End of an era.
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/us/30film.html

I guess if they kill Tri-X, I may as well haul my K1000 to the dump.

A real shame, IMHO.

Chas

Progress? I still remember burning my finger on the used flash from an old toyish 216 camera as a kid.

Books and newspapers to follow shortly.

Pete

Sad.

But, that's how it goes, technology marches on. Everytime I look at my beautiful Revox RTR, fire it up and listen to that glorious sound I wonder how much longer blank tape will be available. Right now there are only three manufacturers left in the entire world. RGMI, ATR and Quantegy, all of them un-Godly expensive. What are ya gonna do, though? On the Tapeheads site they are trying to petition Maxell to resume making UDXLII for cassette and RTR.......Last I checked, they had scarcely a hundred signatures.....At that rate, it aint gonna happen.

Oh, well...........

Dave

last i heard, quantegy has gone down twice and has yet to come back up for a third time at bat. leaving only rgmi and atr.

"We at Quantegy would like to thank you for your patience while we continue to work on reintroducing 456, 499 and GP9. We do not and will not release anything that is not up to the standards of Quantegy tape. Please continue to check back here for further updates."

I still remember using Kodachrome 25 for bright, outdoor photography - incredible sharpness and color saturation (but slower than chit). I still have dozens of boxes of slides from my years in Europe. I may have to drag out the slide projector sometime soon.

You got that from the Quantegy website. Check the dealers. They'll tell you that the supply comes and goes, but when they have it, it sells pretty good.
The last I checked they were only making 456, 499, and GP9 in 1/2" widths and larger for the professional market anyways. 406 and 408 for the 1/4" user.

Dave

I always shot 400 ASA as a rule, gave me an edge in lower light. I never could appreciate that it was too grainy for my tastes.

To elaborate on my thread, apparently it's only Kodachrome which as bit the dust. The newer Kodak film is still supported.

Which makes me feel better. I spent years collecting a K1000, with a 50, 28, 35-80, 70-300, 2X doubler, with a tripod, shutter release, flash, and a sack full of filters which all fit in a shoulder bag.

A very capable rig, and I'd still rather use it as my digital.

I also regret selling my Spotmatic. But I was trained on a Speed Graphic, if that tells you anything.

Guess I like living in the past.

Chas

BTW Blue, just how many TOTL 7" tapes do you need for your Revox? I've got 50 or so, in excellent condition, recorded once. And a few virgins. Maxell and Memorex.

Chas

I mostly shot Kodachrome 64 (along with Ektachrome 64). However, when I lived in New Orleans, I used a fair amount of K25 on bright sunny days.

I still have a Canon F1 along with three nice lenses and a flash, as well as an Olympus XA (a mini 35mm rangefinder).

I've considered selling my entire F1 package, but continue to hang on to it.

Apparently you have a penchant for slower films. I always liked to shoot in low light, so I liked 'em fast.

Had two K1000's for a time so I could load them with different film, but I gave one to my sister, she's a K1000 fan.

Here's a shot I took on the way to work this week with my crummy Kodak digital.

Attachment 631

Not exactly fornicating with the hoot owls territory, but I was only a mile out of town.

Chas

PS: Don't sell your REAL camera, I ain't.

Most of the photography I did with film cameras was in association with all the travel I did for the 15 years after college, most of it in Europe. Most was daytime scenery, cityscapes, ski scenes, etc. intended for viewing as slides. The graininess of faster films was apparent when blown up to a 6' image on a screen. I was taking so many pictures at the time that printing pictures was out of the question from a cost perspective.

I rarely printed up anything from slides or used print film. I just kept snapping and looking at slides. I haven't looked at any of my slides in over 10 years.

FWIW, I always found Ektachrome a bit blue-tinged for my tastes, whereas Kodachrome was very neutral. BTW, I still have a small stash of PX625 mercury oxide batteries for my Canon.

Burning magnesium wire in an oxygen rich environment hot enough to melt the glass envelope. Yep, that'll do it every time.

As to books and newspapers I'm not so sure. The Harry Potter films use special effects to animate still photographs in newspapers. Pure fantasy? Apparently not. According to a radio program in the U.K. the technology is being worked on. Panels slightly thicker than the paper, surrounded by text and backed up with video.

Books have the great advantage that they can get wet, get covered in flour or batter in the kitchen, even dropped down the toilet, retrieved and dried out page by page.

Try doing any of the above with a laptop or mobile phone.

Yeah, I snagged a couple of 625s for my Minolta SRT101, have not used it in years.

I like real books.

The local college station is playing Count Basie, and I like him too.

Guess I'm hopelessly lost in the past.

And I like that too.

Chas

Don't own a cell phone, nor one of the electronic books, don't ever plan to buy either one.

So I guess I am a Luddite also.

As long as Jobs has everything built by Foxcomm in China I don't imagine I will ever replace our PCs with Apples either.:p

Well, I own a cell phone as it's pretty much indispensable for me, but it's the simplest and cheapest thing I can find which works.

Chas

I heard an interesting story on NPR last night. A songwriter, who is responsible for much of the drivel that makes it to the top of the charts, talked about listening to the 1940s station on Sirrius as his favorite station. Made him sound pretty mercenary to me - listening to Count Basie, Etta James and Frank Sinatra, but writing songs for Katie Perry. He know what sells.

Regards,

D-ray

A similar story aired a few weeks back about how songs are written and produced in contemporary Nashville. It's no friggin' wonder that so much dreck comes out of there nowadays. A very good read (or listen):

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2...in-the-kitchen

Whoa! How did I miss this the first time? How much? PM me.

Dave

10-4, will do later on. Have to run to the store and go back to work on my miserable computer. Miserable POS.

Currently using my wife's laptop, need one up and running to get hints on how to fix the other.

Chas

A buddy just walked in the door with two RT-707s and a Teac X-1000R, now all I have to do is see if I can make one good RT-707 and clear up the sound on the X-1000R.

Very sweet. Always liked the meters on those 707s.

Dave

I was able to download the service manuals on both units yesterday. Did a search on alignment tapes - don't think the budget is going to stretch that far - holy cow what prices.:eek:

Hard to find anyone who works on tape machines any more, and least around here close. And shipping one of those monsters eats you alive.

Say Rob, are you any good with CD players? I've got a Sony CDP-701ES I'll give you if you think you can fix it. I think the laser died. It was a high dollar rig back in it's day, and the cosmetics are still excellent, just dusty.

Chas

Yeah, I sent the A77 to an authorized Revox Service Center in Tennessee. Amazingly Revox still services and carries parts for their RTR decks. But the bill was obscene. It's no wonder why so many people just give up.

And, if you think that's bad, have you seen the prices for new tape lately?

Dave

Here is what I got pretty much as New Years presents. With luck I may be able to get both RT-707s going and the heads aligned on the X-1000R. I have a bunch of commercial tapes so they should be almost as good as alignment tapes.

Chas let me check on that Sony, there are some new laser assemblies still available. If I can locate the right one at a decent price we can bring her back to life.

I love the sound of reel to reel. So sad seeing it struggle to survive.

Dave