Kodak Gold 200 question (Sort of)

So, at the ground level film is still kicking around in interesting ways. The

new drugstore in town has a 1-hr photo lab for film, and the local grocery store

sill has lots of consumer-grade film for sale. I suspect that professionals and

hobbiest will keep things like Velvia 100 and black and white film in production

for a while, but I am surprised to see lower end film being catered to at Rite Aid.

 

My question is the following- Who is shooting all of the low end film? I

thought that market was largely eaten up by digital point and shoots.

Well, I don't agree that Gold 200 is "low end". Inexpensive, yes. but it has good color without being over the top and no grain to speak of in 4x6" prints. For fun, I chuck Gold in old classic cameras, pretend it's 1955, and get it processsed and printed for $5.

 

And frankly, if you only shoot 5-10 rolls a year (and many people do), it's cheaper and easier to keep your film camera around and pay for occasional processing.

 

The professionals went digital en masse years ago, so they're not a market force for any 35mm film products any more.

People still use 35mm. Not as much as before but they are out there. The consumer film is dwindling however. Our local Target carried an assortment of consumer Kodak and Fuji film and even Kodac UC400 and some C41 B/W not that long ago. Now they just have a small selection of Fuji Superia, and a few disposable camera's.

I like Kodak Gold 200. Like Zane said, I usually put it in old cameras as a test film. When it's on sale I load up.

Let's face it for allot of people film is more convenient when all you want is a couple of 4X6s. Remember when Digital first came out and nobody knew what they were going to do with all those files(photos) they created ? So they just stayed on their computer if they were lucky to have a computer. Same thing.

"I don't agree that Gold 200 is "low end"."

 

What qualifies as lower then Gold 200?

> What qualifies as lower then Gold 200?

 

Kodak Max 400 or 800. Tried 'em both about eight years ago. Awful stuff.

Today's consumer grade color negative film is better than the pro film of yesteryear. We don't need a demonstrably inferior film on the market in order to prop up a consumer grade film that works just fine as-is. John Peri routinely thumbed his nose at elitist notions of what good film is and produced excellent photos with ordinary consumer grade film. (Dunno what John uses nowadays.)

 

Most of my family and friends still prefer film to digital. While some jumped on the digital bandwagon early the novelty soon wore off when they realized *they* had to be lab. Most folks who use cameras (a distinct group from "photographers") don't know or care about the technicalities that go into color correction, etc. Resizing for a small JPEG to e-mail to friends vs. full-rez for prints? Why should they have to know or care about such nonsense?

 

Until the consumer market for digital gets its act together and creates goof-proof appliances that follow familiar paradigms, I don't see film disappearing.

 

The sad thing is that more and more people are now satisfied with one-time-use film cameras. Even loading a film camera is more trouble than it's worth to many folks, including my mom whose hands are so shaky she hasn't been able to thread a film leader in several years. If I don't load her film cameras for her, she uses one-shot cameras.

 

The photo industry has badly underestimated a still-significant part of the market. Granted, many of 'em are aging and don't mesh with the hip image marketers want associated with digital.

Kodak is also selling a new film called Color Plus. It is in the same ASA ratings as the Gold film. But the price is about 20% less. Kodak also makes a few models of film cameras [automated], which are sold by the retailers who sell films. These cameras cost around $10 to $20 compared to the digitals that cost around $200. I believe that the Color plus film is made by a different company in the UK but is being sold under kodak label. I talked to several dealers here in Bangalore and they tell me that film is their preferred business as the digicams keep getting outdated every year; they cannot keep up with that obsolescence. So there seems to be a vast market in the slower rhythm of business and technology.

I still take just as many film pictures as digital, though i operate in the amatuer ranks, not a professional. I like FUJI ISO 200 Color and HQ Color, when i can find it. I use various models of 35mm P & S, as well as Nikon and Sigma 35mm SLR film cameras. I've also just started experiementing with Kodak Professional ISO 400 B & W, the one that's processed using the std C-41 process. I get my film pictures developed at the mini-lab at RITE AID, and usually get a supplemental Picture CD at the same time. I buy the film through the usual retailer markets, Walmart, Rite-Aid, Target, sometimes Wolf Camera. I like image quality and color saturation i get with Fuji Color, when processed on the Rite Aid setup.

If somebody asked me in the next 15 minutes to photography a wedding tonight, I'd grab a few rolls of Kodak Gold 100 and 400 UC from the fridge, shoot 'em up, hand the film to the happy couple with a suggestion to have 'em developed at printed at any halfway decent minilab (preferably my favorite local camera shop), tell 'em it's a freebie, on me, wish 'em well for a happy marriage and rest fairly assured that they'll get good photos with decent skin tones.

 

A minilab really has to go out of its way to screw up most consumer grade films. They usually work. And I like the fact that I don't have to, especially for freebie stuff like that.

Kodak Gold 200 is good stuff, was my favorite film when I used to do my own color printing. Maybe the Gold 200 downers would have thought it was better if they paid more for it.

Why call it low end? I shot Gold 200 and Superia 400 among other films and get results I like. IMO film today give you better Q/$ value if time is not a factor.

I think the newest Kodak Gold 200 is very nice. <center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/7215282-lg.jpg"></center> My other color films are Kodak Max 800 and Kodachrome. I'm happy.