Is that cumulative, Sal, or just what B&H has done? But I do admit, I personally paid substantially less for TMY than the going rate at the moment. And I know that a single
industrial user bought up two entire lots of TMX 8x10 in a row. The really tough one is
color 8x10. Glad I packed my freezer when it was going for half the current price.
I've only been watching the turnover at B&H, but it is probably the largest retailer of these items in the country and should be fairly representative of the market as a whole. Besides, I'm unaware of any other dealer offering 8x10 TMY as single-box open stock, so other retail sales of 8x10 320TXP would only make the demand imbalance this year greater.
I think color film won't be long for this world. Anyone stockpiling it for the long term would do well to develop a skill at formulating associated processing chemistry from scratch. Commercial soups likely won't be sold for too long when the film disappears.
Sal - I was told by a friend who not long ago visited B&H in person that their stock of actual film is far less than it once was (but seems to have been increased in the meantime). I was buying my own 8x10 films elsewhere when they had virtually nothing, so
no, I wouldn't consider them to be a reflex of the overall pattern itself, just part of it.
Still plenty of color film being sold and developed around here, in every format except 5x7.
I don't see any sign of that ending soon. Kodak should have enough momentum to keep
going awhile, and perhaps survive film mfg IF they can play their cards right. Even Kodachrome had someone to process it right until the bitter end. Perhaps a few bricks are
still around, but they'd be a miniscule percentage of the overall product that was sold.
But yes, evolution is the name of the game. I'm not personally worried, because I imagine
I'll be a pretty old geezer anyway when things wind down, and if I have to, can always
shift into exclusively black and white work. Just saw Ron Partridge's son-in-law a minute
ago, who lives with him, and he's still platinum printing in his 90's. Hope my fingers hold up
that well.
Their film-business is profitable, they have a fairly new and productive fab in Rochester and they have unique know-how in a technical field which can be used in other (non-photographic) applications as well.
They need a long-term investor and independence from the shareholder-value based management.
What about a group of enthusiasts? People from Hollywood, wealthy film-loving professionals - Mr. Spielberg alone could propably afford to buy it and transfer it into a foundation.
Right, in the old days you could run down to B&W from your loft and keep shooting that 8x10 job. Nowadays the people who buy 8x10 film are all over the world, not so much in the former Photo District.
I have no idea if 8x10 film is still being stocked much in SF or not. I never drive over there
anymore. 8x10 b&w, and 4x5 everything is still avail right in the immediate neighborhood.
Some of the colleges, as well as UCB, still seem to use a lot, and there's still quite a bit of
amateur use. Lot of color RA4 paper too. Most studio photographers are obviously under
the "need-it-yesterday" syndrome that now comes with digital preview options, but some
apparently want to find a specialized niche by offering film too. It's pretty complicated
and competitive, as photography as a living always has been. The average website and
wedding photographer could probably use a cell phone and nobody would know the difference; but there are still a few real pros in that market too who prefer to do things
the right way, and unlike the wannabees, make a good living at it too.
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