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Comment by xdennis | Hacker News Reader

Some people actually enjoy developing and scanning/printing everything themselves.

But it's true that colour photography is essentially dead for non billionaires. I stocked up with more than 100 rolls a few years ago. When I run out, I'll just continue with black and white.

Bulk rolls of Fomapan 100 are still very cheap. For 4x5, a single 50 sheet pack lasts me more than a year.

For 8x10, shooting X-Ray film is cheaper than Fomapan in 4x5 (but the film is very easy to scratch).

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>> But it's true that colour photography is essentially dead for non billionaires

I prefer B&W. But still admire lots of color photographers. One of them is Christopher Burkett, one of the few folks who still do Cibachrome prints these days. His prints are so marvelous that people may easily mistake them as digital images.

Of course, what he's doing takes lots of expertise and money.

Cibachromes? Really? I haven't been able to get Cibachrome/Ilforchrome for years, I thought the chemistry was long long gone. Sheesh my Cibas from the early 1990s are still stunning prints. Wish I'd made more.

Mr Burkett purhased lots of Cibachrome materials before Ilford Switzerland declared bankruptcy.

https://christopherburkett.com/about/cibachrome

Absolutely, it's a brilliant hobby, but it takes a huge amount of time and space. And money now, because darkroom hardware and materials are super expensive. If I was learning now like I did when I was 18, I'd never be able to afford it. I've a huge box of film that's basically going to outlive me because of the processing costs, ha!

I've only just gotten into film, being a total amateur with digital as well. Mostly because my parents were photographers for 40 years, so we have a Jobo ATL 2500 autolab and a FlexTight Precision II scanner. I'm honestly not sure I would have even tried film without them.

color has gotten more expensive, but its not that bad. Kodak recently released Gold 200 in 120 format (the type of film that the camera in the brochure uses.) A 5 pack costs USD$45,so $9 a roll. This camera shoot 15 shots per roll so 60 cents a shot. Sure, if you're snapshotting, but usually you get a big camera like this because you're being careful and deliberate composing your photos instead of machine-gunning. You can develop color at home, but scanning is harder without software to specifically remove the oeange mask.

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