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Old 2nd June 2010, 03:49 PM
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Default Is Film usage on the rise?

I've just come back from a week down in London where a couple of things have given me the impression that film photography, or at least film cameras, are coming back into fasion:

Firstly, I went to Photographica and was dismayed to find that it had moved to the New Royal Horticultural halls, which are smaller than the Old halls where it used to be held. However, once inside it was quite obvious that this new location was far too small. Each and every stall was occupied and it was so crowded that you could hardly move. One of the stall holders admitted that there simply wasn't enough room and that they may have to move back to the bigger hall again next year.

Secondly, my Dad I popped into Aperture in Museum street primarily to look at medium format rangefinder cameras. My Dad was after a Fuji 6x9 and I was half interested in a 645. The evening before we went to Aperture they had two cameras that my Dad was interested in; one had gone by the time we arrived the following lunch time and the second gone a few minutes later

Looking at the shop window I noticed a couple of 645s that were not listed on the website (just in?). The first went in minutes and the other has failed to appear on the site so I can only assume that has gone also.

The Aperture medium format page can be found here, and just about everything listed was sold in just a couple of weeks.

So what about it, is film on the way up again?


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Old 2nd June 2010, 04:32 PM
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Let's hope so!

S'funny I was in Aperture last week, I wanted to enquire about a Rollei but couldn't even get to the counter as it was so busy!
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Old 2nd June 2010, 04:37 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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as far I can tell, from talking to people, they are buying film cameras, especialy m.f. Richard
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Old 2nd June 2010, 09:13 PM
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One of the most common sentences we hear is "I'm getting into traditional film" or, "I'm getting back into it after shooting digital" or "I'm just starting to process my own film".

Digital photography may have caused serious problems for analogue, but what it did do is create a billion photography enthusiasts - and I'm convinced at least a proportion of these people will be interested in shooting analogue - and it's already happening.
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Old 2nd June 2010, 09:22 PM
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This is a quote from Tony Percival of 'Percival Cameras'; "The digital generation is learning to appreciate the quality of pictures taken on film"

www.percivalcameras.org.uk
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Old 2nd June 2010, 10:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Matt5791 View Post
Digital photography may have caused serious problems for analogue, but what it did do is create a billion photography enthusiasts - and I'm convinced at least a proportion of these people will be interested in shooting analogue - and it's already happening.
I think it also gets people back into photography who had drifted away.

Until 2003 I only had one camera (imagine that!). A Nikon FG. Then I got a D100 which I played around with for a while until I realised that I prefered film.

I now have about thirty cameras, a darkroom and a couple of cameras under construction.


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Old 2nd June 2010, 10:06 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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It sounds encouraging. The most positive thing I can think of is the faith backed by business sense of Harman Technology. Film and paper may not be it's main business any longer but from two visits it does seem to be a large part with a lot invested in it and I detected no signs of decline in Harman's management's outlook between 2006 and 2008. Quite the reverse.

I can't say that volumes are rising but given that Harman is a management buy-out and a lot is riding on its decision I can't see it sustaining analogue the way it seems to be unless there was a future in it.

Then there are companies like ADOX etc who are reviving former products.

I don't suppose that any rise will be that obvious "on the street" to the extent that suddenly at any place where photos are taken a large percentage of them will film based this year compared to last year but it may be that we have now reached the stage where the demise of analogue isn't the foregone conclusion that was being predicted as recently as 2-3 years ago.

Belief in analogue having a future is hopefully no longer the equivalent of "whistling in the dark"

Mike
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Old 3rd June 2010, 04:53 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
It sounds encouraging. The most positive thing I can think of is the faith backed by business sense of Harman Technology. Film and paper may not be it's main business any longer.....
Mike
Film and Paper is definitely Harman's main business!

Last edited by Matt5791; 3rd June 2010 at 04:58 AM.
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Old 3rd June 2010, 08:58 AM
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So what about it, is film on the way up again?
My local Jessops store would agree. I was in there only the other day to buy some batteries and had a talk with the manager (quite a chatty young lady) with regards to black & white film. They now appear to keep larger amounts of film stock as they sell out very quickly thanks to students wishing to learn about traditional photography.

I am talking specifically about 35mm film, but I know they do stock some 120 rolls of Ilford as well so I'm assuming these must sell too.

Ilford (Harman) themselves have said there is more demand for black & white chemistry/paper and films now than there was three or four years ago, which is all good news to me.

I find myself in a similar situation to Steve Smith. Up until about the year 2000, I had just the two bodies. Over the recent years however, I seem to have increased slightly my camera and lens collection, although I still have a long way to go before catching up with Steve.
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Old 3rd June 2010, 09:27 AM
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Matt is right about the increase in potential film users coming at it from digital; also, strangely, film is generally coming to be regarded nowadays as 'cool'! I don't think it is just a quality thing either (though of course that helps) . . it's, och I dunno, more of a hankering for some golden time when cameras were cameras and wristwatches had LEDs
I would never ever regard myself in the least bit fashionable, but honest, toting my Nikon F2 around my nieces wedding a few weeks back, the number of comments I got along the lines of 'it's nice to see someone using a real camera' and 'cool camera' was most encouraging!
The funniest though was the year before last, when I took my Rollei around Edinburgh Castle in full tourist season. It was lovely to pass by a bunch of obviously camera-mad Japanese tourists with their digicams and hear them whisper:
" . . . a-ha . . . Rorriefrex . . ."
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