Advertising: What costs less? Film or Digital?
The results are actually quite surprising when you compare a typical advertising shoot of 800 frames to a digital shoot of 800 captures.
800 frames a day, translates into 50 rolls of 120 film using a 645 camera, such as the Hasselblad H1. Assuming an average film type of Kodak Portra, with developing and contacts comes to $19.79 per roll (3.79 a roll at BH and 16 to process and contact at an LA pro lab). So 50 rolls at $19.79 gets us a physical film cost of $989. We should also add in a couple of packs of Polaroid film, so add in another $16.90 for two packs of fuji Polaroid (also from BH). We then have to factor in camera rentals, which for a Hasselblad H1 with 50-110 lens, 2 film backs, and a polaroid back is $200 per day (from Calumet LA). Lets also assume that there are around 10 hero shots, which all need scans and initial clean up. 10 100mb scans with clean up cost $50 per image, so $500. This just leaves a fedex to get everything to the client at $28 for a priority overnight package. Leaving a final film shoot cost of $1734.40, with sales tax the cost would be well over $1800.
At Image Mechanics we provide a standard digital capture package that costs $1500. That price includes an Hasselblad H1 with 50-110mm lens, Leaf Aptus digital back, capture specialist with cart, and free batch processing of all images. Add an additional $250 for delivery media (web gallery or hard drive) bringing the total for a typical Image Mechanics shoot to $1750. The biggest add-on, which is hard to measure monetarily, is client experience.
You can see above that shooting film entails essentially the same costs as shooting digital, when shooting 800 frames per day. Many of our jobs have been going into the 2400-3200 frames per day, and our cost stays the same no matter the number of images. Digital also wins out in speed. Even with the fastest film processing and scanning available(at a much higher cost than above) you are looking at at least a 3 to 7 day wait until your shoot is delivered. With Image Mechanics, jobs are seen and approved within seconds after shooting, and delivered at 10am the next day via web gallery.
In today’s “need it yesterday” ultra competitive world, The benefits of digital with Image Mechanics far outweigh shooting with film.
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