Telegraph: Traditional camera film makes a come back

[Henning Serger]

Hello,

some positive news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...come-back.html

I've got confirmative information from some other manufacturers, distributors and labs. Some of them still see decreasing sales, but this trend is significantly slowing down (official Kodak statement of Kodak Germany), some see stabilised sales and some increasing sales.

Example: The Lomographic Society International in Vienna sold 500,000 new cameras in 2010.
And 4 million films. They are expecting to sell 8 million films this year.

Best regards,
Henning

[hpulley]

"...And the rare 120mm film..."

[Tom Kershaw]

Hello,

some positive news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...come-back.html

I've got confirmative information from some other manufacturers, distributors and labs. Some of them still see decreasing sales, but this trend is significantly slowing down (official Kodak statement of Kodak Germany), some see stabilised sales and some increasing sales.



Example: The Lomographic Society International in Vienna sold 500,000 new cameras in 2010.
And 4 million films. They are expecting to sell 8 million films this year.

Best regards,
Henning

I'm still not convinced the 'Lomographic Society International' is good for analogue photography, it seems to be an exercise in branding and fashion over much else. I guess the trendies have their place, but from a broader perspective, one could buy a basic Bronica ETRSi SLR, Nikon kit, or similar for the price of some of these "toy" cameras.

Secondly, I fail to see why one would buy Lomo film. It is hardly difficult to get hold of out of date film from one's own stockpile, and in general surely it is preferable to have the known quality of fresh in-date Kodak, Fuji, ILFORD film?

It is depressing if many of these 'lomographers' need to be spoon fed the marketing hype in order to develop an interest in non digital photography.

Tom

[bighilt]

I think that is good news indeed.

[Henning Serger]

Hello Tom,

I mentioned Lomo only to give one example of a field with increasing film and film camera sales. It was not a "pro Lomo statement". Only data.

I'm still not convinced the 'Lomographic Society International' is good for analogue photography,

I think it has both positive and negative effects.
Positive:
+ Additional demand for film. Helps the film manufacturers to keep the lines running. Both for original brand and OEM production (some of the Lomo brand films are now even made by Kodak).
+ Young people get involved in film photography. Some of them go forward and discover "serious" film photography, too (I know a few which took this way).
+ Film is again considered attractive for young photographers. That is very important, because digital marketing massage for years was "film is outdated and only for old guys".

Negative:
- The "film is unperfect and unpredictabel" marketing campaign and the flood of unsharp pictures, and shots with extremeley oversaturated colors give a wrong impression for beginners of what film is really capable of.
- For lots of these beginners is film = lomography.
- For those who don't know that you can buy films and cameras much cheaper at other stores, the high prices at Lomography stores may be discouraging to use film more often.
- The LSI is now a bigger company than Foma, Fotokemika, Filmotec, Adox, Maco and Freestyle altogether. With their huge success their market power is significantly growing. That could be a problem for some manufacturers and distributors in the future (but they could avoid this problem by learning from LSI, TIP, Redbull and other marketing innovators and creating own marketing strategies and strengthen their market power).

Secondly, I fail to see why one would buy Lomo film. It is hardly difficult to get hold of out of date film from one's own stockpile, and in general surely it is preferable to have the known quality of fresh in-date Kodak, Fuji, ILFORD film?

By far most of the film LSI sell is fresh Kodak, Fuji, Ilford etc stock.

By the way, the Lomo movement started in 1991. In 1997 the commercial Lomo business was established. It is definitely not a short dated trend.
The whole toy camera movement, including Holgas, Blackbirds etc., is an established part of photography now.
Lots of succesful professionals and artists are using these cameras and techniques as well.
The company producing the Holga cameras, Hong Kong based "Universal Electronic Industries" (they started their business with manufacturing of flashes for OEM production), is concentrating their marketing efforts on this art market ( see www.holgainspire.com ).

Best regards,
Henning

[Jeff Kubach]

At least it is looking up for film.

Jeff

[michaelbsc]

At least it is looking up for film.

Jeff

Being a natural born cynic I'd probably say it isn't quite so dismal. Not so sure it is really looking "up" just yet.

Let's hope that the glow on the horizon truly heralds sunrise.

[perkeleellinen]

Regardless of what the article says, I think it's great that a such a high profile site as the Telegraph has given film a wider publicity.

[mono]

As we formerly said here: The snapshooters keep our hobby alive.
Nowadays these are the "lomos"!

[perkeleellinen]

Incidentally, selling 500,000 new cameras & 4 million rolls of film during the biggest recession since the 1930s is some achievement. I wonder if that is up or down from sales in the early 2000s.