Is the film craze dead?

campy51 · Mar 17, 2023

Anyone else notice cameras and lenses are not selling on the FS board? I see many nice things on the boards for weeks to months without selling. I have had my 500 C/M for about 3 months and I don't think my price is way high.

Helge · Mar 17, 2023

campy51 said:
Anyone else notice cameras and lenses are not selling on the FS board? I see many nice things on the boards for weeks to months without selling. I have had my 500 C/M for about 3 months and I don't think my price is way high.

There is a global crisis and according to some a recession (let’s bet that it’s roughly as short lived as the war).
What’s more the market has probably seen som saturation with hardware especially expensive hardware.

This is not the end of anything.

What would benefit the industry and market immensely though, would be to remove some of the bullshit factors that will keep people from considering the hobby or quit it, such as scanning being super bad and super expensive for what you get. And almost exclusively for 135.
And prices of film being on the ascent almost perpetually.

ic-racer · Mar 17, 2023

Long over...decades actually.

Kino · Mar 17, 2023

With inflation and impending talk of recession, I assume most working people are becoming more focused (!) on basics and less apt to spend on luxury goods or hobbies.

I don't see it ending but plateauing for a while, but then, what do I know?

Nicholas Lindan · Mar 17, 2023

There is an inverse relationship between the price asked and the time to sell an item - a variation of the price-elasticity curve. What the hell, I'm preaching to the choir, but when has that ever stopped me.

Something is only worth what you can get someone else to pay for it. Wait long enough, though, and someone will come along and buy it - sort of the "Greater Fool" theory of stock investing ("If I was foolish enough to buy this worthless stock for $X then somewhere there is someone even more foolish than I who will buy it for $2x" - if I don't die first...)

As to film demand, I'm too far removed from the hipster scene to know.

I worry about photographic paper demand. Paper will disappear before film goes. With the current practice of photographing negatives with a phone and calling the job done, the demand for anything darkroom has tumbled faster than film. It seems very few people now make prints from their negatives - a shame as analog prints are so very beautiful.

Ariston · Mar 17, 2023

Hopefully you are right. Then maybe I can afford that FM3A I've always wanted...

Alex Benjamin · Mar 17, 2023

campy51 said:
Anyone else notice cameras and lenses are not selling on the FS board? I see many nice things on the boards for weeks to months without selling. I have had my 500 C/M for about 3 months and I don't think my price is way high.

Take one look at one of the "How many cameras do you own?", "Which medium format camera do you use?" or "What's the best non-Leica rangefinder?" type thread, and you quickly realize that many, if not most, people here already have too many cameras and lenses. And newcomers don't come here to buy gear, they come here for advice, and get their gear on eBay, Marketplace or similar sites. Finally, as others have mentioned, money is short for many these days. So no, has nothing to do with a "dying film craze."

BrianShaw · Mar 17, 2023

Price and value can be fickle. Sometimes the easiest way to move an item quickly is to relieve the price until the price matches somebody's budget. A motivated seller will eventually attract a motivated buyer.

neilt3 · Mar 17, 2023

The last few years prices of film cameras has gone silly .
This isn't gear that's had a full service, just 40+ year old cameras .
You see them listed , but not selling for that reason.

Luckily I bought most of my gear when prices were in free fall as people were ditching film for digital .

Duceman · Mar 17, 2023

ic-racer said:
Long over...decades actually.

Ironic.... considering that graph ends more than a decade ago.

Cholentpot · Mar 17, 2023

It's the off season. Give it another month or two and things will have an uptick.

Dennis S · Mar 17, 2023

neilt3 said:
Luckily I bought most of my gear when prices were in free fall as people were ditching film for digital .

That is what I was doing also as some film cameras were selling for a song. Also surprised on how desperate some people were to get rid of their film cameras. I guess some thought that owning a film camera was going to affect their digital images or the rule maker of the household stated either/or rule NOT both. I have noticed people that are selling now on CL have increased their prices significantly from previous years and are not repeated often so they must have found a buyer.

warden · Mar 17, 2023

campy51 said:
Anyone else notice cameras and lenses are not selling on the FS board? I see many nice things on the boards for weeks to months without selling. I have had my 500 C/M for about 3 months and I don't think my price is way high.

If you've been waiting for a buyer for three months your price is probably too high for this community, so consider marketing it elsewhere. I haven't seen your ad but it's pretty easy to research what items are selling for elsewhere and price your camera for a quick sale.

Sirius Glass · Mar 17, 2023

campy51 said:
Anyone else notice cameras and lenses are not selling on the FS board? I see many nice things on the boards for weeks to months without selling. I have had my 500 C/M for about 3 months and I don't think my price is way high.

Your camera is junk. Sent it to me and I will make sure that it gets an appropriate retirement.

juan · Mar 17, 2023

There are heathens posting in this thread. There’s no such thing as too many cameras.

Roger Cole · Mar 17, 2023

Nicholas Lindan said:
There is an inverse relationship between the price asked and the time to sell an item - a variation of the price-elasticity curve. What the hell, I'm preaching to the choir, but when has that ever stopped me.

Something is only worth what you can get someone else to pay for it. Wait long enough, though, and someone will come along and buy it - sort of the "Greater Fool" theory of stock investing ("If I was foolish enough to buy this worthless stock for $X then somewhere there is someone even more foolish than I who will buy it for $2x" - if I don't die first...)

As to film demand, I'm too far removed from the hipster scene to know.

I worry about photographic paper demand. Paper will disappear before film goes. With the current practice of photographing negatives with a phone and calling the job done, the demand for anything darkroom has tumbled faster than film. It seems very few people now make prints from their negatives - a shame as analog prints are so very beautiful.

I kind of agree with that. I have to bite my keyboard (vs lip...) as it were pretty often as it's seemed like just scanning has become the norm even in discussion here. To me, I've always loved darkroom work and that means printing. Film developing is more like doing laundry, just a rote task, but printing has always been where I find the real creative flow and the real joy of photography. I do understand that optical printing takes more in terms of darkroom space and such than film developing. But heck, I made my first prints when I was... not sure but 10 or 11 years old I think, definitely pre-teen, using a little kit I got from Edmund Scientific that came with a plastic horizontal fixed size enlarger that made 4x5 prints, in the family bathroom with a towel stuffed under the door while my bemused country folk parents seemed to be wondering when the fairies had exchanged this child for theirs. If I could do that in 1972 or 73...

Fortunately - I think - paper seems a lot easier to make than film. If I couldn't get paper for optical darkroom printing then I'd give up photography. Or maybe get into making my own or coating plates or something.

Roger Cole · Mar 17, 2023

Alex Benjamin said:
Take one look at one of the "How many cameras do you own?", "Which medium format camera do you use?" or "What's the best non-Leica rangefinder?" type thread, and you quickly realize that many, if not most, people here already have too many cameras and lenses. And newcomers don't come here to buy gear, they come here for advice, and get their gear on eBay, Marketplace or similar sites. Finally, as others have mentioned, money is short for many these days. So no, has nothing to do with a "dying film craze."

Yup. Film use is a very different question from camera sales. Good film cameras will last a long time and support one heck of a lot of film use.

I want a new 4x5 in the coming year but that's about it. If I never bought another 35mm or medium format camera in my life I can't imagine not having a camera for whatever I wanted to do, and enough to shoot all the film I'd ever want to shoot, and I probably have fewer cameras than most here.

Pieter12 · Mar 17, 2023

Nicholas Lindan said:
the demand for anything darkroom has tumbled faster than film.

I can only hope that means I will be able to find a 135mm APO lens at a good price.

BHuij · Mar 17, 2023

Nicholas Lindan said:
I worry about photographic paper demand. Paper will disappear before film goes. With the current practice of photographing negatives with a phone and calling the job done, the demand for anything darkroom has tumbled faster than film. It seems very few people now make prints from their negatives - a shame as analog prints are so very beautiful.

This is part of the reason I got into alt processes. I'd like to think that there are enough darkroom workers to keep paper around for a good few decades to come, especially with companies like Ilford who seem to have really passionate film folks working their as part of their core DNA. Heaven knows I evangelize darkroom printing whenever I have the opportunity. But if and when the day comes that silver gelatin paper is unavailable, I'll still be able to make Kallitypes and Cyanotypes.

campy51 · Mar 17, 2023

I wish I could stop buying. I had to give the Mamiya Super 23 a try, so I bought one in excellent condition for around $280.

abruzzi · Mar 17, 2023

campy51 said:
I wish I could stop buying. I had to give the Mamiya Super 23 a try, so I bought one in excellent condition for around $280.

I have a huge number of cameras I need to sell off, but I'm lazy about that. I am slowing down the buying since I think I have all the cameras I need (just not all the lenses.) But getting to that point involved a lot of cameras I'm not using any more.

Saganich · Mar 17, 2023

Well I'm in the middle of hipster Brooklyn and a week doesn't go by that someone who sees me shooting asks where I get my film developed. After I tell them I do it myself, and the pleasantries of impressiveness pass, they ask how they can get their TriX or HP5 developed. I say there are 2 places that will do the developing and quality scan for $20 ($25 for 120), so lets say a roll per week costs $10 per roll and 20 per dev and scan, so $120 per month. That's a night out for one in a neighborhood where a crappy 2-bed is nearly $4000 month. So I don't think the price or access to services is the problem, around here at least. I think the biggest problem is that few people under the age of 40 knows how to use a manual camera.

Sirius Glass · Mar 17, 2023

Film was never a craze for me. It was the real thing from that start and still is.

BainDarret · Mar 17, 2023

Toronto's national newspaper doesn't think the craze is dead: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-film-camera-photo-comeback/

Hassasin · Mar 17, 2023

There is definitely a stop in rising gear prices, I would even say they dropped off visibly over last few months. I have also noticed some really good opportunities for gear come up more often, with short auction length and many good BIN offers (usually BINs are way over the top, and still plenty of those, but mostly from dealers).

Is the film craze dead?

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