Is this news for you or already known?

About Amaloco...

http://www.imx.nl/photo/blog/page29.html

Scroll down to title: Slow death of the darkroom?

There are still PLENTY of chemical suppliers...even some new ones (for the US market). Other smaller countries may not fare so well. I guess it is the economy of scale in a big country like the USA.

I hadn't seen that, but I don't know if I'd take that as a sign of the slow death of the darkroom.

On the positive side, it seems that Wolfgang Moersch is coming out with interesting new products and finding new avenues of distribution for them, collaborating with Fotoimpex and Freestyle. I'm always amazed that someone still finds it profitable to manufacture Acufine, Diafine, and Ethol products, and Harvey's 777, which isn't even advertised anywhere or available from any ordinary retailer and sold by a company that doesn't have an internet presence as far as I can tell.

I wouldn't worry too much about chemical supplies, though there is a disturbing trend of fewer labs. When lab choices dwindle, we can hope the remaining places are very good, otherwise we will need to mail out for processing. The alternative is to handle our own chemicals, which some people do already. Beyond that, there might be an issue of shipping certain chemicals, making supply tougher to get. Consider that even today we can get supplies to do Daugerreotypes, and other early processes . . . these things will never really disappear, but they may become tougher to use.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography

If Amaloco is ceasing production at the end of the year which is now only just over 4 months away, I am surprised that Robert Vonk at Fotohuis hasn't posted a thread. He is a big stockist of Amaloco.

The poster sounds genuine enough and it seems to have come from the maker of the product but after so many false alarms and plain wrong announcements I have become less trusting of sudden unimpeachable statements made by anonymous friends of friends on the web.

Colorvir was apparently no longer some months ago. I produced evidence from a U.K. stockist that it was still producing its products and the originator then admitted that he had read it in a magasine. His first post failed to give the source of his information but was presented as a bald statement of fact.

So Robert, if you still follow things on APUG, give us your understanding of the situation with Amaloco.

pentaxuser

There's actually a glut of small Photo-chemical manufacturers, and a lot will disappear. Over the past 20-30 years as the number of film & paper manufacturers has declined the number of chemistry suppliers has gone up significantly, and more importantly many are now competing more heavily outside their own traditional markets.

Many of the smaller ones will go, and most of us won't miss them.

Ian

Ilford will probably be the last company to make film and darkroom supplies. Of course, this will probably be beyond my lifetime and I'm 20. I think film will be around for a long time to come.

Brew your own, it's the best defense and lots of fun...Evan Clarke

Although I use my darkroom less than many APUGers, I am a NEW darkroom user. I just put together my first darkroom this year and can shoot, develop and print B&W 35mm and medium format films and papers. So there ARE new darkrooms going up. This thing, this wiggle and shakedown of products that ends in an all-digital world, isn't inevitable.

Chemical suppliers

PHOTOTONE said:

There are still PLENTY of chemical suppliers...even some new ones (for the US market). Other smaller countries may not fare so well. I guess it is the economy of scale in a big country like the USA.

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I couldn't agree more. The large suppliers of photographic materials (Ilford, Kodak, Fuji, Clayton, Champion, et cetera) most probably do NOT manufacture their own base stocks, any more than, say, General Motors manufactures alternators. If Ilford wants to make fixer, they buy the constituent chemicals directly from a manufacturer, albeit in very large quantities. They may even sub-contact the actual manufacture, packaging and transport to another company.

The key for photo consumers, as we are, seems to be reminiscent of that old business saying: get big, or stay small. In our case, either deal with a small specialty supplier, or find out who manufactures the base stocks, and get it from them. In my case, I buy my developing agents, and items such as potassium bromide, ammonium chloride, benziatriazole and potassium alum from a specialty supplier, JD Photochem, in Longueuil, Quebec. The products come in labelled generic bottles; who actually manufactures them, I do not know.

For items I use in larger quantities, such as sodium sulfite and sodium thiosulfate, I purchased in 25-Kg bags, from Alphachem in Mississauga, Ontario. They are a general purpose chemical supplier, and took the time to make sure I got photo grade chemicals. In my case, the sodium sulfite was manufactured by BASF in Germany, and the sodium thiosulfate by Essco USA, in China.

So, if you are serious about silver halide photography, you will make the effort (you MUST make the effort!) to get your chemicals and other supplies. I refuse to be stymied by somebody working in a camera store, who is 1/3 my age, telling me that they can't order chemicals. I even had one of these digignomes, a fauxtographer, who claimed that he was proud to have never shot film, tell me, "...like, you should totally ditch the ancient cameras and get a new digital. Sweet!"

BTW, I agree that it is probably easier in the United States, than in Canada, to get photo chemicals. Part of the reason I returned to mixing my own, after photographing for more than 40 years, is that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get liquid chemicals over the border. But, we manufacture here, too, and any western nation will be sure to have a manufacturing base, which uses chemicals...and somebody will supply them. You have to do some research, that's all.

pentaxuser said:

If Amaloco is ceasing production at the end of the year which is now only just over 4 months away, I am surprised that Robert Vonk at Fotohuis hasn't posted a thread. He is a big stockist of Amaloco.

The poster sounds genuine enough and it seems to have come from the maker of the product but after so many false alarms and plain wrong announcements I have become less trusting of sudden unimpeachable statements made by anonymous friends of friends on the web.

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Nothing from Robert, but this sad news was already posted in the Dutch forums: (there was a url link here which no longer exists). The first post contains a link to the Amaloco site with an announcement as to the ceasing of production (per July 1st 2008, actually, but with stock probably lasting to the end of the year). Sad but true.

No English version, but you can try the fish on the French or German version (link from Dead Link Removed). Or I could translate a bit more...: talks are ongoing about moving production to another company/site; if that happens, it is highly unlikely that colour chemistry will survive. Also, B/W toners may not be produced by the possible next owner.

Damn, I hope this isn't true. While I don't use any developers or anything from Amaloco I sure like their wetting agent, it's quite cheap compared to Ilford.

Terrence Brennan said:

I refuse to be stymied by somebody working in a camera store, who is 1/3 my age, telling me that they can't order chemicals. I even had one of these digignomes, a fauxtographer, who claimed that he was proud to have never shot film, tell me, "...like, you should totally ditch the ancient cameras and get a new digital. Sweet!"

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Oh dear. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were inside a Henry's or perhaps Downtown Camera in Toronto. Worse, it sounds like the increasing mantra at my university's camera club, whose five wet darkrooms are largely never in use, while the one digital "darkroom" is frequently booked.

accozzaglia said:

Oh dear. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were inside a Henry's or perhaps Downtown Camera in Toronto. Worse, it sounds like the increasing mantra at my university's camera club, whose five wet darkrooms are largely never in use, while the one digital "darkroom" is frequently booked.

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Was at a local "digital only" shop today here in Sydney. Asked for a tripod adapter bush 3/8" to 1/4". Only to be told by the "trend-setter" that passes for sales attendant there, they "don't stock that old film stuff anymore"...
:confused:

So I walked another 500metres to the shop I know has everything, digital and film. And of course: the guy knew perfectly well what I was talking about and promptly sold me said adapter. Along with another 50 bucks of extra stuff I probably didn't need: I just felt I should help such a shop to stay in business!

But that's just me...

I haven't actually heard of this particular company before...

Fleath said:

I haven't actually heard of this particular company before...

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Oh sorry: Foto-Riesel in Kent st, Sydney. They even had the 600ml plastic graduates I've been chasing for ages!