Re: film not dead in 20 years....

[ted grant <75501.3002@CompuServe.COM>]

Bill Welch wrote:

<<As for the paperless future, didn't we hear that years ago, and yet we still
drown in tree pulp in most homes and offices? Put me down as a skeptic. >>>>

Hi Bill,

I think this kinda says it all, as that was the big super selling job a few
years ago and it has just meant we are using more paper than ever.

I feel film and souping are here for a along time yet, as the situation is the
same fashion as the stories when photography came about.

The artist communities and nay sayers were going on about photography being the
end of "art as we know it!"  Which of course turned out pure rubbish.  To-day
more artists than ever use photography to capture many of their images and paint
them on canvas or paper months and sometimes years later. So in that sense, I
feel artists andfilm are here to stay as long as there are "photographers!"  And
it will be some time before the  digigraphers completely take over the image
making.

Until the day a digital camera can produce the same quality as a Kodachrome,
Velvia or Kodak 100sw image, then we can start thinking the end of film.

Until then I'm keeping my darkroom at the ready! :)

Speaking about film, have any of you tried the new Kodak Chromegenic B&W C41
film?  I have been experimenting with it and it's quite incredible for quality.
And just like shooting colour neg film you whip it into the lab, they soup and
give you B&W contacts that are B&W! And not a sick looking sepia.

We have not had any lab enlargements made as yet, but will be next week and we
also will be making prints in our own darkroom operation for a comparison.  To
date I would say this film is going to open the B&W market up to a major amount
of amature and pros who would have shot B&W but didn't have a darkroom or the
where with all to spend time in the darkroom.

You all have shot col. neg, selected from the contacts and returned the negs to
the lab for 8X10's, 11-14's and larger, so this film will allow you to do
exactly the same with B&W. And if the quality we are finding on the contact
sheets is any indication of what we expect to see in enlargements, "Hello World
here cames a whole new dimension of B&W photography the likes we haven't seen in
some time.

This film is wild, as you can be shooting outside at ASA 100 and then go inside
reset the meter to 800 and continue shooting exposures on the same roll and the
negs are capturing the light and producing beautiful negatives.

Any comments from others who have had a run at it?

ted
Victoria, Canada
http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant