Randyfrieder Loc: Long Island, New York

All my Hasselblads, Nikons, and Alpas are on historic display. I do still fondel them and exercise their shutters.[/quote]

As are mine!!

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Your not gonna hear much news about film making a comeback besides, it never really disappeard and camera companies don't want you to know that.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Other than some people here at the Hog, I know no one who shill shoots film, or wants to do so.
If if never really disappeared, why did Kodak divest?
Is there a "Film Underground" somewhere?
Is it going to return one day and just take over?
Why did they take my Kodachrome away?

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I have sold all my film cameras and darkroom equipment, and I'm not looking back. I spent many years shooting B&W film and developing and printing it myself. I tried color darkroom work, but I didn't much like it, as I felt I didn't have as much control over color as I did B&W tonality. With digital I did have very precise control over color and have been exploring that. Many of the people who are going back to film, or trying it for the first time, are just scanning the film. I can't see the point of that. I don't think digital B&W can compare to the quality of a darkroom silver print, and the only way I would go back to film is if I wanted to shoot, process and print my own B&W film again. But I'm very happy doing digital color.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Check out Photrio, or rangefinder forum, or Leica forum, Hasselblad forum, or many others. It's a niche market, but it's still there and growing.

Search film photography on YouTube and you will, literally, get more than 10,000 hits. The vast majority of them are produced by folks far younger than the average age of participants here. It's in the same renaissance that vinyl records and hand made artisanal everything are experiencing. For the first time in years, new films and darkroom gear are being made. And the target market is a lot younger than I am.

Why are there no high end film cameras being made? you may ask. Well, the supply of used gear still exceeds the demand. But check what's happening to prices on eBay or other auction sites. Prices of the more recent and usable gear - 35mm and medium format alike - are rising faster than the Dow in a bubble. The consumables have already developed a new market, and young consumers are ready to pay the higher prices that the smaller market demands. The availability of cheap, high quality scanners has sent many of us to a hybrid workflow - from negative to Post processing software, to digital printing, so producing printed images is a lot easier and cheaper than it used to be.

Eventually, I think, some camera maker will find a way to produce a high end 35mm SLR at a price the market will bear. Film photography will always be a niche market, confined mostly to artists rather than commercial photographers, but it's a growing market and a young one. I go to shows and the occasional workshop at the Vermont Center for Photography, just down the road from me. They also run a second hand photo store and rent darkroom space (very cheaply if you're a member). Local colleges run many film photography classes, and they fill up quickly. At the film-oriented Photo Historical Society of New England shows (giant flea market plus workshops) every spring, millennials outnumber boomers by an increasing margin. The show attracts hundreds of participants, and is growing in size.

It's kind of ironic that in the near future, you may find that the "digital only" shooters are primarily middle aged and older.

Oh, and they took your Kodachrome away because the process used too many hazmats that could not be safely reused or recycled.

Andy

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Nice try, your trying to make this sound like this is some kind of mysterious conspiracy for film taking over digital photography. You might not know anyone personally who is shooting film, I know 2 photographers who shoot film and digital... is there anything wrong with that? Oh, and you might want to call them part of the "Film Underground" and who said anyone wants film to take over anyway? It's just another way to take pictures.

Let me put your mind at ease, don't be concerned there's some kind of conspiracy going on here, it's just photographers who like to shoot film as well as digital...why did they take your Kodachrome away? Another nice try.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Here's just one sign of that growth...

www.emulsive.org/articles/news/good-news-kodaks-film-business-grew-21-percent-in-q3-2019

Do you suppose any DSLR sales grew by 21% last quarter? Someone is buying all that film.

Andy

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

I think the DSLR market as become pretty much saturated, and at the prices of the most popular DSLRs, fewer and fewer enthusiast users are ready to trade or sell their current cameras for the latest and greatest. The problem with reaching this plateau will probably be lesser innovation in smaller increments and new features as the sales volume won't be able to support the cost of such improvements.

Stan

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

No, you are inferring the conspiracy.
Some people still like film, many do not.

BTW - When does anyone think wet plates may come back?

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

I think you're probably right on that score. High end cameras are a shrinking market as the quality of phone cameras improve by leaps and bounds, and the bridge market is now totally given over to phone cams.

But film cameras are a niche market, and a growing one, especially among millennials. It will be the domain of artists and craftspeople, but there just might be enough of them for it to survive.

Andy

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Wet plates are already back, where'v you been?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Shooting digital, where else?

Harl-Man

Reading all these various posts has brought me many good memories, I guess what many of us have in common is treasuring the things that peaked our interest in our younger days.
I always seem to drift toward the old items that are no longer used but were the mainstay of my upbringing.
Our own sons and now our grandchildren can’t see why I’d stop and mention that an old car has a four barrel carb on it when it was originally sold with a two barrel, or that old tractor over there was started with a hand crank and you had to pull the choke and set the throttle rod before you cranked it, that it got its spark from a magneto and didn’t have a battery or generator. And my dad had me plowing a ten acre field on such a tractor by myself at age 12.
They consider us old, even ancient I guess but someday they’ll face their own children and grandchildren who think they’re old and ancient too.
Many thanks for all your replies and my best to all of my fellow veterans.
Harley