Old small tropical fold-out with a bellows ideas

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:26:06 +0900, "David J. Littleboy"
wrote:

[---]

I should probably just shut up and buy a GW690, but they seem to be getting
more expensive, running about US$1,500 for a nice one. Ouch!

Indeed. And the Mamiya 7s aren't getting any cheaper, either. So
much for the "film is dead" mantra ...

Andrew Price wrote:

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:26:06 +0900, "David J. Littleboy"
wrote:

[---]

I should probably just shut up and buy a GW690, but they seem to be
getting more expensive, running about US$1,500 for a nice one. Ouch!

Indeed. And the Mamiya 7s aren't getting any cheaper, either. So
much for the "film is dead" mantra ...

Buy that GW690III, you won't regret it ;-)

Adding a screw-in 67mm linear polarizer, and having a Gossen Digisix light
meter makes for a potent and light combination (speaking from experience
here).

N.F.

On Aug 23, 4:24 am, (Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrote:

Agfa had the equivalent of ISO 80 film in the 1930's, No one else made
film at that speed until the late 1940's.

Agfa did have faster films than anyone else
in the mid 1930s, but their advantage was
fairly short lived. The fastest Agfa-Ansco
film in the mid 1930s was Super Pan Press
which was Weston 64 (approx ISO 160) which
was twice as fast as Kodak's fastest film at
the time: Super-X at Weston 32 (approx ISO 80).

But by 1938 (I think) Kodak had Super-XX which
was Weston 80 (approx ISO 200).

The regular rollfilms of the 1920s and early
1930s were typified by Kodak N.C. film which
was Weston 8 (approx ISO 20) by the time that
Weston meters came out in the early 1930s.

Kodak Verichrome was a major advance when
it came out in 1931. Early Verichrome
was Weston 16 (approx ISO 40). Agfa Plenachrome
and Selo (Ilford) Selochrome were very similar.
These quickly became the normal films for
snapshooters.

Some time probably in the late 1930s,
(but certainly before 1943 when the
datasheet I have was printed) Verichrome
was improved to Weston 40 (approx ISO 125).


I had a Kodak "Tourist" camera from the 1950's and it had two films on
an exposure calculator on the back, Color (Kodacolor) and Black and
White (Verichrome). It just used the "Sunny F16" rule.

I assume the 1940's cameras did not have that as the only consumer color
film was Kodachrome and it did not exist in anything except 35mm.

Kodacolor rollfilm came out in 1942. It was available in
127, 120, 620, 116, 616 and 122 sizes. It wasn't very good.
(Kodachrome in 35mm, 828 and sheet film was excellent.)


Peter.
--

On 23 Aug, 20:38, Andrew Price wrote:
On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:26:06 +0900, "David J. Littleboy"

wrote:

[---]

I should probably just shut up and buy a GW690, but they seem to be getting
more expensive, running about US$1,500 for a nice one. Ouch!

Indeed. And the Mamiya 7s aren't getting any cheaper, either. So
much for the "film is dead" mantra ...

Film has been dying for years. Let's hope it is still dying in twenty
years time so we can still buy it.

I see Canon have brought out a 21.1 megapixel camera. This is surely
encroaching into MF. But that camera body is expensive, and to get the
best results out of it will require Canon "L" lenses though, I guess
you could get away with an "L" zoom to keep costs down. It's still
more expensive than film if you don't take many shots but if you use a
camera every day and need MF quality then I can see a lot of
photographers moving over to this camera and selling off their MF
gear. Maybe this will have a negative impact of the demand for 120
roll film.
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos1dsmarkiii/

RolandRB wrote:
Maybe this will have a negative impact of the demand for 120 roll film.

I'm sure it will. A few years ago you could get film from Kodak, Agfa
and Ilford, plus if you searched around/mail ordered several other
small companies. Agfa is gone, and I expect that Kodak's days are
numbered.

Commercial photography has all but abandoned film, my expectation is the
only PROFESSIONAL market 120 film remains in use is the wedding business.
That's on its way out too, digital and HDTV video have all replaced
it.

As this happens, Kodak will reduce its offerings in film, eventually they
will be down to a color negative for general photography, a color negative
for portrait use and a chromogenic black and white film. My guess is that
will be before the end of the decade.

Ilford will hang on for as long as they can, it depends upon how many rolls
of film people buy, instead of complaining on usenet that it is disapearing
(mea culpa).

Small "boutique" film manufacturers will continue for many years to come,
but their products will never make the corner store (remember when you
could get several different films at one?).

Like other things of the past, such as morse code keys, and leaded gasoline
(or additives to regular gas), they will continue to be available, but
not easily.

My hope is for companies such as Lucky. If one in a million Chinese buy
a roll of 120 film a year, they will sell a lot more than here, where
that would be 4-5 :-(

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/