Film on it's last breaths?

At least as a physician you have access to chemicals. If you need a darkroom fix, you can sniff a bottle of acetic acid. Vinegar works too, but it's just not as potent.

I have all my darkroom equipment neatly packed away for my kids to throw out after I die. I'll never use it again, but I can't make myself get rid of it.

As for passport photos, those are going digital too.

Tom

 

Passport photos will finally be higher quality! Digital to anrchival paper and ink. Done in an instant. Honestly I can't believe that it has taken this long. Looks like film will have company with vinyl LP's, VHS tapes and gasoline cars.

 

There is a publication called Arizona Highways that accepts photo submissions almost exclusively in 4X5 format, and very reluctantly in 35mm format. Shots so taken can be submitted in digital format, however.

 

A sad day indeed it will when film is no longer. The first camera I ever bought I still love to this day, Canon EOS Elan 1993. In 2004 I dropped it for the last time from a chair and "upgraded" to digital with the Canon EOS Rebel Digital. There are things the Elan can do that the digital can't. I haven't reasearched much but I still think it'll do more than higher priced digital counterparts.

For instance:
10 shot multiple exposures
3 frames per second continuous shooting, digital has a higher rate but can only hold 4 in the buffer before it has to start loading and then you're down to maybe 1 frame per 2 seconds.
Second Shuttler Flash, oh how I miss that feature. Below is the perfect example of why 2nd shuttler flash is so cool to use

B/W has a little too much stank on it but I don't I think could have made those shots with the digital. The flash would bleed out the fireif the flash came first.

Oh well, sad day indeed....

 

i spend at least 2 hours a week in a dark room. but that's x-ray film

 

But they are still very picky and would rather have the 4x5, I can't say how many times I send the same 4x5s with some 35 & 4/5 times they go with the 4x5s. Even having a high end digital, they go with the others. I'll be sad to see film go. I used to LOVE my 4x5, but it's just too bulky for anything I do these days!

 

oh we have digital means to record these types of assays as well. currently the film is still cheap enough and the imager is expensive enough to keep most of us using film though. i just use a simple 8x10 sheet.

i'm working with a chemiluminescent substrate. exposing it to film provides my readouts. but tomorrow is the big decider whether this part of my project survives or if i'm through with darkrooms.

 

Casio is coming out with a fast new Digital camera (they announced it and showed it at CES- for about $1,000) with 1,200 frames per second..
"
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']EXILIM Pro EX-F1, with the world’s fastest* burst shooting performance[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']This model incorporates a high speed CMOS sensor and a high speed LSI processor. With this model, Casio has achieved an ultra-high speed 60 frames per second (fps) burst rate for still images, together with 1,200 fps high speed movie recording that captures movement faster than the eye can see for ultra-slow motion replay. Moreover, the new model can record movies at full High-Definition."[/FONT]

 

I still have my 35 mm but haven't used it in years. I even took a night class to really learn how to use it. But the cost of developing just went up and up. And I took a lot of pictures so I had a choice of best shots.

I like having prints and I like having photo albums I can flip through and look at. But I just can't beat the cost of digital. I only print the best and i can take as many as I like.

I've been putting off buying a really nice digital camera...a digital equivalent of my 35mm. I will eventually.

You can photoshop a lot. And some of it is really awesome. But there are some things that you can only do with a 35mm camera and print film.

When I heard about Poloroid I immediately thought of William Wegman. I guess maybe they'll still produce their niche stuff. At least for a while.

 

We were using all digital 15 years ago, but then it was coming from an MRI anyway, so why go to film. We did have a printer for those traditionalists that insisted on using a light box.

Tom

 

I haven't used my film cameras in years. The convenience of digital is just too overwhelming. Last year when I spent a month in China, I took over 2,600 digital photos. If I were limited to film, I probably wouldn't have taken more than 4 or 5 rolls of 36 exposure film.

But I must say, I'm only a "point and shoot" and "snapshots" guy. Any artistic or beautiful pictures I've taken have been 100% accidental. And in this regard, I think I took more artistic and beautiful photos with my point and shoot film cameras (including the disposable kind) than I've taken with my Canon Rebel digital SLR or my Lumix (with Leica len) digital point and shoot. For point and shooters, the difference between what film and digital cameras produce is a lot like the visual difference between, say "The Godfather" (film) and any daytime soap opera (video).

BTW, I've only bought one vinyl album in the last 10 years. But overall, vinyl albums sound better than CDs (at least during the first few plays -- before the scratches, pops and skips start appearing on the vinyl albums).

 

My Olympus OM1 remains unused for the last 5 or 6 years while I shall continue to favour Olympus digital cameras. One thing I hate about the current crop of compact digitals is the lack of an optical view finder on most. The rear screen isn't good as a view finder.

 

Do not under any circumstances get rid of the FM2n. I have an FM3 myself, and since Nikon has quit making them, I hope to be buried with mine.

Those are arguably the best 35mm's ever.

And not just film is going away. Paper too. As long as they don't go away completely, I'll be fine.

 

My $150 Canon A720IS has a feature they call second curtain flash sync. I just dabble in photography (a step up from snapshots), so I'm not sure if it's the same thing as your second shuttler flash, but it sounds similar.

I just jumped into the digital age this Christmas. This camera has so many modes it really helps the semi-serious amateur like myself. I can pick the snow mode instead of messing with f/stops, or indoor lighting mode, I think there's a night mode for flash-fill, but I haven't tested it very well yet. And of course, with a $40 GraphicConverter application on my Mac, I can fine-tune the white balance, edit red-eyes, crop, do all kinds of special editing. iPhoto is so much more convenient than boxes of photos waiting to go into an album.

I like doing most things the old-fashioned way, and resisted digital, but I've finally concluded this makes sense, just like cell-phones.

 

I use Kodachrome and it will be a very sad day when they stop producing the film or stop processing it.
This is an archival film unrivaled for sharpness and color rendition.
If digital ever gets to that level I'll embrace it.But I think they will need many more times the resolution .
I still have my grandfathers Kodachromes from the 40s and they are stunning.Much better than todays process.
Kodachrome projected looks better than reality.