Is 35mm a popular thing now?!

[Bender Blues]

Read a few weeks ago about some people taking up 35mm again, I'm 50 and well... I have a few higher end 35mm cameras and lenses that have sat in the dark for over a decade or more.

 

Just wondering because why keep them when they could be sold and find a new home.

 

TY!

[LapsedMemory]

5 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

Read a few weeks ago about some people taking up 35mm again, I'm 50 and well... I have a few higher end 35mm cameras and lenses that have sat in the dark for over a decade or more.

 

Just wondering because why keep them when they could be sold and find a new home.

 

TY!

It's apparently enough of a thing that Kodak has started to hire people to manufacture higher volumes of film.  

[Origami Cactus]

Film been pretty popular for the past decade or so. Every few years there is a huge resurgence that brings the price up, and then it calms again.

So if it is popular in your area currently, why not sell them?

[Bender Blues]

7 minutes ago, LapsedMemory said:

It's apparently enough of a thing that Kodak has started to hire people to manufacture higher volumes of film.  

Didn't know that!

6 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

Film been pretty popular for the past decade or so. Every few years there is a huge resurgence that brings the price up, and then it calms again.

So if it is popular in your area currently, why not sell them?

This makes sense. I remember seeing it three years ago too. But it must be like you said, calms down and then becomes a fad of sorts for a few months.

Cheers!

[Takumidesh]

It seems trendy, just like vinyl records being trendy a few years back.

 

I'm personally done with shooting anything on film haha. Who wants to spend a bunch of time and money developing photos only to realize that you half exposed all the film before you even put it into the camera!

 

I think I am even over DLSRs, seems like digital mirrorless is just as good for anyone but the most experienced photographers.

[GDRRiley]

I don't think its a trend outside of those teens who buy cheap disposables, while I don't shoot it thats mostly because I've really enjoyed fujis digital color science

If you don't want them I'd list them for sale or find a place that will buy them

[Imbadatnames]

It’s just hipsters. The same people who starting buying vinyls years ago to use as wall decor 

[wseaton]

Hipsters gonna hip.

 

I used to work in commercial darkrooms when I got out of high-school and shot freelance for a few years.

 

Here's the stupid thing about film. 35mm sucks. Most commercial pros shot medium format or large format. I shot 6x7. Only used 35mm for sports.

 

Unless you have a darkroom what are you going to do with that 35mm film.? You will then want it scanned. A film scanner is a digital camera that takes digital pictures of film. Why not just take digital pictures of the original scene? Duh.

 

 

[Imbadatnames]

14 minutes ago, wseaton said:

Hipsters gonna hip.

 

I used to work in commercial darkrooms when I got out of high-school and shot freelance for a few years.

 

Here's the stupid thing about film. 35mm sucks. Most commercial pros shot medium format or large format. I shot 6x7. Only used 35mm for sports.

 

Unless you have a darkroom what are you going to do with that 35mm film.? You will then want it scanned. A film scanner is a digital camera that takes digital pictures of film. Why not just take digital pictures of the original scene? Duh.

 

 

Cos that’s not “Cool” or “Retro” 

 

Tbh I wouldn’t mind a Polaroid but that’s a little different.

[wseaton]

There are still some analog processes that can't be replicated by digital. I used to do a lot of large format printing, and we had a client that shot 4x5 corporate head shots, and we optically printed those to fiber based black and white paper by hand. Those shot were incredible. Tonality was almost 3-dimensional and nothing I've been able to replicate with digital. A lot of that however is due to the high density range of classic darkroom room materials. Lots of silver that nobody minded if you flushed down the drain.I played around with carbon based inkjet printing, but it was a pain. 

 

Oddly film photography from the early 1900's to the mid century was much better than later film based photography where formats shrunk. Classic example is Russell Lee's post depression era work. You can see every pore and piece of grit in his images, and that's because 35mm wasn't a thing. Example:

https://www.shorpy.com/node/26768?size=_original#caption

[atliss]

On 11/7/2022 at 10:17 AM, wseaton said:

There are still some analog processes that can't be replicated by digital. I used to do a lot of large format printing, and we had a client that shot 4x5 corporate head shots, and we optically printed those to fiber based black and white paper by hand. Those shot were incredible. Tonality was almost 3-dimensional and nothing I've been able to replicate with digital. A lot of that however is due to the high density range of classic darkroom room materials. Lots of silver that nobody minded if you flushed down the drain.I played around with carbon based inkjet printing, but it was a pain.

This.

 

I shoot on 35mm yet, my thinking is: If i'm gonna shoot manual anyways, why not use an older camera.

Def a different feel on analog vs digital.

[Yash Atishay]

On 10/22/2022 at 1:05 AM, Bender Blues said:

Read a few weeks ago about some people taking up 35mm again, I'm 50 and well... I have a few higher end 35mm cameras and lenses that have sat in the dark for over a decade or more.

 

Just wondering because why keep them when they could be sold and find a new home.

 

TY!

Yes 35MM film photography is a thing again, it's apparently having a renaissance. Am 26 and I've been shooting film for the last year. There are apparently some new companies that are born which make these films and cameras, though many of them are just buying film from Kodak and repackaging and marketing it but hey that means there's demand. If you are interested in shipping your gear to Mumbai, India and go through all the headache that might come with it, feel free to message me and I would love to see what gear you have and how much you want for it

[Guyg69]

Hell yes just look at the new film stocks from film photography project kodak even is still selling lots of film stocks.

[Imbadatnames]

On 12/22/2022 at 8:18 PM, Yash Atishay said:

Yes 35MM film photography is a thing again, it's apparently having a renaissance. Am 26 and I've been shooting film for the last year. There are apparently some new companies that are born which make these films and cameras, though many of them are just buying film from Kodak and repackaging and marketing it but hey that means there's demand. If you are interested in shipping your gear to Mumbai, India and go through all the headache that might come with it, feel free to message me and I would love to see what gear you have and how much you want for it

Do you also wear a sock hat, checked shirts and collect vinyl? 

[Yash Atishay]

15 minutes ago, Imbadatnames said:

Do you also wear a sock hat, checked shirts and collect vinyl? 

haha I don't wear a sock hat or collect Vinyl, since am not an audiophile and couldn't appreciate the better quality that Vinyl is supposed to bring. However am a photographer and I can appreciate what film brings to the table, the process, the commitment etc

[Imbadatnames]

5 minutes ago, Yash Atishay said:

haha I don't wear a sock hat or collect Vinyl, since am not an audiophile and couldn't appreciate the better quality that Vinyl is supposed to bring. However am a photographer and I can appreciate what film brings to the table, the process, the commitment etc

It’s a very hipster thing, same with vinyl. Audiophiles also use FLAC or ALAC files not Vinyl

[Yash Atishay]

3 minutes ago, Imbadatnames said:

It’s a very hipster thing, same with vinyl. Audiophiles also use FLAC or ALAC files not Vinyl

I wouldn't know anything about audio but yes film is very hipster, it's a look and feel, it's personal preference thing, I'll never claim it to be better or more convenient or anything like that

[Blue4130]

It's not just I hipster thing. Some of us old guys just never stopped shooting film when digital came out. Digital can't replace my 4x5 or 10x12 cameras yet. 

[Rex Hite]

My lab's film processing record from 2014 to 2022.

 

My lab is in a city of about a million people.

In 2014 I was planning on decommissioning my film processing equipment by 2017 because I was expecting a severe drop. That severe drop didn't happen The volume of film in 2014 was respectable enough as it was, but the rise has been amazing.

 

There have been challenges keeping up with the demand for film. It's not just 35mm; the use of medium format and sheet film has also risen.

The major photolab manufacturers of the recent past like Fuji, Noritsu, Copal etc have long since abandoned commercial film processing equipment and they are, as yet, unwilling to serve this re-surged market. Kodak and Fuji can barely supply the film, let alone any support.

 

I credit Lomo with keeping film alive in the early 2000s. And they certainly targeted hipsters and the so-called toy camera market. The Lomography branded cameras and film were, and are, shit. But they are fun and they kept something alive so credit where it's due.

 

Oddly, about one in four of all 35mm films we process are from single-use cameras. That's a big proportion and it's mostly parties and camping. These are places and events where the safety of the ubiquitous phone camera doesn't want to be risked.

 

Motion picture film, a specialised market that has always had its own separate demand, is being re-packaged and branded for use in still cameras. It's not ideal but it gets film out there in a way that Kodak and Fuji just can't manage.

 

I'm fortunate in that I have been developing film since the early 90s and use equipment that can be maintained without the need for specialised manufactured parts. Other labs with smaller volume processing machines (minilab type) are always on the edge of equipment failure with hard to source parts.