Kodak recently issued a press release aimed at showing photographers that film is still going strong among professionals.
"A survey of more than 9,000 professional photographers in the U.S. shows that film continues to have an avid following, with 75 percent of photographers saying they will continue to use film, even as some embrace digital imaging technology," the press release informs.
It goes on saying that 68 percent of professional photographers prefer the results of film to those of digital. The reasons invoked are: film's superiority in capturing more information on medium and large format films (48 percent); creating a traditional photographic look (48 percent); capturing shadow and highlighting details (45 percent); the wide exposure latitude of film (42 percent); and archival storage (38 percent).
"This survey indicates that film remains an important tool on which professional photographers rely to effectively create their work, so providing choice is of utmost importance. It's an 'and' world where digital and film co-exist and complement each other," said Mary Jane Hellyar, President, Film Products Group and Senior Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company.
Yes, it's true that some assignments require the use of film. However, it's a little bit far-fetched to say that " Professional Photographers Remain Ardent Users of Film".
This might have been true a few years ago when medium format backs had not reached resolutions of 39 megapixels and the imaging technologies had not evolved to the point of replacing film. The advantages of using film are getting fewer and fewer, especially since photographers have much more freedom with digital than with film.
Undoubtedly, there are still some who use film, but I think their numbers are dwindling. A large number of professionals are now using medium and large format cameras, but only some are still using film. The rest have Hasselblad, Phase One and other brands of backs attached to them.
In fact, Kodak is using the press release to advertise their five new versions of the Professional Portra film. "The new PORTRA film family, comprising 160VC, 160NC, 400VC, 400NC and 800, helps professional photographers create stunning images with finer grain, spectacular skin tones, and improved scanning performance for greater enlargement capability," the press release informs.
It's obvious that film still has followers, but digital will eventually snuff the life out of it. It's easier and eventually cheaper.
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