Is film dead?

nolanr66 · Mar 19, 2016

I was in the thrift shop on Thursday and looking at some old records. They had some real old stuff and one of the records only had grooves on one side. The other side was smooth. I had never seen that before that I can recall.. I did not buy it however.. Vinyl for me is not in a revival state however as I just kept playing my records over the decades. I listen to a wide range of music and would see no reason to drop off a lifetime collection of music at the thrift shop just so I could fiddle around with an ipod. About the same with film. I gave up color film however. Just yesterday I got a 10 pack of HP-5 in the mail. Looking forward to shooting some. There is not a single roll of film for sale in my county, there are no labs. However processing B/W film at home is fun and easy. Nobody out there seems to notice that I am shooting film and my wife is the only person in the world that looks at my prints. My kids just look at their phones, facebook and all that and do not notice my prints about the house. I suppose they would take a look if I scanned them and put the pictures on facebook. Anyway I like film, vinyl and a lot of old things. I like some new things to such as my new Subaru Forrester.

MattKing · Mar 19, 2016

nolanr66 said:
They had some real old stuff and one of the records only had grooves on one side. The other side was smooth. I had never seen that before that I can recall.

Probably came from a juke box that used single sided records, or was a promotional copy of some sort.

Ken Nadvornick · Mar 19, 2016

MattKing said:
Probably came from a juke box that used single sided records, or was a promotional copy of some sort.

Or was a personal vanity recording from the pre-tape recording era. I found several of those in my late father's belongings.

At least they weren't Edison cylinders...

Ken

Cropline · Mar 25, 2016

For me, film is far from dead. I've been doing online research for traditional print processing/enlarging labs. In the US, for those that don't home print, and want color prints up to 20x24, PhotoTechLabs in Richmond, VA. still lists color machine prints up to 20x24. They also advertise custom color prints in the same sizes.
IIRC, Blue Moon Camera and Machine still offers optical (custom/pricey) color prints up to 30x40. B&W appears to have many more options. I intend to shoot much film this year.

RalphLambrecht · Mar 26, 2016

Helinophoto said:
Short answer: Nope.

There are many film-options:

Kodak
Fuji
Foma
Rollei
Adox
Lucky (I think)
Ferrania
Kentmere
and off course Ilford

(I probably forgot some).

You can still get black and white, color (c-41) and transparency film (E6). You can still get chemicals (loads, depending on your need), equipment, both for taking photos, developing and enlarging your shots to paper.

Analog can, in some circles relate to vinyl, manly in the hipster and lomo communities, then again, many of them seem to shoot for scanning only, which loose half of the process.
There are many many more people that never stopped shooting film than there are hipsters and lomographers.

Film isn't dead, no, but it is becoming a niche, why? Compared to the olden days, before digital (millions of shooters), the film-community is small (I'd say several thousands now days, if I am going to guess).

maybe not dead but definately on its deathbed and dying.Every film photographer also owns a digital camera and sooner or laterappreciated the benefits of post processing.Yes, I be;ieve film photography is done and that's OK because the old must make room for the new in nature as well as in technology.

calebarchie · Mar 26, 2016

Not specifically film, but walk into any art gallery and have a look any color photograph and the printed medium - digital type c.

Ko.Fe. said:
I just realized it for myself. Bla bla blaa...

Oh bless ya. 1980's called, they don't want ya.

removed account4 · Mar 26, 2016

nolanr66 said:
They had some real old stuff and one of the records only had grooves on one side. The other side was smooth.

if it wasn't a promotional single it could have been recordio plate.
the recordio was a home unit record player and cutting lathe all in one that were all the rage
in the 30/40s. more than likely it was a 78, bell sound systems made
a unit that was 33rpm ( I had one ) ..

the blanks typically have 2 spindle holes: one in the middle and one off center a little bit to
keep the plate from moving when the (heavy) lathe cuts the grooves.

like film, a lot of people think self cut records are dead but ..
a lot of small venues /cafes were buying, refurbishing
and recording live acts with them. sound quality was pretty good, much better than
a wire recorder the main problem is finding tubes &c. luckily there are enough people
fixing tube amps &c to keep importing russian tubes

you can still find recordios on eBay, blank disks too, and unless someone else starting making
lacquor plates ( blanks ) transco in New Jersey might be the last place to make them.
if you watch " how it's made " they have an episode made at transco.

calebarchie said:
Not specifically film, but walk into any art gallery and have a look any color photograph and the printed medium - digital type c.

b/w is printed this way too.

calebarchie · Mar 26, 2016

jnanian said:
b/w is printed this way too.

Yeh it can be, but any B&W I see in a gallery these days is "optically hand-printed silver gelatin" I guess it's part of the art-making process funnily enough.

removed account4 · Mar 26, 2016

calebarchie said:
Not specifically film, but walk into any art gallery and have a look any color photograph and the printed medium - digital type c.

Oh bless ya. 1980's called, they don't wan't ya.

calebarchie said:
Yeh it can be, but any B&W I see in a gallery these days is "optically hand-printed silver gelatin" I guess it's part of the art-making process funnily enough.

mine are a mix of both, and i can't tell the difference between them
besides, i like giving the lab down the street some work to keep her going !
( she prints bigger than 16x20 and is affordable too )

calebarchie · Mar 26, 2016

jnanian said:
mine are a mix of both, and i can't tell the difference between them
besides, i like giving the lab down the street some work to keep her going !
( she prints bigger than 16x20 and is affordable too )

IIRC, I think the only B&W wet prints in the MCA Australia's permanent collection is Ricky Maynards 'Returning to Places that Name Us' portraits, stunning work but a shocker really!

removed account4 · Mar 26, 2016

calebarchie said:
IIRC, I think the only B&W wet prints in the MCA Australia's permanent collection is Ricky Maynards 'Returning to Places that Name Us' portraits, stunning work but a shocker really!

its kind of funny, state-archive-work i do now is all files and ink
maybe the musuems and departments (local us state archives ) all got the same memo ?

naah not a shocker, photography's dead, man

Truzi · Mar 26, 2016

RalphLambrecht said:
maybe not dead but definately on its deathbed and dying.Every film photographer also owns a digital camera and sooner or laterappreciated the benefits of post processing.Yes, I be;ieve film photography is done and that's OK because the old must make room for the new in nature as well as in technology.

Umm... I don't own a digital camera

Ken Nadvornick · Mar 26, 2016

Truzi said:
Umm... I don't own a digital camera

Nor do I. I have never owned one.

Ken

RalphLambrecht · Mar 26, 2016

Poisson Du Jour said:
What a disturbingly silly comment.
I shoot film because it provides superior results to what is achievable with digital.
Pride is not something that comes to mind at all.

not silly at all;he is spot on right.

wiltw · Mar 26, 2016

Ko.Fe. said:
All digital cameras are looking like hard soap or like secondary to film cameras.
Look at this Fuji X, it is Leica knock-off in terms exterior. Olympus was next, first to make tiny camera with tiny and crappy sensor to look like 35mm SLR, but IQ next to garbage. Then Nikon, then Leica act of mimicry to copy SLR with nothing but empty fetish due to EVF and Olympus now with secondary copy of Fuji X with their same small and crappy sensors. They can't design anything original and sexy on digital side. Nothing, zero.

Manufacturers like Nikon and Olympus are going for the NOSTALGIA purchase, long time photographers who like the classic appearing of the Nikon F or Olympus Pen or OM-1. This is planned market share capture, for those tired of the 'digital look' as they walk about with a camera on the shoulder.

Since 2012, the digital SLR sales have been plummetting at a very alarming rate, and manufacturers are desparate to revive sales of cameras and are grasping at straws to do so.

What is really sad is now my favorite emulsions, many of them desired by professionals for certain characteristics like faithful color rendition, to shoot textiles and fashions, have vanished as film manufacturers discontinue emulsions.

Ken Nadvornick · Mar 26, 2016

RalphLambrecht said:
not silly at all;he is spot on right.

I respectfully disagree.

Perhaps his was just another case of Guilty Dog Syndrome, where one accuses others of one's own faults because those faults are totally imaginable by the guilty dog as possibilities because... well... he's just as guilty of them himself.

Personally I'm not validating internally on using film. I'm running away from using more computers. I'm determined not to surrender to ever greater levels of the abstract simulation of reality, and thus hasten the loss of my grip on true reality.

Ken

N.B. I do not refer here to the original photographic abstraction of reducing three dimensions to two, so drop your raised weapons everyone. I refer only to what comes after that...

nolanr66 · Mar 26, 2016

It seems like a strange forum for people to talk about how film is dead and all that. Anyway I do not think film is dead at all and it is not going to die. Stuff never really goes away as there is always somebody that likes a thing and keeps it going. I will just keep shooting B/W film. It's my hobby.

blockend · Mar 27, 2016

On the endangered species list are:
Optical C type prints
Colour transparencies
Black and white optical prints

Hybrid digitally scanned film for screen viewing is relatively healthy. The biggest boost for film would be a reasonably priced domestic scanner of drum scan quality.

nolanr66 · Mar 27, 2016

Nikon scanners were popular while they were around. I wonder how the 35mm camera supply will be in 20years.

Diapositivo · Mar 27, 2016

RalphLambrecht said:
maybe not dead but definately on its deathbed and dying.Every film photographer also owns a digital camera and sooner or laterappreciated the benefits of post processing.Yes, I be;ieve film photography is done and that's OK because the old must make room for the new in nature as well as in technology.

I'm more optimist.
I have a serious quality digital camera and I still use film. I love photography. Film and digital are tools. Film has its shorcomings and its advantages relative to digital.
I see rarely, but more frequently than in the recent years, people going around, in Rome, with a film camera.
I see people hiking in the mountains with film cameras as well!

Analogue photography is become interesting because it is "niche", it is different, it is stimulating.

People is getting bored with taking 100 pictures for every day of trip and not really liking any of them. Analogue photography leads you more easily toward a "serious" attitude toward photography, and I think this will be one of the reasons for its renaissance.

It's like mechanical watches. They still have their niche and they will continue to have it. In my opinion, the worst is behind us. Analog photography will remain confined in an "Indian reserve" but will not cease existing.

In this age of internet things, hybrid processing is a potent way to stimulate the use of analogue material. But some people, I think, don't to grasp that ;-)

FujiLove · Mar 27, 2016

Truzi said:
Umm... I don't own a digital camera

Me neither. And absolutely no desire to go back to that junk.

FujiLove · Mar 27, 2016

blockend said:
On the endangered species list are:
Optical C type prints
Colour transparencies
Black and white optical prints

Hybrid digitally scanned film for screen viewing is relatively healthy. The biggest boost for film would be a reasonably priced domestic scanner of drum scan quality.

All three are alive and well in my spare bathroom/darkroom. And I've just packed my new projector away after an hour of viewing old slides at the sort of detail the 'hybrid' guys can only dream of.

Sirius Glass · Mar 27, 2016

Truzi said:
Umm... I don't own a digital camera

FujiLove said:
Me neither. And absolutely no desire to go back to that junk.

I have no desire to waste money on that junk. Come back when the pixels are of the size of molecules with the light latitude range of film and inexpensive, then I may be interested. I designed enough remote sensors for spacecraft and used them in flight operations including interplanetary to know that I prefer film except for spacecraft work.

Ken Nadvornick · Mar 27, 2016

Sirius Glass said:
I designed enough remote sensors for spacecraft and used them in flight operations including interplanetary to know that I prefer film except for spacecraft work.

R.Gould · Mar 28, 2016

Truzi said:
Umm... I don't own a digital camera

I have never owned a digital camera and have no desire of owning one, a lot of what I see seem to me to be overpriced toys,

Is film dead?

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