While I don't doubt that the film market is contracting
significantly, I wonder if it will quickly go away. Here's some
anecdotal evidence, for what it's worth.
I shoot film, so I have spent time finding the best/cheapest places
to get my film processed and printed: Sam's Club, several grocery
chains, Wolf/Ritz Camera, and a couple of pro labs. In every case,
the labs are busy busy busy. I know some chunk of their business is
printing digital images, but the processing machines always seem to
be going full blast, the racks of envelopes containing completed
rolls are filled, and they don't seem to be lacking for business.
There's always a line of people dropping off 35mm canisters.
At one nearby supermarket that does a decent job, a customer can get
double 4 X 6 glossy prints, with a CD of digitzed images, for 7.99.
If they don't get it done in an hour, it's free. So, in practical
terms for snappers who want family photos, film is still pretty cheap
and easy, and the CD makes the images as easy to share as digital.
At this same store, they regularly put film on sale, and I've been
able to pick up multipacks of Fuji color print film 200 and 400 for
as little as 75 cents a roll.
I've noticed, too, that at family gatherings, there is more interest
in passing around prints than there is in looking at images on a
monitor.
Film might disappear from these retail outlets in the blink of an
eye. But maybe not. In the meantime, many people still find film
very cheap and fun to use.
*UncaMikey
