Repackaged Films

 Film photography is, for me, a wonderful thing.  I can expose my film using a manual camera, take my exposed film home and choose from a plethora of developers and development techniques to produce photographs.  Am I being deliberately bloody minded, clinging to out dated technology and the "old ways"?  

By way of disclosure I suffer from depression and anxiety.  I'm probably undiagnosed Autistic as well.

Depression and Anxiety may be characterized as cyclical thoughts that focus on the negative aspects of life rather than seeing the good aspects. 

However suffering is the correct term and one of the tools that the clever people say is useful is to relieve depression is mindfulness.  This works because if you are engaged in an activity that doesn't allow you to think about anything else, for example using a view camera to take a 4x5 picture, you won't have time to mither (northern for worry) over negative aspects of life.  Riding a motorcycle also does the same.  Driving a car does not because we are able to drive mostly on autopilot and know that we'll be safe.  If you come to grief on a bike, there is no safety net.

Therefore, for me and I can only speak about myself, using film cameras and film photography consumes my time and thoughts in a way that few other activities will.

To have a future for film photography requires film being manufactured and sold. Now film production is a very expensive activity.  You need to develop your light sensitive coating, choose your backing film, buy a machine to put those two things together.  You take your coated film and then you have to produce 35mm or 120 or 4x5. Then you have to package, transport, promote. It is an expensive and time consuming activity.

So is it really realistic for anyone who would like to support film photography to setup a film plant and start producing their own film? Not really.  Even companies like Lomography or AgfaPhoto,  don't have their own bespoke coatings, they use what is already available. It's rebranded and repackaged.

The good thing is that the original manufacturer sells more film. Foma films in Bohemia grew their film business by 45% last year, largely due to repackaged Foma films.  This means that Foma can afford to start thinking about new machinery and investing in the plant.

The whole rebranding and repacking thing allows those whose business is the manufacture of film to continue to do that and reinvest in their factories and techniques. It makes the endeavor more economically viable rather than less. I suspect that to manufacture film your machines can produce film faster than consumers buy it and so manufacturers build up a stock that needs confectioning and selling before it goes out of date. Rebranding and repackaging will help sell that film stock. This reduces waste for the manufacturer.

The following are rebranded and repackaged films

Kosmo foto mono

Lomography Lady Grey

Lomography Earl Grey

New Classic EZ400

Cinestill 50D

Cinestill 250D

Cinestill BWXX

Street Candy ATM 400

Rollei RPX 100

Agfa APX 100

FPP Eastman Double-X

This list is by no means definitive, there are lots more I could add.

Anyway the point being that repackaging and rebranding is keeping film photography alive.

So please don't disregard repackaged and rebranded films, they may be our future and a way to keep me sane.