Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]David Young wrote: >For all those who worry about film being no longer available as digital >takes over; just remember: they still make tubes! and Slobodan Dimitrov replied: >Yeah, in Russia or the Ukraine. NOS vacuum tubes from the likes of Telefunken, Mullard, Amperex and others command premium prices nowadays due to the recent renaissance in vacuum tube audio. The only new tubes made come from Russia, China and Eastern Europe. The one exception is Western Electric, who a few years ago started making the 300B tube again after noticing that NOS 300B's were being sold in Japan for $500.00+ each. Of course, this was a few years after they had thrown away all their remaining stock, thinking that it was useless junk. Currently manufactured vacuum tubes are generally considered inferior to those made by the classic NOS manufacturers, many which were made with techniques and materials not available or too expensive to implement today - which I believe is the point Slobodan was making. Just how good will the film be that may be available if Kodak, Agfa, Ilford, Fuji et al, let it die? Let's hope it never happens, but you can be sure that your future choices will be limited compared to today. Robert - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html