Film Photography Forums On Photo.net

I will ask this question to photo.net management with respect.

 

What is the future of film photography forums on photo.net?

 

Thank you

Why don't you stick around and find out. But I have little doubt they will survive for some

time to come.

Bob Atkins and I are working on a reorg of the forums. Someone suggested merging all three B&W forums into one and I would be interested in hearing thoughts on that. Bob suggested that we merge the following film-ish forums into others: Brownie (to Classic), Minox (to Alternative?), Pentax 67 (to Medium Format, which will lose its "digest"). Bob wants to keep the Canon FD forum (I am DEFINITELY going to add a "nostalgia buffs" headline to that puppy :-)). Bob suggested adding a film P&S forum.

 

A completely radical alternative would be to stretch the unified forum concept a little. There would be only one forum but with multiple categories across multiple axes. I could ask

 

"What lenses to take on a trip to the Galapagos?"

 

and it would get mapped to "Canon" on the gearhead axis, "Digital" on the film/digital axis, "Ecuador" on the location axis, both "Travel" and "Nature" on the "type of photography" axis. When you read the forum, you get to narrow and expand your interests. This has the disadvantage over the current system that the forums aren't as tight as subcommunities. It has the advantage that people are probably more likely to see all of the threads in which they are interested.

Proper Lighting in photography will still be important once all of us are just dust.

"It has the advantage that people are probably more likely to see all of the threads in which they are interested."

 

That's a great idea. As half the wedding forum, for example, is digital darkroom and the other half is photography business. I could see how this would be helpful.

 

One thing though, and I seem to be the only that has brought it up, is a Digital Art forum. The digital darkroom is great, but huge. I'm thinking along the lines of a forum just for teaching and displaying techniques. Judging by the results and manipulations constantly uploaded and viewed in the galleries, I think it would be popular. And relevant to the 21st century.

How about a tagging system for posts - we can then create our own views however we see fit - kind of like virtual forums. This is probably much the same as you envisage Phil, but seems a simple way to think of it.

Oh and of course 'soft' default folders/views could be create which encompass the existing forums by using the appropriate tags.

I think Philip's and Bob's idea has possibilities and I do like Eric~'s idea of a Digital Arts Forum. The Wedding forum is getting too congested with business issues. I rarely go there now because of that. Wedding technique is more of what I look for, and wedding digital workflow. I am also into vintage cameras and I use B/W film for such. The Classic Camera Forum is active, and I enjoy that. There are many who are into film photography, especially B/W and I think that those of us who use film should be heard.

 

Most appreciated.

My thoughts are there are too many buckets, ie too many forums. <BR><BR>If I post a question about a XXX device; I want to post it in the bucket with the greatest knowledge base, and NONE other. <BR><BR>Thus a question about a 5cm F2 Nikkor in Leica Thread mount is going to posted in the Leica forum, and I dont care if the frumpy Leica purists get their panties in a knot. <BR><BR>I dont think a 50mm F1.2 LTM lens question should be in the classical, Canon FD, or Canon EOS forums. <BR><BR>The Nikon forum to me is the Nikon F and later.<BR><BR>Long ago when the Leica forum merged into Photo.net any mention of a Bessa R, Zorki, Nikkor 10.5cm F2.5 LTM got one ridiculed, abit odd since Leica is in the minority in LTM bodies made or lenses too. Once long ago I posted a thread on scanning 116/616 negatives with the brand new Epson 2450, both the MF and LF forum moderators said to use other forum! <BR><BR>Cell Phone cam images were once stepchilds. The exodus of many photo.net members to APUG long ago was in an era when many film folks couldnt accept any comment about digital, like a purist attitude. <BR><BR><BR><BR>There seems to be endless debates of film versus digital, asking is your instamatic equal to a fortnights floppies. :) . Ie 35mm is equal to xx megabytes. Heck my riding mower is 400cc, there is NEVER been any confusion why its slower than my neighbors 400cc riceburner trick bike. <BR><BR>Lighting is really extremely important in photography, but rarely gets any action on Photo.net. Its like an airplane designer who ignores the properties of air, temperature, and altitude, etc.

This all sounds quite good and progressive.

 

Like to put in dibs for Erics idea for a Digital Art Forum.

 

"Nostalgia Buffs" for the "Canon FD/FL Forum" I think you are on pretty safe ground there

Philip. Can't forsee you will get too much rumble on that one. Still leaves the EOS 1V and

N croud in limbo. They got a foot in both Canon camps. The cross linking of posts idea

would be a benefit here I guess.

 

C.

Film still has plenty of users even if we're more likely to order from Freestyle or B&H because the local shops have zero or no selection. Darkroom is still a popular course at the local colleges. Several wedding shooters that I know are shooting more film again. I sure hope that we keep film based photography forums on Photo.net!

 

If my inbox is an indication there are a lot more Emails flitting about the internet than there are postings here about "The Big Changes" in Photo.net. It's good to get our ideas known but the absolute panic I'm hearing from some regulars seems a bit much. Changes are inevitable. I've noticed that some folks who only came to taunt others have gone away. That alone is a major improvement!

Merging the B&W forums into a single one sounds like a good idea to me. I've already got them identically color coded in the unified view. I'd like to see the word 'color' attached to the 'Film and Processing' forum. It is essentially for color film, but there was always some ambiguity.

<I>How about a tagging system for posts - we can then create our own views however we see fit - kind of like virtual forums. This is probably much the same as you envisage Phil, but seems a simple way to think of it.</I>

<P>

I like that idea - somewhat like gmail's use of labels rather than folders for email.