For anyone interested even only marginally in film photography, this is an absolute must-read!
Published by Steven Dowling of Kosmo-Photo fame, it is a very precise and comprehensive overview of the state of film photography, it’s future and it’s challenges. And well-written too.
Do yourself a favour and read it all:
And thanks for visiting!
Frank Lehnen Photography 
Thanks Frank and Happy New Year!
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Happy new one to you!
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The first part of his piece reminded me of a Bing Crosby song.
#I’ll be home for Christmas time…
If only in my dreams#
It’s really economies of scale and a question of demand. People won’t buy film because they see it’s “expensive” in the shops. Having said that I don’t think it’s any more expensive than it ever has been. They won’t buy film cameras because they’re not into developing it themselves to keep it cheap when they can “take better pictures on their iPhone” (you know what I mean!) and get an instant thrill without having to wait.
The (camera) shops won’t sell it because there’s not enough profit in it to make it worth stocking, especially if they don’t deal in cameras that can use it. There’s more profit on selling a customer a digital camera that will be “out of date” in a couple of years. As for manufacturers, they are only interested in profit because they are in a competitive market. Small concerns can only make a return by buying it in bulk from bigger concerns because it needs expensive equipment (and patents) to make it.
I therefore conclude that the market for film is the professional photographer and the enthusiastic hobbyist.
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True, an economy of scale, a niche market. But to take the analogy to vinyl records, today there’s dozens of companies producing quality record players (again). Vinyl is growing at double digit percentages each year.
Why won’t this happen with cameras? We are quite early in the re-emergence of film I think and if the trend holds, there will be new cameras. Not only from Lomography but also from NiCanon and certainly some new projects.
But like vinyl it will stay a niche market… and that’s OK for me.
And right again, film has never been as cheap as now! It’s just that compared to digital (not taking into account the constant camera buying cycle) film might SEEM expensive depending on how much you shoot and what your intentions are. Any hobby costs money.
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