4x5 FP4 Plus stock may nearly be gone here in the UK. A number of suppliers are sold out, and a few that remain have even raised the price by close to 10%. I've picked up a few boxes to ride me out for the next couple months, though unless production starts again, I fear I'll have to switch to something else.
Agreed, I also shoot landscapes and my OM2S does a fine job, but lack of AF meant that many loyal customers would eventually switch to something else. And by the time they switched to a new camera - lens mount system and the associated costs this involved, they had absolutely no reason to switch back to Olympus. It's a shame that Olympus is basically gone, but there's not much of a market for more than 3-4 camera manufacturers.I mostly do landscape or macro where a need for automation or AF is secondary, so fossil it may be but that works.
AFAIK Harman is back. On 18th June, they posted on Instagram that their 'staff and machines are being phased back in to operation'. They showed video of their first fresh rolls of 135 HP5+ running off their finishing line.
I would think that any shortages are more likely related to problems in the distribution chain, caused by Covid.
It's an even sadder story for digital cameras, Steve the digital cameras in smartphones are so staggeringly good these days even in medium-priced ones that the average person in the street sees no need to own a camera, certainly, my children who are in their fifties, their friends and their children don't own cameras and see no need for them, and the average consumer is the main market for image-making devices, so the camera manufacturers are in for a tough time in the future.A sad sign of what the future for film may be facing. At least film sales are up.
3 years of no profit straight losses and some people still want to say that Customers are to blame because they want "Stupid full frame".
Full frame is pretty much the only reason to shoot digital over 35mm film (sometimes).
I had no interest in M4/3 for anything except maybe a way to adapt old lenses to digital for fun, but even that incentive was gone with FF mirrorless becoming very affordable.
But yeah, why should a photographer care for resolution, the "Photographic Experience" is so much more important....
I disagree with every single sentence, but I 100% agree with the spirit of this post. I have never used legendary Olympus film cameras, I only evaluated their products during the digital era. I have seriously looked at them on 3 occasions, and every single time they presented themselves as the most backward manufacturer. The noise was always higher, the DOF control was always worse, dynamic range was never great, the weight savings were minimal and $$ savings were non-existent. Handling their cameras in stores never revealed any ergonomic advantages, they felt similar to competitors. There was another company that showed middle finger to full-frame users and they're still growing their market share.
I disagree with every single sentence, but I 100% agree with the spirit of this post. I have never used legendary Olympus film cameras, I only evaluated their products during the digital era. I have seriously looked at them on 3 occasions, and every single time they presented themselves as the most backward manufacturer. The noise was always higher, the DOF control was always worse, dynamic range was never great, the weight savings were minimal and $$ savings were non-existent. Handling their cameras in stores never revealed any ergonomic advantages, they felt similar to competitors. There was another company that showed middle finger to full-frame users and they're still growing their market share.
I expect Nikon will be the next to go.
The smaller sensor has some disadvantages, but I'm absolutely amazed at the quality I can get when my kit lens equipped OMD EM10 Mark II produces a jpeg and I send it electronically to Costco for a 12"x16" RA4 print.
All in a package about the size of a Trip 35.
Pentax might be next, smaller than Nikon, lack deep pockets for R&D, their one and only mirrorless was not well liked, keeping the K mount it was too thick. Sigma is a family owned business, they have taken a loss on camera bodies for years and seems not to care much.
It's an even sadder story for digital cameras, Steve the digital cameras in smartphones are so staggeringly good these days even in medium-priced ones that the average person in the street sees no need to own a camera, certainly, my children who are in their fifties, their friends and their children don't own cameras and see no need for them, and the average consumer is the main market for image-making devices, so the camera manufacturers are in for a tough time in the future.
Pentax is an oddball, somewhat surprised Ricoh hasn't sold it off yet. That said, I have a few bodies and a slew of lenses and if youre looking for a rugged DSLR with decent IQ there not bad at all, and priced well.
Pretty cool compact prime lenses too.
Please don’t forget, smartphones was the biggest contributor to the proliferation of amateur imaging-making, both still and moving. Why try to “take it down” as a “threat”? Threat to what? Do you really think there’s a valid (both sales quantity and profitability) market for new film cameras?
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