Future availability of 4x5 sheet film?

[karl_petersson]

I think and I also have talked to several proffesional photographers in all walks of styles, advertising, PJ, museum advertising etc etc etc and I do have the feeling that the same thing that happened to the web is about to develop in digicams.

In the beginning all said that this will change the world and in one aspect it did but it did not kill newspapers, print-advertising, newsletters or Tv and Radio. It shure has changed but not gone away.

I have had a prosumer digicam (Eos 10D) since it came out and I am very happy with it.

But I am discovering now that I do use it only in those specific cases where it suits and in the other cases the RZ or the Sinar comes out, or even the bessa L with sharp little wideangle lenses on.

The way I use it today is as I use neg-color for when I want the conviniance of a printneg with the latitude OR when I use the Velvia for the saturated slide etc etc etc.

It is now more down to a choice of media that will suite for the job and not an answer to everything as was expressed in the beginning and still is by some.

It is like saying that a websized .jpg will work for all uses of a photograph, and that is not just about quality but more of the comparizing of a high res .psd with adjustment layers and alpha masks etc etc etc

The fact that the daily news photographer has changed their way of working monumentaly has had an enormous effect on the newspapers and they are also some of the greatest consumers of cameras, not to many other photographers are maybe doing a 500 to a 1000 exposures per day and that does take its tool on the cameras.

Ok to end of. What I am trying to say is that I think that digital photography will sink in to it's role in photography and mature and then you will find that some areas will be gone/changed and the other ones will continue to be the tool of the creative mind as well as the digital camera will be.

[willie_jan_bons2]

i bought a 4x5 graflex crown 2 weeks ago..

 

as mentioned before smaller companies will take over.

 

has a look at the www.fotoimpex.de (look at the katalog pdf) website where you will see a lot of 4x5 film and even larger from even 25 asa (efke) for half the price a tmax 100 4x5 box costs.

[van_camper]

I'll have to agree with what Karl said...."What I am trying to say is that I think that digital photography will sink in to it's role in photography and mature and then you will find that some areas will be gone/changed and the other ones will continue to be the tool of the creative mind as well as the digital camera will be."

 

I see the key being the archival issue of digital, it has short life with CD/DVD, and there is no gurantee with hard drives either to fail. Add the fact that obsolesence is frequent in the digital world (computers, drivers, recording media changing) and not all of us want to every 5-7 yrs be backing up 10,000 images. With film you have hardcopy and don't ever have to worry about it nor reading the data. Digital therefore I see as perfect for journalism where speed is the key to success, and commercial jobs where you can send the image to the art director in minutes. The film/processing savings in one year are huge too (10 rolls/day over 1 yr = $26k). But again, this is great for the guy not concerned about archival issues. For landscape photographers, archival issues are everything, and we don't want to risk losing a single image that could earn us a great deal of money over the years. Take one famous water color artist (Trisha Romance).....she presold at $600 each 11,600 copies. One image earns almost $7 million. Do you want to trust digital, or have it on film permanently? Film never had competition before, now digital offeres the same identical images...so it's natural to expect market shifts, new equilibrium points for supply/demand curves. But I think it will stabilize and we will see a 50/50 market share perhaps, maybe less or more one way or other doesn't matter...but film production will stay. Of course smaller markets means less profit, less research, less types of films. So film and digital will work side by side, we will chose which recording media we need just like we make decisions on which format for the job.

[david_m]

As far as I am aware both Ilford and Agfa have stopped making film and there will be no more unless the companies are sold to someone else. Can Kodak be far behind? They will raise the price to exhorbitant levels and then claim there is no demand for it. I see the future of film being in China.

[bob.]

Well, as far as *I* am aware, Agfa-Gevaert has sold its Consumer Imaging Business Group (which includes film) for 175.5 Million Euros to a management buyout team. Film and other products will continue to be made under the new company.

 

Ilford is also continuing to produce film despite its current problems and all are hoping for a buyer to take it out of its difficulty. If that happens, or not, remains to be seen, but for the moment film production continues.

 

Undoubtedly, the number of different films available will reduce, but too many people seem to be confusing a shrinking market with a disappearing one. As long as there is a market, film will be produced, and that market is not going to shrink so small as to disappear completely - not without a major change in digital technology. I for one would need a digital back capable of 300+ Mpixels @ 1/250th second for well under 2000USD before I even considered the idea, and I can't see that anywhere on the horizon.