Gaining stuff / Losing stuff

I'm not incredibly worried about the "death of film". I'm not tied to the use of film to the point where I'll have lost my creative outlet if it disappears, it just happens to be the right tool for the job. I'll buy a fancy expensive high-resolution digital SLR and move on with life.

Forte is very close to disappearing from the market. Apparently it's not necessarily that people aren't buying film, but it's that the film market is going kinda topsy-turvy. People tend to fearfully stock up on something if they find they like it, so the demand isn't especially constant. I've never shot Forte film so it's not going to effect me. And apparently the land that the Forte plant is on is rather valuable for development.

I'm also hearing noises about Kodachrome-200 disappearing in short order, which prompted me to order some so that I may shoot it before it's totally gone.

On the other hand, Ilford seems to be doing well after emerging from receivership. They just announced that SFX 200 is going to return to the market, which means that we've got two pseudo-IR films on the market, as well as one real-IR film.

Either way, I've been craving an easy to purchase 120 format IR film to load into my RB67. I was hoping I could get a real-IR (meaning with sensitivity well down in the 750-800nm range) but a pseudo-IR (where it merely has a red range that extends down past normal red) will do just fine. Maco used to market a real-IR film (which was allegedly made by Efke) but for some reason or another, they now just repackage Agfa-Gevaert Aerial survey film which is only a pseudo-IR film. Kodak makes some great IR film with sensitivity way down into the 1000nm range, but it's only available as a 35mm film.

Ilford is also talking about making Delta 25. I'm not too keen on this, mostly because I don't think it's worth the bother for me. Fuji Acros 100 is about as high of resolution as a modern lens can resolve, with excellent reciprocity. So it is unlikely that I'll have a higher quality image out of a Delta 25 and even if Delta 25 has excellent reciprocity, it's going to be hard to beat a film 2 stops faster that requires next to no adjustment under most long exposures.

However, since many folks out there remember the days of Pantomatic-X (ASA 32), Kodachrome (ASA 10 and 25) and the like, so I'm sure they'll snap it up. I, on the other hand, have lived over half my life in the days of T-grain films, so I'm used to 100 speed film being the standard slow film.

I'm still waiting for Fuji's Provia 400X to make an appearance in the US. I've got a number of shots that will be much more feasible that I'm waiting on 400X for. T64 and Velvia II I have less anticipation over, because Velvia 50 didn't have the sort of reciprocity I wanted, and 64T was quite good already. Still, it is good to see new research out of Fuji.

Kodachrome 200 seems to be available in stores still, but that may just be the last production run, nobody knows.

I'm going to post an updated film entry, but I was kinda hoping to get Provia 400X in it first. :(