Ok, what is the oldest film people have shot, that still works?
Ok, what is the oldest film people have shot, that still works?
Tin Can
I'm betting that they know. Maybe not the exact date and time, but they know the sales and production trends/issues better than do we. While none of us agree with business decisions and practices, these aren't totally stupid people. (Anyone is invited to disagree and even be condescending of my obviously naive opinion.) I'm betting that the dirty little secret they aren't telling us is that they've already coated the last batches of LF color and are just "keeping us happy" by selling whats already in the warehouse. After that... then the big announcement that these products have been discontinued. Isn't that the established trend from our consumer perspective?Originally Posted by Thom Bennett
Some of these newer color films like Portra and Ektar are home-run products that seem to be selling quite well. There would
be no logical reason to suddenly discontinue them. But in terms of cynical answers ... try answering this one ... how many hundreds of times does the same damn question have to be asked on both this forum and apug? Seems that those who have a vested ideological interest in film becoming extinct answer one way, those who actually use it another. If people could actually see what film and paper is currently capable of, that is, in some format other than barbaric web images, they might change their mind entirely about which form of technology is ahead and which is behind. But again, how you like to do
things is a different matter.
Brian - all you gotta do is look at the batch codes to figure out they're running this stuff rather frequently. By narrowing down
the lines to certain very versatile high-quality films, rather than a lot of redundancy as in days of old, they're insuring sustainability. Of course, there are CEO's and MBA's who could probably destroy the moon in a month, but it's hard to imagine the market for color film outright disappearing anytime soon. And if it was discontinued say a decade from now,
one has another decade in the freezer or until the chemistry runs out, but realistically another twenty years. Probably every
digital device in service today will be obsolete long before then. RA4 printing paper is quite healthy because exactly the same
papers can be used both optically and with laser printers. And if anyone goes around telling people the best days of color enlarger work are over, they're simply parrotting some web BS by people who haven't even tried printing recent materials,
or are otherwise incompetent to do so. In many ways this is potentially the golden age of color photography because you have both paths open, with many hybrid options inbetween.
You could be right. I believe that for 35mm and 120, but I don't get to look at many batch codes for color sheet film. I don't shoot enough to be shooting any LF color that is currently in date.
No, the answer to the question is "I don't know."
No one asked for advice or attitude. The defensiveness around here is thick enough to cut with a knife.
"...but it's hard to imagine the market for color film outright disappearing anytime soon. And if it was discontinued say a decade from now,
one has another decade in the freezer or until the chemistry runs out, but realistically another twenty years."
Any facts/numbers to back this up? Is there industry information somewhere that can be studied? That's all I'm asking.
The politeness police are back. And indeed, I don't don't know either.... but I am pretty good at forecasting. And routinely seeing evolving batch codes on even 8x10 color film tells me the stream isn't stagnant. Too much of this topic becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy generated by doomsayers. Maybe we should flood the web with rumors that some particular inkjet system will be extinct in a couple of years (entirely possible), and that people should start hoarding that, then see what happens. There's no certainty in any of this. Equipment-wise, I'd call digital the riskier investment if you want alleged LF quality, unless you can amortize it rapidly. Film is expensive, but how many shots do you need? How much do you outright
waste? (But please do waste ... it's good for film sales!). Gosh. Film could disappear tomorrow and I'd have ten times more
shots on hand to print from than I'll ever have opportunity to print. Even one more year of 8x10 color film being around would equate to five more years of printing. I'm going nuts just trying to select shots from a single outing last summer.
If you were in a position of starting from scratch and investing in all new equipment, you'd be asking the same question.
Thom .... sorry for the runaround. The politeness police are probably correct in reining in folks like me. But the same question
does come up over and over and over again. Trying to second-guess manufacturing corporations in this day and age is tricky
at best, and has a lot to do with how I personally make a living. I have a pretty good track record reading the tea leaves in
this respect. It appears Kodak is stabilizing and that they have no immediate incentive to stop manufacture of color neg sheet film. They're already ceded chrome film to Fuji. They might try again to sell the distribution rights, but in the overall scale of things, I wouldn't worry any time soon. Cine film is a different topic and only partially related. It's all some kind of
tradeoff. And I wasn't simply being cynical by pointing out how virtually everything in the digital world is itself susceptible
to rapid obsolescene. But trying to read stock reports or marketing blurbs by any of these companies can be a bit misleading.
They send out all kinds of trial balloons in this respect. So probably just seeing steady batch changeover is about as close as you're going to get to the truth, plus the very significant fact that both Kodak and Fuji are still updating and fine-tuning their critical photosensitive product lines. With Kodak this means color neg film and RA4 paper, and with Fuji, paper, though they
have officially announced a continued committment to chrome film. Things aren't stagnant by any means, and that is a good sign. But you aren't going to get any sign from heaven assuring anything in this respect. As a professional buyer I deal with
all kinds of manufacturers, and our mantra is, "there is nothing constant but change".
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