With new films like Kodak Ektar 100 being released, is film back on the up?

[ted_smith]

I, like all of us, recall reading and hearing news articles 4 or 5 years ago saying how the film industry is dying and is no more, and how films were ceased being produced. Yet Fuji Velvia 50 was re-released (Fuji in fact going to great lengths to devise a way of remaking it) and then just the other week Kodak release Kodak Ektar 100 and these are just 2 examples I know of.

I hear many stories similar to my own about photographers who went digital and then reverted back to film, or shoot a mix of both now (I went digi in 2006 and went back to a mix of both film and digi, shooting 50\50 of each in 2008).

I wonder, then, if film is back on the up - not to us APUGers of course, who love it anyway, but I mean globally by the mass market? I wonder if there are any stats? I wonder if Nikon will ever release another F body (like an F7, perhpas) in light of the F6 being their last film body?

Ted

[Christopher Walrath]

I don't think was ever really on the outs. I think it was just having a hard time redefining its place in the photographic industry. It's going to be around for quite some time. Consumer driven economics will see to that. Your stats are film and film related sales and services are down this year to last by about 15%. Which suits me just fine. Weeds out the riff raff. However profits in those decreased sales are actually increased about 1% (with Kodak anyway).

I'm not worried about my hobby, my love, at all.

[Jason Mekeel]

I took Kodak reformulating Tmax 400 as a good sign. When people say film is dead I ask them, "yeah then why did Kodak go through all the trouble of making a TMY400-2?

[donbga]

but I mean globally by the mass market?

We will know the answer to that when world film sales figures are out for '08. Because of the slumping world economy I expect film to take a beating in the last half of '08 and that will probably extend into '09.

[mabman]

Earlier this year both larger local photo stores indicated film sales were up from the year before at that point. Granted, this was before the bottom fell out of pretty much everything. The overall comments they both made were that people were coming back to film for certain looks that they weren't getting with digital, and students/younger people were interested in experimenting with the analog medium.

So, while most industries are down overall, I think film is generally well positioned and it isn't the dying medium it's been made out to be in years past.

[SilverGlow]

I think film will continue to slide down in sales. However it will never crash completely, as I think it will plateau. Many digital-only shooters continue to bring back film to their shooting. Digital will continue to grow, but digital shooters that are either going back to film, or adding film back will grow too. I think film we be around and cheap 50 years from now.d

In the Los Angelese area, both Samy's and FreeStyle have indicated that film and film related sales are up over last year.

[donbga]

Earlier this year both larger local photo stores indicated film sales were up from the year before at that point. Granted, this was before the bottom fell out of pretty much everything. The overall comments they both made were that people were coming back to film for certain looks that they weren't getting with digital, and students/younger people were interested in experimenting with the analog medium.

So, while most industries are down overall, I think film is generally well positioned and it isn't the dying medium it's been made out to be in years past.

You can read these two stories to get an indication about film sales as reported by Kodak's professional film boss Scott DiSabato.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/1...claims-fi.html

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk...4.html?aff=rss

Note the quoted sales figure in the last bullet of the second article:

"Total sales at Kodak dropped by 5% in the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same three months last year. Overall sales from film capture and traditional photofinishing fell 18%. "

[bowzart]

It would be interesting to compare the decline in film sales and revenue with the decline in the values of investment portfolios. Of course it might be hard to decide which of the various statistics to use, and also, it takes time for the data to actually show up.

If my experience is any sort of indicator, I got into the digital thing and shot a lot of it. A couple of hard drive disasters sort of took the wind out of my sales, and I got frustrated with the vast filing issues, finding images. The images became "cheaper". I began to think of it as a medium for graphics, particularly for the web, and for commercial product, catalog, and advertising, where it has many obvious advantages. But the absence of the haptic qualities of the real photograph was disappointing. I got thinking how it was hard enough to keep track of negatives, prints, etc. even with physical materials, but how much easier that was than to herd electron clouds. And another element is that without the downtown commercial side dictating the kinds of products that were available to us, now new and wonderful products are appearing.

It seems to me that evidence appears to be emerging that would support my experience not being unique by any means. If I were out of step, why would we have so many new papers, new chemicals, etc. on the market? I believe that the range of possibilities we have now, having got rid of the big money players, has increased vastly, and continues to do so. The players are smaller, more specialized, and innovative. It's exciting. Film and its supporting materials are emerging as a medium that now stands on its own, rather than being dependent upon what the huge industrial systems demand.

Color? Seems to me that color film has more of a future than color print materials. But that's probably because I guess I've had enough time in the color lab. Who knows, though. I may get excited about it again, most likely after I get rid of all the machines!

I think analog photography is taking its place along with other print media, like intaglio, lithography, etc. It is not going to go away.

I have spoken. So be it!

[dpurdy]

I am pretty sure that the people that won't go back to film are the amateur non photographer people. That market has too much fun with their phone cameras and sharing images on line, or keeping tons of work in their purse on a small digital camera to be brought out at any time and clicked through. Especially when you see the terrible quality of digital machine prints made off black and white film, there is no way back to film for those people. The labs that serviced the commercial photography industry are really scaled back and in some places it is hard to find processing for chromes. I don't think that will ever come back or quality professional black and white processing. I think I might be the last quality black and white processing available to people in this town.

A resurgence in film seems to me has to come mostly in the art market. And it does seem like there are tons more art photographers than there used to be. Just my head scratching thoughts,
Dennis

[nworth]

We all thank Kodak for keeping film viable, but film is still declining, especially in 35mm where digital is capable of some quality competition. Several local minilabs have shut down recently for lack of business, and I either have to process my own 35mm film or send it 40 miles to one of a limited number of labs in Santa Fe. I understand that MF and sheet film are holding there own and are not declining nearly as fast.