The Year 2016

[CMoore]

I guess this is the right place for this:
I feel very fortunate to have Found/Stumbled upon APUG. It happened at a great time. My first real experience with photography stated in about 1978, when two of my friends took a photo class at our high school...they had a pretty decent darkroom. I Suppose a lot of schools use to.
Born in 1960, I was exposed to all of the Great/Classic 35mm SLR of the day. Not that I owned an F2 back then, but a guy would see them everywhere. All of the other greats from that time frame were known to me via magazines and seeing pros with them at Auto Races and Rock Concerts. But life intervened and I lost touch with cameras for many years.
Fast forward to Now, and I am seeing those same cameras all over again, and can actually afford to own a few of them this time around. And I feel very fortunate about THAT as well.
The 35mm SLR from The Golden Years of film are still around, with enough parts cameras to keep the survivors in great shape. I am not sure how long this will last, but it will not be forever. Many of these cameras are 30-50 years old. What condition might they be in, in another 40 years.?
We are alive at a good time for this. These "things" have not been made in a long time, and repair techs are no longer trained in any Formal/Corporate manner. We have the techs that we have, and many of them are getting long in the tooth.
Not sure what brought this all on...I think it is the "What's Your Latest New Old Camera"" forum. It made me wonder, in 40 years, who will be buying my camera gear.? WILL anybody want to buy it, and will the stuff be repairable to any degree...will there be guys that Can/Know how to perform a competent CLA.?
I have always looked back and thought..."Man, I wish I had been alive then". Because of these film cameras, there is a chance, that someday, some young Guy/Gal might actually be envious of the time THAT I was alive in.

 

[cliveh]

It made me wonder, in 40 years, who will be buying my camera gear.? WILL anybody want to buy it, and will the stuff be repairable to any degree...will there be guys that Can/Know how to perform a competent CLA.?
I have always looked back and thought..."Man, I wish I had been alive then". Because of these film cameras, there is a chance, that someday, some young Guy/Gal might actually be envious of the time THAT I was alive in.

As you will probably be dead by then, does it really matter?

 

[CMoore]

Whoa Dude.....did you see that 747.?

 

[TheRook]

Concerned about the camera's well-being some 40 years from now? That's true love!
And this may be the significant difference between film shooters and digital shooters. Most digital shooters don't expect or plan to be using the same camera even a decade later, and certainly not several decades from now. Love for a digital camera is usually a short term affair.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Non-electronic cameras such as the Leica M3, Nikon F, or Hasselblad 500C/M are likely to continue working for another 50-60 years with basic maintenance (CLA). Obviously, view cameras or medium format folding cameras can last longer.

I hope there will be people skilled enough to perform that maintenance - as skilled as the top people we have today. I think there will be.

Cameras with electronics, especially autofocus, won't fare as well. It's not that electronics are unreliable, it's that there are so many components in an electromechanical system that the complexity is higher and the chances of a single failure among them all increase. Often, a single failure will render the camera unusable or severely reduce its functionality.

 

[guangong]

There will be almost no collectors or users of highly computerized or digital cameras （or automobiles） simply because of the complexity of printed circuit manufacture...the circuits can only be produced in vast numbers. A skilled craftsman can always make a single part for a mechanical camera...cost would be the deciding factor，not possibility.Also，many modern cameras and lenses are “one way manufacture” and can not be disassembled. Have a friend who bought decent video camera which not too long after needed repair...repairs no longer possible because electronics not available. Most of the electronics is subcontracted， the camera manufactures buy a run...when run runs out no spare parts.

 

[removed account4]

unless in 40 years the buyer is versed in hand crafting emulsion
and coating stuff him/her self cameras might be shelf queens.
i often coat scraps of paper for use in 35mm cameras ...
no repairs are necessary if the BulB function works. its a slowish exposure.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I doubt what in 40 years people will buy 135 and MF cameras to use for photography. I don't think film is going to be available. It is going to be LF market for self made emulsions.
But it might be wave of new era techno hipsters, who would buy 135 and MF and dump digital cameras into it. It is happening already now.

 

[iandvaag]

I really appreciate the positive "look on the sunny side" vibe of the OP. It's easy to look back fondly on the good times of years gone by, and easy to not appreciate the opportunities currently available to us. Not only cameras, but film also. We live in a fortunate time with much choice of functioning cameras and quality emulsions . I often lament the impending demise of slide film, but it's important to be able to appreciate the good times I can enjoy shooting slide film right now.

 

[TheRook]

Cameras with electronics, especially autofocus, won't fare as well. It's not that electronics are unreliable, it's that there are so many components in an electromechanical system that the complexity is higher and the chances of a single failure among them all increase. Often, a single failure will render the camera unusable or severely reduce its functionality.

Furthermore, LCD screens do deteriorate over time and eventually cease to function. Electronic cameras that depend on these screens to relay important camera settings to the user will essentially become useless bricks. I'm not just talking about digital cameras with their menu screens, but also numerous film cameras of the 1990's which use screens to display shutter speed, shooting modes, etc.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

40 years is a very long time when thinking todays speed. I wish quantum computers will be here , we will upload a 100000 mp image to it in half second and it will turn it to most complex chemical process result. Chemistry and quantum computers will invent the most complex chemicals.

If you are young , you will find a very interesting world at the future.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Maybe that will be a cost-effective way to reintroduce Kodachrome...

 

[cliveh]

But will this speed of image accessibility and modification be to the detriment of thought and patience in creating something with a sense of presence.