|
|
|
-
Lousy quality prints killed film, the kind you get for 6 cents on Tuesdays. People don`t know what a good print is supposed to look like.
Digital was supposed to save that. Sorry. Same people who made poor prints from film now make poor prints from digital. They don`t understand process control.
So images reside on computers etc and are a mystery to most. The technology is out there to get simply dutiful prints from film or digital for sure, people simply do not know how to access it. They do understand 6 cents on Tuesday. Then they give up.
Kodak might survive if they went back into the processing business, send your files over the internet, and get back prints. Snap Fish, MPIX, and others do ok with this model.
I have a local pro lab that uses ROES order entry. It is modified FTP program. Drag your file from the FTP staging area into a box formatted by your choice to 8x10, 4x6, 5x7, Zoom, crop, move the image around, hit enter. No sharpening required.. They have a $50,000.00 RIP from Kodak that does all the rest.
Pictures are exactly as you sent. AiProlab.com.
The problem is people only know 6 cents on Tuesday.
If you want, just hand them a roll of C41. They do all the rest. Same great results.
My wifes cousin is a radiologist and he hates his digital camera. With film he dropped it off, picked up and threw away the ones he did not like. I can not convince him to look at the pic on a screen and cull the bad. People get stuck in a rut. All his work comes over the net and he looks at dig x-ray all day long so he knows how to do it. Many use computers all day and do not want to do it for recreation too. Another thing to overcome.
-
Some advertising would be good, as opposed to none.
I recently showed off a slide show of my last O/S trip to work colleagues.
Apart from the gasps at the presence of the image on the screen, the most often repeated comment was "can you still get film?"
Seems to me there would be many people out there that would fetch their old Olympus Zoom from the back of the draw if they new they could still get a roll of film for it...
-
they do advertise for new-line of products ...
unfortunately not the things their already established, now dwindling customer base uses.
they probably figure it is a waste of money to advertise for products that most
people have abandoned, and only a few " elitist luddites " use. and don't want to deal
with the bad-vibes if there actually is a huge surge in use, and then a huge surge of ticked off people
all tweeting and facebook walling " i bought film but can't process it ... a little help here "
i think if they were to advertise their traditional products they should have done this 10 years ago
or ... never stopped doing it. seems a little late now.
-
I have also been asked if film is still available, numerous times. People see me carrying a camera and are surprised to hear film is still available. Twice people have said they would rather use their P&S film camera than replace the failed digital they now have, and were happy to hear that the local CVS or MalWart has print film.
The last couple years, every time someone saw the Kodachrome box end on the back of my camera, they'd be impressed and figure I was some kind of Pro. Even more when it was my Bronica w/35mm pano back. Most didn't know much about Kodachrome, but they knew it was special. The media attention surrounding K64's discontinuation made it into something special, and turned those who used it into knowing veterans. I got no flack at all, only questions. I didn't once have to employ my digital device. 
I do use a digital device in my photographic pursuits when necessary.
When someone rags on me for using film, I use a middle digit, upraised.
-
Tough to fight the nature of our consumer culture. People think film is gone because that is how most stuff goes. There is a planned obsolescence with all sorts of devices, and the newest and latest is constantly being pushed. The reality that much actually does stick around and remain available is lost on most people who do not have a special interest that particular technology. We are told in so many ways that a thing has been superseded and so we think it has. When I use my old toaster at home I'm half surprised that guests don't say "can you still get bread for that?". It's a insidious pattern that is filling our land and oceans with mountains of trash.
my flickr
i have a book out..100% freerange film content.
-
Sponsored Ad. (Subscribers to APUG have the option to remove this ad.)
-
When I am out and about with my cameras, especialy my folders and Rolleis people often want to talk about them, and the conservation often gets around to can you still get film, or do you have problems getting film, and often as soon as they find out it is they say they wish they had known,they would not have got they PAS digital or in some cases the digital slr, they prefer film, but the camera salesman told them film was either no longer available, or so hard to get, and in one or two cases folk I have known hve dumped the all singing all dancing digital wonders and got the much loved film cameras out again,Richard
-
 Originally Posted by Ronald Moravec
Kodak might survive if they went back into the processing business, send your files over the internet, and get back prints. Snap Fish, MPIX, and others do ok with this model.
They do offer this service; it's on their web site. It's fifteen cents, not six, but hey. And the other companies buy supplies from Kodak, so Kodak makes money either way.
|
|
Adv Reply
