keeping film on the agenda

C

colpepper

Suspended / Banned
Messages
655
Edit My Images
No
At the risk of sounding like a wailing loon, is there anything we can do collectively to persuade manufacturers and shops to keep making and stocking film?
I'm not generally one for conspiracies but I think shops are pushing digital cameras to the exclusion of film, rather than letting it die a natural death or, as is more likely, keep being sold at a diminished but healthy rate, relative to film's glory years.

The retail industry was always built on fast sales churn, so no surprises at their enthusiasm for novelty at the expense of practicality but 'no call for it' is often a euphemism for 'can't be bothered mate'. I think they should be bothered and we should support film stockists in custom and publicity.
 
http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/page.asp?p=30001&1=Home+Page

They stock Film and normally do next day.

It's difficult for shops to stock something that will go out of date if it's not bought by a certain time, even cameras these days change models so fast they can't always stock the newest model without risking the sale of ex stock items
 
Well I would have thought it all revolves around money...with the government punishing business with taxes and rates, landlords ripping off shop in renting, high car/van fuel costs, held to ransom by water gas and electricity, minimum wage, holidays for staff, sick leave for staff, pregnancy leave for staff blah blah blah......who can afford to be charitable.
 
It's not charity. We're always told film is expensive relative to digital and an on-going cost. It seems more like a decision to wean everyone off their film habit by cutting off the supply.
For now the big.com specialist suppliers can satisfy the needs of those bothered enough to buy off the web in bulk, but will manufacturers keep making it for a few internet box shifters?
 
***It's not charity**

Well you could be right in your posts, so ok you want to open up a photography shop would you approach Kodak and Fuji to buy in bulk to get a cheap price when you know that you would only have occasional local customers.....It would be interesting to know what the Chinese and Indians pay for Kodak and Fuji film, is the west subsidising the rest of the world for profits.
 
The price of Kodak Gold 100 ASA was c. 150 Rs last I bought ( in 2008 December, price from memory. At exchange rate of 80 Rs = 1£, thats about 2£.
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
The price of Kodak Gold 100 ASA was c. 150 Rs last I bought ( in 2008 December, price from memory. At exchange rate of 80 Rs = 1£, thats about 2£.
Click to expand...

erm that could be a day's wage for some. Then it would seem there is no way Kodak or Fuji could/would ever produce film dirt cheap for Joe public and the Chinese are not bothering to get involved (well I've never heard of Chinese film).
 
excalibur2 said:
erm that could be a day's wage for some. Then it would seem there is no way Kodak or Fuji could/would ever produce film dirt cheap for Joe public and the Chinese are not bothering to get involved (well I've never heard of Chinese film).
Click to expand...

There are some chinese films on e bay; Arthur uses them.
 
The original reason that the Holga was invented in the early 80's was because there was tons of cheap b&w roll film in China at the time
 
Well yes, there is the Era stuff, the Lucky stuff - both under £20 delivered for 10 rolls of 36 BW film - treat it like FP4 and you're laughing. I cannot fault the stuff, OK maybe the odd roll (I have not had one yet though) may have an uneven emulsion layer but they do put two layers on for less grain in the final image. If you are prepared to go and *try* the Eastern films you may be very surprised - the fact that China makes film shuold tell you that there will be a supply for many years to come - there's an awful lot of FED's and Wall cameras out there not to mention the Mei cameras and all the other clones too. They will all be in use for many years while the eastern economies support the western ones.

And Kodak no longer make film anyway do they?
 
You can buy film in 'Morrisons' stores, surprised me when I seen it. displayed with the memory cards..

Dave.
 
Ambermile said:
Well yes, there is the Era stuff, the Lucky stuff - both under £20 delivered for 10 rolls of 36 BW film - treat it like FP4 and you're laughing. I cannot fault the stuff, OK maybe the odd roll (I have not had one yet though) may have an uneven emulsion layer but they do put two layers on for less grain in the final image. If you are prepared to go and *try* the Eastern films you may be very surprised - the fact that China makes film shuold tell you that there will be a supply for many years to come - there's an awful lot of FED's and Wall cameras out there not to mention the Mei cameras and all the other clones too. They will all be in use for many years while the eastern economies support the western ones.

And Kodak no longer make film anyway do they?
Click to expand...

Where do you get your cheap film, an ebay search didn't turn up anything quite like it? Any recommended dev? I'm always in for seeing what a film can deliver, don't suppose Cartier-Bresson's film stock stood up to comparison with modern emulsions. Didn't stop him taking some brilliant photos.
 
I did a quick search and Ilford B&W film in most sizes seems to be in stock everywhere that's listed on the Ilford Website.

Just keep asking for it and keep buying it...if there's no demand they'll stop making it - simple.
 
Tough crowd - can you not type "Lucky Film" into Ebay?
 
I didn't realise it was actually called 'Lucky'. Thought it was a forum joke like sprocket chewing Russian rangefinders. I shall search again in earnest.
 
I went for 15 mins ID-11 at 3:1, 68-70 degrees, 60 secs stop and 4 mins fix. Nice and smooth with little grain though as I said, the emulsion has been known to detach but it's never happened to me.
 
I quite liked the look of that Rollei Retro stuff you posted recently Arthur... was that the repackaged Agfa stuff ?
 
Ambermile said:
I went for 15 mins ID-11 at 3:1, 68-70 degrees, 60 secs stop and 4 mins fix. Nice and smooth with little grain though as I said, the emulsion has been known to detach but it's never happened to me.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a fair brew, ta.
 
TheBigYin said:
I quite liked the look of that Rollei Retro stuff you posted recently Arthur... was that the repackaged Agfa stuff ?
Click to expand...

Sure was BY - well pretty sure it was since most of the Retro line is repackaged Agfa!
 
Ambermile said:
Sure was BY - well pretty sure it was since most of the Retro line is repackaged Agfa!
Click to expand...

If it was the Rollei Retro 100; then it was the last batch of Rollei made in Germany; not repackaged AGFA. It seems the whole last batch was bought up bulk by a german film distributor; who then repackaged it and sold it to stockinsts around the world. Hence the low price; and unfortunately, when its gone, its gone.
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
... and unfortunately, when its gone, its gone.
Click to expand...
This is my worry in the original post. I'm all for a bargain but users need quality, final generation emulsions to keep being made as well as the off-beat stuff. Not being an economist I have no idea whether it's worthwhile the big producers continuing to make 35mm - 120 seems to be safe for a while longer - or if the volumes made require a price hike that'll make film uneconomical.

The best we can hope for is production plant being flogged to developing countries (sic) who sell the film back to us at less than German or Japanese wage scales.
 
colpepper said:
This is my worry in the original post. I'm all for a bargain but users need quality, final generation emulsions to keep being made as well as the off-beat stuff. Not being an economist I have no idea whether it's worthwhile the big producers continuing to make 35mm - 120 seems to be safe for a while longer - or if the volumes made require a price hike that'll make film uneconomical.

The best we can hope for is production plant being flogged to developing countries (sic) who sell the film back to us at less than German or Japanese wage scales.
Click to expand...

I think film will come back. It may not stay cheap, but it will be there. Basically in a few years time there will be 2 types of photographing ( and I am excluding professionals here for the moment). The digital, which will be cheap, automated and progressively, as the in-camera technology improves, usable by almost anybody with a 'weekend training course' to produce decent, even spectacular photographs ( which BTW I think will be offered free as a sales promotion with mid range digital cameras in a few years time)

And then there will be films. The serious hobbyists will continue to use it even though it will be expensive.

Not dis-similar to quatz vs mechanical wristwatch story. After the Swiss mechanical watch industry got decimated in the 80s becuase everyone was wearing a quartz watch, buyers have woken up to the fact that a 5£ quartz watch is not stylist enough. And 2000£ quartz is just a 5£ quartz in another packaging. Hence the revival and boom of the Swiss watch industry in the last decade.

As to manufacturing in developing countries, everything these days get made there. Why not films. Its the technology which is crucial, not turning the drums.
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
As to manufacturing in developing countries, everything these days get made there. Why not films. Its the technology which is crucial, not turning the drums.
Click to expand...

I agree. Film is pricey for what you get, mainly because it was made in high-salary countries.
If we could buy quality film from China/India/Taiwan it would stay competitive. If that didn't happen and film edged towards £10 a roll, only larger format users would stick with it, making serious 35mm photographers an endangered species.
 
One age old problem with photography was that the average film had Xmas trees at each end and a few holiday snaps in the middle. Yes, a grand total of 1 film per year - and the cost of that was often deemed too high. Yet the same person is quite happy to upgrade their phone, pda, p&s, bridge or dslr kit every 12 months for the latest shiny toy.

Therefore, there is much more profit now in the hardware than the consumables.
 
grahamsewelluk said:
One age old problem with photography was that the average film had Xmas trees at each end and a few holiday snaps in the middle. Yes, a grand total of 1 film per year - and the cost of that was often deemed too high. Yet the same person is quite happy to upgrade their phone, pda, p&s, bridge or dslr kit every 12 months for the latest shiny toy.

Therefore, there is much more profit now in the hardware than the consumables.
Click to expand...
That's a perfect description of a bunch of negatives I've been going through recently. They're the family snapshots from my childhood (well - maybe 7yrs or so - before that they were B&W prints, and looked brilliant) and early teens.

I decided to have a look at the negatives, as the printed photo's were awful - all magenta castes and muddy colours :gag: (Yes - my Mother used to send the films to Truprint :bonk:)

Apart from mostly being on 110 film, the negatives weren't all that bad to be honest - A few tweaks with colour curves and I'd pretty much rescued them. Once I've completed the whole pile of them, I'll probably send them off to be re-printed as 6x4's and make a few albums up. I know I could do a Photobook with them in, but I actually want the separate photo's... it's a retro thing :lol:

But when you look at the content, a single 110 x 24 exp film seemed to cover an entire holiday, and end up with a couple of photo's taken in the local club on new years eve (or similar). Make no wonder my Dad was surprised when I bought a pack of 10x36exp films when I went to the alps for the summer between leaving school and commencing Uni.:lol:
 
went into the camera shop today which is usually excellent, however when I asked for some Ilford HP5 the bloke asked me if I wanted it in colour or black and white..
 
walsh said:
went into the camera shop today which is usually excellent, however when I asked for some Ilford HP5 the bloke asked me if I wanted it in colour or black and white..
Click to expand...

TBH I wouldn't buy film from a bricks and mortar shop now - unless I'm feeling generous to Silverprint which is a short walk from where I work. It's £6+ a roll in most places now as against £4 and under online.
 
gingerjon said:
TBH I wouldn't buy film from a bricks and mortar shop now - unless I'm feeling generous to Silverprint which is a short walk from where I work. It's £6+ a roll in most places now as against £4 and under online.
Click to expand...

to be fair their prices are pretty good when it comes to film, plus there isnt a wait for it to be delivered.
 
How many enthusiasts bought film in shops even before the advent of digital,I was always getting mine mail order or off the internet and that source seems as strong as ever
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top