Celluloid no more: distribution of film to cease by 2013 in the US

[Sevo]

It was replaced by "Safety Film", the non-flammable cellulose acetate. This was later replaced by an improved version, cellulose triacetate, which was used on photographic films into the 1970's.

It is a bit more complex, with various formulations based on diacetate, proprionate, formiate, butyriate and triacetate competing for almost fifty years (all of them plagued with occasionally turning into stinking goo without any obvious reason), until a highly stabilized triacetate was introduced in 1958. Which is still in use today, except for special applications requiring high dimensional stability, where polyester bases directly succeeded nitro film, the whole acetate group having issues in that domain.

[Jan Normandale]

Just because a business (industry) is changing technology in the US, it doesn't mean that the rest of the world is in the same position.

http://www.photoness.de/yodo_analog/

Check images # 4 through #14

Really impressive! If this is what some people call 'film is dead', I really can live with dead film (which I actually do and enjoy)

I believe this is a very old set of photos taken at Yodobashi. If you look at the images you will see many films and products no longer being manufactured. Fuji Acros, Velvia, Astia and Provia Quickloads haven't been available for over a year. Same goes for Polaroid 664 and 53. Kodak has dropped Ultra Color and Vivid Colour. I wonder what the store actually looks like these days. It's definitely not going to show selections like these images.

[Sylvester Graham]

The cost to the theater for converting to digital is high. .

Yes, but studios know that. I believe they are willing to cover the cost of the conversion for some theaters and provide incentives for others. A print costs 10-20k to make, so the 100k or whatever it is to convert Is chump change compared to the savings over time. Studios are publicly traded companies so they do what actually makes sense.

Oh, and what about Bollywood?

[Sevo]

A print costs 10-20k to make,

That is about an order of magnitude above the prices commonly paid, at least in Euros - and I'd assume it to be more expensive hereabouts...

[Sylvester Graham]

You're right, I misremembered the article I had read: http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-12/f...tal-Hollywood/

Still expensive.