) replaced anew. It's cheaper and most cost effective in terms of business to simply dump E6 processing. I have seen this with many labs with their machines too far gone to be salvaged.
Processing one or two rolls now and then doesn't cut it. Twenty to thirty rolls in a fortnightly period, continuing, is a good improvement, but thousands of photographers should be doing just that. They are not. It's all talk, little action. All of that E6 consumption should be done now, not at such a time in the future intedeterminate another film should make an appearance (Ektachrome, Ferrania) and somehow, the world is saved!. Ektachrome would require expansion beyond the 35mm format to MF and LF where the take-up would be more appealing. How well Ferrania fares in a global market that so many (outside the wizened confines of APUG) would be challenged to recognise the name (if at all) remains to be seen.
You raise a very good point! Yesterday on Instagram, a friend of mine posted that he was shocked how many people were posting photos of their own personal "stash" of Ektachrome in the wake of Kodak's announcement. He was shocked because people seemed to be proud to show film that they haven't actually used while at the same time claiming to be excited about Kodak's announcement...
This hoarding/stashing/freezing issue is of course a big big problem for all film companies in general - one that has been gaining some attention lately in the online film community. I've actually seen the hashtag #shootyourshit being used in online posts - and I could not agree more.
We're not quite sure at this point how we can truly tackle this problem, but it's most certainly on our minds...
http://niagaracustomlab.com/?page_id=13The point I made was rather to do with cine film processing, which is very hard to come by.
Regular 35mm processing isn't nearly as hard to access.
Why would Ferrania have to provide film development service?
The idea of a combo brick of film + dev kit sized for that quantity of film is quite nice, I would surely buy it!
What Ferrania should do is to team with a chemical manufacturer, and produce E6 development kits with the necessary measures taken to be able to ship them from Italy to the rest of the world (in today's world where many online stores have problems shipping chemicals).
I wrote to Bellini a couple times and never got a reply back (yes I wrote in Italian)
and I could never find their chems on sale anywhere.
The trend seems to go in the opposite direction - Kodak first outsourced their process chems to Champion, now to Tetenal. Since Tetenal sells E6 kits to end customers, any photo store could make such a combo arrangement. Making E6 process chems is not rocket science, but making a decent slide film is, and I sure hope that Ferrania focuses their fine staff on the hard task.What Ferrania should do is to team with a chemical manufacturer, and produce E6 development kits with the necessary measures taken to be able to ship them from Italy to the rest of the world (in today's world where many online stores have problems shipping chemicals).
In fact it could bundle a nice brick of 20 rolls of Ferraniachrome 100 + an E6 development kit + a kit to prepare authentic Negroni using Ezio's recipe. Your choice: 135 or 120 format. Of course, appropiate international labelling should be ensured, so nobody pours the E6 chemicals into the Negroni.
Doesnt help me much in New Zealand.
And many other would do the same. Now think, how an independent lab would see the same situation:If Ferrania offered this service, I would use them first.
And many other would do the same. Now think, how an independent lab would see the same situation:
Ferrania would be crazy to offer such a process, and crazy beyond redemption if they made any public statement even if they had plans to do so.
- if Ferrania publicly announced an affordable service for super 8, any other lab would immediately stop any investments
- after all investments have ground to a stop, machinery would continue to break
- one lab after another would stop processing this film
- by the time Kodak & Ferrania appear with their product, the medium would be more or less extinct except for a few dedicated home processors, and both companies would face a steep uphill battle to get it running again.
And many other would do the same. Now think, how an independent lab would see the same situation:
Ferrania would be crazy to offer such a process, and crazy beyond redemption if they made any public statement even if they had plans to do so.
- if Ferrania publicly announced an affordable service for super 8, any other lab would immediately stop any investments
- after all investments have ground to a stop, machinery would continue to break
- one lab after another would stop processing this film
- by the time Kodak & Ferrania appear with their product, the medium would be more or less extinct except for a few dedicated home processors, and both companies would face a steep uphill battle to get it running again.
bit warmer and lower contrast than Provia 100F and something faster.
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