How long until governments shut down

I think that we will see a decline in the small corner processing shops, but
with the advent of digital prints on silver halide paper, I would have to
disagree with you. The public and the professional want, and in many
instances, need high quality photographic images. The American public is
spoiled and wants good images. They will also tire of sitting in front of
their computer to print photos so that they have something that they can
carry with them or store in a photo album. In many cases, it is less
expensive and less time consuming to e-mail your images to a photo processor
to have "real photographs" made from their files. The people that store
their images on the computer hard drive, will lose their memories WHEN their
hard drive crashes (and the will crash). Putting images on a CD is good to
file, but what happens if you scratch the CD or step on it or your dog eats
it? Silver Halide is here to stay for a long time. Only the media from
which the prints are made will change.

Silver Halide is here to stay for a long time. Only the media from
which the prints are made will change.



Ink jet reproduction is advancing at a startling fast pace. Not only the
low cost desktop printers many are familiar with, but also in the high end.
Already for really big prints ink jet printing is rapidly replacing silver
based papers.

Have a look at some of the groundbreaking high end art and photographic
printing being done by the Nash Editions (http://www.nasheditions.com) and
the entire subindustry of professional ink jet art printers they have been
in the vanguard off to see where the future of photographic output is
headed.

Silver halide had a good 100 year plus run, but in the decade ahead it will
continue to decline precipitously. Professional markets are already past
the infection point in their conversion to digital image capture and most of
their output is either in print, on video or printed on high end ink jet
printers.

Consumer snapshots will only be printed at maybe 25% of the rate they were
in a film world, and the consumer is stampeding to digital at a rapid clip.
The days of Mr. and Ms. snapshooter firing off a 24 exposure roll and having
double prints made of the entire thing are coming to a close. This is good
news for the drawers and closets of the world .

Slide film use is dropping like a rock. Kodak just announced that they are
shutting down their slide projector business due to lack of demand.

Television and commercial product long ago switched from film to magnetic
tape.

Hollywood is trying very hard to make a transition to digital capture and
distribution. I imagine that the making of prints for theatrical
distribution has been a lucrative business.

The end is nigh, the only question is when.

John

In article ,
"John Horner" wrote:

Silver halide had a good 100 year plus run, but in the decade ahead it will
continue to decline precipitously. Professional markets are already past
the infection point in their conversion to digital image capture and most of
their output is either in print, on video or printed on high end ink jet
printers.
John

I guess you think your some kind of visionary. There are many art photographers
using platinium printing techniques which is of course is outside the mainstream.
Most art buyers tend to look at the "handmade factor" as opposed to the cheap mass
produced. Actually I hope that every other photographer gets suckered into exclusively
making digitally produced crap. Then there will be no question in the future about
who cared about what they did.
--
When you live next to the graveyard, you can't cry at every funeral.

"Witheld" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"John Horner" wrote:

Silver halide had a good 100 year plus run, but in the decade ahead it
will
continue to decline precipitously. Professional markets are already
past
the infection point in their conversion to digital image capture and
most of
their output is either in print, on video or printed on high end ink jet
printers.
John

I guess you think your some kind of visionary. There are many art
photographers
using platinium printing techniques which is of course is outside the
mainstream.
Most art buyers tend to look at the "handmade factor" as opposed to the
cheap mass
produced. Actually I hope that every other photographer gets suckered into
exclusively
making digitally produced crap. Then there will be no question in the
future about
who cared about what they did.

Already I can raise eyebrows (in a desirable way) at a local art store by
telling them I make silver gelatin prints.

From the buyer's point of view, conventional b&w photography is *already* an
exotic craft!

OK, my turn to forecast the future.

I have friends who've gone digital and love it - no trace of film left in
their lives.
I have friends who have gone digital and find being tethered to a computer
to be a real drag. They have both film and digital and use the digital when
"in the mood" to have to fool with the images on the computer. And I have
friends who don't own a computer or who don't have any interest in using a
computer to save and print their photos, let alone do image work on them.
So they use 35 or APS exclusively. All of these people are satisfied with
their choices.

For some people, digital is the current fashion, and that may or may not
change. I know people with elaborate digital cameras who use them like a 35
mm point and shoot, and I expect there will be some transition back to film
by such people over the next decade as the new wears off digital and the
simplicity of film draws them back. The timing will probably be tied to the
life expectancy of the current crop of digital cameras; as they break, some
owners won't replace them with another digital.

But it seems inevitable to me that film and digital will eventually reach
some sort of equilibrium where some folks want one or the other, and some
will use both. Film and digital will share the customer population, which
means that the demand for film will eventually stabilize at some level.

Bob in Las Vegas

In article bk4Ab.23783$o9.16266@fed1read07, "JRF"
wrote:

But it seems inevitable to me that film and digital will eventually reach
some sort of equilibrium where some folks want one or the other, and some
will use both. Film and digital will share the customer population, which
means that the demand for film will eventually stabilize at some level.
Bob in Las Vegas


Bob that sounds reasonable, and aside to the usual rabid responses
on both sides of the issue.
--
When you live next to the graveyard, you can't cry at every funeral.