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 100 Brazilian photographers who are still photographing on film were interviewed.
Buying film is something that does not need too much decision-making when buying compared to say, buying a camera or lens. Many factors contribute to this, and price is definitely one of them. Obviously film is cheaper to buy compared to gear, another is the eagerness to experiment between different film brands, or the limited stocks a seller can offer, or that a certain brand or type of film emulsion is sold through a certain seller.
The search for expired films has meant that many times, in the name of experimenting and seeking different results, users know that they are buying a film without guarantee of good results, which makes the act of buying film a discovery of new results and situations instead of mere impulsiveness.
Another situation that leads consumers to buy expired films is undoubtedly the purchase of equipment for which film is no longer made, which means that users have to acquire what is still available on the market and that, in the majority of the times, it is already expired.
In relation to purchase locations by Brazilian analog photographers, their preference is divided into two groups: those that buy in local stores in person and those that buy in online stores. However, the percentage of users who buy in local stores is much higher reaching the 60% of the respondents.
There is even a group of people who opts for the cheapest value, regardless of whether you buy from an online store or a local store, their only criterion is that of the film’s selling price.
Author: Diogo Santos