The Resurgence of Film!!!

[Drew Wiley]

In one aspect, inkjet is genius, whether you're talking about office printers or allegedly fancier versions. They sell the machines cheap yet short-lived, then make
an utter killing on the inks and papers. It would be insanely profitable if it were not for the fact that just too many players are now in the game. But a remarkable quantity of R&D has gone into all this, and now we're going to see a relative plateau of technical image quality for quite awhile, as they coast on their patents. The tech mfg industry, esp chips, are anything but e-friendly. Everyone around here knows it. Lots and nasty chem involved. Then the overwhelming impact of all the throw-aways. I'm very skeptical the giant e-recycler down the street is legit - they're joined to an outfit that takes in truckloads of stolen copper every day, basically mafia-run (not much is anymore here, except hazmat and the ports). Short equipment lifespan and ink gluttony is all about the cumulative profits. But heck, there's a light bulb so well made that it has burned continuously in one of the local firehouses for over 110 years. After they sold a few bulbs to everyone, nobody bought more cause they didn't need to, and they soon went out of business. Go figure. But I prefer the look of real optical
enlargements anyway.

[Tin Can]

I read the same light bulb thread today. You nearly quote it.

[StoneNYC]

I mean with inkjet printers ;-) I bought a used Epson 7900 for $1300. Not inexpensive but 1/3 the price comparing to new. As I am doing 3 portrait projects, being able to print up to 24x30" really helps.

I really prefer a C-Print, all mine are Lambda / LightJet color prints.

Thanks though, someday.

[richardman]

Of course "optical" prints are better in some ways. Different strokes for different folks.

As for cost, for the amount of 20x24" and 24x30" prints I have made, they would have cost much more than the $1300 and the ink/paper I paid for the printer - not that I made any meaningful amount of money off the prints, but that's another story. The trick is to buy printer that takes larger tanks, e.g. the 7900 takes up to 300ml cartridges.

Again, if you are happy with darkroom prints, be it B&W or colors, more power to you!

[jnantz]

just heard back this afternoon from a company that
caters to professional portrait and wedding photographers
they confirmed the numbers that the census bureau and
other organization gave me ...

its been a couple of weeks stonenyc, can you reveal
who your professional statistics came from ??

[tgtaylor]

An example of a color negative home printed with a Jobo using the RA-4 process:



From the field notes:

15 APRIL 2016:

Note on image #10 (A Prayer) in the Chromogenic C-Print Gallery:

This was a very long exposure on Fuji Reala in a fairly large and dimly-lit Greek Orthodox church. The photographer that accompanied me sat quietly in a pew and made no move to photograph with his camera as if the ambiance of the place was overwhelming to the point that he could only sit motionless in it. Off to a side sat a priest counseling with a parishioner in low muffled tones that were unintelligible to an on-hearer. I stood motionless next to the camera waiting for the shutter to close fully expecting a door to open, someone to stand and move about - surely a ripple to develop in the air - to disturb the flame of the candle frozen perfectly still in space. But it never happened.

Thomas

[Taija71A]

I will correct my info... I thought K B Canham did that one but I guess not.

I am sincerely afraid... That your information is still not quite correct.
--
Kodak™ Sheet Film.
"The current emulsions available from Kodak™ are:
Portra 160, Portra 400, Tri-X 320, Tri-X 400, T-Max 100, T-Max 400 and Ektar 100."

http://www.canhamcameras.com/kodakfilm.html
--
Thank-you! -Tim.

[StoneNYC]

I am sincerely afraid... That your information is still not quite correct.
--
Kodak Sheet Film.
"The current emulsions available from Kodak are:
Portra 160, Portra 400, Tri-X 320, Tri-X 400, T-Max 100, T-Max 400 and Ektar 100."

http://www.canhamcameras.com/kodakfilm.html
--
Thank-you! -Tim.

Yes it says "from Kodak"

Keith told me personally that because B&H orders such a large quantity themselves he doesn't need to organize a group buy for Tri-X. So unless Keith lied to me, my info is directly from the horses mouth.

Let's bring the positivity up on this thread instead of trying to knock people down. Let's make it a welcome environment.