About five months ago the Cameraventures team launched the #saveanalogcameras project to see if analogue photography is still alive among photographers and therefore understand their future.
During the data collection process, about 170 Portuguese photographers who still photograph with analog cameras were interviewed.
In Portugal business is growing more and more, not only in physical spaces but also in online spaces, with the volume with a tendency to increase many of the businesses that had an exclusively online presence ended up opening a physical space, which leads to being able to offer another type of service.
In terms of the purchase of the film the choice among users is quite unanimous, the vast majority of interviewees have the habit of buying film in local stores and a minority are those who make purchases of film online.
When talking about buying gear, the choice is divided a little more, with three groups to be the focus of attention, they are the flea-markets; the local stores, where there are strong presence in the Portuguese panorama, and also the sale online from platforms such as eBay or specialty forums.
The fact that local stores have a very strong presence in the analogue movement in Portugal is mainly due to the knowledge they have about the product they sell, which generates a lot of consumer confidence, which sometimes may not have such advanced notions about the mechanisms of the photographic material. Many of these stores make revisions to all the material before it goes on sale, and some offer up to a few months of warranty on it.
Author: Diogo Santos