That’s a real pain – I’m talking about film with streaks, holes or patches without emulsion, completely wrong gradient, no protection against light diffusion, or scratched emulsion.
I, at least, haven’t yet come across film with holes etc., nor have I encountered grossly incorrect speeds in film that would have made a difference compared to my own inaccuracies during development.
What I’ve had twice now were Foma roll films with the film stuck on the wrong side (both from the same batch). You end up looking rather stupid when you peer through the little window at the back.
Black-and-white materials are essentially simple to produce. If a photographer in the 19th century could perform the coating on their own glass plates in the cellar, it should surely be possible in the 21st century to manufacture the materials on a small-scale industrial basis. The know-how is still there, after all. Due to the lower production volumes, at most a little consistency in the parameters is lost. But these are all effects that photographers ‘back in the day’ probably had to live with and somehow learnt to deal with. The market in the amateur or artistic sector is still there for the time being; without being able to quote figures at the moment, I have the impression that the phase of decline is, on the whole, over here. Personally, for example, I’ve only just set up my darkroom now that I could afford it due to the fall in equipment prices. Now, for instance, Meopta gets the money from me for accessories that they missed out on with my second-hand enlarger.
People aren’t going to stop doing black-and-white photography any more than they stopped painting pictures in 1890. You can still get colour film, too. No reason to fall into cultural pessimism.
Tell me, are you saying I’ve been drinking and don’t know what I’m writing, or that I don’t take this seriously and would rather write about films, or do you want the USSR back?
Quite a few people actually want it back. I’ve had lengthy discussions about it with my father-in-law, for instance, who, incidentally, is just as hot-headed as you. I can understand him quite well, too. The gain in freedom that people in the villages of eastern Ukraine actually enjoyed is limited, especially when compared to the economic collapse. I don’t want to complain; after all, his daughter was able to study in (West) Germany.
