Film Making A Come-back?

[br1078lum]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8525839/Traditional-camera-film-makes-a-come-back.html

I don't know.  The guy who wrote this article probably shills for some politico on the side.  You can't make a general assumption like that on one set of numbers, unless you're running for office.

PF

[radiophoto]

OK, I stopped reading it after seeing the photo caption, "Shooting on a manual camera means you can't make a mistake", and after reading the first bone-headed sentence:

"Described as the 'vinyl effect', sales of 35mm film and the rare 120mm film, have increased substantially in the last year, with some independent camera shops saying they are processing far more traditional pictures than digital snaps."

I leave it to you to form your own interpretation of the above.  :rolleyes:

[Austintatious]

There is a trend today for young people towards all things "retro". If you grew up digital, then film is retro for you. Maybe the "Lomo" folks have some effect also.
As long as it helps keep film photography around a while longer, I  am happy to see reports like this.   :cool:   Thanks for posting it here.

Charles

[shadowfox]

There is a trend today for young people towards all things "retro". If you grew up digital, then film is retro for you. Maybe the "Lomo" folks have some effect also.
As long as it helps keep film photography around a while longer, I  am happy to see reports like this.   :cool:   Thanks for posting it here.

Charles

+1

[LarryD]

How can something comeback that never left my possession?

[joho35mm]

Just my two cents, as one of those "young people" who started off on film, resisted digital for a long time, and now shoots both film and digital. From what I've known (my friends who are interested in photography), a lot of photographers my age seem either to be split along the lines of "film = retro" and "digital all the way." I haven't met too many people who believe that film can produce high quality photos. These people turn to film for the "graininess," "lack of control," and so-called "artistic palette" that they believe it provides. The retro mentality goes a long way.

At the same time, the question of film's newfound popularity is also linked to the question of photographic discipline. One sometimes gets the sense that new users of film are sloppy, ignorant, and using the medium for its novelty value instead of learning and appreciating its technical nuances. As someone who straddles the film-digital divide, I often find myself scoffing at other people my age who see film as I've previously described. But I also realize that technical discipline in the use of film is a highly individual thing. One of my friends, a law student, is a Holga and Polaroid camera user who might be considered one of the "retro crowd," but is dedicated to using his cameras to the best of his ability and takes great pleasure from that style of photography. Another PhD colleague at Michigan shoots with Leica M2s (taking them out to places like Egypt and West Africa to document his fieldwork) and develops all of his own film - to the extent that he packs a changing bag and a streamlined developing kit when he travels abroad. Yet another friend, who started in photography with a Rebel XTi, now doesn't leave home without packing her Rollei 35S and a few rolls of Fuji Superia 200; she recently shot a wedding with both her digital kit and the 35S - an impressive feat - and produced some of the most beautiful wedding pictures I've seen in a while. It's things like this that remind me that, whether with film or digital, one person's trash is really another's... you get what I mean.

As for me, I'm traveling through China now for research and checking Nelsonfoto in my free time. My Canon P with a single 35mm f/2.8 Serenar is packed securely next to my 5D and EF lenses, with a bag of Tri-X and HP5 that I've been trying desperately to protect from train station and airport X-rays (one of the lesser known things that the Olympics did for Beijing was to cause X-ray machines to be installed in every single railway AND subway station - which sucks for film photographers). There are photos I've taken here with the Canon P that I could not have gotten (or would not have enjoyed taking as much) with the 5D, and vice versa. Regardless of the technicalities, the bottom line is that it's enjoyable. And in that vein, I do hope that the interest in film, no matter how it's manifested, keeps the medium going.

I'm not sure if all this rambling makes sense, but I'll leave it as-is.

[LarryD]

My 3 cents worth. You are correct. I love all formats and medias in photography and I must say I have seen more sucky photographs in all mediums in the last 10 years.

 

[br1078lum]

Joseph, I had a really nice reply for your post, but then I timed out and lost it.  I was commenting on how this post went from a critique on the editorial ruminations of the author of that article, to a discussion about the 'retro' use of film.

But what it boiled down to was, as long as it gets the creativity level up among the practitioners, and interest doesn't wane, then it can only be good for the photography world.  I hope that it is not just a flash-in-the-pan fad that will fade away, and cause the film market to come to a close.

PF

[joho35mm]

But what it boiled down to was, as long as it gets the creativity level up among the practitioners, and interest doesn't wane, then it can only be good for the photography world.  I hope that it is not just a flash-in-the-pan fad that will fade away, and cause the film market to come to a close.

Agreed. It's hard to tell if the current interest is a fad or a long-term resurgence, and I would also be really disappointed if the film market went under if the "fad" ends. I sure hope that the film companies are taking a long hard look at this and planning their future production beyond fads alone. But that's for another discussion. Sorry if my previous post took the thread off track! After reading over the original editorial, I do have to say that it could've been much better written - to put it mildly. There are far more productive things to write about the interest in film besides comparing it to vinyl sales (and without glaring errors like "rare 120mm film" and a complete disregard for the used camera market). It also says a lot when the only photo-related individuals the author found worth quoting were camera shop managers.