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time to get some perspective?
This whole Kodak thing seems to have the up-ended the whole traditional film photography world. Sigh....
Do we not remember when Ilford went through receivership a few years back?
Take a deep breath folks. It may take a while but, we're all gonna be OK.
Quite possibly, we'll all be better off.
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Agree! Although the rhetoric can be intense when we discuss why and what will happen, I can get what I need to make great photography simply. I have to admit it still makes me sad that Fotokemika is leaving the family and Kodak is for sale. But you are right, the reality is that many of us have lots of film on hand, just stings when we need to consider moving to another vendor. Hopefully one of us will win the lottery and get Fotokemika and Kodak all squared away....
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The problem is, the bigger you are, the harder you fall and EK is a lot bigger than Ilford was.
The paper and local TV stations today have been talking about efforts to sell off the Eastman Business Park which is of critical importance to the entire Rochester area. A problem is the coal fired power plant doesn't meet current emission standards. If this is resolved favorably, it could go a long way towards keeping film manufacturing going.
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Just to put another slant on the idea. There have been ups and downs in the world of photography and the demise (almost) of some chemical and material manufacturers and the resurrection of others, although under a different banner.
In the long term it may well be the lack of suitable equipment, and by this I mean cameras. They will only go on for so long until they wear out. With only a few new models being made that use film, the Nikon F6 and the Leica rangefinder models coming to mind, plus a few others originating in China.
Medium format film cameras are not available new anymore, as far as I know, but luckily there are plenty of 2nd hand ones around which at the moment seem very cheap to what they used to cost.. Large format models are still available new, but in what quantity and price? Not every one would wish to lug about a 5X4 or larger, plus the mandatory tripod. Spares will be getting few and far between and as for electronic models, this will mean eventually they are a seriously threatened breed.
What has happened to all the Pentax screw thread models that must have been made and sold since they first came onto the market. very, very reliable but unless you are lucky there are very few (comparatively speaking) on the used market so what's happened to them. This is just one example
No I don't think film, paper or developers are the long term problem, it is what to use it with
Last edited by BMbikerider; 08-31-2012 at 03:00 AM. Click to view previous post history.
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 Originally Posted by BMbikerider
In the long term it may well be the lack of suitable equipment, and by this I mean cameras. ...
What has happened to all the Pentax screw thread models that must have been made and sold since they first came onto the market. very, very reliable but unless you are lucky there are very few (comparatively speaking) on the used market so what's happened to them. This is just one example
This is not a problem yet. Based on the prices of much used equipment, the supply seems to be up to (or exceeds) the demand. I have 3 Pentax Spotmatics and several Takumar lenses for them. I "grew up" photographically, as it were, with a Spotmatic, but I haven't used any of them in decades. Why do I still have them? Well, the original one is mostly for sentimental reasons, but the rest still sit in their cases because they haven't been worth enough to bother to sell them.  I did just look and see that KEH has none in stock, so maybe this is changing.
With a few high end exceptions, you can get a decent slr body for $25-50. Spotmatic, Minolta SRT series, Nikkormat, Canon AE1, etc.
Originally Posted by BradS
Take a deep breath folks. It may take a while but, we're all gonna be OK.
Yes!
Last edited by David Brown; 08-31-2012 at 06:29 AM. Click to view previous post history.
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Slightly off-topic, but if you want a Spotmatic there are tons over here. Today at a local camera place I must have seen about 10 or so.
Another one of my local haunts currently has twenty (20) Pen F/FT/FV bodies sitting in the Olympus cabinet (along with other models.)
I'm not trying to brag -- in a way it's comforting to know that there are still bazillions of film cameras out there.
Those who know, shoot film
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I must be the eternal optimist, since I seem to be one of the few who see an up side of the Kodak situation. To my mind, Kodak has slowly, one product at a time, abandoned traditional, film based photographers over the past few years. So I have little sympathy for the company, only for the thousands of people who once earned a living and produced quality products as Kodak employees.
But Kodak's withdrawal from providing film, paper, and chemicals leaves a larger market share for Ilford and other companies who are dedicated to providing these products. This can only make these companies stronger and better able to continue serving their market longer into the future.
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Film cameras will be around for decades. Many pro cameras were made to last, unlike most current
digital options, which will obsolete from a software standpoint soon enough, if not mechanically first. 35mm, med format, and certainly large format cameras are in zero danger of becoming scarce anytime soon (view cameras are easy to make on a small production basis, and are relatively simple to repair). There's a glut of lenses out there at reasonable prices. The ongoing supply of film is what we need to worry about, esp color film. If Kodak goes down, there's no guarantee that Fuji will take
up the slack or provide reasonable substitutes in the color neg dept.
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Originally Posted by BMbikerider
Medium format film cameras are not available new anymore, as far as I know...
But... but... I just purchased a mainstream new medium format camera a few weeks ago. Have I been hallucinating when I thought I was taking pictures? If I have, at least the negatives I developed last night came out well...
Ken
"The richness of the experience that occurs when one is exposed tangibly to a subject, material, or process is unmatchable in the abstract... Thus, when 'touch it,' 'taste it,' smell it' become the watchwords, the results are most often extraordinary. Equally extraordinary are the lengths to which people will go to avoid [that] experience."
— Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr., In Search of Excellence, 1982
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Plus 1
Originally Posted by Dan Henderson
I must be the eternal optimist, since I seem to be one of the few who see an up side of the Kodak situation. To my mind, Kodak has slowly, one product at a time, abandoned traditional, film based photographers over the past few years. So I have little sympathy for the company, only for the thousands of people who once earned a living and produced quality products as Kodak employees.
But Kodak's withdrawal from providing film, paper, and chemicals leaves a larger market share for Ilford and other companies who are dedicated to providing these products. This can only make these companies stronger and better able to continue serving their market longer into the future.
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