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Thread: Investing in our future!

  1. #1

    Join Date
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    Investing in our future!

    Hello,

    With the plague like advance of digital we all know film,paper and chemicals are endangered...not just in the respect to availabilty but cost. Agfa & Durst are now gone in the short year I have gotten back into this great pastime. As I periodic photo shops I see the prices rising and as I look at the Kodak chemicals I wonder how long they will have left. I really appreciate companies like Freestyle and JanC for making European products available and the great costs for now they display eg. FomaPan 100 4x5 $29.99 under the Arista Edu Ultra name..this is excellent value but for how long. Please don't call me an alarmist but as more companies and favorite products continue to dissappear the prices will take a major jumps and I think this will happen very fast over the next 2 to 5 yrs. So if you have favourite products and are budget minded or just like a prudent investment..I would suggest you buy FRESH film, paper and chemicals KNOW. Thank the Lord above they still make fridges.

  2. #2

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    Re: Investing in our future!

    I don't know how true that is. Costs have gone up, and so have silver prices.

  3. #3

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    Re: Investing in our future!

    Hello,

    I would like to ask anyone on this forum who currently works in the Photographic supply business....how the sales of film,paper and chemicals has faired over the last couple of years. The digital camera sales and quantam advances in technology have been so quick I do not think we realise what is actually happening...why are there so many cameras being unloaded on Ebay LF for example..the studios and pros are going digital..the digital results are know acceptable to pros and are getting better. This has been a great benefit to me as I have picked up a Hasselblad setup and Lf setup within the last year for a song. These where way out of my reach and only a dream years ago. Film will be a niche market and expensive..we will all be drawn to digital for cost,convience and price. Who will stay true..................as for convience on Digital..computers can be most frustrating at times. I would love to hear your comments..please disagree.

    Gerry

  4. #4

    Re: Investing in our future!

    I am on the road to recovery so I just bought 1 box of 12x20 JandC 400, one of TMY 12x20 and one of 8x10 JandC 400. If things continue to go well I plan to use it all and make another order in 3 or 4 months, just as soon as I finish making all the prints I owe to the people in this forum who so graciously helped me. BTW, Kirk, Brian, your prints go out this week.

  5. #5

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    Re: Investing in our future!

    Does anybody know how enthusiast companies having brands like Efke, Forte, Oriental and Foma are about the future? Are they growing? Do they consider the Fine Art and the amateur market enough to run their production lines? For how long? Those are for me the crucial questions for anybody who intends to continue with film photography. We can forget about Kodak, Agfa and all the big ones.

    WL

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Feb 2005
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    2,955

    Re: Investing in our future!

    Every three or four months a thread like this comes along.

    Most of the pros who intended to go digital are there already. The same is true for most casual shooters.

    As prices continue to drop and resolution and dynamic range improve a few more will make the switch.

    For the foreseeable future there will be a market for sheet film. There may be some consolidation of suppliers, but that should not affect price signifigantly.

    The main effect will be a curtailment of research.

    I have no worries about the price or availability of 4x5 film.

  7. #7
    4x5 - no beard Patrik Roseen's Avatar
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    Stockholm, SWEDEN
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    Re: Investing in our future!

    Rumour??
    I heard a 'strange' statement from a person working in a photolab in Stockholm - he said that people in Japan are turning back to film after trying digital for a while because they lack the real true colors and 'live' photos. He claimed it was starting to get difficult to order film from Japan because they were buying all that was produced locally. (Bad thought - It might just as well be that they have started to cut down production already, gulp!)


    Anyway, I just received my latest order of 4x5 film last week, a 50 pack Efke PL100, 50pck TMX and ten 120-rolls of TMY.
    I am hoping to go on another photojourney this autumn and am considering ordering some Velvia 100F in 4x5. Is it really as nice as the old velvia 50 for nature?
    Last edited by Patrik Roseen; 4-Sep-2006 at 14:54.

  8. #8

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    Re: Investing in our future!

    How many LF shooters on this forum have already abandoned the darkroom in favour of a scanner. They still shoot film but the darkroom has gone.....the hook is in. Ron says " For the foreseeable future there will be a market for sheet film ".....I feel the future comes so much faster these days especially in photography. Film will be around for a while but it will come at a premium...chemicals and paper will probably go in favour of more supposed enviormently friendly scanners and printers. Film may only available online. We have a photo school in my city The Western Academy of Photography..I went to the students year end photo display..I asked to be directed to the B&W images buy film..less than a half dozen in a room of hundreds of images. The Academy does still teachs film but a small percentage. As this generation of photographers comes along which is know..what do you think they will shoot..not film.

    Gerry

  9. #9
    MJSfoto1956's Avatar
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    Re: Investing in our future!

    Quote Originally Posted by Gerry Harrison
    So if you have favourite products and are budget minded or just like a prudent investment..I would suggest you buy FRESH film, paper and chemicals KNOW. Thank the Lord above they still make fridges.
    supply and demand cannot be manipulated by such a scheme. Should it succeed, then future sales would be in jeopardy. Ironically, you would be forcing people to go out of business by your very success!! You simply need to let the market go where it needs. Eventually, things will settle down (for a while) until the next "big" thing that comes along and shakes everything to its core.

    I have great respect for and trust in "the market" -- over time (excluding transient fads), it never fails.

  10. #10
    Geos
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
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    257

    Re: Investing in our future!

    I just saw a friend's 40"+ cropped prints from a 1DS Mk II. They are very impressive (even close up), and although not a competition for LF, for most people, they'll never need anything more.

    Give me a sensor that does 8x10 quality for $10k, and film will be history. Within about two years, Kodak should have their 55MP 6x4.5 sensor out. This will beat 4x5 and give 8x10 a run for the money at all but the largest sizes.

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