I read a very interesting article in a photog mag last week (Amateur Photography I think) about the impending demise of film.

Bascially it said that although loads of people like the simplicity and cheapness of film, popping it in an envelope and getting your prints back, it is doomed to extinction because it is disgustingly expensive to produce.

Only a few firms produce film, as it requires very high tech, and clean environments to produce. One of the major players has already had to stop producing (was it Ilford?). So, as less people but it, the price has to go up to counter and and quickly we get into terminal decline.

Film prices have already risen between 5% and 17% depending on what you are buying.

Will it be long before film is a memory and nothing more?

Geezer

I'm sure it will still retain a niche, although maybe not in 35mm. Prices and range of film will reduce, with the cheaper stuff going first and the speciality films declining more slowly.

I think the main reason it is declining is people love the simplicity of being able to see the results instantly and print them at home, rather than having to send stuff away or take them to a shop for processing.

A sales guy in Jacobs Nottingham branch told us that SLR sales have more than doubled since the arrival of digital :eek:

I still use a lot of fuji 35mm colour neg. Price has just dropped in price at my supplier by 25p per roll with plenty of availability. Film is still the cheapest way for me to produce lots of good quality prints from events without spending days in photoshop.

I have 10 rolls if Illford here :D and 20 rolls of 120 on order :D :D

I do weddings Eos 5d and eos10d and eos 3 loaded with ilford delta......i go through 30 rolls a month...you still can't beat it for black and white prints....especially on double weight fibre based paper, total quality.......

There's room for both

That is not the argument though. Film is very expensive to produce, and as less people use it, it becomes more expensive.

The emerging eastern economies were seen as it's saviour, but due to very agrressive marketing by digital camera manufacturers, the take up of digital has been huge, and film has been left on the sideline.

Medium and large format will probably survive longer as it is already niche, but the economies of scale need to support 35mm will dwindle and die.

Even the larger formats may come under attack, as several studios already say that £35k for a Hasselblad back is well worth the invetsment compared to film costs.

The quality is there in digital now, and on a cost basis, there is no real argument to sta with film. The only one left is still for outright resolution (in large format only) and things like colour response and dynamic range. Even those are surely only a matter of time before digital equals or exceeds, look how far it has come in the past 5 years.

Geezer

Speciality films have already started disappearing - one of the ones that was favoured by astrophotographers (can't remember exactly which one, but it was made by Kodak) ceased being produced a couple of years ago.

Maybe I should start looking for a DSLR to replace my old SLR?

I reckon 35mm will keep going as a niche market, much like LP records have done. People with the equipment and the know-how to make the best of it will appreciate the 'look' of a well-executed film image, and even the simple tactile pleasure of handling films and prints.

There's also no digital substitute for a slide projector. On holiday a few years ago in Monument Valley I shot about 10 rolls of slide film - projected 6 feet across the images are spectacular, and there's no even remotely affordable digital projector that can replicate that.

However, my own experience of film was, for the most part, hobbled by the High St photo labs I, and 90% of other people, was using. Only once I bought my first DSLR did I realise just how good a photo could look, and how badly some of these labs were screwing them up. I used a proper professional lab a few times and the results were way better, but then I can't really stomach the cost. (That said, I've dropped four figure sums on DSLR bodies three times now - go figure!).

I suspect that, for most snappers, digital will offer much better quality than they've been used to as well as the convenience - just like CD did for music.

I reckon 35mm will keep going as a niche market, much like LP records have done. People with the equipment and the know-how to make the best of it will appreciate the 'look' of a well-executed film image, and even the simple tactile pleasure of handling films and prints.

I don't see how that can happen Andy. Large format film survives because studios and landscape photographers can justify the cost because of the returns they get on commercial work, so manufacturers can keep producing it and charging a good price for it. Still, even that position is precarious.

35mm however, is not generally used commercially now, most photo journalists are using digital, so who is going to pay high prices for a format that has little commercial return for them?

Development will cease too, why pour R&D into somethng hardly anyone buys?

I think the demise of film is very sad, but inevitable, but in years to come it will just be seen as a passing phase in imagery (such as glass plate ;) ).

Geezer

I've no idea what proportion of 35mm sales are (were?) accounted for by professionals vs amateurs. You may be right that 35mm isn't being used much professionally any more (or at least, that its use is in sharp decline), but in the amateur market I'm not so sure.

How many people must there be that only use a camera when they go on holiday, for whom the cost of entry into digital photography is neither necessary nor desirable?

People can't believe I still use 35mm film. Its only really that I'm lazy and the same workload would take a lot longer working digitally - certainly until I eventually invest in new computers and software. I get consistent good results at my lab who colour balance and check each print. If its not right, I send it back! I get a lot of 7"x5" d&p's done and working this way each 7"x5" print works out at fifteen and a half pence each. Thats including the cost of a 36 exp film.

Its also a real pleasure to pick up 35mm cameras after using a dslr for a few days.

You do need quite a production line to get the advantages of 35mm film processing. I have a B&W darkroom, but it's been in a box under the stairs since I moved house several years ago and I've never bothered to set it up again. My 'Digital Darkroom' is getting better, with RawShooter, DPP, Lightroom, CS2, iP8500 printer and my new 24" Dell LCD monitor :D :thumb:

I think Large Format film will survive as the equivalent to 'Audiophile vinyl' and 35mm film will eventually cease to be economic to produce.

Its also a real pleasure to pick up 35mm cameras after using a dslr for a few days.

I've tried using my EOS 50E, loaded with Velvia, but I always look at the back of it after every shot for some reason ;)