When film is no longer available.

[BrianShaw]

At about 2:37 in the afternoon.

I concur!

 

[BrianShaw]

I was surprised to learn that the US is just 4.5% of the world's population.

Interesting, Steve... I never really thought about that. But I have thought a lot about my on-going thesis that statistics and the psychology of influence are often completely orthogonal.

 

[dwross]

Horses are much easier to make than film

Speaking as someone who has carried a large child to term and as someone who makes film, I respectfully disagree with you!

d

 

[dwross]

Learn to make your own.

You just missed a workshop on this very topic!

Sorry.

PE

Congratulations, Ron! I missed that news. I thought your latest workshop was another one on gaslight paper. I imagine your students will post on Ian's "emulsion101", but they are heartily invited to post on thelightfarm also. Could you maybe let them know? It would be good publicity for your next workshop. The more and the farther the word spreads, the better.

All my best,
d

 

[Mr.3D]

Here's a fun idea,lets make a Time Capsule. A Nikon F and a dozen rolls of film. We'll wait a 100 years before opening it. What do the think the response will be from the on lookers?

Bill

 

[Roger Cole]

Here's a fun idea,lets make a Time Capsule. A Nikon F and a dozen rolls of film. We'll wait a 100 years before opening it. What do the think the response will be from the on lookers?

Bill

"We really wish they'd have stored that film in a freezer instead."

 

[Vaughn]

...A Nikon F and a dozen rolls of film. We'll wait a 100 years before opening it...Bill

Perhaps putting the camera and film in a sealed container filled with nitrogen? Buried would keep everything below 60F, at least.

 

[eclarke]

I am about 10 blocks away from Arkay Regal and their business has picked up over the last two or three years..new darkroom equipment...EC

 

[Photo Engineer]

We did do Azo type papers at the latest workshop, but discussed the making of an entire gamut of products at the workshop. Three EK veterans showed up for the classes and for lunch with the students. (priceless)

You know, a horse can make another horse. However, a man cannot make a horse. So, a horse is either easy or difficult depending on who or what you are and depending on perspective. If all horses vanished, there would be no more horses. That is an absolute. If all production coating equipment and photo engineers vanish, there will be no more film or paper produced commercially.

There are certainly more horse farms and breeders WW than there are film and paper factories. Therefore one is more endangered than the other.

There are more automobile plants than film and paper factories and an automobile is much simpler to design and build than a film. Now you may dispute this, but one of my Photo Engineers had a BS from GMI and was learning to design cars when he moved to our division at EK. I think he would agree with this statement after he and I discussed this subject on and off over the years.

PE

 

[Brian C. Miller]

When will color film become unavailable?

Nobody knows that, either. And that will cease production before black & white. After all, Kodak has dropped E6. Who predicted the date on that? (I know I predicted that they would do it, not just when.)

Ya know, PE, what about an Autochrome-like process where the color mask layer is printed with a color printer? No need to bother with potato starch (unless somebody [/i]really[/i] wanted to do that).

 

[Photo Engineer]

Dufaycolor is more likely that any other color material except Dye Bleach.

PE

 

[BrianShaw]

"We really wish they'd have stored that film in a freezer instead."

and/or... "if the Nikon is really "minty" then why should it need a CLA?"

 

[MattKing]

In the USA, isn't the incandescent light bulb about to be phased out? I'm not sure if/how this correlates to photo film and chemistry but a lot can happen with the stroke of a pen.

The incandescent bulb isn't being phased out anywhere. What is happening is that sale of incandescent bulbs for general illumination (as compared to special purpose use) is being severely restricted in many jurisdictions. So it will likely be possible to obtain bulbs for your refrigerator and stove and special purpose equipment for a long time, albeit at increased cost.

 

[Paul Howell]

As long as there is a demand there will be a supply. My concern for the long view is not so much with film as much as new film cameras. Without new entery level cameras, 35mm and MF, and good used cameras will dry up so that person who wants to try film will not be able to afford a starter camera, demand will drop. In terms of color, negative film seems to be holding up, E6 maybe Fuji will keep making as long as a world wide demand.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

21st of December 2012. Nibiru is coming... :-D

On this date if I understand correctly, the universe does not end. Their calender just resets to zero like an analog odometer.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

In the USA, isn't the incandescent light bulb about to be phased out? I'm not sure if/how this correlates to photo film and chemistry but a lot can happen with the stroke of a pen.

No! There are new incandescant bulbs that are more energy efficient than the older ones. These will not be affected nor will special purpose bulbs. So you'll still be able to buy bulbs for your enlargers.

 

[Leigh B]

On this date if I understand correctly, the universe does not end. Their calender just resets to zero like an analog odometer.

[OT]
Not exactly.

The December date this year is the end of the 13th Baktun in the Mayan calendar.

A Baktun is conceptually like our century, but it's 400 "years" long rather than 100 years because the Maya used a base-20 number system.

So the end of a Baktun is something few people had seen in the 2000+ year history of the Maya, who had a life expectancy of ~35 years.
Couple this with the fact that the number 13 had great spiritual significance to the Maya, and the reason for excitement on their part is obvious.

There are five periods longer than a Baktun in the Mayan calendar. We use four digits to express our years, e.g. 2012. The Maya used ten "digits".

The end of the 13th Baktun is like when our calendar rolled over to the 21st Century. The calendar continues.
[/OT]

- Leigh

The Mayan "year" in this particular calendric system is 360 days long.
For anyone interested... my Mayan Calendric Calculator program MayaDate is available free at http://www.mayadate.org

 

[steven_e007]

A rock band I am involved with (as a fan) reformed after 30 years. They signed a contract with a German company to release their entire back catalogue as special collectors edition albums - on vinyl.

Collectors much prefer vinyl - the classic look and feel, the much bigger sleeve for pictures, artwork, inserts. There is quite a growing demand for vinyl releases.
There are still a hard core of DJs, too, who prefer vinyl in disco type scenarios so they can do their scratching and mixing routines.
Many 'Audiophiles' are convinced that the best sound quality comes from a carefully pressed vinyl record via a thermionic valve / vacuum tube amplifier.

Vinyl never went away - but the market shrunk to probably a fraction of a %age of what it was. The massive consumer market is no more - but the niche markets are still doing very well.

There is no date for vinyl being unavailable in the near future.

http://www.hrrecords.de/high_roller/start.html
http://eil.com/features/audiophile-collectors.asp
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vinyl-Albums-Music/b?ie=UTF8&node=520022

 

[Aron]

There are still a hard core of DJs, too, who prefer vinyl in disco type scenarios so they can do their scratching and mixing routines.
Many 'Audiophiles' are convinced that the best sound quality comes from a carefully pressed vinyl record via a thermionic valve / vacuum tube amplifier.

No contest. Especially if the valve/tube amp is a proper lowish power single ended triode one. I'm listening to one just right now.

Actually, it's always been my understanding that besides the fact that it looks much cooler to mix from vinyls than CDs, the other reason is the superior bass reproduction of vinyls. Yes, it might have more detail and other nuances audiophools love, but in my opinion it's that very tight and precise bass with a well defined shape that most people can appreciate the easiest.

 

[h.v.]

I'd give slide film until the end of the decade. C-41 will probably continue on longer for maybe another decade or two. B&W I could still see being around in 50+ years. Of course, I'm just talking about wide commercial access by big companies like Fuji, Kodak, and Ilford. I think there will be people who create their own emulsions or small, boutique operations well into the future. I get the horse-back riding analogy, but I think oil paint is a better example to use.

I feel the buyers of black and white film and paper are obviously aware of the "benefits" of digital and choose not to use it. So those of us that use it will continue to do so. What I fear is when those start dying off will the younger generation continue to pick it up? That is the question.

Except that the young are picking up film in droves, seemingly much more enthusiastic than the 30-65 range. Sure, digital still dominates, as with any other demographic, but there is a niche of interest, particularly amongst hipsters and fine artists. Even the pure digital users of any age are finding it trendy to "emulate" film with their iPhones and post-processing software.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Kodak has already discontinued E6 films and I would guess Fuji is not too far behind. Certainly not a decade behind.

PE

 

[h.v.]

I know about Kodak. Fuji? Who knows, they do make some popular slide films. And "end of decade" is not a decade away. At most 7 years, though the post didn't say this, I could see it being anywhere between now and then. Of course , this is all just guessing.

 

[ME Super]

There is another maker of E-6 besides Fuji (not Kodak!). Agfa still makes a color version of Aviphot reversal film. It's an ISO 200 film, and you can get it from Freestyle and soon B&H (it's listed on their website as a new item that they are taking pre-orders for).

I would love to see someone start making a Dufaycolor (Dufaychrome?) type 35mm film, so that when subtractive reversal films cease to be produced, those of us who are fans of color reversal have an alternative that doesn't require color chemistry to be available once E-6, RA-4 and C-41 are done.

Either that or give me a 6-8MP display device for under 4 figures.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

In this age... a decade... is... a very... L-O-N-G... time.

 

[Alexis M]

We don't know, anything can happen. But i doubt i will live to see the end of it and I'm in my mid thirties. Others will discover film and keep the demand going. I mean it's not like i got into photography using film...i started with digital and then switched to film so others are bound to do the same.

Digital is still new relatively speaking. Maybe digital will become redundant and boring and film will become the preferred medium of another generation for some reason. Maybe there will be so much automation and gimmicks with digital that most with any artistic incline will just simply have enough and look for something more fulfilling. This is not unrealistic you know, every new digital camera has more silly features and automatic this and thats.

Actually digital may be replaced before the demise of film.

What is dangerous is increasing the prices of film, like with anything there is a point.