Film is fast disappearing where I live

Hektor · May 24, 2012

Admittedly, I have not shot any film in the past 4 or 5 years, but when I went out in the past couple of days to seek out film and film products, I could find very little. This is a town of 45,000 or so and there used to be places to get film processed but no more. Kind of sad, I think. I ordered slide film and mailers from B&H already, but I was just curious. I checked in one store which used to be a stalwart photo place and the clerk had no clue what slide film was. I need a camera neck strap for my Minolta 35 I just bought, but I ended up getting through the mail.

dxqcanada · May 24, 2012

Yup, happening everywhere.
Went to get some darkroom stuff at Henry's ... I could not find it in the store ... guy pointed to a couple of small shelves behind the counter !!
Film was in a very small wine cooler.

I ordered 75% of my film stuff online ... and mostly from the US.

Hektor · May 24, 2012

It is getting bad when Good Will has better camera stuff than the photo stores do...

BlackSheep · May 24, 2012

dxqcanada said:
Yup, happening everywhere.
Went to get some darkroom stuff at Henry's ... I could not find it in the store ... guy pointed to a couple of small shelves behind the counter !!
Film was in a very small wine cooler.

I ordered 75% of my film stuff online ... and mostly from the US.

And what Dxq forgot to mention was that the wine cooler wasn't plugged in --- warm film, ugh! (I was there with him)
Henrys used to be THE go-to place around here for film & equipment, now they are digital only. Sad to see.

bhop · May 24, 2012

I sometimes forget how lucky I am to live within walking distance from Freestyle Photo. I feel for you guys..

Solarflare · May 25, 2012

Well, digital IS closing on chemical ... I am living in a city of 100k people and I dont think any place is left where you can still develop good old chemical photos.

vcustoms · May 25, 2012

Solarflare said:
Well, digital IS closing on chemical ... I am living in a city of 100k people and I dont think any place is left where you can still develop good old chemical photos.

I live in new jersey about 20 minutes from NYC. I only have found one place that will develop b&w but it's $12.50 a roll and it's not even a big store like unique photo, it's a little old lady in a small camera store.

gsgary · May 25, 2012

vcustoms said:
I live in new jersey about 20 minutes from NYC. I only have found one place that will develop b&w but it's $12.50 a roll and it's not even a big store like unique photo, it's a little old lady in a small camera store.

Probably better than a big camera shop

slackercruster · May 25, 2012

OP, yes the trend is down and out for film.

Overread · May 25, 2012

Eh I think down and specialist for film - I don't think it will die off fully. Most schools/unis still run a dark room and I think film has enough romance attached to it that it will survive. It will just shift from being sold behind the counter to being a mail order affair.

2WheelPhoto · May 25, 2012

I still enjoy my old film cams too, but yeah the technology is fading.

Powering lamps with kerosene is on the decline too, but if someone wants to do it bad enough there will always be lamps and fuel available

Lamplight Farms 12-1/2-Inch Prince Charles Kerosene Oil Lamp on eBay!

gsgary · May 25, 2012

slackercruster said:
OP, yes the trend is down and out for film.

The quote above is rubbish

Mot · May 25, 2012

Overread said:
Eh I think down and specialist for film - I don't think it will die off fully. Most schools/unis still run a dark room and I think film has enough romance attached to it that it will survive. It will just shift from being sold behind the counter to being a mail order affair.

Unfortunately a lot of universities, while they still have dark rooms where you can go and process your black and white film, lots have actually stopped developing C41 and E6 in-house. Generally the film gets sent off every week to the few remaining labs that we have around here. Just in the past 6 months Farnell's Lab in Lancaster shut down and the only places left in the North are in Newcastle and Manchester. Even in London you can be hard pressed to find somewhere that develops slide film!

Helen B · May 25, 2012

The trend in film sales isn't down at the moment, so it certainly isn't out. We're still shooting large format film commercially, and have no plans to stop. Plustek say that they are close to releasing a dedicated 35 mm and 120 film scanner that outperforms the Nikon 9000, so they must think that the market will remain - and the existence of such a scanner will help, of course.

Even in NYC there can be short-term problems getting some types of film, so we keep our own stock of the films we use and replenish them in good time - usually by buying mail order from B&H, Calumet, Freestyle or Badger. It's still easy to find good E-6, C-41 and B&W processing for all formats here, though there are fewer labs than there were, and some of the remaining ones have become unreliable.

Solarflare · May 25, 2012

gsgary said:
slackercruster said:

OP, yes the trend is down and out for film.

Click to expand...

The quote above is rubbish

Film still has substantial and huge advantages over digital. But for average people who just want to have photographs of their daily events, film just has nothing to offer. With digital you can make photographs easier, faster, cheaper, and you dont have to visit a photoshop at all unless you also want a physical copy.