Graflex.org

[jsiladi]

While browsing ebay this morning, I ran across an auction of someone willing to pay $20+ for a box of APX100.. Wondering what the story was and thinking, this Has to be a 50 sheet box, or 100, certainly not 25, I look at the ad. Nope, It's a 25 sheet box.. Remembering that not more than a year or so ago I paid less than $13 per for several boxes from b&h, I check for current pricing.. No AGFA sheet film available what so ever at b&h.. Okay, Check Adorama, No APX Sheet film at Adorama either, though they did have scala (?) which I've never used. Calumet photo, same thing... Agfa still lists the film on the website but none to be found from those 3 sources.. What gives? Jeff.

[Nick]

Agfa stopped making sheet film last fall. Some of us are hoping with the new corporate setup for Agfaphoto they'll restart the sheet film line. Not much hope but a person can dream.

[jsiladi]

Well that kind of bl*** ... Another case of a corporate bean counter big wig with his head up his butt. I liked that film.. Still have some but..

So what's left for low speed b&w sheet films?? J&C have on thier website a film they call Pro 100, and they say they are expecting some in the near future.. If you want to trim it you can get some seconds for $5 per box.. I've never tried fuji b&w.. Love thier slide film though. I'm not real impressed with kodak lately. Thier new and improved isn't improved from what I've seen. But then, maybe that's just me.. Oh well... Back to the work bench.. This is a help board, I've vented, it helped. Jeff

[Dan Fromm]

[jsiladi]

I know about those.. It was just a disappointment to me.. I get used to a certain type and they quit making it..

No, I know APX25 is gone.. It probably costs $10 per sheet if you can find it.. I have some 35mm APX25 but that doesn't help in the view camera.

Seems like all the film manufacturers are going the route of digital cameras and scanners.. Until somebody can show me a consumer affordable digital camera with a 4x5 sensor, I'll never believe they are as good.. As for the scanners, once they all quit making the film, what are people going to scan?? Won't need to scan prints because they'll already be on the disk... Jeff

[t.r.sanford]

The difficulty is that everyone is dancing to the tune of a group of financial analysts who are very narrowly focused. They are not interested in volume, but in rate of growth, and they are keen to know what the very newest thing is (they need not know much about it, other than that it's new and in great demand). They are working on behalf of clients who don't regard investment primarily as a steady method of building wealth, but rather as a game of blackjack.

The same day I received the current issue of "Popular Photography," with a review of a new Canon/Kodak digital camera that opened with the (correct) observation that Kodak has dominated digital photography for 15 years, some "Wall Street Journal" editor was on the radio, suggesting doubtfully that Kodak, perhaps, had begun to overcome its reactionary attachment to film, and may reluctantly have started to really compete in digital...

Agfa must be having a much worse time of it.

The hope, of course, is that the second-echelon players will gain larger and larger shares of the still-extensive market for specialty films, and the Kodaks and Agfas and Ilfords of the world will be permitted by the financial analysts to spin off specialty film units as separate profit centers. Then the situation will stabilize.

I quite agree about the need for an affordable large-format digital back. One of the "Shutterbug" writers made this point earlier in the year -- he asked the leading manufacturers why they did not offer backs of somewhat lower resolution and markedly lower cost, and they breezily replied that there is no demand for such a back. He objected, "How many people have you asked?"

[Nick]

Remember the paperless office created more paper then ever. A scanner combined with a fax modem can replace a fax machine. It can scan the books on your bookshelf. Or anything else that needs scanning.

I seriously doubt we'll ever see a reasonable priced digital LF back. The market is way too small. If the film companies can't justify making sheet film when the machines are 100% paid for and the R&D is done why would anybody expect a new company to manage something like a digital back.

Worse it wouldn't suprise me if the consumer digital market disappears within 10 years. Remember one of the reasons for the intial push for digital was the stagant film camera market. Right now the largest makers of digital cameras are the cell phone companies. Before you laugh remember the biggest selling film cameras are those disposables.

That leaves just pro grade cameras. Those would be expensive enough because of the small markets but without all the R&D being spread out over 100 years of film cameras I bet the few remaining camera makers will make Hassleblad look like a budget item.

We're past the golden age of photography. I guess photography will survie next to the oil paints but it'll be something most people will have very little exposure to if it doesn't involve thier cell phone.

[jsiladi]