Bye-Bye Film
May 28, 2006: Write the obituaries now - film is dead but too dumb to fall over.
It’s a shame, because there are a lot of great shooters who prefer film, which has given us millions of priceless images. But technology is moving ahead, and film is being left behind. This is from Steve’s Digicams.
Japan’s Canon Inc. said…it would consider halting development of new film cameras as it focuses resources on digital models, the latest sign of the rapidly fading role of film in photography.
A spokesman at Canon, the world’s largest digital camera maker, said it would consider whether it needs to continue developing both compact and single lens reflex (SLR) film models because the markets for both are shrinking.
Canon said it would continue to produce and sell existing models and make a final judgment on the business in the future while monitoring market demand.
Canon’s statement follows an announcement earlier this year by rival Nikon Corp. that it would stop producing most of its film cameras, expect for a few professional products.
With Canon and Nikon out of the game, I don’t see how film hangs on.
June 1st, 2006 at 5:18 am
A real shame but not suprising. The real reason film is dieing rapidly is because people have stopped buying compact cameras (yes even digital ones). The latest mobile phones are capable of taking images that mean the younger generation feel no need to carry a camera.
Interesting how pro film still sells well however that will probably become uneconomical within the next five to ten years (don’t forget some parts of the world will not be able to afford digital technology for the foreseeable future).
Just because an image is captured on film doesn’t mean it can’t be played with in photo shop, it just means the photographer doesn’t have hours of messing about after every wedding. Exposed film in the fridge lab picks it up on Monday morning job done!
January 19th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I like the idea of film (more forgiving latitude, high resolution, predictable colour results), but don’t reality like the reality of film. I’m approaching this inevitable going-digital process with as much self-awareness as I can muster, but I’m still being sucked in. The marriage of photography and electronics makes for new trends, and a whole slew of changing must-haves, and it’s challenging to figure out what’s good and what’s extraneous.
I need to say that the people who talk about digital photography being cheaper than film photography, aren’t taking into account the cost for the camera, new digital-specific lenses, the computer (or its upgrades), all the necessary peripherals (batteries, storage, etc.), and the cost for printing the images still remains (factor in the printer and all materials). You can buy and develop a heck of a lot film for those costs.
The selling issue for digital photography is its convenience and flexibility. For all the guys trying to convince their wives that they’re going digital to be cheaper, don’t let them see this.