35mm will they stop processing it soon?

<p>Many budget options are disappearing. I suspect that his is becoming a specialized service and that in many markets it will be primarily a mail order business.</p>

<p>Hollywood is moving more and more to digital workflow and digital capture has gotten to the point being better than film - see search on Red One for example. Digital workflow and distribution is faster, cheaper, and better. And with digital 3D and other newer filmmaking techniques it's making less and less sense to use film. There's a wonderful essay on Filmmaker magazine (website) somewhere about that. So, don't expect Hollywood to save to film. Digital is gaining many converts.</p>

<p>In my area, the folks that sell film say that most of their sales are disposable film cameras. They keep a few token roles of 35mm around that sell very slowly. They end selling them on clearance when they expire, so the carry less and less.</p>

<p>The market will continue to shrink and it'll just be the processors that are too stubborn to close up that will still be around to process film. One of my local drugstores pulled their last minilab out - they just kept their Frontier machine for the old people (those over 40) who like printouts. The younger folks want digital images on their webpages (Facebook) - film just complicates things and adds too much cost.</p>

<p>Personally, aside from consumables, I have stopped investing in any film equipment.</p>

<p>Sure, film will probably be around for some time, but nothing close to the selection or convenience with processing - it'll be just a artsy type of endeavor that a handful of specialty stores handle and as a result it will be even more expensive than now. And for many things you will have to roll your own - look at the glass plate guys that are still hanging around. </p>

<p>It'll take a while longer (10+/- years?) because of the inventory of film cameras still around and the folks using them, but the demand trend in undeniably downward and will continue for a while until it levels off. When it levels off, it will be well below the market share where it will be profitable for Kodak and Fuji to stay in the business. I will be quite surprised if Kodak is still in the film biz five years from now.</p>

<p>In the meantime, digital is progressing by leaps and bounds and becoming cheaper as a result. In said drugstore mentioned above, they had a 3 MP point and shoot for $39. That was the resolution of a professional digital camera back in 1998. The next generation of sensor technology will out resolve medium format and maybe start nipping the heals of 4x5.</p>

<p>Young people going to film? They play with it for a while, spend a bit of money, and go back to digital - it's by no means a permanent trend.</p>

 

<p>I'm looking to learn how to process and print 35mm films b/c of the cost of the processing the films. Walmart/Walgreen charge us $4-5/roll for developing, + $3-4/roll = $7-8/roll of film to shoot. At the cost of $40-50 for chemicals, if I shoot 5-6 rolls, I break even. However, as Dave B pointed out, my interest in 35mm films is mainly curiosity. If the cost of chemicals and films continue to rise, it is hard to justify exploring films.</p>

<p>I'm with Les, "use it or lose it". I'm always surprised at all the crystal ballers that come out of the community college when talking about film's demise. What's the point in worrying about it, if you are worried just buy more film. APX-100 in 4x5/120 anyone? lol</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I will be quite surprised if Kodak is still in the film biz five years from now</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You see this statement a couple times a year.</p>

<p>There's no sign they'll stop processing 35mm at all and if you ask them just to process the roll without printing or CD then it only costs about $1.50-2.50 per roll in drugstores, walmart etc. Scan the negatives/positives at home and print or upload just the ones you like. If you plan to do everything fully analog from loading the "sensor" to processing the prints then it will probably get harder with time, in my case I don't mind mixing up technologies and the best part of my enjoyment is operating the lenses and bodies and seeing the results after scanning them.</p>

<p>If it's any indication of sustained 35mm enthousiasm, the <a href="../canon-fd-camera-forum/00WMlz">April photos thread</a> in the Canon FD forum is now up to a whopping 69 responses. Mine were far from the best ones but I'm proud to have contributed a few shots :)</p><div></div>

<p><em>You see this statement a couple times a year.</em></p>

<p>I believe this message was sent only once...</p>

<p>"Captain, there's an iceberg ahead" (HMS Titanic)</p>

<p>I have a question that I'd like to ask Steeve Blain (and anyone else who would ask the same question):<br>

Suppose that , for some reason, all films will be banned next month, no one (in this whole world) can possess/store/process films anymore and we can only keep our exposed and processed films for later printing or scanning. What would you do now?<br>

1. Whining and crying all day?</p>

<p>2. Throwing away all your film gears and rushing to stores to buy some digital cameras?</p>

<p>3. Try to shoot film as much as you can in this month?</p>

 

<p>1. and 3.</p>

<p>Shoot what I can then quit forever. Then start a new hobby. Collecting guns.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I will be quite surprised if Kodak is still in the film biz five years from now.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>They said those very same things about vinyl records. Film is just going to get very expensive.</p>

<p>"It'll take a while longer (10+/- years?) because of the inventory of film cameras still around and the folks using them, but the demand trend in undeniably downward and will continue for a while until it levels off. When it levels off, it will be well below the market share where it will be profitable for Kodak and Fuji to stay in the business. I will be quite surprised if Kodak is still in the film biz five years from now."</p>

<p>Kodak still makes a nice profit on film because the facilities are fully depreciated and the R&D investment is minimal. Yes, they will prune their offerings because the market is contracting. But exit the business? Not likely because they still make substantial profit from film.</p>

<p>From the 2009 Kodak 10K:</p>

<p>Film Group 2009 sales were $2.26 billion with a profit of $159 million. The Consumer Digital Imaging Group, on the other hand, posted a profit of $35 million on sales of $2.62 billion. So the suggestion that Kodak will leave the film business in 5 years is based on ignorance, and not on fact.</p>

<p>Additional info from the 10k:</p>

<p>"In the first quarter of 2008, the Company performed an updated analysis of expected industry-wide declines in the traditional film and paper businesses and its useful lives on related assets. Based on additional experience in the secular decline in these product groups, the Company assessed that overall film demand had declined but at a slower rate than anticipated in 2005, notably in the motion picture films category, which accounts for a substantial portion of the manufacturing asset utilization in the film business.</p>

 

<p>Freestyle will help keep it alive.</p>

<p>Here's a link to the Kodak's 2009 10k filing:</p>

<p>http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/financials/drawFiling.asp?docKey=136-000003123510000038-28BPKUCI63CS29NVB3ABMI652U&docFormat=TXT&formType=10-K</p>

<p>I'm always amazed at how many people who still support film then go and scan it on a $200 flatbed....<br>

With that said, I miss shooting Velvia and not having to spend anytime processing it...when you got it right 'in camera' it looked magical...straight out of the box. <br>

But then I look at some of the great images I have shot with digital, and how much I have learned shooting digital....I'll never go back.</p>

<p>john if film was to stop!<br>

I would not invest my hard urned money on the nikon F6 im about to buy!<br>

there are some pretty interesting digital alternatives, but id miss the feeling of old manual cameras.<br>

Thats what it come up to, working with a well crafted no nonsens piece of art.<br>

modern dslr do a fine job at taking photographs, but they ar a higher product of cunsumtion, they are desingned in this regard.<br>

my old nikons have 3 decads of service on them and still will outlast me, they run years on a set of $1 button pills.<br>

I aske the question to have a better understanding via everybodys opinions.<br>

this is not whining its a simple exchange.<br>

rgds</p>

 

<p>I live in a smaller community of 70,000 people.<br>

And our last camera store that did any proccessing just closed. They did an excellent job on custom work. So now I am going to have to send my film out.<br>

I started using digital two years ago, and may be it is time for me to purchase a quality printer and do my own printing.<br>

It was nice to leave film or a cd off locally and get what I wanted since the person doeing the printing knew what I wanted.<br>

I don't think film is going away for many years yet, but most of us will have to send it out of town to be proccesd and printed. Certainly not as convienent.</p>

<p>I love film and use it all the time. In-fact i find myself lately using a lot of 70mm film too.<br /> I buy boxes of it so i can re-spool for my 116 and 616 cameras, i also slit it in half to spool 828 film and to reload in my 126 cartridges and use in my Instamatic 500. I just wish there were more emulsions to choose from. I especially wish i could find some 70mm or wider bulk rolls of transparency film so i can shoot some really big negatives. I always wished i could mount something a little larger Thain a 6cmX9cm slide in a picture frame that was back lit.</p>

<p>4. stop reading posts at photo.net</p>

<p>I think it largely depends upon whether you ask the question in the "film and processing" forum or the digital forum.</p>

<p>Easy answer. NO!</p>

<p>I was at Hunt's Camera in Melrose, MA last week. They still have a huge selection of film to choose from, even the hard-to-find stuff, so I asked the person at the counter how film is selling. I've noticed over the time I've been going (approx. 6 months) that there seems to be a a brisk stock turn over, so it must be selling. Her answer, "Good, it's increased. A lot of people are using film, and a lot of students". That put a smile on my face. It was good to hear.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>The last Super 8 movie camera rolled off the line about c1984, or around 26 years ago. B&H and others still sell film for these, and many labs still offer processing. So if 35mm cameras became extinct tomorrow, the film and processing should be around until 2036 according to the above example.</p>

<p>Kodak still makes a nice profit on film because the facilities are fully depreciated</p>

<p>Why is it that people think depreciation is money lost? When facilities are fully depreciated you no longer can deduct their cost from your gross receipts. In other words, your manufacturing cost goes up.</p>

<p>I was in Rose Records (Chicago) one Saturday afternoon about 10 years ago, browsing through their vinyl stacks. Sometime after closing, their entire inventory was packed up and replaced with CDs by the time the store reopened on Monday. I must have been sleeping when the same thing happed to vacuum tubes about 25 years ago. Paradigm changes tend to happen very quickly. You can still get vinyl records and vacuum tubes (Chinese and Russian), but you have to look around a bit (some people are addicted to "snap, crackle and pop").</p>

<p>As I am to texture and grain.</p>