Sean Esopenko

Frustrations with Film Market

May 5, 2011

I have to say I’ve been pretty frustrated with how the film market is turning. Similar to how many other people think I believe that film is the best way to produce fine-art photography compared to digital capture and printing for the following reasons:

• Galleries find it easier to trust silver prints over digital prints
• Silver prints have been proven to easily last for hundreds of years when properly stored and created.  Digital prints only have scientific studies reported from companies with a vested interest in selling you a new printer.
• Process is important in fine-art and the hands-on nature of film photography and darkroom printing is valued by many artists and art collectors alike
• The quality of medium & large format film is unsurpassed by digital cameras.  For those printing digitally in colour, a Mamiya 7II and Nikon 9000ED can be purchased for less than the price of a system with a P25 back.
• Fine-artists generally do not need their photographs quickly like commercial photographers do.  The added cost of digital for the increased workflow speed is not very appealing.

Now for my frustrations with the film markets:

• Film is becoming more and more a niche market, supported only by fine artists and hobbyists.  Manufacturers are taking advantage of this market by increasing prices.
• The loss of the commercial film photographer market has caused manufacturers to stop developing and producing products.
• Eventually we are going to run out of cameras and scanners.  I can already see prices going up for film equipment because the cameras are disappearing as they break down.

These are more or less frustrations with the cost of purchasing a dedicated film scanner.  I’d like to get into colour work but the chemicals for the RA-4 process are next to impossible to get in Canada, I’m finding.  I’m being forced to travel the digital route and scan my film.

Nikon stopped manufacturing film scanners and the Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED has skyrocket up in price to $4000 USD when it retailed usually for $2000.  If I knew this 2 years ago I would have bought one then.  So now I’m considering the purchase of an old Imacon Flextight II dedicated “virtual” drum scanner for about $3200.  It’s a little older and requires a more involved workflow but the results should theoretically be better.  There’s also a possibility I could perform scans for $50 each on the scanner for up to 4×5 film.  We’ll see how things go but for now I’m going to sit in a corner and complain.

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