Rambling with Resnick

Rambling With Resnick

The Changing Face of Photography
Ready or not, digital photography is here. Can quality be far behind?

By Mason Resnick

March 10: Be sure you read this to the end...there's an update with a major announcement about a new film processing technology!

Here's a quote from a friend a few days after she returned from the Photo Marketing Association's annual convention and trade show in Las Vegas in early February: "There was so much digital there, it didn't feel like PMA. I felt like I was at COMDEX!"

Indeed. From where I sit, atop a pile of enlarging paper and darkroom chemicals (I'm on the first floor, the darkroom's in the basement), it does look like the photo industry is in the process of being taken over by digital photography. For good or bad, it's here now. To wit:

Fuji's new SuperCCD boasts 6+ megapixel resolution images on the S1, a pro camera and over 4 megapixels on their $1,000 point & shoot.

1 megapixel point & shoots, which can produce a passable photo quality 4x5 image, can now be bought for under $300. Process 10 rolls of 35mm and you have price parity with film cameras.

Half a dozen "photo-dot-com's" have sprouted up in the last year, offering everything from information and content to online processing of your digital images as traditional photographic prints.

Altamira's Genuine Fractal can now take a lower-resolution (1-2 megapixels) and enlarge it for a truly photo-quality poster-sized print with no loss in resolution.

Epson, one of the top inkjet printer manufacturers, has just announced a new line of photo-quality papers that will last as long as archivally processed prints.

That's what's available now. But wait--there's more to come:

A digital insert that will fit in any 35mm camera and record digital images is expected to hit the market in a few months;
A "chemical-free" darkroom, which uses digital technology and produces zero effluent, is currently under development;
...and we haven't even seen what will happen in Photokina, the "world's fair of photography", in September, the biannual event when the REALLY big announcements are made by manufacturers.

Does all this mean silver-based photography is going away? Nobody in the industry is saying that. After all, 6 megapixels is nice, but a 35mm negative contains over 20 megapixels. Film is still the best image capture medium. Medium format shooters needn't worry either: no wedding photographer worth his or her salt is going to put their reputation on the line by shooting with a digital camera. These big film consumers are our assurance that market demand will keep the film makers producing.

But once the image is captured, the choices are now much greater: scan & change in photoshop? Post on the web? Email to a friend? Convert to digital, edit in Photoshop then print out photographically using a service bureau? Your choices are changing. You don't need to change if you don't want to, because the chemistry and paper will continue to exist (although I'm sure they will become harder to find). But it's good to know what your new choices are.

One day, you too may need to go digital. Hey, you're already reading this on a computer, aren't you?

Update: March 10, 2000

Applied Science Fiction Unveils Film Developing Technique with No Toxic Chemicals

A bombshell was dropped on the photofinishing industry yesterday. A Texas-based company, Applied Science Fiction (ASF), makers of Digital Ice scanner software, previewed their Digital Film Processing (DSF) technology to a small group of photo industry experts. The announcement had originally been scheduled for PhotoKina in September, but was moved up after numerous rumors started circulating about this technology. Non-disclosure agreements were signed and complete details are not expected until the fall. The following information, however, has just been made available to the public:

DPF takes exposed, unprocessed film and yields an image without chemical developing. Plans are to support 35mm and APS formats.
During the display of a prototype, a roll of exposed film was placed in a feeder. A proprietary agent that is non-toxic was applied to the film; each picture is captured digitally and each picture element is developed to its optimal exposure.
The process takes "a few minutes"
The process destroys the original film while creating a high-resolution digital image file
The process can take place in a self-serve automated kiosk and be as easy to use as a vending machine
Images will be returned to customers on CD's.
According to eyewitnesses, the image quality was impressive; because each element is developed optimally, the results may even be better than film images.

This may not have an effect on the home darkroom user--at least, not immediately. But I believe this will profoundly change how the lab around the corner does business (or even if it will remain in business) over the next 2-5 years. More to come!

About the author: Mason Resnick is the editor and publisher of Black & White World and the community webmaster of PhotoHighway.Com, and recently printed his photos on a coffee mug. You can reach him at bwworld@mindspring.com.