Film Lives!
The advent of digital photography killed off 35mm and most medium format film usage as snap shooters and wedding photographers found it far easier to look at the LCD to see if they ò€˜got the shotò€™ rather than running to the lab and waiting a week for prints. Industry pundits confidently predicted the total elimination of film from the photographic process-but it hasnò€™t worked out that way.Granted, the available film stock has been drastically reduced, but there is a sizable and growing cadre of shooters willing and able to support film producers such as Ilford and Fuji going forward. Why is this so?
The photographic community is not monolithic, although itò€™s hard to see this when all you look at is the mass-market appeal of digital equipment. But going beyond that you have a diverse group of folks to consider. There are those who are flat out in love with wet chemistry and want to carry on with a variety of current and vintage processes. APUG.org (Analog Photography Users Group) is dedicated to this market segment and now has 33,000 dues paying members world wide. It boasts active forums on such topics as film and chemistry, printing and all related topics.
Then there are those who employ a variety of camera systems which simply donò€™t accept digital backs, or do so only at a huge penalty of cost and weight. As an example, there are literally hundreds of thousands of Hassleblad medium format systems using film. Oh sure, you can step up to digital in this realm but youò€™d better be willing to fork over $25,000 for the basic kit. Thanks, but a $4 roll of film sounds more workable.
Finally, there is the group of people who use 4x5ò€ and larger format cameras. There are some things that only a bellows camera can accomplish and considering costs and weight, film is the hands-down winner. Again, there is a digital imaging back for the 4x5, but it costs about $20,000 and is basically suited to studio use only. The market for this gadget is microscopic and will probably remain so for some time.
The simplistic view holds that new technology sweeps all before it in a relentless and irresistible tide, wiping out all prior techniques and methods along the way. But when the older stuff still has value, it survives.