Here on the Mass northern coast I find that sales of B&W film are as good as ever and I can buy it locally at several retailers. The art community here of course is very strong and almost all major colleges, community colleges, and even high schools have a strong art program as well as photography courses. T-Max and Ilford films are very hot items actually and the retailers are hard put to keep enough on the shelves at times. In many cases for art degrees B&W photography is required. Electronic cameras that have manual capability are more accepted then before, but still discouraged in favor of all manual models. Digital Photography classes on the other hand are very basic, rare, and are not usually given any credits.
If for no other reason then B&W film, film based equipment will still have good usage for years to come I suspect. The do-it-yourself trend in America is strongly imbedded in a good share of us. If we could make our own film, there would be those that would be extremely attracted to the idea of this. Shutting the doors of processing labs etc., could start a whole new trend and market here. The future of film doesn't have to be grim, but rather a sort of new beginning even especially as a regenerated art form. I recently ran across a traveling blacksmith at a local cafe. He was raking in the $$$ and had more work then he knew what to do with. The brand new 1-ton dually pickup and trailer outside sort of supported that claim. I find him a perfect example of if there is a market, someone will do it! Thanks to the efficiency of delivery services these days, we won't have to drive all over the place to find that distributor though. Thanks to the internet that distributor won't have to work that hard to make it known they have your product available whether it be in China or Brazil. If I have to buy an entire brick of film to justify the order rather then 2 rolls, that's not the end of the world. If Pentax goes under, most your major investment is in lenses anyways right? Never fear, someone, somewhere will make you an adaptor to put it on a different brand camera. That or better yet someone will make a camera that fully supports your lenses. I still think a full frame DSLR is in the future and might well become the norm at some point. Simple physics dictates that bigger is better. There are just too many k-mount lenses out there to ignore their complete compatibility. There is a market obviously, someone will do it at a reasonably affordable price. My point is hitting the panic button and bailing out of your current equipment isn't really very logical. The indicated rate of technological improvement only really dooms your current digital equipment to being worth nothing very soon. Film equipment is still likely to be a better investment and hold it's value long term as it has for many years. Sure we're going to see some ups and downs there, but not nearly as drastic as digital. How much would you give for a 1.3 Mp digital camera today. Hmmmmm...only a short while ago you paid out a bunch for it huh? Percentage wise how much did your film equipment change value in the same period? From what I'm reading not that many of those on this list really want to go digital just to have the digital advantages, but rather because they are afraid of getting stuck with a bunch of fancy paperweights. I don't blame you as we are all victims of the digital promoters scheme. However what will really happen is a big question and as long as I'm willing to process my own film my current equipment isn't doomed to collecting dust. Home based processing equipment manufacturers may likely be gearing up to meet the demand even. For those of you that have never seen or tried what even a 35mm negative can do in an enlarger I strongly encourage you to experience this as there is so much there that digital cannot begin to render correctly. Until you have experienced this you cannot compare film to digital either IMHO. An at home lab is not quite as fast as digital, but is 2 hours all that important? Dave > -----Original Message----- > From: graywolf [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 1:32 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Film vs Digita, was: lRe: Pentax is Dying? > > > Bill, we understand your worry. Your job is on the line. I would > suggest your > local government agency that retrains folks for new jobs, except > that from my > experience they will only retrain you for another obsolete about > to go down the > drain of progress job. > > Something to think about though, there are still blacksmiths out > there, still > making a living. > >
