True statement. So? That is a very, very simplistic view. Demand is created and supply follows demand if there is money to be made. Classic case is the IPhone, and there are many others as well.
That's because it
is simple.
"The business side is easy -- easy! ...if you're any good at math at all, you understand business. It's not its own deep, deep subject. It's not like C++." -- Bill Gates
The Holga/Diana cameras are a classic example of someone creating demand where none existed. And that one has created the Lomography movement, which in turn has increased demand for film. And though a lot of us look down on them and call them "toys", the co-exist with digital. They are not trying to replace digital, only capitalize on the strength of film. A Holga costs around $45. For $7 I can load some film. Then I go play. For another $10 I get some really wierd pictures back that can be scanned and distributed to all my friends...on those same digital phones that have a camera built in.
You can do this same thing in digital but it takes time on computers to get a similar look. With the Holga it comes with the territory. And on digital it costs a heck of a lot more.
Actually, the Holga ($30 from Freestyle) and Diana cameras were made for the "really really cheap" camera market, not as an end in themselves. The Holga was made because the company's other products were tanking, in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. Lo and behold, it caught on as an "in" thing.
The Instagram app is free (but you give away all of your photo rights). The iPhone was paid for anyways, so the cost to the user is effectively $0 and you get everything right now, while each round of fun with the Holga costs nearly $20 and you might wait a week to see what you got from it. Developing 120 film isn't convenient any longer. In the Seattle area there are three labs that still do it, and I didn't like the results from one of them. (so $7 for film, $15 for development & proof sheet, $8 s&h,
Panda Lab in Seattle, $30 total, and +$22 for a set of 5x5 prints on Kodak Endura. If using the camera sets you back $55 for every roll, how many times are you going to use the thing
for fun?)
These are the types of things that need to be marketed. Pinhole is something else. Harmann Technologies has a nifty new pinhole camera out. Tough to mimic that with digital, especially for the money.
It isn't demand, it is creativity based on the strengths that film brings to the party.
Demand = money. Creativity does not necessarily result in money. That's just how it goes. The product has to be purchased for a company to make money. No purchases, no money. End of story.
As for the Harman Titan pinhole camera, have you used it? I have, and I also use 8x10. Using sheet film in anything other than Quickload/Readyload is not something that is fast or convenient. Not in the slightest. The Titan camera is a neat thing for LF users, or advanced amateurs who want to make the extra effort, but not for what I would regard as the average roll film user.
It's not for the average Holga user. The user still has to purchase film holders, and maybe a changing bag, and may need to send the film off for processing. It requires extra effort, much more than using a Holga. A decent press camera can be had for not much more than the Titan.
Yes, artistic coolness must be marketed. Thing is, I haven't seen any marketing for the artistic coolness of film.
Have you?
