Glass Plate Negatives from the 1900's

[PFMcFarland]

Here's a thought on how to notch your glass plates. Get a Dremel (or other brand) tool, and grind a notch or two in the edge of one corner. Then always coat your plates according to wherever you want that notch to be oriented, say upper right corner.

PF

[Brazile]

Thanks for the suggestion, PF. I had thought of that, but had chosen not to, because I occasionally have reason to coat the other side of the plate (in case I get small scratches on one side, for example).

Plus, as I should have pointed out: it's much less of an issue with my plates, as I can look at them under safe light. The coated side is fairly easy to distinguish. It's more of an issue with the commercial plates as they're panchromatic, so you can't just look at them! It will be an issue if I ever try to go panchromatic, but that's pretty darn unlikely, as it's considerably more trouble to have to do everything in the dark...

Robert

[GrahamS]

I am amazed that commercially made glass plates are still available.

[Brazile]

I'm not at all certain that they are beyond Jason Lane's Pictoriographica (and now from a young man in Slovenia, operating under the "Lost Light" brand), and these are all hand-coated. Kodak for sure and Ilford I think continued to sell them for scientific purposes through the 90s, not sure how far past that they went. The boxes of commercial plates I have are all NOS; mine date from the 50s, I believe, and are rather fogged.

Robert

[GrahamS]

I'm not at all certain that they are beyond Jason Lane's Pictoriographica (and now from a young man in Slovenia, operating under the "Lost Light" brand), and these are all hand-coated. Kodak for sure and Ilford I think continued to sell them for scientific purposes through the 90s, not sure how far past that they went. The boxes of commercial plates I have are all NOS; mine date from the 50s, I believe, and are rather fogged.

Robert

Thanks for that, Robert. I wonder if the time will come when we will have to coat our own film?

[Brazile]

My personal guess: I think black and white film will survive as a niche product; it's not that hard to make, and the emulsions may still have industrial uses. The economic implosion of the industry reflects the fact that late-term Kodak was built to produce orders of magnitude more of the stuff than the demand stabilized at. That could be met with the capacity of just the old research labs, which is more or less what the Ferrania folks are trying to take advantage of. There are contract emulsion producers, because there are other industrial uses for them. So I think one way or another, this stuff can hang on.

On the other hand, I would not be shocked at all if color film is eventually phased out. It's trickier to manage (multiple layers of emulsion and color couplers), and requires specific chemistry to make and to process. I'm not sure whether and how much of it is specific to the color film industry only; that may be a factor as well.

Robert

[GrahamS]

I think Ilford are doing very well!
https://www.ilfordphoto.com/contact-us

[Brazile]

I think so, too, and I hope they continue to do so! The series of buyouts were not reassuring, but they seem to be hanging in there...

Robert

[alexvaras]

Yes, their film is not the cheapest and not the most expensive but is one of the best, IMO.

[titrisol]

Agree, the small factories have fared much better than the giants
Ferrania, and adox (foto impex) together with Foma and Ilford will be there for a while

My personal guess: I think black and white film will survive as a niche product; it's not that hard to make, and the emulsions may still have industrial uses. The economic implosion of the industry reflects the fact that late-term Kodak was built to produce orders of magnitude more of the stuff than the demand stabilized at. That could be met with the capacity of just the old research labs, which is more or less what the Ferrania folks are trying to take advantage of. There are contract emulsion producers, because there are other industrial uses for them. So I think one way or another, this stuff can hang on.

On the other hand, I would not be shocked at all if color film is eventually phased out. It's trickier to manage (multiple layers of emulsion and color couplers), and requires specific chemistry to make and to process. I'm not sure whether and how much of it is specific to the color film industry only; that may be a factor as well.

Robert