[Leica] my favorite film....

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

Doug Herr wrote:
>Sorry, this is a "me too" response... I like my R8 and I'd like to see 
>what I could do with a DMR but if I couldn't get a decent film for my SL 
>I'd probably stop photographing.

Isn't that a little drastic, Doug?  You strike me as someone who would make 
images regardless of the medium available.  You didn't quit when Kodachrome 
began to go extinct.  I truly believe that the desire to make images is 
stronger than any particular film, or even film itself.

I've pondered what I would do if Tri-X disappeared next year.  First I 
would yell and scream and post long-winded laments to the LUG.  Probably 
get into several argument over the supposedly infallible wisdom of the mass 
marketplace.  And then I'd find another film.  Neopan 400 is good. Some 
even prefer it to Tri-X.  BW400CN is very nice for many purposes.  And 
maybe somebody will make a decent film I'll have to order in Polish or 
Ukrainian.

If all film disappears, perhaps by then digital will have gotten a notch or 
two better. The cameras smaller and lighter.  The dynamic range and noise 
problems mitigated by some as yet unfulfilled technology.  And the digital 
market will mature at some point. They won't be able to sell digital 
cameras as they do now.  "It's new, it's cool, it's convenient, it's good 
enough" won't be good enough any more.  Camera design will have to become 
driven more by intended usage, and less by hype and ground-floor market 
share capture.

What I'm getting at is that sometimes we see things going to hell in a 
handbasket because we live in a volatile time. A new technology seems to be 
replacing an older one before the newer one is truly ready--for our 
purposes at least.  But we forget that not every product has to sell to 
everybody in the world to be viable.  So maybe the old stuff won't go away 
completely.  And the new stuff has lots of potential that will come in time.

Yes, if my favorite films went away I would scream bloody murder.  But I 
wouldn't stop photographing.  I don't think you would, either.  You'd find 
a way, the same way you found the tools that are perfect for you now.

--Peter