----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Walkden" Subject: Re: What do you think?
> I take a different view. Consumer photography, and probably most > professional photography, will quickly become exclusively digital, > for all intents and purposes. Film photography is likely to be more > like B&W has been for the last 40 years - a niche for enthusiasts. The > film that will be available will be a low volume / high margin product > available from specialist outlets, and processed at a small number of > labs who cater for enthusiasts. Much like Kodachrome and Scala > (although they happen to be the cheapest films for me). It will be expensive, > but high quality because the enthusiasts will only want high quality. Processing availablity will be the killer for colour negative film, as you say. As film volumes start to drop, players will start to get out of the processing game. They won't have any choice. Processors require a certain minimum volume of product to maintain chemical control, and once that minimum volume is no longer being met, it is no longer viable to offer the service. As the number of labs offering film processing diminishes, more consumers will go to digital out of either necessity or convenience. This has the potential to snowball very quickly, especially since the processing industry would be quite happy if film went away for good, and is actively behind bringing digital to the masses as quickly as they can sign lease agreements. > > > On a positive note, I think quality black & white film will remain a > > viable niche market. > > I took some Tri-X to a local professional lab a few weeks ago and they > more or less laughed at me. They hadn't processed any for 3 years. Yet > I can still get it done at Snappy Snaps, and to a far higher standard > - especially 'contact' prints - than I ever got from any pro lab in the > past. I can also get very high quality colour 'contacts'. They're not > literally contact prints, but digitally-produced index prints laid out & > sized like a contact print, but every frame is perfectly exposed. In Canada, it is almost impossible to get quality black and white processing unless you live in one of about half a dozen major cities. Most everything goes to Qualux Canada, who the last time I heard, was shipping the stuff to a lab in Paramus, New Jersey, though they said they were setting up a processing facility in Halifax for it. Around here, black and white now means chromogenic. I think there are still a couple of stores that stock black and white film and slide film with any sort of selection, but thats about all. What will save black and white (if it is, in fact in any danger) is that digital doesn't support it very well, and it is still very viable for the home user to do the labour. Colour film isn't so simple to process at home, and digital does an adequate job of replacing it for the vast majority of consumers, who don't really care what is going on in their camera as long as they can get pictures easily. William Robb
