Art News
Who Profits From the Film Revival
Thin manufacturing margins, healthier retail and lab service economics, and a secondhand market that bypasses makers entirely — where the film revival's money actually lands.
Art News
Business coverage of the analog trade: manufacturing capacity, chemistry supply chains, lab pricing, secondhand camera valuations and the margins in selling film. Explains why a roll costs what it costs. Written for lab owners, dealers and shooters budgeting a year of photography honestly.
Business coverage of the analog trade: manufacturing capacity, chemistry supply chains, lab pricing, secondhand camera valuations and the margins in selling film. Explains why a roll costs what it costs. Written for lab owners, dealers and shooters budgeting a year of photography honestly.
Art News
Why Darkroom Chemistry Sells Out
Photo chemistry is a rounding error in the global chemical industry, which is exactly why developer and fixer keep vanishing from shelves.
Art News
Film Coating Capacity Explained
Roughly six sites worldwide still coat photographic film, and their run calendars — not demand — decide what reaches shelves.
Art News
Photo Lab Economics Explained
Chemistry is one to three dollars of a fifteen-dollar develop-and-scan; machines, labor and shipping decide whether a lab survives — the unit economics of the film revival, as of 2025.
Art News
Why Used Film Camera Prices Rose
Premium compacts roughly quadrupled, Leica crept up and volume SLRs barely moved: a category-by-category account of the used film camera market's climb, as of 2025.
Art News
Anatomy of a Film Roll's Cost
Silver, gelatin, acetate base and a coating line's fixed toll stack into the true manufacturing price of a roll — an anatomy of what film factories actually pay.