[alt-photo] film and unused posts

[Diana Bloomfield]

Hey Judy,

Thanks for the generosity on your unused posts.  I see, though,  
scrolling through my email here, that you've made a couple of more  
posts since this one, so I hope that doesn't mean you're now taking  
back what you just gave to me--  because, if not, then I'll just have  
to point out that you may actually be reaching your quota right about  
now . . . you know, just saying.

About film . . . I will say that I think it will continue to be made  
(and easy enough to purchase)--  until they start making medium format  
digital cameras that are affordable to the average consumer.  They  
could do that now, but they won't.  So until that becomes a reality,  
I'm guessing film for medium and large format cameras will be here for  
a while.  That's my  thinking, and my last thought (and post) for the  
day. :)

Diana
On Mar 23, 2010, at 11:15 PM, Judy Seigel wrote:

>
> I think the comment about "sustainable market" for film may miss the  
> point. As long as the folks (note, please, polite term for relics,  
> or fossils, or --- ----s) who learned photography with film and  
> still use it, remain active, the "market" for film may well be  
> "sustainable" in some form or other.
>
> But when the time comes (if not already here) that students learning  
> photography learn digital -- and film is only a specialty or relic  
> (maybe with a film-making "list" on line) as, odds are, it will  
> be... there will be a dwindling unto collapse of that "market."  It  
> may not happen in our life times, and we can be thankful for that,  
> but it will happen.
>
> Then, perhaps, folks will learn to coat some flexible material with  
> a silver solution (as we learned to coat a sheet of paper with, for  
> instance, gum bichromate solution) and make "alternate photographs"  
> with old style "film," but..... where is the market for buggy whips  
> nowadays (other than antique stores) ? Is there a factory still  
> making them? (not to mention that roll cameras would also go out of  
> production).
>
> And here I mostly guess, tho I daresay someone on this list will  
> know more, if not all:  It's my understanding that the making and  
> use of film and analog photo products are environmentally grievous  
> (for instance I remember list discussion of problems for folks with  
> septic tanks in disposing of their solutions). Is it possible that  
> digital photography will be considerably less troublesome ?
>
> Judy