IS THERE ANOTHER SHOT LEFT IN FILM?
WHILE THE VINYL REVIVAL continues unabated, film’s comeback really hasn’t got out of first gear. Vinyl records haven’t so much been revived as re-established as a medium for the delivery of music and on a sufficient scale to convince a number of the major Japanese consumer electronics companies to start making turntables again, Sony among them. Long gone are the days of picking up records for 50 cents at a garage sale. If it’s a popular or important recording – at least as far as rock, blues or jazz music is concerned – you might not get much change out of $50. Many classics are being re-mastered and repackaged with even higher price tags. Vintage hifi equipment is also in demand and, once again, it’s even possible to get old gear repaired or restored.
Interest in shooting film is on the increase, but at a much slower pace, so it can really still only be considered niche rather than a significant sector of the market. There are a couple of reasons for this and the big one is film processing. This is very much a Catch-22 situation – the limited number of processing options is putting a brake on any enthusiasm for shooting film, and the still small number of film users is limiting the potential for establishing more processing outlets. Somebody is going to have to take a leap of faith here. Of course, you can process B&W film yourself, but this requires another level of commitment, especially if you want to go all the way and make prints from your negatives. The darkroom experience can be immensely rewarding, but it takes quite a bit of time and effort to get set up… and then master the various processes and techniques.
The other limiting factor in terms of a wider interest in shooting film is the near complete absence of new cameras. At one end there’s the Leica MP – for which you need deep pockets – and at the other are the various ‘plastic fantastics’ that are mostly cheap, but fairly limited in their capabilities. If you want something in between
– like a 35mm SLR, for example – then you’re going to have to buy something second-hand and then you really need to know what you’re doing. This is even more the case now that the prices of second-hand film cameras are steadily on the rise… due, of course, to the absence of any midlevel new-buy alternatives. The safest bet is to stick with something that’s mechanical, which is why the prices of these cameras have really shot up recently, especially in the 35mm format. Automation came late to the medium format sector, so there are plenty of mechanical bodies to choose from, but shooting rollfilm also requires a bit more commitment in terms of its extra demands. Consequently, though, it’s a much more involving experience, but you may well also have to step up to doing your own film processing too. And, not surprisingly, the more compact medium format cameras – such as the last of the non-reflex models – are also in high demand and priced accordingly. The 6x6cm format Mamiya 6, for example, was always popular in its time, and its original attributes have been rediscovered now… likewise, its 6x7cm format cousin, the Bronica RF645 (short-lived, so rarer) and Fujifilm’s GS-series fixed-lens models.
Should you take a punt on a pre-loved film camera that’s loaded with electronics? There are plenty to choose from and there’s also plenty of information available online about any issues long term but, generally speaking, camera electronics are reliable and the lemons are long gone. Nevertheless, if anything does go wrong, it’s the end of the line, which is perhaps why the humble 35mm point-and-shoot compact camera is now a popular option for experimenting with film. If it fails, you haven’t lost too much money although, as with vinyl records, the dirt-cheap garage sale finds are definitely a thing of the past. Models with a good reputation – such as the Olympus mju series – are getting good money as is anything now considered a classic.
As the mainstream camera makers have quite a lot on their plates at the moment, it’s hard to see any of them taking a punt on film any time soon. However, I reckon there’s room for some entrepreneurial thinking here, and a basic, semiauto 35mm SLR – perhaps with an adaptable mount arrangement – would sell in sufficient numbers to make it profitable… especially if it involved resurrecting existing tooling. If you remember the Canon T60, Nikon FM-10 and Olympus OM-2000, you’ll also remember they all shared the same basic chassis made by Cosina, which was also used for the Voigtländer Bessa series 35mm rangefinder bodies.
What if Cosina still has all that tooling in storage…? Perhaps it’s still just only a matter of time, but I get the feeling that if film is to have a sustained revival with growth beyond what we’ve been seeing for a while now, it’s going to need, ahem, a boosting shot in the arm.