Today’s Rant by Joe Farace
“You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain
When people tell me, “why do you shoot film? It’s so expensive…” OK, I’ll admit that now I get it!
I recently returned from dropping off a roll of JCH Street Pan 400 at Mike’s Camera and as I promised in a previous post decided to join his *Film Club (not related to Joe’s Film Box, now on hiatus) to save a few bucks. When I asked the guy at the counter when the porcessed film would be ready to pick up, instead of the store’s normal two week turnaround for black and white film I was told three weeks. Yikes! They did promise to call when the processed and scanned film was ready, so maybe it won’t be so long. I’ll let you know how it goes.
And then, I tried to buy a roll of Kodak Gold 200 that I planned to shoot at a upcoming model shoot. (It’s already happened; look for two posts about the shoot next Monday and Thursday.) Because of all the craziness surrounding the film world we’re living in right now, they didn’t have any in stock and instead the guy offered me a roll of Kodak UltraMax 400, a film I really like. But I really wanted an ISO 200 film to match the ISO of the digital images I planned to shoot in the studio so I could use the same exposure settings for both film and digital cameras. But then came the punch line…
He told me that roll of UltraMax 400 was $17 or I could buy Kodak’s Portra 160 for $19. When I asked what a roll of Kodak Gold 200 cost, he told me “seventeen bucks” but Mike’s website shows that a 36-exposure roll of the film costs $15.99. Surely—don’t call me “surely”—that he was mistaken but it’s something I might bring up when I pick up my processed JCH film and once again try to buy a roll of Kodak Gold. I’m told by reliable sources that pandemic-related supply chain issues and inflation has resulted in an average increase of 20% on all film and chemical products this year when compared to January of 2021 but…
How I Made this Photograph: I photographed the April ’22 Cars & Coffee at the Vehicle Vault using my limited edition Jaguar-themed Leica Z2X point-and-shoot camera that loaded with Kodak Gold 200 film. Exposure unrecorded; it’s a point-and-shoot.
…a year ago I picked up a roll of Kodak Gold from a display on the counter of this very same store and remember paying between eight and nine bucks. You can do the math about the so-called 20% increase. Right now, Amazon will sell me a roll for $24.59 or $24.99 depending on which button I click. B&H Photo offers a three-pack of 24-exposure rolls of Kodak Gold 200 for $19.99 but when you click “Request Assistance“ it says, “Unfortunately, our supplier cannot provide an accurate time frame so we have suspended backorders for this item.” Sharp eyed readers will remember that I ordered a three-pack of this film in July and as recently as November 24 have been getting reminders from B&H that state, “We regret the item remains unavailable.”
All of this got me thinking: Nagraj Bokinkere, Eastman Kodak’s vice-president of film manufacturing recently said, “Our film finishing area, for example, we have grown from a five days a week, single shift operation a few years back to last year, we were three shifts, five days a week and now we are a 24/7 operation.” That all sounds all well and good in a press release but if people can’t afford to buy the film, Mr.Bokinkere, maybe you only need one shift
You want to know why people shoot expired film? I’ll tell you why. The cost. For me, with a small but dwindling cache of expired film in my refrigerator, I would rather put up with the unpredictably nature of shooting expired film than deal with the rapacious greed being foisted upon film shooters who, like Cyndi Lauper once sang. “just want to have fun.” A while ago, I saw an on-line headline that screamed “is Kodak trying to kill film photography?” and thought to myself, isn’t this a bit hyperbolic. Now I get it; NO it’s not hyperbole.