If you were super rich what would you do for analog photography?

Vaughn · Nov 27, 2020

Alan Edward Klein said:
You'd think the film companies would do that or advertise or something. I don't follow social media. Do they advertise on it? You'd think they'd drum up business with the kids somehow.

They use to toss a lot on money toward programs and workshops.

Sirius Glass · Nov 27, 2020

Alan Edward Klein said:
What about the 23 year old blonde?

I like 19 years brunettes better. Remember Steely Dan's "Hey 19"?

Fujicaman1957 · Nov 27, 2020

Buy Kodak's patents, production manuals and formulas for Verichrome Pan, Panatomic-X and Tech Pan and HIE and gift them to Ilford or Foma. Fund a project to design and make a 120 backing paper that doesn't transfer it's printing to the film.
Bribe Beseler to make new CB7's !
Fund college courses for analog camera repair people.

Sirius Glass · Nov 27, 2020

Huss said:
Anything to prevent people getting gouged.

Then I would buy them back from you and sell them at four times the price.

Sirius Glass · Nov 27, 2020

I would loose thirty pounds or get a full body transplant with and eighteen year old body.

Huss · Nov 27, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
Then I would buy them back from you and sell them at four times the price. View attachment 260365

Fine, but I won't pay a penny more!

NortheastPhotographic · Nov 28, 2020

Lee Rust said:
Commercial and popular culture have moved on, the Kodak business model doesn't work anymore, and chemical photography cannot be sustained for upcoming generations solely with Instax snapshots or ancient film cameras and peripherals scrounged from eBay.

Quite to the contrary, popular culture is flooded with imagery of film cameras. The popular imagination of a 'film camera' is still somewhat resembling a Nikon F. In the 'before-times' aka pre-covid, walking around I was always delighted to see tourists or just folks carrying a film camera. Everyone else was basically shooting with their smart phone. "Photography" it turns out is something a bit more like sailing or horseback riding. Film has a cultural appeal that overrides it's practicalities. Film is not going away unless it becomes impossible to produce film, which may happen who knows? At that point however I'd become pretty dang good at coating plates.

Kodak can't keep up with demand, Fuji (apparently with Ilford) has a new Acros formulation. New analog products are developed and sold at high prices every quarter. Heiland and Kienzle are making brand new high end enlargers, and selling them! My lab has seen such an increase in business that I have finally leased a commercial space in Bath and am opening up a rental darkroom. It's a good time to bet on analog.

a100 · Nov 28, 2020

Find a more sustainable way to process film

Pieter12 · Nov 28, 2020

Since this is a fantasy...nothing. I would be able to have anything I want made.

Lee Rust · Nov 28, 2020

NortheastPhotographic said:
Quite to the contrary, popular culture is flooded with imagery of film cameras. The popular imagination of a 'film camera' is still somewhat resembling a Nikon F. In the 'before-times' aka pre-covid, walking around I was always delighted to see tourists or just folks carrying a film camera. Everyone else was basically shooting with their smart phone. "Photography" it turns out is something a bit more like sailing or horseback riding. Film has a cultural appeal that overrides it's practicalities. Film is not going away unless it becomes impossible to produce film, which may happen who knows? At that point however I'd become pretty dang good at coating plates.

Kodak can't keep up with demand, Fuji (apparently with Ilford) has a new Acros formulation. New analog products are developed and sold at high prices every quarter. Heiland and Kienzle are making brand new high end enlargers, and selling them! My lab has seen such an increase in business that I have finally leased a commercial space in Bath and am opening up a rental darkroom. It's a good time to bet on analog.

I was in the photo store just this afternoon and there was a young couple getting a tutorial on how to use their newly acquired 35mm Minolta. There's no question that this is a good indicator for the future of film photography and all the remaining purveyors of materials and services like yourself. Things are definitely looking up, but we'll have to scale our expectations accordingly because we're not going back to the peak film year of 1999 anytime soon. Hopefully a few small manufacturers will emerge to produce new film cameras in the same way that it's now possible to buy a new turntable on which to play your brand new stereo LPs.

Sirius Glass · Nov 29, 2020

Lee Rust said:
I was in the photo store just this afternoon and there was a young couple getting a tutorial on how to use their newly acquired 35mm Minolta. There's no question that this is a good indicator for the future of film photography and all the remaining purveyors of materials and services like yourself. Things are definitely looking up, but we'll have to scale our expectations accordingly because we're not going back to the peak film year of 1999 anytime soon. Hopefully a few small manufacturers will emerge to produce new film cameras in the same way that it's now possible to buy a new turntable on which to play your brand new stereo LPs.

I do not have any dreams of film raising back to its former glory. I will just enjoy any increase in popularity and availability.

guangong · Nov 30, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
I do not have any dreams of film raising back to its former glory. I will just enjoy any increase in popularity and availability.

Ditto!

Arthurwg · Nov 30, 2020

AnselMortensen said:
Open a
"Modeling School for Wayward Women".

I think we already have that. Take a look at "Suicide Girls."

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Nov 30, 2020

Start production lines for:
- Films in ALL sizes, all the way to ULF: Kodachrome, Tri-X (400 & 320), Agfa APX 100 and RSX 50
- Kodak Polycontrast
- Nikon SP and Nikon F
- Rolleiflex 2.8 and 3.5

Declare Tri-X a UNESCO Heritage Treasure or something like that, and make it public domain (who said I needed to turn a profit?).

Finance the acquisition of photographers' archives by museums and/or archive centres (worldwide).

Foster a network of schools, galleries, publishing houses (worldwide).

Wallendo · Nov 30, 2020

I would establish an international series of film dispensing and processing kiosks and place them in all major airports and many tourist destinations. This way people could buy film when arriving at their destination and drop it off on their way back home to be developed and mailed to them. Larger venues might actually have a small manned store to do that. With the reports of airport scanners increasingly fogging film, this would make shooting film while travelling (hopefully we can do this again soon) much more convenient.

With left-over change, I would buy the film divisions of Eastman Kodak and Kodak Alaris. Unlike others, I would not lower the prices as that could likely drive manufacturers like Harman, Foma, ADOX and Fuji out of business - something that would be bad for us all.

flavio81 · Nov 30, 2020

Ariston said:
Kodachrome.

Amazing, it only took 5 posts.

flavio81 · Nov 30, 2020

Ok this is what I would do.

I'd buy Eastman Kodak's and Agfa's remaining intellectual property and get all the remaining photo engineers from there. I'd form an "Open Source Photo Engineering" forum/meeting where engineers from Adox, former-Kodak, former-Agfa, Ferrania and Foma talk with each other discussing photo engineering techniques, sensitizers, coating methods, and materials hitherto undisclosed outside of each company

If you were super rich what would you do for analog photography?

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