film users as a protected class

[Toyon]

Part of the problem seems to be some poorly educated nitwits who cannot seem to distinguish a shrinking market from a dying one. I personally have no doubt that film will remain available for hobbyists and professionals using alternative processes for many decades. There is clearly a market for it and producers will fill the niche. The German economist, Walther G. Hoffmann studied British industry from 1700-1950 in a now classic study. He found that when new technologies displace earlier ones, very often the older technology lives on (particularly those with dispersed and varied markets), and in fact have extraordinary long lives. He illustrated this with the long-tail phenomenon, whereby the bell curve of product sales has the typical bell shape on the left side, but an extremely long tail on the right, representing enduring, albeit low-level production. Among examples he used were the endurance of the cut-nail along side sales of the far more common wire nail. Of course, this is not an absolute phenomenon, as products sometimes become impossible to produce (e.g. whale oil) but it holds true with astonishing frequency.

[rmd-photography]

Before you make ignorant statements like this, you should research more thoroughly first. There is tons of film and plenty of sources. But then again you just shoot LF for fun, so how would you know??

Before you start calling people ignorant I think you need to open your eyes and do a little research yourself.

Film is gone, and single-purpose cameras are on their way out, too.

cited from http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/5568 .

My point is not saying that film is dead or gone like the CEO of Kodak said, but it is slowly dying.....or as the gentleman at the top of this page stated better..."the market is shrinking".

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Before you start calling people ignorant I think you need to open your eyes and do a little research yourself.

cited from http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/5568 .

My point is not saying that film is dead or gone like the CEO of Kodak said, but it is slowly dying.....or as the gentleman at the top of this page stated better..."the market is shrinking".

I think Andrew had it right. Your Ilford statement is wrong, you can easily find their traditional line if you go to www.Ilfordphoto.com which is the reorganized site for the Harman/Ilford site and NOT the Ilford site dedicated to the Ilfochrome line, you should have researched this better before you posted. Your Perez quote is very old and has been re hashed to death in this forum.

The Kodak and Fuji sites have always been about selling their current lines, since most of their new stuff is digital it is no surprise that the first thing you see is digital. Lets face it, the most modern line of film for both Kodak and Fuji is at least 20 years old, there are no news in these fronts BUT the information about the films is readily available in both sites, all you have to do is type the film you want to know about in the "search" field and you get a slew of information.

[eddie]

what ever. i get the same response from my lab. they just tell me how film is dead and the wheels are rolling on and over me and film. yeah yeah yeah! i do not care. if capitalism is heading towards digital then fine....but why do i (or the original poster) have top listen to all the dribble? that may in fact be the case, but here is no reason that i have to be subjected to listening to more digital this and that. i do what i like to do and the next person is free to do the same.

the only thing i get from my local guy is expired film....for a song. everything else i order online (or drive to NYC.....it is only 90 miles south. so i guess i will always be "safe").

eddie

[John Kasaian]

I think Andrew had it right. Your Ilford statement is wrong, you can easily find their traditional line if you go to www.Ilfordphoto.com which is the reorganized site for the Harman/Ilford site and NOT the Ilford site dedicated to the Ilfochrome line, you should have researched this better before you posted. Your Perez quote is very old and has been re hashed to death in this forum.

The Kodak and Fuji sites have always been about selling their current lines, since most of their new stuff is digital it is no surprise that the first thing you see is digital. Lets face it, the most modern line of film for both Kodak and Fuji is at least 20 years old, there are no news in these fronts BUT the information about the films is readily available in both sites, all you have to do is type the film you want to know about in the "search" field and you get a slew of information.

True enough! Both Ilford and Fuji have forums supporting traditional photography and the Great Yellow Father in Rochester still has a wealth of technical info available through thier website. For most of us LF film has been a mail order deal for years---it is going to be a mail order deal for a lot more of us as the digis become more entrenched but so what? More products are available to us over the web than were ever stocked by all but the most uber-pro photo stores in NY, Chicago and LA. For example five years ago FOMA sheet film was unheard of in the US (at least I hadn't heard of it) and Slavich and Emaks paper were unknown, not to mention all the chinese stuff. Film isn't dead, it just takes some forethought to have what you want on hand & Badger and Freestyle can get it to you within a fortnight (in the US anyway.) I think the same will hold true for our MF and 35mm brothers before too long---hey, adversity breed character, right?

[Daniel_Buck]

next time they tell you film is dead, kindly ask them if they'll lower the price then ;-)

[Marko]

Well, looks like those endangered film-only users just got more to be protected from today.