Re: How much longer can photographic film hold on?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- At Image City Photography Gallery, Gary Thompson delights in pointing out qualities of light, contrast and clarity in one of his best-selling prints - a winter-sunset view of Yosemite National Park's El Capitan peak shot with a hefty Pentax film camera he bought in 1999 for $1,700.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/05/31/2409032/how-much-longer-can-photographic.html

I have four film cameras I stopped using mainly because it's $9 per roll to develop (I've taken close to 6,000 photos since Christmas). I have five digital cameras of which three I use regularly and one (my dslr) I use 95 percent of the time.Kind of weird to now think of film cameras as a "luxury" relatively speaking, my developing can and enlarger are going to continue to gather dust for the foreseeable future, I found 8.5x11 digital prints hanging on the wall just as fine as any film prints.

The process is still unique and the results are sometimes quite different, so that will keep it alive as a niche. However, for most practical uses film is pretty much dead. Hopefully people can start looking it as two different markets rather than competing markets. There's a place for both technologies, especially when things such as slide film are considered.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/dqniel/

I'm waiting for the day when I can get a digital back for my 4x5 field camera that gives me 100megapixels and costs $500.

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hotrod4x5
I'm waiting for the day when I can get a digital back for my 4x5 field camera that gives me 100megapixels and costs $500.

As am I!

When I first began working for a color lab in Dallas the E-4 process was still used for Ektachrome. That was a few years back.

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Louis
When I first began working for a color lab in Dallas the E-4 process was still used for Ektachrome. That was a few years back.

I remember processing E-4 at home. Had to hold it up to a bright light at one point in the process.

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eeek

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Louis
When I first began working for a color lab in Dallas the E-4 process was still used for Ektachrome. That was a few years back.

I remember processing E-4 at home. Had to hold it up to a bright light at one point in the process.

The first roll of Ektachrome I processed at home was shot on a Hasselblad 500C and I remember I used a photoflood for reversal exposure. I'm not certain but I think the process at that time was E-3, which had some really nasty chemicals in it. Considering all the years I worked with various photographic chemistry I'm surprised my skin didn't fall off.

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Louis

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eeek

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Louis
When I first began working for a color lab in Dallas the E-4 process was still used for Ektachrome. That was a few years back.

I remember processing E-4 at home. Had to hold it up to a bright light at one point in the process.

The first roll of Ektachrome I processed at home was shot on a Hasselblad 500C and I remember I used a photoflood for reversal exposure. I'm not certain but I think the process at that time was E-3, which had some really nasty chemicals in it. Considering all the years I worked with various photographic chemistry I'm surprised my skin didn't fall off.

You're right, it was E-3 I was doing at the time. E-4 was just E-3 with a chemical reversal exposed IIRC.

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eeek

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Louis

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eeek

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Louis
When I first began working for a color lab in Dallas the E-4 process was still used for Ektachrome. That was a few years back.

I remember processing E-4 at home. Had to hold it up to a bright light at one point in the process.

The first roll of Ektachrome I processed at home was shot on a Hasselblad 500C and I remember I used a photoflood for reversal exposure. I'm not certain but I think the process at that time was E-3, which had some really nasty chemicals in it. Considering all the years I worked with various photographic chemistry I'm surprised my skin didn't fall off.

You're right, it was E-3 I was doing at the time. E-4 was just E-3 with a chemical reversal exposed IIRC.

Dye stability wasn't very good in those days.

Rick, we're really showing our age in this discussion.

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Louis
Rick, we're really showing our age in this discussion.

True, but I'm still younger than the OD.

I seem to recall E6 as the process for slide film. What's E4?

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hotrod4x5
I seem to recall E6 as the process for slide film. What's E4?

E3 and E4 were the previous slide film processes. They were replaced by E6 sometime around 1976.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-4_process