The use of silver by the photographic industry worldwide is projected to increase 10 percent over the next five years for photographic applications ranging from amateur snapshots to medical X-rays and motion pictures, according to a new report published today in the Silver Institute's Silver News . In 1997, photography accounted for 27 percent of worldwide silver fabrication demand. The report, prepared by photographic expert Peter Krause, compares silver-based photography with digital imaging in the industry's five key sectors and concludes that silver's quality, convenience, and low cost will carry this technology into the next millennium, despite growth in electronic photography. Total consumption of silver for photographic uses is expected to rise from 232 million ounces in 1997 to 255 million ounces by 2002.
Silver halides are the basic image-forming elements of photographic materials.
Amateur Sector Amateur photographers rely on conventional cameras and color negative films to take 75 billion snapshots annually. This sector, more than any other, depends on the simplicity, convenience, low cost, and high quality of silver-halide photographic systems, the report says. By 2002, the volume of film sold to amateur photographers is expected to increase 24 percent, while color-paper volume will rise 33 percent. Professional Sector Photographic films and papers are still the backbone of professional portrait, commercial, and industrial photography, but the use of digital cameras has grown much more in this sector than in the amateur sector. The reason is that certain features of digital imaging systems offer special advantages in some applications, such as instant transmission, rapid access, and easy filing and retrieval.