Freestyle Advisory Board

[Kirk Gittings]

I was recently appointed to the Freestyle Advisory Board of Photographic Professionals (http://www.freestylephoto.biz/gittings.php).

My interest in accepting this honor was two fold. One was to share my expertise and the other was to advise Freestyle on the evolving needs of the large format community.

My main concerns are with availability of large format (and ULF) films and traditional papers. I will be doing what I can to promote the survival of these supplies based on what I know of the interests of our community. If you share these or have other concerns make yourself heard and I will do what I can.

[Darin Cozine]

Way to go Kirk!
They couldnt have picked a better person.

[Mark Sawyer]

I order a few thousand dollars worth of stuff from Freestyle every year for my high school/community college classes, and always found them to be supportive of the schools. Let them know there's still strong interest in the traditional processes among the upcoming generation of photographers, too.

Good luck in a worthwhile effort!

[Bobby Sandstrom]

Congratulations Kirk. I'm thankful there are people out there that want to keep this medium going as much as I do. I started with digital 5 years ago and found my way to black and white film. I primarily shoot 4x5 and some 8x10. I feel like I've just been served the best Gourmet Meal I've ever witnessed and as I'm just starting to raise a forkful to my mouth, the waiter is taking away my plate. No, no, don't touch that! I love very passionately B&W photography. I fervently hope I get to use it for a long time to come.

My dream would be to always have available tmax 100/400 and kodak polymax fine art paper... in fact I'm buying a freezer to store the 20 boxes of 11x14 I just procured from freestyle.

Thanks for your help!

Bob

[David F. Stein]

Deserving appointment. Best.

[Oren Grad]

Kirk -

Thanks for asking.

My main concern is with ability to get major-brand (Ilford or Kodak) film cut to any odd sizes, not just ULF. I'm assuming for now that the main reason Ilford cut off supply to PW was that Ilford's pricing of the master rolls was allowing PW to undercut them on pricing of standard sizes, not just on odd sizes sold to eccentric people like me.

Biggest priority from my perspective is to find a way for a third party who's willing to cut to order to get access to master rolls once again, with realistic pricing this time to make it economically viable for Ilford (or Kodak). Perhaps Freestyle might be willing to approach Ilford or Kodak on this?

[Kirk Gittings]

oren, I have thought of that same issue as it was a heated topic at the VC conference. What odd sizes are you talking about?

[Oren Grad]

Kirk -

Beyond the more-or-less standard formats, I have cameras in 3.25x4.25, 6.5x8.5 and 7x11 that I like to tinker with. I know that in due course I'd find myself playing with other formats too, if I could be reasonably confident of getting the emulsions I'd like to use, without inordinate hassle.

I emailed my regional Ilford rep about this after the conference, but haven't heard anything back. From what I heard from him at the conference, I do believe that they'd like to try to accommodate if they can figure out how to do it without ending up with expired film in odd sizes going bad on the shelf. But what I'd most like to see is not just a mechanism for taking occasional orders for two or three specific ULF sizes, but something flexible that will accommodate reasonable-sized orders for anything. If they can't do that internally in an economically viable way, I really hope they'll be willing to start selling master rolls again to a third-party cutter/packager.

[Eric Leppanen]

Best wishes for your worthy appointment, Kirk!

This is probably beating a dead horse, but I can't resist: some type of fast B&W film in 4x5 Quickload/Readyloads.

I know Kodak and Ilford have not been interested, but what about a third-party? If Freestyle can work out a renewed deal with Ilford for film cutting, for example, can they also license either the Quickload or Readyload holder technology (either would work fine for me, as the latest Kodak single-sheet Readyload holder works with both) for use with, say, HP5+? Or if not Ilford, what about one of the European B&W brands?

Just a thought.....

[David F. Stein]

Agree with Oren. In the past, PW has cut for me such sizes as 10x15 cm, full plate, and for vintage LF folders like the Autographics and so on. When it came to 4x5, 5x7, 8x10, I would buy Kodak or Ilford standard issue. There was enough of an irregularity that I prefer manufacturer issue when possible. Of course, Plus-X and Ektapan are now gone. Maybe, Ilford could have supported a pricing structure with something like a Ilford Custom line, sold through PW. BOTTOM LINE: In FP4, Ilford has one of the last remaining superb emulsions. As close as a universal film in large format, as Tri-X has been in 35mm. It is its failure, if they can't get it out to all potential users in any size required. The future of black and white emuslions: Ilford should experiment with a hybrid emulsion that combines a traditional grain structure like FP4 with the uniform emulsion of a Delta 100, giving fine grain, excellent reciprocity, but avoiding the lack of distinct image structure found in the D and T emulsions. Also, it's time to try Ilford XP2, at least in 4x5.