Good news!

A clerk at B&H told me today that so many people are using film that the manufacturers are six months behind on orders! B&H is sold out of 35mm.

As long as our old cameras don’t break. :eek: My collection of “no longer working” has grown a bit over the last year.

As long as our old cameras don’t break. :eek: My collection of “no longer working” has grown a bit over the last year.

Unfortunately that often reaches beyond cameras!

That's very encouraging. The future looks bright!

 

Too bad, however, that most labs don't know how to scan. And you'll never get a proper RAW file from 99% of labs. TIFF is not the same as RAW.

Film has been scarce around here for the last few months , but seems to be freely available again.

The prices however have increased substantially.

It looks like I will have to start "rationing" my film use :(.

I can still get reasonably good quality processing and "scans" from the 2 labs that are quite close to me.

[...]TIFF is not the same as RAW.

This confusion again: TIFF is a container, that can indeed also contain raw image data. Also, because that container can contain data organised in a lot of other formats too, often next to each other, in a single file.

I have a number of digital backs that put their raw data in a TIFF container.

 

So, yes, TIFF is not always the same as raw. But it can be.

TIFF is not the same as RAW

Indeed not. It doesn't have a predominance of green from a Bayer matrix for a start. But bit depth is still bit depth, so what does it matter if those 16 bits/channel are called TIF(F) or RAW?

 

Given, then, that all (or nearly all) camera raw formats need de-bayering and the resulting over-green image needs the red and blue channels boosted - or the green attenuated. What's so great about RAW, NEF, CRW or whatever, as opposed to an equal bit depth image called TIF(F)? Also allowing that most cameras cheap out by using a 12 or 14 bit/channel A-to-D converter for speed, while many scanners have a true 16 bit converter.

 

And have a think about how many colours might be represented by a given few microns square of scattered Cyan, Yellow and Magenta dye clouds, of 2 or 3 microns diameter each. Do the maths. The number of colour combinations per pixel-equivalent square, at a depth of maybe 4 or 5 dye-clouds per layer, is nowhere near 2^16 * 2^16 * 2^16, or even 2^8 * 2^8 * 2^8.

 

So much for film being 'analog'!

Photowarehouse has been out of stock on many films for a while.

A clerk at B&H told me today that so many people are using film that the manufacturers are six months behind on orders! B&H is sold out of 35mm.

 

Not again...Reduced production=shortage. It's a residual market with no demand spikes.