Not counting instant films, I’m curious what proportion of still film sales are 35mm vs 120 vs sheet? I’ve always assumes that 35mm accounted to something like 90%, but given that medium format and large format gear has gotten cheap, I wonder what the actual ratio is? Has anyone seen it listed in a Kodak financial statement, or elsewhere?
Not seen anything, but one would imagine that 35mm is in the lead...but the general public isn't using it, so it's hard to say. Personally, I rarely shoot it. It's usually medium and large format. But I do have some P30 coming very soon!
Yeah, given the price of medium format camera, there is a lot of impetus to jump up from 35mm, however, 35mm is still king for convenience--small cameras but still good quality (more so than say 110 film) and lots of flexibility. I probably shoot 2:1 rolls of 120 to rolls of 135 (which is over 4:1 ratio of frames). LF for me is a rounding error because I haven't shot much at all.
I suspect that 35 mm still far outsells MF and LF films. For myself, the latter are used with more specific subjects in mind. I tend to use 35mm when just taking a camera along for whatever of interest pops up or when a larger camera would be a distraction. The exception would be my Super Ikonta B, which is easy to carry and with a quiet leaf shutter. Of course, I always have a Minox snuggled in my pocket for the unexpected.
The relative size of the markets can be estimated by the observation that new films are first introduced in 35mm, later in 120, and then possible in LF.
Not counting instant films, I’m curious what proportion of still film sales are 35mm vs 120 vs sheet? I’ve always assumes that 35mm accounted to something like 90%, but given that medium format and large format gear has gotten cheap, I wonder what the actual ratio is?
If you look at the film market in general: 35mm film is indeed by far the most popular photo film format (instant films excluded). The market share of 35mm film is dependent on the regional market you are looking at, and differs from about 70% to 95% in the major markets.
In general the market share of 35mm film has increased in the last two years, because lots of young photographers have started using film recently, and they do that almost exclusively with 35mm film.
35mm film is the "gateway drug" to film .
The situation is bit different if you look at certain film types: With several professional colour films there are more 120 films sold as 35mm films considering the same film type (e.g. Portra 400 and Fujifilm Pro 400H AFAIK).