Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/05/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark, This isn't quite the whole story. I agree that the prices of used darkroom equipment are very low, although not as low as a couple years ago. The currently available films from Fuji and Kodak are probably the best they have ever made and there is still a market for them. I believe film sales are actually up, but don't quote me on that. There are several very nice black and white papers from Ilford, Kentmere, Agfa, and more. All is not lost by a long-shot. There are still many photographers doing silver prints and selling them?I know and am friends with several. Come to Chicago, I am installing a show June 2 in the lobby of Willis Tower (nee Sears Tower) that consists of 28 silver gelatin prints and 13 40x50 inkjets and they all play nice together. Richard Wasserman www.richardwasserman.net On May 20, 2012, at 3:26 PM, Mark Rabiner wrote: > I was just this week back in Portland Oregon where I'd spent most my life > going through my storage cubicle looking at my Beseler 5x7 cold light and > Omega D2V and Aristo VC Head. I refuse to just give the head away it feels > like the day before yesterday when I spent a grand on it and it changed my > darkroom life. The enlargers I may have to pay somebody to take out of > there. > However like 99.99% of all photogs my darkroom life is a past life. I > remember it as a dream. > I'm now shooting digital looking at my camera going "I wonder what this > button does?". No longer the master of my domain. I'm just figuring it all > out like everybody else. > I also came upon in my storage cubicle a box of enlarger glass mainly El > Nikkor's but I found a 100mm Schneider Componon which I got used at Pro > Photo Oregon for 70 bucks a few years ago and when I got back to my studio > I > looked up the B&H price and it was like 500 bucks. Making it the best deal > I > ever made in my photo existence. I can use in on my Viso system and > possibly > rig it up to other camera systems one would thing. With enough super glue > and duck tape. The writing was all ready on the wall as to darkroom gear of > great value the day before yesterday now having close to zero value. > I look at as a positive though. > its an exciting revolution time in photography for such a thing to be > happening. And we get to be in on it on the ground floor. > Any lecture I might be making on split printing or other darkroom or > photography work I did for decades falls under the heading of "history of > photography". In ten years it will go full circle and there will be a > resurgence of interest in shooting and maybe printing film. By then there > will be one company in Croatia making film for forty dollars a roll. > > - - from my iRabs. > Mark Rabiner > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/springdays/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information