New 55.... just can't wait

[SpeedGraphicMan]

Forget it. I'm sure they will keep the price down as much as they can. But thinking that it will be 20.00 a box is a pipe dream. We have gone through the numbers here before. When you figure what traditional film and processing costs per sheet, a hundred a box for twenty prints and twenty negatives is a reasonable price.

I can dream can't I

[Brian C. Miller]

I can dream can't I

We can't buy name-brand film for that cheap!! Freestyle sells some of the Arista for under $20/box, but that's it! And you want pods for that price?

"I'm too cheap to buy film."
"Film is dead due to no demand."
"Hey, that sucks! They should keep making it!"

[John Conway]

Yeah, I see what you guys saying. It is a bit more complicated than I thought. I guess it gets down to the funding as well.The money issue was brought up before on another thread. Someone has to see the potential customer base here. A nice chunk of cash would certainly speed things up.

[BobCrowley]

Yeah, I see what you guys saying. It is a bit more complicated than I thought. I guess it gets down to the funding as well.The money issue was brought up before on another thread. Someone has to see the potential customer base here. A nice chunk of cash would certainly speed things up.

Right. Patents do not matter at all here. There were few to begin with and those that existed have long expired. We have successfully completed the R&D feasibility stage and are pleased with the results which tell us that it is possible to produce a product with the desired characteristics. But, much left to do.

The obstacles are:

1. Re establishing supplier network of rather hard to obtain materials from scratch. Commitments to fairly large and continuous supply lines. Some suppliers are very reluctant as they lost money as old Pol went out.

2. Maintaining a business value proposition that can justify New55 as an ongoing, profitable enterprise at the projected price per sheet with room for higher silver prices. After you buy that D800, will you still have the money and the desire?

3. Obtaining investment capital to tool up, pay for the vendor work, start manufacturing, and the distribution, customer service, and overcome the current strong negatives from the pullout of 4x5 by Fuji, and bankruptcy of Kodak. You may have heard about this.

Nobody said it would be easy. Progress has been made, but there is still a lot to do. Manufacture of this type of product doesn't ramp up well from hand assembly, so there is a threshold effect that is still unresolved. That being said, 8 months after full funding of the plan, shipment can begin. The project has been run "open source" that is, no barriers to any other participants.

Bob

[Vaughn]

Six bucks a shot is what they estimated...If the quality is consistant, maybe I'll buy a pack in my lifetime. Very consistant and of the highest quality, maybe several boxes for traveling

Vaughn

[Jan Pedersen]

I must be missing something and that is quite normal but why are they trying to recreate the pods? How many shot 55 for the positive?
Why not just try to make a negative that looks like the 55 and forget the pods. I believe this new 55 project will be a failure after a couple of years if that long.

[Ben Syverson]

You need the pods to develop the negative... Otherwise you're just shooting non-instant negative film. But thanks for your positive note.

[Vaughn]

I must be missing something and that is quite normal but why are they trying to recreate the pods? How many shot 55 for the positive?
Why not just try to make a negative that looks like the 55 and forget the pods. I believe this new 55 project will be a failure after a couple of years if that long.

The positive is gravy...some folks want a high quality neg without darkroom work and that can be processed in the field/motel room with the minimum of fuss...tho I usually processed Type 55 when I got back home. But on extended road trips (such as my 5.5 months on a bicycle in NZ) to be able to process my negs, needing just a place to soak and wash them, then dry them would have been great. Also all the benefits of the ready-loads (no dust, no individual holders, etc).

[Jan Pedersen]

Point well taken, it is easy to process the 55 without the darkroom, as Vaughn i just never wanted to do it in the field but can see the need for that for traveling photographers.

Ben, Don't worry, my vision will have no influence on the success of the new 55

[Vaughn]

The other factor is the "look" of the old Type 55 if one included the entire piece of film as part of the image.

A good friend developed an extensive body of work using Type 55 ( http://elaineling.com/photo_gobi.html ) and photographers have had to reinvent themselves and start new bodies of work due to the demise of Type 55 (granted reinvention is not a totally negative thing).

One can argue the merits of including the rebate portion of any film, but if one's body of work, developed over decades of hard serious work, used such things as the unique rebate of the Type 55 film as a conscience part of the image, then a re-emergence of the film (provided it has a silmilar rebate) would be a very great wonderful thing to them.

Photographers sued (unsuccesfully) Agfa when they changed Portriga Rapid the first time. It became impossible to do the work they were doing before (especially the split-toning) and these photographers lost income due their inability to duplicate prints that collectors and museums were wanting and waiting to buy.