Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/11/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ascorbic acid as a developing agent was being investigated at least as far back as the 1950s so sometimes these things take a long time to come to market. The use of T grain emulsions is not limited to black and white. The phenomenal improvements in color neg. films in the 80s and 90s (grain wise) is also due to the use of flat grain technology. Does this mean anything? Well maybe as long as some film is being manufactured then maybe improvements will trickle down to black and white. I bet Kodak's R&D efforts in film technology are still not insignificant. Mike D Dante Stella wrote: > Rolfe, let's put it this way. > > Kodak led the charge up the B&W hill with the T-grain films and the > ascorbic-acid developers, easily outspending Fuji, Agfa and Ilford in the > process. > > Black and white technology is completely mature; in terms of > ultimate usable resolution, we have been at a plateau since the 1950s, > when someone discovered that document films have the highest resolution. > In fact, the current alleged "gigibit" films are nothing more than > document films. > > Furthermore, the huge price of whatever incremental improvement remains to > be made cannot be economically justified when B&W is only around 5% of the > total market. Kodak has by no means been hostile to the black and white > market - they just built a new film plant for it -- and kept Verichrome > Pan in production long after Agfa quit with APX 25. > > Leica, on the other hand, has not spent any significant money on M line > bodies, the newest of which is 30 years behind technologically. Leica has > not been an innovator for about fifty years in rangefinder bodies, and it > is nowhere near the limits of what can be done within market constraints. > > Dante > > On Mon, 4 Nov 2002, Rolfe Tessem wrote: > > >> >>--On Monday, November 4, 2002 9:10 AM -0500 SthRosner@aol.com wrote: >> >> >>>In a message dated 11/3/02 11:47:34 PM Eastern Standard Time, >>>rolfe@ldp.com writes: >>> >>> >>>>Perhaps, but the company did retire all the senior people who knew >>>>anything about B&W film, so we'll probably never see a new B&W film out >>>> of Kodak even as they milk the existing products for their last nickel. >>> >>>Rolfe, think how foolish your remark sounds. To me it reads just like: >>> >>>Ernst Leitz Wetzlar retired all the senior people who knew anything about >>>designing and manufacturing cameras and lenses so Leica Solms milks >>>existing products for their last Euro - I was going to say pfennig. >>> >>>Let's not buy any more Leicas. >>> >>>Res ipsa loquitur. >> >>Well, the difference is that my comment re: Kodak is, although >>intentionally hyperbolic, pretty much true. >> >>The Leica comment is not analogous because Leitz/Leica hasn't actually done >>this. >> >>And finally, I didn't suggest that anyone stop buying Tri-X :-). >> >>Rolfe >> >>-- >>Rolfe Tessem >>rolfe@ldp.com >>Lucky Duck Productions, Inc. >>-- >>To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html >> > > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html