Whistling in the dark I believe

I really did not think Kodak would discontinue all their reversal films as soon as they did either. But it happened. Sure, Kodachrome was a gonner for a lot of reasons, but Ektachrome? I admit to being surprised at that one.

I don't think so; remember, Kodak isn't the only film company around. Where I once saw yellow Kodak single-use box cameras hanging on pegs, I now see green Fuji box cameras and store-brand box cameras (Fred Meyer, for example) that contain Chinese-made 35 mm film. These cameras include not only simple "point-and-shoots" (with and without built-in flash units), but also panoramic cameras and even clear plastic-encased underwater cameras. Ditto for the rolls of film; the Fuji 35 mm rolls have displaced Kodak's.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

And who buys those? Anyone? The boxes of film at Walgreens have dust on them. Really they do.

The Walgreens near my house has started to advertise on their outdoor sign "We Develop Film". The tech said they get far fewer rolls than a year ago and I predict it won't be long before they stop processing film. Walmart and others send their film out to a central lab, Walgreens is about the only mass merchandiser that does it in-house. That's got to be expensive to maintain for little profit.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Nikon N80 that I bought at a highly inflated price just prior to The Great Decline of Film. But my iPhone takes great pictures too (well at least good enough for most of what I need) and my D200, when I feel like lugging it around, fills in the gaps my iPhone misses. I never carry my beloved N80 anymore.

I used to take my N80 to my daughter's events because I had a pretty good selection of lenses for it. But here is how it used to go:

Take pictures
Daughters and friends say "let me see the pictures!"
Say, "well, you can't see them now there's no display on this camera it is film"
Oh, they say, well can I have the memory card so I can put them on my laptop and post them to Facebook?
Well, there is no memory card.
How do you get them off the camera?
Well, you don't "get them off the camera", you have to get the film developed.
Oh, when are you going to do that?
Well, not till the roll is finished. It's a 24/36 exposure roll and we only took 12 pictures.
When will that be?
Hmm, it could be quite a while since I really don't use this camera much...

Funny!

I considered myself a film purist for many years, but digital won me over because of its convenience and ease of use. And at heart, I'm lazy...

Fuji gave up it's motion picture film division. Kodak sold off their still photography division to Illford, IIRC.
When Kodak gave up Kodachrome, Fuji film became the best, at least for reversal film.

I bought several of them, which I took to England in 2010, and a former co-worker and I regularly buy them for equine and general photography. Our local Wal-Mart offers 1-hour developing with double prints (two sets of prints) as standard, along with a DVD containing the images and a plastic sleeve "flip portfolio" for the prints. Whenever I'm in there, their photo lab is always busy taking box cameras and rolls of film from customers for developing and giving pouches of developed prints to other customers (I have to wait in line), even though the photo section sells digital cameras along with the box cameras and film...and the box cameras and film don't have dust on them.Our Wal-Mart develops film on-site, and they do a brisk business--their photo lab folks are always busy when I'm in there. Ours is one of the large "Super Stores," and perhaps the smaller Wal-Marts send out exposed film for processing.I'm not against digital cameras (I had one with my previous Gateway 2000 computer), but I think film cameras will not go away completely because of their convenience and low cost. People never have to worry about whether their outdoor box cameras have dead batteries because they don't -have- batteries, and the ones that do have built-in flash units have battery storage lives measured in years (I've never bought one that didn't work, even after I had it for years); the film itself lasts indefinitely if the camera is stored (like black powder rocket motors) in a cool, dry place. I've had 20 year-old exposed 127 color film developed, and the prints came out just fine.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Well, it's taken a couple years amongst other projects to finally finish the vintage Estes Omega two stage booster for my Cineroc camera, but it's finally done (about six weeks ago actually).

Pretty straightforward build as these go, but I had concerns as to whether the vintage decals (at least 34 years old...maybe a few years older than that) would hold up ok. They did. I think the fin decals really make this kit stand out, and Mike Dorffler did a great job in designing the kit and decor.

Next step will be to reload some film into a couple of the Cineroc film cassettes I have and do some tests. First actual film test with the camera will be ground based 'hand-held' stuff to see how the camera works (and to make sure it works at all). THEN, if all goes well with that film test, I'll actually fly the bird. Probably only as a one-stager right now because my field size is not all that large. But I definitely want to eventually do the 'standard' two stage Omega flight.

Currently however I'm facing ruptured disc surgery in my back in about a week or so. Been down with it for about six weeks already (never been down this long in my life) and it appears surgery is gonna be the only fix. It's a "Whopper" of a herniation, so said my neurosurgeon. I don't know if that's better or worse than a "Quarter Pounder", but it looked pretty massive on the MRI.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Nice Job Earl!

I'm about one build away from my 2nd attempt at an Omega. My first one suffered from runs in the thin CA sealing the fin's papered edges. I've now got a new method for sealing the edges which prevents runs. I'm now "squeegeeing" the CA on the edge of the fin rather than trying to control the flow by "dripping" it on.

Hope your back is back in shape soon!

God Bless!
Jim

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Dreaming of making the rockets I dreamed of as a kid (and then some).

"The Guide says there is an art to flying", said Ford, "or rather a knack."
"The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

Launching is Optional... Landing? That Depends on Trees.

I thought about repairing mine (replacing battery mount is all it needs) or modifying it to hold an 808 board and battery (might still do that to my Oracle).

But basically I don't want to go to the trouble of fooling with film.

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Roy
nar12605