One quick thought I forgot to mention in the video: I 99% doubt film prices will ever go down. If anything, it will stabilize and remain at the current $ for years to come (if Kodak stops raising the price) If that happens, film will start to “feel” like it’s getting cheaper as the shock factor fades away and overall income / economy health increases, thus “catching up” to the inflation. just a thought, tho. what do i know

I feel like a film bubble won’t happen anytime soon. Plenty of people are still going to be chasing the film look for their photo work or social media posts. It’s increasingly easier to achieve a similar look digitally but film will still have its place. For me and many others, the slow methodical process of shooting film is what really attracts me to the medium. It is so peaceful to shoot with my cameras.

Literally was shouting “C’MON” with you when you mentioned ultramax.

Very informative video well done Chris.

Your videos are always so enjoyable no matter the content. Just great energy you have

I have noticed over the past year that there is less and less content being made regarding film photography. A lot of the emphasis is on digital, primarily Fujifilm cameras. One can own a Fujifilm camera for the price of 15 packs of Portra.

Hey Chris you’re awesome

Kodak makes some really strange business decisions, for instance at one time they decided to withdraw supply of their film everywhere except for domestic markets (United states of America). Other manufacturers picked up the remaining customer base elsewhere (Fujifilm), realising that film cameras would not just disappear, or their users. I myself have started buying classic film cameras and using them more. Indeed Lomography still supply 110 as well as 120 and 35mm, Ilford for black and white, Fujifilm, CineStill, even Rollei. Finding it hard to sell film, perhaps they should not have cut off the supply in the past, at the price they seem to be charging, not a hope!

Portra is so ridiculous now. I'm new to shooting film, but I've decided to shoot exclusively Kodak Vision 3 which are only like $5-6 a roll.

I’m just happy there is stocked color film, it wasn’t that long ago you couldn’t get certain stocks of film because they were always sold out. Just enjoy film while it’s here because one day it won’t be.

thanks for getting the deets 😂😊

Please could you tell me where you got your shirt from? Love it!

This can be a good time to discover black and white for people. It is a way to understand a lot of things in photography. As a european customer, with the offer of foma and ilford, kodak will do the road alone. An ilford delta 400 will be more than 2 times cheaper in 100 ft rolls than the tri-x. And 5 times more expensive than fine grain foma 200. This is absolutely huge.

I’ve decided that I’ll probably stop shooting colour for a while, I love Portra but not a huge fan of gold. Strange how Ilford, Foma, ADOX and other B&W have managed to keep their film prices affordable. Shame Fuji got rid of the old C200, cos I loved that film.

I got back into film in Nov 2020, and I paid $50 for a Portra 5-pack from Moment. Now close to $100? NUTS.

Good point about Kodak giving people strong incentives to get a fujifilm camera. I’ve been tempted, but for now I’m sticking with just shooting a lot less film that I’d like and shoot purely digital (with a clean, digital look) for most of what I do. It is what it is...

Pretty sure I'm gonna complete my set with a GFX as soon as I can afford it. Once it's done, I may sell all my analog gear. It'll be a sad moment, as I truly love my new 110mm 2.8 Mamiya lens for my RZ67. For now, I still have a decent amount of film in my freezer, but one it's depleted, I don't know.

kodak color plus for 17$ a roll is pretty crazy... especially when I feel like I was getting it for like 2.99 a roll 5 or 6 years ago. I am seriously thinking about selling my hasselblad for some lenses just because I am worried that film is too expensive to justify using it. however the other enabling side of me wants to buy a cfv for it and shoot the hasselblad digitally haha. I also would like to buy some sort of fuji digital as a daily driver camera. except the one I want is still sold out everywhere.... x100v

Thanks for the insights! My" big" problem is though that I prefer kodak's colors so much more than fuji's.. do you have a recommendation for where fuji has minimal greens? (beginner film shooter here)

Not sure why you seem to think film is an inelastic good. If the price gets too high, people will switch to digital. You said this yourself In the video. These days I’m either shooting vision3 or digital. Everything else is ridiculous.

yeah personally I feel like the bubble is popping. I am a student - I used to be able to afford this but I just cannot anymore. I will probably buy a fuji X soon.

Fender Guitars started to bypass their distributors in favor of selling straight to the customer from the factory and they made more money. It can be done.

I literally just bought a fujifilm x-t20 I laughed so hard at the end 😅

I've been shooting with motion picture film lately that I've slowly stopped buying regular color film altogether to shoot regularily. Vision 3 is going to be more stable in terms of avalability vs portra because if you think about it, there are a lot more hollywood movies being shot on film today than before and indie filmmakers have been shooting on film for years, so theres going to be more financial support to manufacture motion picture film stock, which means Kodak is going to listen to them first, instead of us just trying to buy a 5 pack of portra and hope it doesn't sell out on bh. So far the images I've gotten using vision 3 are impressive and when done right can have the cinematic characteristics we've lusted over.

Ive been shooting a lot less. When I could get pro packs of portra 120 for under $35 and delta100 and hp5 for even less I shot so much. I think it will continue to be more photographer shooting film then there was 7 years ago but now I feel like my 6x7 is as precious as my 4x5 used to be then and why I never tried 8x10

It's really sad to see because I really enjoyed shooting film. For my part I've decided only to load B&W in my M6 and to save for a digital M. I have tried Fuji but it's not the same :( occasionally I will shoot color negative but i think really when it's personal. And i think many will go this path because at the end does it really matter if it's shoot on film or not!!!

Re. New companies, machinery to create emulsions is a complex thing, which is why so few companies do it. Without looking up to confirm, maybe only Ferrania and Ilford, and a couple of Chinese firms. Solid enough video, I would have introduced Kodak's need to do maintenance, and invest in capital.

Without any blame, new prices hurt me as a hobby film photographer. This year I expose twice as less film stock as years before, just for the sake of high costs.

Film is completely susceptible to demand elasticity. If it weren't, you wouldn't have people stop shooting it which is evident. Secondly, Eastman Kodak, a publicly traded company, produces the film and Kodak Alaris, a privately held British company which is controlled by a British pension plan fund sets the prices, and shares the branding with Eastman. Eastman doesn't set the retail prices. It's yet another layer in the monopoly on color film. If you took Alaris out of the equation, Kodak C41 would be much cheaper. Finally, Fujifilm is an oxymoron. It doesn't manufacture film anymore except for Instax.

There are some good insights in the first half of the video. You lost me on the point about a Bubble on film. A bubble stems from a speculative value disconnected from its original cost (eg real estate). I believe you demonstrated in the first half film price is not speculative. Regarding your lab friend, there are plenty of manufacturers selling directly to consumers; Tesla for instance. The Eastman / Alaris situation is clearly a problem and the old distribution channels are also an issue as it was demonstrated during the re-introduction of Gold 120.

It already popped for me. I'm cashing out of my Expensive film camera gear (Hasselblad, NIkon, Canon, Leica, Mamiya) while the gear is still selling at top dollar. We have a multiples of six figure income and even I choked and did a double take when I saw a 5 pack of 120 ektachrome going for almost 90$ When I can buy a 50mm 1.2 lens for my nikon even trade for 20 rolls of film, that's too much. Recent conversations with friends in the hobby seem to hold this out. Many I know are returning to digital. Congratulations Kodak for killing Film off a second time with bad business decisions.

Welp, I have 4 different film cameras and am not going to be shooting film any more. From film purchase to develop you’re looking at around $1 per frame of 35mm at this point. That isn’t even accounting for the cost of a high quality scan. Moving on.

Is evident no one will shoot film now. Hope some companies see the gap and fill some cheap consumer films.

I feel raw dogged every time Kodak "updates" come along

damn you are right about that man! FujiFilm is really the only one winning when Kodak increase their prices

I’m done with colour c41 film. I’ll keep shooting a sh*tonne of Ilford tho.

1:35 Bro sounds like JOJI

Yeah but that Kodak jacket is fire

I've got Kodak 120 since 2013. In 2023 I'm out. Digital for colour now. Thankfully Ilford got our backs.

I just sold my Fuji X100V that I used daily for the past 3 years for 1750 $. All the people who wrote me told me that they are shooting film but they now want to switch to digital because of the prices. So yes - Fuji wins (-;

People who predominantly shoot C41 and slide film are going to be hit the most. B&W shooters are still good for now (although there are murmurs of an impending Ilford price increase). Hardcore film enthusiasts will stay as they probably shoot B&W, bulk roll film and develop their own film. Film labs will be hit the hardest coz people who shoot the occasional roll will probably stop and professional film photographers will shoot less of their projects on film and probably convert to digital systems

People are overreacting, film of anything has a stronger presence than ever on social media and with rumored changes to IG algorithm to start promoting images more, that’ll only get better for photography overall. Companies like Lomography are pushing social media events more than ever. Kodak is starting to become more interactive. Pentax is going to shake up the market with its multiple offerings. I don’t see why people are panicking. The prices worldwide have been like this for years. Just shoot more conservatively. Don’t sow panic that will only kill the community again.

What’s happening with Ektar?

It's getting crazy prices for "noobies" like me.

Seriously Fujifilm is making so much money from sales of X100V, a camera that feels and looks like a toy (pics look pretty descent) .

Why’d I even buy an m6

what new affordable film? i don't see it 😂

This comment is only my perception. The revitalization of film photography was started by and fed by a younger demographic. Millennials (Gen Y) and Gen Z? Clearly in the past several months companies who over hired during the pandemic have been cutting staff, a lot of staff. Just my opinion, but many of those cuts are the staff hired during the pandemic. Again younger employees, Millennials? IDK. That demographic is now cutting their costs and their hobby of shooting film; is going out first. With respect to a bubble; if the buyers start to pull back, the inventories will grow, then the prices will drop. If the demand drops too low, some manufactures will also drop. 2005 revisited.

Fuji film is not Fujifilm anymore.Is just Fuji.No Fuji for me.

I love film but now I feel it will soon become a rich persons hobby.

scalping...it's in every hobby

Im done with film

The price bubble is only that extreme for all of you wealthy C41 shooters in first world countries who hate black and white and never develop+scan at home with cheapo homemade developers like us plebs from poor countries :P I've shot B+W exclusively for over 10 years now and the prices haven't seen that much change in the last couple of years. Just as a comparison, current prices in one popular online shop: 9.50 for Kodak Gold (120) 12.90 for Kodak Portra 160 (120) 13.50 for Kodak Ektar 100 (120) 13.59 for Kodak Portra 400 (120) 16.99 for Fujifilm Pro160NS (120) 4.99-5.50 for Fomapan 100/200/400 (120) 4.82 for Kentmere 400 (120) 5.90 for Ilford HP5+ (120) 5.99-6.85 for Rollei RPX 25/100/400 (120) 7.05 for Ilford Delta 100 (120) 5.99 for Rollei Retro 80S (120) 9.20 for Kodak TMax400 11.20 for Kodak TriX 11.95 for Shanghai GP3 (220 format though)

Interests me that everybody is bitching about film processes while they walk into Starbucks and buy their $5.85 cup of coffee and milk. They drink that for maybe 20min and so they don't mind paying $5.85 for 20 min but object to 36 exposure rolls for $17. I'll bet they have more time, more fun and more use for that $17 than they had for $5.85. Remember like beer one can only "rent coffee". It comes in and goes out. Certainly not the case with film. You are correct the ones just following the social media will drop film. Others will need to stop treating film as if it were digital and shoot everything and will need to become more deliberate. Still others will not care and just continue to do things as they have always done it. The professionals will adjust to ensure that the decisions that they make in using film will remain economical for their business. Social media whether for politics or photography is a VERY mixed blessing.

The Fuji film simulations look nothing like film.

I hate Gen Z, before them it was all so easy and chill. Now we have so much problems bc of them.

Stop with the click bait BS.

It's funny how Americans are finally experiencing the prices the rest of the world has experienced for the past 5 years and are the most vocal about prices but earn double to triple what other countries earn. You'll live. Calm down. If someone earning $500pm in Australia, Egypt, France, South Africa, etc. can shoot film you can too

First

While it hasn't happened yet, the film bubble will pop eventually, and it will do so more dramatically than the Hindenburg explosion of 1937. This pop will take place when film camera equipment is no longer available on the used market. In addition to skyrocketing film prices, smartphones will eventually kill the film and camera market for just about everyone, except for professionals. Smartphones are just so easy and convenient to use, so why buy a camera plus film?

Anyone here who voted for Biden, you should be thrilled! This is what you wanted! Results delivered. Congrats 🥳

#filmisnotdead. i will keep shooting film no matter how bad it breaks my bank 🥲