-) Minilabs you won't find everywhere. I for instance would not know where to find one.
-) The rarity applies on colour halide paper commercially exposed under an enlarger, more so it then being operated by a skilled lab technician
What sort of c-print is rare commercially? Minilabs use silver halid paper almost exclusively and most of these papers can be exposed in a home darkroom.
There is one minilab down my street and several within 20 km. True, I know of no commercial lab exposing c-paper under an enlarger. I guess old lab fuji and agfa machines exposing directly rather than scanning and using laser as a light source are all scrapped now.-) Minilabs you won't find everywhere. I for instance would not know where to find one.
-) The rarity applies on colour halide paper commercially exposed under an enlarger, more so it then being operated by a skilled lab technician
Support organizations like Camera Rescue?
I still see such cameras you describe sold by camera stores out of rummage boxes for a few Euros. In case of a real market they would have gone at once, at higher prices.I feel like there'd be a real market for a simple 120 camera that had a better quality lens.
I feel like there'd be a real market for a simple 120 camera that had a better quality lens. Something like a Holga with a quality seals to prevent light leaks and a lens more on par with a good P&S. Continue to have limited shutter speeds and aperture choices, no meter.
Maybe Lomography has something like this, but it'd probably cost 3x what it was worth.
The Novar of the Nettar is really very underrated I think.Folding cameras like the Zeiss Ikon Nettar have simple 3-element lenses. Wide open they swirl like crazy, stopped down to f11, the aperture box cameras, Holgas, fixed lens P&S cameras work at, the Nettar is very sharp. They are solid mechanical cameras with little to go wrong, and unlike other brands, the fabric bellows rarely leak. Mine were between £15 and £30, prices may have risen slightly in the years since.
What are the brands/models you speak of? I don’t claim to know the market well but I was looking for a cheap medium format recently and felt my options were:I still see such cameras you describe sold by camera stores out of rummage boxes for a few Euros. In case of a real market they would have gone at once, at higher prices.
For instance Canon and Nikon manual focus. More so for autofocus models.What are the brands/models you speak of?
The only way to get camera manufacturers to start making new cameras is for the existing used camera market drys up. You assignment is to go out there and buy up all the used cameras. Stop gabbing and get to work!
I'd like to see something that takes the xpan format and doenst cost a kidney.
And the real key to film sustainability is what PR is needed to draw more of the younger crowd to it. There is obviously interest, but upscaling film production requires a lot more longer term sales demand, which I don't see there at all. For the time being we have film, but never price increases are not good indicator for what the future holds. Forget COVID argument, there is either corporate short term greed being played or sales are not what they need to be to remain in business. I don't follow sales numbers, but when a mainstream roll of film becomes $10+ a piece (which appears to be not far from today), we may see last fart of the industry as we know it.What's surprising in hindsight, is how quickly the collapse came. In 2003 about 1 billion rolls of film were sold. A few years later 20 million were sold. Factories that occupied an entire block and employed thousands, operate from a small industrial unit with a few essential operatives. We are still getting our heads round the implication of that change.
A new camera may be viable at some point, in the meantime there are hundreds of thousands of working cameras for sale. Where people once aspired to a double stroke M3 as their everyday camera, they might have to settle for an OM1 or a FM2. A lack of hip optical jewellery won't kill film production, it'll be insufficient rolls sold to maintain existing plant.
Based on what data? How do you know $10 is not sustainable?I don't follow sales numbers, but when a mainstream roll of film becomes $10+ a piece (which appears to be not far from today), we may see last fart of the industry as we know it.
My local store is charging $20 a roll (cdn) for ektar/portra. It's gotten too rich for my blood. I've been shooting fuji lately which is far more affordable but even it has seen price increases. The lab tells me though that a lot of people are buying it and they're averaging about 180 rolls a month on the development side so people are obviously still willing to pay.Based on what data? How do you know $10 is not sustainable?
To be clear, which I was not, meant B&W cheap film that sells for about $4 right now. Data? What data? Prices are already close to what a lot of people are willing to pay, and end up shifting away from Ilford/Kodak. It's a matter of time for cheap to reach currently most expensive rolls. There will be no new cheap then. And once people start shooting one roll a month it is not sustainable market, or is it? Data? What data? Manufacturers are going to test the limits, I don't buy into the philanthropic motives. That's my opinion on the matter.Based on what data? How do you know $10 is not sustainable?
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