Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/13

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Film market collapsing? (was Digital Leica M)
From: kleinp at BATTELLE.ORG (Klein, Peter A)
Date: Tue Jun 13 18:15:19 2006

Ulp.

Don, you're scaring me.  I used to think that the "film is dead" talk
was just digifreak triumphalism.  That film would shrink to a much
smaller market, but that it would still be around.  You're making a
pretty good case for the imminent collapse of the entire infrastructure
of film.  

Do you really think that in two or three years that's going to happen?
That the C-41 B&W I've come to love will be a thing of the past?  That I
won't be able to get Tri-X from my local pro shop here in Seattle, or
from B&H?  That I'll be ordering it at $20 per roll from Svetlana's Film
Magazina in Sverdlovsk?

If I have to, I suppose I can break out the old developing tanks and
stuff--they're still in a couple of boxes in the garage.  I could mix up
D76 from scratch if they stop making it.  But please, don't take my
Tri-X away, don't take my BW400CN away, and don't take my film scanner
away.

Possible saving grace:  There are large portions of the world where
digital is just too expensive to get into for most people.  There are
going to have to be a few factories churning out film for those folks.
If they make it for them, they'll make it for us, too.  Or at least I
would think.

--Peter

Don Dory wrote:

> My personal thoughts are that the whole minerature film thing will
come to a
> screeching halt fairly soon.  Disposable cameras are keeping local
amateur
> labs open and as the price of digital falls then that niche will fail
pretty
> quickly.  In the U.S. there is major talk from the drug chains of
dropping
> C-41 capability and the other large retailers are downsizing their
processor
> capabilities as machines fail.

> So, for film lovers, have a couple of freezers full of your favorite
film.
> Learn to love stable developers that you can mix yourself.  Know the
> critical parts in your food chain and have several spares.  Try to
think of
> some options should a key part of your work flow die.  In my case that
would
> be the film scanner:  if I upgrade operating systems then the scanner
I
> presently own will not migrate.  So, I probably will wait for the new
stuff
> and then for Nikon to  upgrade their software on the 5000 to buy one.
That
> should carry me for six or seven years.


Replies: Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Re: Film market collapsing? (was Digital Leica M))