On Aug 5, 2007, at 11:38 AM, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: > The continuing question is will there be enough profitability to keep > the film manufacturing plants running, for what variety of films, at > what quality and price point. B&W film manufacturing is relatively > inexpensive to manufacture compared to color emulsions but the > profitability/quality/price equation will rule in all cases. > > Same goes for the production and marketing of chemistry supplies. > > Sure, there are plenty of niche markets. Are the aesthetic joys of > film going to stand up against a price of $5 per exposure? the lack > of high-silver-content paper? > > Just pondering, really. I like film, I use digital mostly but still > have plenty of film equipment and negatives around. I don't shoot > much of it any more because the processing tasks are all slow and > tedious, and editability is more limited.
I think black and white film will be with us for quite a while. I don't give color film legs. I wouldn't put money on photo paper, but Maaco has just built a new factory to manufacture the old Agfa papers, so I could be wrong. Most photographers I know who shoot film are scanning their negatives and making digital prints. While film camera prices are climbing, darkroom equipment equipment prices are still declining. Virginia Tech closed down their film darkroom recently and auctioned off all the equipment. Omega 4 X 5 enlargers went for ten or fifteen dollars each. Sad.... My friend didn't buy any because he has no storage space for big stuff like that. Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
