[rollei_list] Re: Decline of Rollieflex/Film

For me, it has been a mixed experience. Customer demand and support resources have caused me to go all digital for editorial, portrait and event photography since summer 2004 when I did my last job with film. Even then I was one of the last holdouts in my area. In every way my photography has become easier, less expensive, and with all sorts of corrections and/or embellishments available difficult or impossible to achieve with earlier methods. OTOH, I find myself spending far, far too much time on the computer for stuff I used to simply drop off at the lab and pick up when ready (although I used to spend much time in a darkroom, I enjoyed that :-) Then there is the matter of archival stability. I always have residual anxiety about all those dimly understood arrangements of pixels that may or not stick around for the long haul. Also, the ubiquity of easy to use digital P&S cameras has undercut my business more than somewhat. But that, of course, is in the nature of technological advances. Once upon a time, it was buggy drivers who stood around bitching.
The one area I regard still an appropriate use of film is in B&W photography. So far, I have seen nothing in digital B&W that matches print quality produced by the photochemical processes. 

Allen Zak

On Mar 24, 2010, at 1:01 PM, Elias_Roustom wrote:
That's an interesting story. I've heard some events photogs talk about that here (frustration with post-processing & skin tones), but I don't know any that actually do it. Some show on the websites that they bring a film camera with them and take select shots that way. 

On Mar 24, 2010, at 2:01 AM, John Stockdale wrote:
I was at a wedding here (Australia) recently as a guest and taking a few shots and I got talking to the pro who had two big Canons around his neck. I was surprised to find that they were not digital. He said that he had gone back to film because digital took him too long to process! 


Elias_Roustom wrote:
It was 1996 or 7 when I took my Rolleiflex with me to NYC for the day. I freelance illustrated for a publisher who had a space across from a photographer (somewhere low on 7th). He didn't offer to buy it, but was very interested in it, and in any case told me to take good care of the very special camera I had. I knew next to nothing about it at the time. I imagine back then it was still a viable piece of equipment for a pro. About when did the TLR really drop out of the picture for commercial use, and when did Rollei specifically loose its place?
And somewhat related, are we far away enough from the advent of digital to put a date on when film dropped out of commercial use? Is there a moment that will end up in some text book a generation from now? Not looking for polemic on film vs. digital here. I was at a photographer's studio the other day delivering a job, and after some small talk I got the idea that the fellow never used film professionally. He has an established business and does everything from Politician's head shots to weddings, and products. So I figure we're well into the digital age now that a working pro can't remember the use of film. 

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