Chemical Photography as AM Radio?

[godfrey]

Jeff,

 

You're right on the money. The rest of this is just nonsense.

 

Godfrey

[kennethbowen]

If Alvin stops making my favorite PENSTIX No. 3013-EEF 0.3mm Black India Ink Marker, will I still be able to draw? Will I enjoy it? Will I get good results? (ok, will I get *similar* results.)

 

I remember a guy in college who dressed up in Victorian erra costume. Wrote all his stuff with a quil pen. Used 'thee' and 'thou', as if it was natural. His poetry was still crap!

 

Man, I'm just trying to learn how to take/make photographs. Why come up with these odd analogies? I have good memories of sew-up bicycle tires too, but I still ride my bicycle.

[kevin m.]

You're analogy doesn't work either, Jeff.

 

None of the technologies you listed ever had any mainstream penetration. No one BUT pros ever used those type of cameras. 35mm film has been the standard for pros and amateurs alike for, what, 70 years now? It's not going to go away as quickly as some might think.

[charles barcellona www.bl]

From someone who will be winding MW loop antennas for experimentation this weekend (great Labor Day project there.. ), it matters not to me

[sk_arts]

...atleast with daguerrotypes you run the risk of brain damage and insanity, and wet plate can easily blow up on you. Every process has it's highs and lows, todays processes are for wimps.

 

Horray for mercury vapour!

[feli]

I think that color film may eventually go the way of the Dodo. Most consumers

shoot color and a digital camera and inkjet printer is right up their alley.

 

Black and white has a huge enthusiast / art photography following

and it's relatively easy to produce. These are the people who are

intrigued by the art and craft of shooting, developing and printing film.

 

Wouldn't it be ironic if Leica starts to thrive, because they become the

sole remaining producer of high quality film based / mechanical 35mm

cameras?

 

Feli

[sk_arts]

feli-<P>

 

If film does go away, this is what i expect:<P>

 

in less than 10 years 8x10 chrome will no longer be available<BR>

in over 10 years 4x5 color will become prohibitivly expensive, left only for very large output<BR>

in about 10 years the professional color 35mm market will dry up and be replaced by digital<BR>

in less than 15 years 5x7 chrome will go next<BR>

in over 10 years medium format will become very expensive in color (rev. or chrome) but not prohibitivly for high paying commercial work.<BR> Medium format will be almost entirely a professional format.<BR>

in over 15 years medium format color will be rare, most pros will shoot digital<BR>

About the same time 4x5 color (or at least reversal) will be unavailable (maybe)<BR>

in about 20 years 35mm will be replaced by digital entirely<BR>

In less than 30 years silver film will be obsolete for commercial photography uses<BR>

In 50 years silver photography will be an alternative process<P>

 

That is assuming that digital prices will go down at the same rate as i predict the decline of film, which, at this rate would be impossible. I'd imagine that they will though.<P>

 

I don't think it's an issue that digital will never be as good as film, atleast objectivly. However, subjective taste will likely always permit some silver market. For me, all I want is better contrast and shadow/hilight detail and better noise management at higher speeds and then I'd be happy to switch.<P>

 

As far as paper goes, I seriously doubt that there will not be a need for silver paper in the next 50 years, as i do not predict that inkjet will ever be as good as silver, and i think that there will always be photographers that feel the same, though, output to photo paper will not be as inexpensive as it is now. And for extremely large output, LightJet is still cheaper than inkjet if you shop around.

[feli]

Anno-

 

I think those are some pretty solid predictions.

 

I estimate that in less than 5 years from now, digital will have beat 35mm in

resolution etc. The Canon 1ds is very close.

But frankly I, and many others, will continue to shoot black and white film, because to

me it's not just about benchmarks. My Leicas are plenty sharp and I simply get more

enjoyment out of using them, than a digital camera. I like playing with chemicals and

printing in the darkroom and that's coming from someone who makes his living

doing digital image manipulation. I don't think I will live to see the death of b/w film,

but it sure isn't going to be as dirt cheap as it is today.

 

Cheers,

 

Feli

[stephen_w.]

It isn't all about mere resolution. There are many more aspects to photography. You want pure resolution, go use an 8X10 camera and contact print.

[sk_arts]

Steve, no kidding! I think that that is a result of digital camera manufacterers pumping up what they CAN fix, resolution, and completely neglecting the stats on the things that they cannot fix [easily], like dynamic range.

 

Try going to Canon and looking up the dynamic range of whatever their highest end DSLR is, I bet you'll never find it.

 

However, I think that the dynamic range issue will be adressed when the resolution is roughly similar to film. If they never adress the issue of overall quality (which at the moment isn't much better than video) then film will forever have it's place.

[jsbc]

Jeff Spirer - unlike you I love medium format and Leicas but ...

 

I believe film will go the way of the panda (rather than the dodo) in 5 years. I think it will be inferior to digital, prohibitly expensive, and a pain to get it printed and developed.

 

People are already complaining how hard it is to get Kodachromes developed. Well, I think it will be worse for film in 5 years.

[sk_arts]

It is going to be a LONG LONG LONG LONG time before digital comes close to the resolution of medium format. Commercial photographers will likely ditch film before that point for most applications.

 

The smallest of the medium formats, 645, has a rough (and I stress rough) equivilent to 9000x6750, or, 60.75 megapixel!

 

note: This is factored using the 4,000 grains per inch of generic 100 ISO film exposed at middle grey. In reality it is not possible to make this conversion, but most agree that this is as accurate a conversion you can make. I personally think it's a little bit liberal.