Is there really a revival of analog photography

jnantz said:

The problem is people with a freezer full of film expose 2 frames a weekend—the freezer was filled 14 years ago when J+C had their "moving to KC Missouri" sale.
Its the people under 30 who buy bricks of film every few weeks who are still keeping photography afloat, not some old white guys with a hats, cargo pants and a Hassy or Leica or LF camera. They're on the internet bragging to their friends with cameras about the latest lens or ex-pro gear bought, not exposing or buying film. The freezer full of film people might sell off some of their frozen stock, from time to time, not sure if they replenish it though.

Click to expand...

It seems like there are a lot of people here both over 30 and shooting a lot of film.

Don Heisz said:

It seems like there are a lot of people here both over 30 and shooting a lot of film.

Click to expand...

I know there are a few ... the average age on this site is like 67 years old, but they really shooting a lot of film ? it really doesn't seem like most people here are, unless talking about the demise of Kodachrome and their latest Hasselhoffs and Rolleis and Leicas is shooting a lot of film, but then again I guess NB shoots and prints enough for everyone active on this site to shoot 5 rolls and make 100 prints a week. ...

jnantz said:

I know there are a few ... the average age on this site is like 67 years old, but they really shooting a lot of film ? it really doesn't seem like most people here are, unless talking about the demise of Kodachrome and their latest Hasselhoffs and Rolleis and Leicas is shooting a lot of film, but then again I guess NB shoots and prints enough for everyone active on this site to shoot 5 rolls and make 100 prints a week. ...

Click to expand...

Damn me, I have about 2000 sheets of 11x14 left. A matter of 3-4-5 months.

jnantz said:

I know there are a few ... the average age on this site is like 67 years old, but they really shooting a lot of film ? it really doesn't seem like most people here are, unless talking about the demise of Kodachrome and their latest Hasselhoffs and Rolleis and Leicas is shooting a lot of film, but then again I guess NB shoots and prints enough for everyone active on this site to shoot 5 rolls and make 100 prints a week. ...

Click to expand...

I shot three rolls of film over the past week. I made about 20 prints over the weekend. I mixed up some FX37 for the first time and discovered I like it with hp5+, even though people talk about too much grain. I only use grain to focus the enlarger. It didn't look very big to me.

Don Heisz said:

I shot three rolls of film over the past week. I made about 20 prints over the weekend. I mixed up some FX37 for the first time and discovered I like it with hp5+, even though people talk about too much grain. I only use grain to focus the enlarger. It didn't look very big to me.

Click to expand...

Forget it, there is no grain to speak of. The days of grain are over... even tmz3200 is not very grainy.

NB23 said:

Forget it, there is no grain to speak of. The days of grain are over... even tmz3200 is not very grainy.

Click to expand...

I'm really interested in photos, anyway, not grain. Something that is grainy, though, almost made-of-sand grainy, is Foma Retropan 320. That stuff makes for very nice prints of people.

My tmax 3200 is pretty grainy. It's old, though.

tri-x of old days, that was nice

NB23 said:

Damn me, I have about 2000 sheets of 11x14 left. A matter of 3-4-5 months.

Click to expand...

exactly !
you are printing enough for all of us slouches to say we are doing something photographic!

Don Heisz said:

I shot three rolls of film over the past week. I made about 20 prints over the weekend. I mixed up some FX37 for the first time and discovered I like it with hp5+, even though people talk about too much grain. I only use grain to focus the enlarger. It didn't look very big to me.

Click to expand...

you too,
thanks for picking up the slack for us wannabe do gooders

I’m not sure if i’m doing it to just honor all the time and money I have spent actually shooting and developing the films (which would otherwise be a huuuge and stupid pointless exercize), or to spend extra quality time with my Focomat 2c. Every second spent with that enlarger is a gift. I just love that thing.

But actually, it’s a bit of both. I am lucky to have my own Batcave, where nothing in the world exists, except me and myself.

NB23 said:

spend extra quality time with my Focomat 2c. Every second spent with that enlarger is a gift

Click to expand...

That does seem to be one great enlarger. My Ic only does 35mm (well, it'd do 127, too, but who has any of that?).

Don Heisz said:

That does seem to be one great enlarger. My Ic only does 35mm (well, it'd do 127, too, but who has any of that?).

Click to expand...

Yes, I own three Ic. My Gray Ic with tall column is a thing of beauty, I’ll never sell it. My darkroom now has Two FOCOMAT 2c enlargers, I cant keep the Ic in there, I’m thinking of keeping it next to my bed, I don’t care. It’s just such a fine thing.

the other two Ic are one Ic color and a regular Ic. My focomat IIa is also for sale locally. What can I say, I saw a 2c for sale locally and I jumped on it no questions asked.

It's impossible to gauge interests levels, up or down, on things like printing paper and film right now. Just way too many lingering pandemic related distribution issues. They're discussing it on national news right now. And yesterday, at our local photo store, most of the shelves were almost empty. They just can't get things, though did have in stock certain basics I needed. Plus covid related shutdowns last year mean that lots of businesses might not have enough free capital to heavily stock up. And there are obviously quite a number of people who need to watch their spending especially carefully right now.

NB23 said:

the other two Ic are one Ic color and a regular Ic. My focomat IIa is also for sale locally. What can I say, I saw a 2c for sale locally and I jumped on it no questions asked.

Click to expand...

OT for this thread, but one of these days I hope you will start a thread about the qualities of these enlargers. I've only heard good things about them but have never seen one personally, and currently use a Beseler 23C. I've thought about upgrading, but haven't done so.

warden said:

OT for this thread, but one of these days I hope you will start a thread about the qualities of these enlargers. I've only heard good things about them but have never seen one personally, and currently use a Beseler 23C. I've thought about upgrading, but haven't done so.

Click to expand...

I am not an expert in writing, nor in enlargers simply because I haven’t used anything else extensively enough, besides the focomats. Except a vivitar enlarger.

I started out with a vivitar enlarger, as a teenager. I had to be very careful because it wasnt very sturdy. I still managed to make fine prints, with practice. I had parallel access to the school’s, friend’s and college darkrooms with better enlargers, the classic ones; beselers... And even one day saw my neighbor throw out a beseler 45 in the backstreet. I couldn’t do anything, my darkroom was full with focomats at that point, it sat there for 3 days. What a waste.

I decided one day to jump for a focomat V35. The quality was so high, you just know. No need to be knowledgeable, the quality jumps at you. The knobs are so smooth, so secure, everything was so sturdy. No chance of blurry prints die to shaking. And the negative holder is so easy to use, just slide in and out. Smooth.

Four words describe the Focomats: Silky Smooth Heavy Metal.

The V35 was so nice that when I saw a Focomat Gray Ic for sale, I sat in the car and drove away to buy it. 5hours away. Was a 10 hours round trip across the border (I’m in Canada, drove down to vermont). It was a leap of faith, the seller could have been a no-show, right?
Well, that was one of the best buys ever. That enlarger is sooooo nice, solid, smooth, elegant, beautiful, sexy, so well engineered, flat negs, straight, HEAVY yet agile like a Ballerina. Gave away my V35 to a friend who lusted for it. The Ic won because of its condenser versus the V35’s diffusion. And because it was more to my taste, generally. Added another Ic, and then got another, free, from someone who didn’t really like it (wtf?).

But I needed an enlarger for my Xpan and 120 films. Saw one in ottawa, 2 hours away from me. Came without negative holders nor lenses, but I didn’t care, Kienzle could make those, even better than the original, but at a cost. So I drove a 4 hours round trip. I was lucky... because the seller decided to cancel the deal, texted me. I didn’t care, I still drove and knocked at his door. He got squeezed and I drove off with the beast. Second best purchase ever. I bought the Kienzle neg holder and different masks, and even their craftmanship is extreme: solid, well made, silky smooth. Wow. Three masks: 35mm, 6x6, xpan. I have never felt happier for an object than with the two focomats I now owned. found the lenses: a rare focotar-2 100mm abd a new focotar 60mm.
But I knew I needed another 2c for when I switch between formats and sizes. Found one not long ago, locally. Misses a few bits but I’ll build it up. Heaven.
Those enlargers are powerful. You feel their weight, their power. You have no excuse, the focomat promises you 100% of the printing potential, all the way down to the last 0.00001%. The rest is up to you.

Please don’t take my word, you might dislike the focomat Ic, you need the focotar 50mm “big front element” which is an upgrade to the original, or even the rare and excellent focotar-2 50mm. Those lenses are gold. The 2c is the dream, a Ferrari and a Hummer all in one.

I'm back in to film photography for the long haul. I didn't even know there was a revival until the last couple of weeks after making myself active online for the first time in years looking for film related stuff.

It's great to find this site and to also read people of all ages are taking part in the film revival. I hope it continues for many years to come because digital photography and film photography just ain't the same thing.

We even have a Chinese company willing to invest time, energy and it follows therefore money into producing 220 film so there has to be some basis for this that is based on more than an empty vision, I'd have thought

pentaxuser

The total lack of new film may end this so-called revival.

Don Heisz said:

I shot three rolls of film over the past week. I made about 20 prints over the weekend. I mixed up some FX37 for the first time and discovered I like it with hp5+, even though people talk about too much grain. I only use grain to focus the enlarger. It didn't look very big to me.

Click to expand...

I have trouble focusing my enlarger using T-Max films. Too little grain to see.

George Mann said:

The total lack of new film may end this so-called revival.

Click to expand...

I doubt that, at least in the short to medium term and newcomers to film seem captivated by what seems a constant stream of new film that isn't. There's Babylon 13, Fantome 8, Berlin 400 to name but three I can mention off the top of my head. Plus Adox stuff etc

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

I doubt that, at least in the short to medium term and newcomers to film seem captivated by what seems a constant stream of new film that isn't. There's Babylon 13, Fantome 8, Berlin 400 to name but three I can mention off the top of my head. Plus Adox stuff etc

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

I was referring to the availability of current production film in general.

George Mann said:

I was referring to the availability of current production film in general.

Click to expand...

OK but surely that has to continue for a long time to have the effect you describe and in b&w I haven't noticed this availability problem

Mind you I will concede that you may be right for the wrong reason. Have you had a look at the thread on Kodak price increases?

pentaxuser

I have no interest in Jeff Bezos. He can buzz off for all I care. I'm into photography.

A few idle observations. Based on what I've seen over the years. In Australia, where prices are always high.

Film photography went down, down, down and film sales close to belly-up from 2006 to 2010 when digital cameras got to the point of being as acceptable in quality to film. I held out until 2009 when the Nikon D90 convinced me I could get digital results I liked. I bought two (we still have one, my partner uses it), then D700s, now a D800. My progression from film to digital, this.

I largely gave up on film from 2009 to 2015, still shot a few dozen rolls a year, down from hundreds. During 2013-2015 I hardly shot any film. Nobody I know who is into photography did. After 2015 we all got back into it, being retired and into doing things by hand for the pleasure of it. As did many young people. The latter often quickly lost interest and their film cameras ended up on the used market or given to charity shops. We oldies kept ours and for the most part, still use them. This year friends my age have tended to sell or trade their beaut old cameras to each other. I picked up a nice Leica iif and I'm currently looking at two Rollei TLRs being offered at reasonable prices by owners too old to be using them. Not that I need these, but. But. They are just so nice to have and use, now and then.

Sales went down by as much as 70% at one time (let's say 2012) but then went up again, by about half. This based on what my photo retailer staff tell me, of the sales they are making. In Melbourne several camera shops have closed, mostly due to C-19, but in my go-to store people are still buying film and darkroom gear/supplies at about half of what they did ten years ago. As a result this shop (almost the only place left where we can buy everything we need) no longer stocks the range they did even 2-3 years ago, and a lot of what they are now trying to flog off is long expired. At least they still have it. When I'm in there for something, I see people buying - many of them are much younger than me, but still a few older customers. So the market is there, if reduced from the good old days.

In 2020 (this again from my photo retailer staff) film sales went up by a little. But it wasn't consistent. Their old customers did most of the buying, largely online. The newcomers came - and went. But all retail was dealt a serious blow during C-19, and a lot of it hasn't recovered yet. One hopes it will in 2022, but who knows??

The cost of film in Australia is probably the kiss of doom for film photography here. It's expensive, especially so if one doesn't do at home processing, and it's a "niche" market, a fickle segment of any industry.

Ditto darkrooms. In 2015 I knew 30+ photographers who processed and printed their own. Now there are maybe 6-7 of us.

Last year I sold off the "excess" in my home darkroom to someone who is using it, a lovely old Leitz Focomat 1c and several cartons of darkroom bits, old chemistry I knew I wouldn't be using, and my overstock of RC paper. All to a good home. I now have a much more minimal kit, and find I make better use of my set-up and produce better prints. Trying to use up my supply of quality FB paper before it (or I) expire. Amazed that Ilford Galerie I bought used in 2000 still prints as beautifully as it does.

As I'm now retired and on less income, I buy expired film and sometimes chemistry as and when I find it. Ebay I've largely given up on, partly as it's now a market for 'tat' the sellers buy in charity shops and try to flog off at inflated prices. Private sales and now and then op shops sometimes offer good deals. We tend to circulate lists of items on offer among ourselves. Last year I lucked into two bulk rolls, Tri-X from 1992 (amazingly, still good) and Technical Pan, at a weekend market. This year, a big of Panatomic-X 35mm and 120 rolls, privately. These are being used and will last me a while.

As I said, random thoughts. I go with what I see and observe, and try to draw sensible conclusions.

Disagree with me on any or all of this if you like, your comments will be appreciated (and enjoyed).

pentaxuser said:

OK but surely that has to continue for a long time to have the effect you describe and in b&w I haven't noticed this availability problem

Mind you I will concede that you may be right for the wrong reason. Have you had a look at the thread on Kodak price increases?

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

From what I have seen lately, only Shanghai is currently producing any.

But yes, the continuing price increase of film is untenable.

Arthurwg said:

I have trouble focusing my enlarger using T-Max films. Too little grain to see.

Click to expand...

You may need a better grain focuser.
Positive release film - now that has too little grain to see.

I can't imagine the announced Kodak price increases for Jan 2022 doing much for the revival either. If I was a newcomer and young, free and single as the saying goes, the price of one or two rolls might not dampen my curiosity to try film but unless the hobby becomes so absorbing that other distractions that consumes limited disposable income fail to matter much then it has to affect sales adversely, doesn't it?

pentaxuser