If you’re at all in tune with the film photography world, you know film stocks from various manufacturers are either being discontinued or rapidly getting more expensive. The latest example of this came last month when Kodak announced it was increasing the price of its various film stocks by between 9–15%.
As is often the case with sudden price changes, Kodak immediately faced criticism from members of the film photography community, many of whom suggests Kodak isn’t supporting film photographers as much as they believe it should be. In response to this criticism, two respected entities in the film photography world, Silver Grain Classics and Nico from Nico’s Photography Show, attempted to contextualize these price increases in an effort to calm down the community.
While their respective efforts appear to have been taken well by the film photography community, Matthew Wright, writing on 35mmc, has a slightly different take on the price increases of film.
In his essay, titled ‘The Film Community has a Math Problem. Not a Film Price or Kodak Problem,’ Wright breaks down a number of ways film photography is being impacted beyond simple price increases to account for inflation, supply chain constraints and more.
It’s a well-written piece that looks more into the economics and history of the film photography community than more the more topical rationale we’re used to hearing. You can read his entire writeup, which comes in at just over 3,000 words, below:
The Film Community has a Math Problem. Not a Film Price or Kodak Problem (35mmc)
About Film Fridays: We’ve launched an analog forum and in a continuing effort to promote the fun of the medium, we’ll be sharing film-related content on Fridays, including articles from our friends at 35mmc and KosmoFoto.