A possible new market for B&W film?

[John Kasaian]

I thought about adding this to Christopher Nisperos recent post but I think it might be of greater interest on its own so, while not strictly dealing with LF here goes:

While evaluating my family's "consumer" photo practices to see how we can use more film based products, it occurred to me that most of our family snapshots end up in scrap books. Scrap books are a HUGE industry these days, at least in the US Canada and Australia. There is a bit of a paradox as well. Archival is a term widely used among scrapbook supply marketeers. Presumably scrapbooks are meant to be handed down through the generations which does make long term durability an issue. The nature of producing family snapshots by digital means also compliments the scrapbook fad to an even greater degree. Costs, once the digicam and card are purchased are minimal. You only print the shots you want, instantly at a kiosk and keeping track of images with those thumbnail things are both user friendly and space saving(well, kind of I guess)

There is also the nostalgic side of scrapbooking which dictate at least some images be B&W.

A digital enthusiast might argue that all the needs of a scrapbooker can all be accomplished with the help of Photoshop. Bad exposures rescued and no end to the styles of prints to foster the creative muse. To the contrary, I've observed that many "scrappers" my bride associates with aren't computer nerds. They are often working Mothers who have many demands on thier time and scrapping is at once luxury, thearapy, and act of family love---not a video game or computer literacy course!

Here is our family "M.O." for snapshot "photo-ops": My wife wields a Canon A-something hundred and I man the Olympus point and shoot loaded with Tmax100 or if Tmax is unvailable (like we run out of film and haveto resupply at a drugstore or Costco) ubitquitous Kodacolor 200 (Sometimes I'll even drag out the Crown Graphic!)

True enough, often the same day Suzelle will get her digi prints and commence a scrap book page while days pass until the B&W stuff is back from the lab(I don't develop my own 35mm anymore as I take my lazyness quite seriously) I notice the B&W prints are always very well recieved by not only my wife, but her friends too. Numbers wise, a greater percentage of the B&W get included in the scrap books than with digital.

If your experiences are anything like mine, make sure you tell people that silver based photography is truly long lasting. Remind them that a back up P& S will often save the day a should a power hungry digi start to demand a recharge of it's batteries and will often cycle faster and allow for closer in shooting. Point out that B&W silver is the real deal and not an image that merely "looks like" B&W silver. Its a good sales pitch in favor of B&W. You might try it if the opportunity presents itself, or you might suggest a B&W "Primer" to be presented at a local scrap book store if there is one in your area.

Just a thought.

[Ralph Barker]

I feel fortunate to have been proceeded by several family members who saw the benefits of B&W "scrapping" before there were scrapbooks, or color for that matter. ;-)

Here's a scan of one such print, my great aunt, circa 1907. The print still looks great.


http://www.rbarkerphoto.com/misc/Family/EttaBarker01-600.jpg

[Ernest Purdum]

Pretty great-looking, pretty great aunt, Ralph.

[David R Munson]

Interesting thought.

Here's something else that I've been thinking about that may help keep film and large format going a while longer. In short, young people. While a lot of people in my demographic (ie college age) who are pursuing photography seriously are pretty much going straight to digital, there is a sometimes surprising number of young people who, while they are ok with digital, still like to use film. Furthermore, some of these people specifically prefer the working method of large format. Out of 25 people or so in my photo classes at Ohio, I can name at least five people who absolutely love working with large format. Yeah, that's just five people, but they're not the only ones by a long shot. Furthermore, you get people working as assistants who are picking up view cameras and misc LF gear on the cheap as the studios and photographers in their area are dumping it and going after digital.

Some of these young people are getting into LF for commmercial work. Others for fine art work. Either way, though, none of these people want to see film disappear any time soon. And while the LF crowd may at times seem to be dominated by individuals 40+, the contingent of younger LF shooters seems to be steadily growing. There's a number of us here on this forum.

The point here is that even though some manufacturers will reduce their sheet film offerings, and others may stop producing sheet film altogether, the demand for sheet film will stabilize, I believe, and with it availability. Some manufacturers may even step up and offer more films to help fill the void left by others. The fact that there will be a continuing group of LF photographers for a very long time I think will help keep sheet film available.

[d.s.]

Today, most locally processed film is printed digitally. So while the (B&W) film may be silver, the prints are not. If you ask for true wet processing, they will send it off and in a week or so you'll get back your photos. I would still wonder if they were printed with a digital printer as most processors have made the switch to digital.

Sad indeed.

[John Kasaian]

Ralph,---What a lovely portrait of a lovely lady!

Dee,---Darn, I hadn't thought of that! I guess I'll have to start printing 35mm again!

Also worth considering: If 35mm camera sales are down, certainly LF sales are up, right? Come on somebody, bolster my morale!

The most immediate impact I see on the materials I use would be the loss(if Ilford so chooses) of a very good graded FB paper thats quite reasonably priced in it's Arista incarnation. There is a solitary Foma offering from eastern europe (to my knowlege) and of course Bergger and Oriental.

[Bob Fowler]

"Also worth considering: If 35mm camera sales are down, certainly LF sales are up, right? Come on somebody, bolster my morale!"

If ebay selling prices and bidding numbers are any indication, I think that there is still a very healthy market for large format. Granted, it's no where near the market for P&S digitals, but large format was never was intended for the masses anyway.

[John Kasaian]

Thanks, Bob!

[james mickelson]

It is interesting that I am now starting to read articles that tell of people not being as enamored with digital as the manufacturers would want you to believe. That quite a few consumers still prefer to take their "film" to the drug store to be processed and made into those ubiquitous 4x6 prints. There are many who espouse that shooting digitally and then running the capture through the computer to produce the prints is more hassle than it is worth. And the quality is just not there. The learning curve for the average consumer, the cost of the equipment, and the quality of the end product is not worth it. So they are starting to go back to film. The upward trend in disposable film cameras seems unabated. I feel that digital capture is great in that you can see what you have captured right away, and erase what is not to your liking while storing the good images for later conversion and storage. But I can sympathize with the many people who struggle trying to get acceptable prints to put into the scrapbook. It seems to me that until the camera-computer-printer system makes it as easy, reliable, and cost effective as film-drugstore-4x6 prints........... film will still be around. It may seem like childs play to those of us here who can make good prints from digital capture but to a lot of the people whom I run into out in the field while taking pictures, it is daunting task to get as good a print from there PC system.