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

[scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)]

Yeah!  If they stop making film, I'll never get to satisfy my new 8x10 
contact
printing fetish!  Not to mention rendering my  hard won M6's just a 
couple of
lovely paper weights :-)

Anyway, I hope a few companies at least keep the B&W film tradition alive.
I'm not usually optimistic, but I somehow can picture a future where the B&W
film niche survives.

Scott

Norm Aubin wrote:

> 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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