[Leica] RE: The "impending doom" of film

[puff11 at comcast.net (Norm Aubin)]

 Greetings all,

I have to say, I'm not convinced that film is going to die out.  Ted spoke
rather pointedly on it just a bit ago, and I have to agree very
whole-heartedly.  Film is too good at what it does to just go away.  While
digital is the cat's meow for many uses (the two extremes of professional
and auntie's happy snap family shots, for example), there is still a fairly
large base of dedicated pro's and amateurs out there. 

If anything is likely over the next two decades, I suspect it will be a
rationalization of the suppliers in response to this smaller market.
Smaller does not mean non-existent though, so I feel that there will always
be a few makers who address this need.  

Western Europe, the Americas & the eastern rim of the Pacific are all places
where there is a good deal of wealth, so the digital infrastructure of
capture and print or display on PC are all fairly achievable.  A significant
portion of the world is not ready to consume in the manner of these
aforementioned countries though, and they serve as a possible source of
revenue for film and paper distribution.  That may change in time, as may
all things, but probably not tomorrow. 

Similarly Daguerreotype, Wet plate, dry plate, albumen prints, Bromoil
prints, platinum prints, and a host of other surpassed technologies flourish
in their own underground.   Even if film is transcended by digital
recordings of Star Trek Tricorder quality, full color and 3-D viewing, there
is still going to be an art market for 'old fashioned' media, because
photographs, and particularly platinum and silver gelatin prints, have a
"Fine Art" cachet of artifact, not just image.  It may be less convenient
than it was; you may not be able to go down to your favorite camera store
and select from 11-teen films and papers, but there will be a source for
this stuff.  The big names may not develop new and better films using
wondrous technologies, but that's okay too, the current stuff ain't too bad.
The internet may become your local store, and fed-ex your supplier man!

I cut my teeth on Tri-X and Kodachrome, still love them above all others,
but I use Ilford Delta films, Fuji chrome films, Bergger B&W films, Maco IR,
and am getting ready to try the Efke films soon.  I love Xtol, prefer
Perceptol, use a catichol based developer almost exclusively now, but have
hand mixed from raw other developers that I'd go back to in a pinch.  As
long as I have Photoshop and any, repeat any film, I can probably get to
whatever result I want, but I'm glad to think that that is not likely to be
an issue for the next few decades, if ever. 

Someday digital capture may get so damn good that I will abandon film
completely, although I think I won't.  For the same reason I learned
daguerreotype, and platinum printing, I think I will still have a place for
film, and a willingness to find some where ever it is available, it still
does some things that digital will not, and enough people believe that to
keep it alive for a long time yet. 

I'm an optimist, that's why I shoot for the secrets and develop for the
surprises.


Best of light,
Norm

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