The end of film cameras

BrandonJ · Jun 23, 2011

Ok so I gave up reading the reply's after like page 3. Just in case it wasn't mentioned didn't Mamiya and Hasselblad just launch new models that still accept film backs? Hello there is a film camera! I think we will see people getting tired of shelling out $5-6,000 every year for the newest digital SLR and start looking back at old reliable (film) plus there is the question of compliance. In 20 years who knows if my current digital files will work on the operating systems on the market? I scan in my film and BAM!! I am back up to date with current times! Let's see your 25 megapixel image from 2011 do that in 2031!

tomalophicon · Jun 23, 2011

You should have read all the replies and saved typing BrandonJ.

holmburgers · Jun 23, 2011

Photo Engineer said:
It all comes down to craftsmanship! It does work. Anyone can paint a picture, but then there was Leonardo Da Vinci and others who did it better. Using a brush, I can paint emulsion onto a support with concomitant brush strokes or I can learn to coat it with high quality using other methods. The same argument holds for making fine quality prints. A photofinisher is a lower standard than a high end artist.

PE

To Michael,

I think what PE is saying is that emulsion making itself will (or can) become an art.

The amazing products from Kodak (& the like) are highly perfected, marvels of modern manufacturing. But their complexity is due in large part to their scale of production, not their materials. Yes, quality control is incredible & each step of the process if executed with surgical precision, but the fundamentals could be executed on a smaller scale.

We've become spoiled with these products, but the pioneer days of chemical photography might soon return, and only a fool would say that there was no worthy artistry from those days because their materials were "inferior".

Joe O'Brien · Jun 23, 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe there is only one sound course of action at this time. We must take it upon ourselves to wipe out all electricity so that only film cameras and contact prints remain!

tomalophicon · Jun 23, 2011

How will Ilford make film or paper without electricity?

Jeff Kubach · Jun 23, 2011

I agree up to a point, but you do need electricity for enlargers!

Jeff

medium120 · Jun 23, 2011

sad but sounds true...

i love konica minolta centuria film alot
but when all stocks in my storage are used... then i cant use it anymore

Steve Smith · Jun 23, 2011

tomalophicon said:
How will Ilford make film or paper without electricity?

They could move next to a fast flowing river and fit a water wheel.

Jeff Kubach said:
I agree up to a point, but you do need electricity for enlargers!

Or you can use the sun.

Steve.

Artisan Stomoxys · Jun 23, 2011

Glass negatives anyone!

Remember, most of the digital camera market relies on the product cycle, in order to be as efficient as they are in pumping out new models on an annual (or better monthly) basis. But that product cycle is nothing but a big ponzy sheme when we, the people are more and more limited by our resources. So I see a bright future for analog camera's, glass negatives, and wet colodium plates. In the long run we will be all going back to pre industrial conditions (ass stated by James Howard Künstler in his book The Long Emergency) and seen in that light the last photograph ever taken will probably be a dagguereotype.......as strange as that may sound.

tomalophicon · Jun 23, 2011

Artisan Stomoxys said:
Remember, most of the digital camera market relies on the product cycle, in order to be as efficient as they are in pumping out new models on an annual (or better monthly) basis. But that product cycle is nothing but a big ponzy sheme when we, the people are more and more limited by our resources. So I see a bright future for analog camera's, glass negatives, and wet colodium plates. In the long run we will be all going back to pre industrial conditions (ass stated by James Howard Künstler in his book The Long Emergency) and seen in that light the last photograph ever taken will probably be a dagguereotype.......as strange as that may sound.

And someone will be asking: 'Is that a Hasselblad?'.

Steve Smith · Jun 23, 2011

We could make the ink for inkjet printers unbelievably expensive...... wait..... it already is!

Steve.

benjiboy · Jun 23, 2011

When my cameras are irreparable and film is no longer available I'll think about buying a digital camera, but until then I prefer a technology that I'm comfortable with after studying it for all my adult life and am still in awe of it's beauty and simplicity.

Joe O'Brien · Jun 23, 2011

We could make the ink for inkjet printers unbelievably expensive...... wait..... it already is!

Or we can keep upgrading camera bodies with incompatible lens mounts!

tomalophicon · Jun 23, 2011

I agree, it's gone too far.

SuzanneR · Jun 23, 2011

Thread closed.

The end of film cameras

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