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

[alanrockwood]

Kodachrome.

Same here, even though modern E6 films are supposedly better.

 

[etn]

Buy Hasselblad and relaunch 500-series production.
Develop and market an affordable 6x6 slide projector.
Develop an automated 120 scanner which can scan 1 roll at a time without user interaction (why do those things only exist in 35mm?)

 

[eli griggs]

Nordhavn 60.

A Very Nice boat as well!

 

[eli griggs]

You don't want to hand out $10 Leicas?

I'd rather find people who need them first, than make a cattle call, but, yes, I have thought about doing that as part of a multi-shop/studio, that trains people to continue skills, like film camera repairs and building, cultivating and using Japanese paper making materials and skills, building bikes for low income adults to get to work and the store with, etc.

I'd also like to find in the same studio, the traditional making of traditional Japanese Barens, for printmakers.

Japanese government will name someone a National Treasure, but, no lift a finger or make even the smallest grant happen, to keep rare traditional skills, crafts, artist and materials funded.

By the way, I'm still looking for my own ten dollar Leica.

 

[mshchem]

Buy Eastman Kodak and Foma. Spin off all the boring departments of both companies after interviewing every employee for talent. Make film, paper, and equipment. Come out with a digital onto analog paper. Fuji does it with their little Instax printers. The things expose the print with RGB LEDs as the print exits the printer, and they are something like 360 dpi. I wouldn't step on Ilford's toes. They are amazing, their costs are low but maybe Kodak /Foma could form a joint venture to produce new products and drive the cost of raw materials down.
It would be interesting if 2 billion dollars could save the core analog business. Also I would fire the genius who decided to bring out a 5000 dollar super 8 camera. Build a modern Instamatic movie Super 8 and a Instamatic still camera that would take 35mm in some form, and maybe a film cartridge /back for a 70mm Brownie with a 36 exposure 2 1/4 × 2 1/4 image size. And of course the modern Kodak 3A that made 3 1/2 × 5 1/2 negatives and postcard paper. I don't know who owns Foma but in the right hands all the brilliant people in parts of the EU looking for a chance to create. It would be epic.

 

[blockend]

Invent a home film scanner that exhausts the potential of the negative or slide, at granular level. Then a silver based digital process to print on.

 

[cerber0s]

There seems to be a lot of talk about film but cameras will eventually run out. I'd start manufacturing a range of new analog cameras with a modular lens mount system, to allow for adaption to different kinds of the most pipular older lenses.

I'd also have a real good look at making color film developing and printing more accessible. I don't know when research and development of those machines stopped but it seems like there should be room for some improvement in 2020.

 

[BrianShaw]

A Very Nice boat as well!

Can be had in a “single engine” configuration and can be reasonably single-handed. Fits a family very comfortably. A great performer in blue water on long-distance cruises. And as you probably know, Nordhavn is very conservative yet modern design with redundancy on virtually all systems. A great platform for using film.

 

[eli griggs]

All true, but at my age and abilities, I'd enjoy a larger boat with a small crew of a Professional Captain and general duties mate.

When I first started looking at Nordhavns, I was much younger and lusted after the N62, (still do) but that was then, and I have to admit, the N72 speaks to me as the next best alternative for my needs/desire and agenda.

I guess I'll have to buy some gyro stabilizers for the analog camera's, I'd also be buying, ie, Ebony or Gandolfi 8"x10".

 

[Dan Pavel]

I'll make new film cameras taking advantage of all the technological advancements. For instance a 4X5 camera with an electronic viewfinder capturing and analyzing the image from from a separate smaller optical system, somehow like a TLR but with the size of a small rangefinder. The optical system of the viewfinder will be a zoom, to allow for interchangeable lenses, and a digital test image will be taken with all the data needed for development for each photo. I'll make an automated developing machine, as well, capable of developing each frame in accordance with the data recorded for it. Something like that...

 

[Sirius Glass]

I would invent a filter that, just as the shutter is triggered, the composition will be automatically improved, the focus corrected, for black & white the appropriate filters inserted, for color the appropriate color compensating filters inserts, facial expressions correctly adjusted, flowers perked up, any animals eyes properly engaged with the lens, the lens cleaned and film defogged, astigmatism and all aberrations corrected, film flattened, and stray light removed. Also the photographer's weight reduced to a healthy level, age reduced to the lower twenties, teeth straighten, and hair trimmed and bushed.

 

[unityofsaints]

Three relatively modest large format related ideas:

1. Somehow aquire the patents / blueprints for copal shutters and start making them
2. Put down so much money that Kodak cuts C-41 and E-6 in 11x14 up to 20x24 indefinitely and subsizide the prices so photographer's can actually afford it.
3. Bring back type 100 pack film.

 

[Nodda Duma]

Buy out Kodak’s photochemistry/film/etc division, transform it into an employee-owned company, and bring in executive management personnel that are committed to customers and employees.

Go disappear somewhere with my wife for a long time once I’m confident they’re on stable ground.

 

[removed account4]

I'd learn an easy way to make dovetails and make a small device like a box obscura .. I'd install a small meniscus eye, and hire a small concern in nhusa to manufacture rolls of light sensitive paper on a spindle. I'd distribute of these boxes, then when the rolls are "exposed" have the owners send the whole obscura back to me, I'd "develop+print" and mail the photo-graphs back to these people and fill their obscura back up with light sensitive paper. seems like it would be the perfect cottage industry. nothing fancy, an alternative to hum-drum life, something to go to the mailbox every day to anticipate something to use to record imperfect life imperfectly.

 

[Chan Tran]

I would lobby congress to pass the Afordable Photography Act and force everyone to buy a new Leica each year and 50 rolls of film.

This has a very dangerous effect. Some one richer than you might lobby to force everyone to use the digital camera and outlaw analog.

 

[guangong]

This has a very dangerous effect. Some one richer than you might lobby to force everyone to use the digital camera and outlaw analog.

Great observation. Could all come down to what kind of camera Justice Roberts uses.

 

[eddie]

I'd buy every analog photo made, by every analog photographer in the world. If they're making a living off their photos, the demand for materials will be strong, and all the camera/film/chemistry issues will disappear.

 

[Cholentpot]

Drop in full frame 35mm digital back for SLRs while funding a sub $200 new SLR in Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Olympus mount.

 

[MattKing]

Buy out Kodak’s photochemistry/film/etc division, transform it into an employee-owned company, and bring in executive management personnel that are committed to customers and employees.

Go disappear somewhere with my wife for a long time once I’m confident they’re on stable ground.

When I read this originally, I wondered if you meant "Go disappear somewhere from my wife for a long time until I’m confident they’re on stable ground."

You would, of course, have to make purchases from both Eastman Kodak and Kodak Alaris. If you could pick up some of Eastman Chemicals as well, it would work better.

 

[markjwyatt]

I would invent a filter that, just as the shutter is triggered, the composition will be automatically improved, the focus corrected, for black & white the appropriate filters inserted, for color the appropriate color compensating filters inserts, facial expressions correctly adjusted, flowers perked up, any animals eyes properly engaged with the lens, the lens cleaned and film defogged, astigmatism and all aberrations corrected, film flattened, and stray light removed. Also the photographer's weight reduced to a healthy level, age reduced to the lower twenties, teeth straighten, and hair trimmed and bushed.

No espresso maker included?

 

[Sirius Glass]

No espresso maker included?

I very rarely, maybe once a decade or two, drink coffee and when I do it is Greek or Turkish coffee straight.

I would rather have Gin & Tonic or Dry Gin Martinus [only one, if I wanted two I would order a Dry Gin Martini].

 

[removed account4]

I would invent a filter that, just as the shutter is triggered, the composition will be automatically improved, the focus corrected, for black & white the appropriate filters inserted, for color the appropriate color compensating filters inserts, facial expressions correctly adjusted, flowers perked up, any animals eyes properly engaged with the lens, the lens cleaned and film defogged, astigmatism and all aberrations corrected, film flattened, and stray light removed. Also the photographer's weight reduced to a healthy level, age reduced to the lower twenties, teeth straighten, and hair trimmed and bushed.

already exists !

I very rarely, maybe once a decade or two, drink coffee and when I do it is Greek or Turkish coffee straight.

I hope you turn the cup upside down turn the cup 3 times counter clockwise, after 15 mins pop the cop off of the saucer and put your thumbprint on the bottom of the cup .. and have someone read your fortune ( and then the saucer )... if you are gonna have the good stuff, you might as well get a forecast..

 

[mooseontheloose]

Pay Kodak to make a master roll of HIE. Have them cut it in 35, 120, 4x5, 8x10, package, and send to my massive freezer. Then offer it to all my apug/photrio buddies really cheap, with proceeds going to apug/photrio. I've got to win LottoMax one of these days!

You can put me at the top of your list!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

You can put me at the top of your list!

You're top of the list!

 

[mooseontheloose]

If I had the money, my dream would be to open a photography museum/gallery/education centre here in Kyoto. Connected to it would be a school/facility that would offer workshops of all kinds - free or low-cost classes to introduce local young people to film and film cameras, perhaps connected to various schools and universities here. It would also offer specific workshops on special darkroom/alternative processes and various camera/film formats. Included would be workshops geared to serious photographers with special access to certain locations or people (for example, maiko/geiko), or workshops featuring well-known photographers and/or darkroom masters. Of course, to have these kinds of workshops/classes, I would need to build several types of darkrooms - some for class conditions, private ones for rental use, both long-term for locals and short-term for tourists/non-residents, and perhaps another for alternative processes.

In addition, there would be money to support artists-in-residence, which may or may not be photography-related, but definitely part of the analog world. Ideally there would be connections with other traditional Japanese trades/crafts around the city/prefecture/country. The use of washi paper as a base for liquid emulsions is an obvious match, as is the fact that the last collotype printers in the world are located here. Perhaps too, I could establish a camera-repair centre here, as I am sure there are plenty of (probably) older men who have the knowledge and skills and would like to do something in this capacity while being semi-retired.

I went to Yodobashi camera the other day and the darkroom/film section has been significantly reduced and relocated - it now takes less than 10% of the previous space it did before (which has been reduced slowly, but surely, over the years that I've lived here), and is hidden in a not-so-easy to find area. I have no idea where they even keep the film coolers, as those have also been moved out of sight. I find this extremely frustrating since Kyoto is such a photographic place, and the film section is often sold out (or with extremely limited stock - one or two rolls of each emulsion), so it is clear that there is a demand for these products that the stores refuse to acknowledge. So, part of my museum/gallery/education complex would also feature a store that has all things film/photographic so that there is a constant supply of materials for both locals and tourists.

This is in addition to supporting current film/paper production worldwide, especially for products that could conceivably be revived or reformulated for the current market. Having HIE (or similar) film would be fantastic, as well as good papers for lith printing. I'd love to bring back peel-apart films for Polaroid cameras, but not sure if that's even possible if all the machines have been scrapped.