But then us older guys remember when Kodak made 4 different 35mm film emulsions and 20 different sheet film emulsions. So 4x5 and larger has been in that dismal state of affairs for a long time. However, as an already established niche market, I think sheet film will probably in the near future fair better than roll film. I gave my TLR away last year.
It is hard in many areas to find some place that will process 4x5 B&W at a reasonable price almost limiting it to folks who can set up a darkroom somewhere. This I do know from personal experience.
--
William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "gfen"
Subject: Re: Whew.
Is 4x5 and larger also in such a dismal state of affairs? I know
this
ins't really the place for the question, but plenty of the folks
here are
knowledable on many different topics.. I sort of figured that 4x5
and135
would be the film formats to live on, and 120 and 8x10 wound stay
on in
film for awhile.. but these numbers are making me concerned.
I don't see large format being supplanted by little digital cameras, they are just too different in their capabilities. What will kill off large format will be companies getting out of film completely one it stops making sense to make 35mm and medium format film.
Medium format is doomed, simply because digital looks as good, for the most part, and it can easily replace just about everything that medium format film does, either print or tranny. I think 35mm film's destiny is not a happy one either.
I predict that the present generation of photographers will be the last to use film, and that it will become essentially dead within 5 years.
The photo lab industry is devoting all of it's resources to digital printing technology at the moment. Noritsu no longer makes optical printers at all, and while I don't know about Fuji or Konica, I doubt if they are doing anything all that different. Film doesn't print as well digitally as it does optically with the present technology level.
Digital is still hobbled by 8 bit printing, which can wreak havoc on the look of the picture. According to one of the Noristsu people I have talked to, 16 bit is going to require a large increase in data tranfer rates to be viable. He was talking about bus speeds in the gigahertz range.
This makes film look awful when scanned and printed digitally, compared to good quality optical prints. Before anybody hawks a loogie at this, I see it every day in my lab. The pictures coming off the optical printer look better than those coming from film off the digital printer. I see it, my co workers see it, and most importantly, my customers see it. With optical printers being taken out of use, film is losing the only advantage it has over digital.
Where digital is really weak (well, actually, totally useless, IMHO) is for black and white. There are not many good black and white options out there for getting from digital to print, and none of them match the qualities of a well made silver print.
Whether this bodes well for black and white film is anyones guess. I hope it is.
William Robb
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com/graywolf.html
