[Leica] The end of film

[richard at richardmanphoto.com (Richard Man)]

You can still buy silver gelatin and make your own plates :-)


On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 11:42 AM, Larry Zeitlin via LUG <lug at 
leica-users.org
> wrote:

> The demise of film is an unfortunate but natural consequence of the
> evolution of photography. Remember all the photographic processes that have
> fallen by the wayside. The Daguerrotype, the Calotype, albumen prints,
> Tintypes, the wet collodion process, the gum bichromate process, and dozens
> of color processes. All  were replaced by gelatin silver on acetate film.
> And even film has a victim of evolution. Try to buy a roll of film for your
> grandmother's antique folding camera. I have a collection of old cameras
> that use 116, 127, 828, 126 and 620 film. Even a couple of old disc cameras
> in a desk drawer. The fodder for these paperweights is either impossible to
> find or is available at absurd prices from specialty firms. Kodak still
> makes Super 8 mm film but you have to order massive quantities. B&H sells
> the stuff for $30 for a 50 ft. roll. At four minutes of filming per roll,
> that's about $8 a minute for a video of the kids playing with a new puppy.
> No wonder VCRs took over the market. The VCRs in turn lost out to video
> modes on P&S cameras and even upscale DSLRs.
>
> Even digital photography is not immune to obsolescence. Remember the 2"
> Sony video disc and the Smart Media memory card? My old Leica Digilux
> camera used that card, all 128 MB of it. Now even the Compact Flash cards
> are feeling the heat. And all those pictures you burned into CDs and DVDs.
> Forgeddaboutit. Few new computers read them any more. As far as the
> archival quality of film that Brian writes about, at the rate that studios
> are converting to digital in a few years it is going to be hard to find a
> functioning 35 mm optical projector. Remember NASA can hardly read the
> instrumentation tapes from the Apollo program. Few tape drives have been
> preserved.
>
> So live with it. Revere your old cameras as beautifully constructed
> paperweights. Antique sextants in an age of GPS. if you want to take your
> film Leicas out for old timers week, film will be available at increasingly
> high prices. There will be exceptions, of course. Most of us are digitized
> these days but Jim Schulman and Lluis will probably still shoot film as
> long as it is available. Still, as a money losing proposition Kodak's
> stockholders will probably demand that the firm that pioneered the medium
> abandon the market within a few years. In any event it will make only the
> film stocks demanded by the Hollywood studios. No Kodakchrome. The best
> strategy for film fans is to follow the advice of a Kodak engineer. Buy
> yourself a large freezer and stock it with all the film stock you are
> likely to want for the remainder of your life. Then hope that the power
> doesn't go out.
>
> Larry Z
>
>
>
>
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>



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