Washington Post article on Nikon leaving the film biz..

[Phillip P. Dimor]

Just came across this;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011102323.html

Makes me sick..

 

[david b]

I sure how the last quote at the bottom of the article is wrong.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

"Chute said photography has lost its identity in the digital era and become a subset of the consumer electronics industry."

That's it! The quote finally puts to words the angst I've felt over this whole thing. This is ground zero for my personal antipathy to digital.

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

How about the one where Kodak is the digital market leader.. I thought Canon was the market leader?

 

[Jorge]

I think it is funny. IMO what film and camera makers have not realized is that with the exception of the "professional" photographer, digital cameras are no longer a staple of photography but of communications. Think of this, we now have the Treo, a PDA/Cell phone, these are big enough that it will require little effort to put a 6 MP camera in them. As technology progresses and they find ways to pack more MP in a small package, in 10 to 20 years nobody will be buying cameras, they will be buying all inclusive gadgets that will do everything but shine your shoes. People will carry their personal info, electronic "money", camera, phone, video, internet, etc that will be wired to your house so you can turn on the lights, start dinner and heat the house before you get there.

If we think about it, with digital the future is full of posibilities that I think does not include P&S, the main stay of these companies.

 

[david b]

I would really hate to show my "artistic expression" with a Treo-like device.

 

[JHannon]

As technology progresses and they find ways to pack more MP in a small package, in 10 to 20 years nobody will be buying cameras, they will be buying all inclusive gadgets that will do everything but shine your shoes. People will carry their personal info, electronic "money", camera, phone, video, internet, etc that will be wired to your house so you can turn on the lights, start dinner and heat the house before you get there.

If we think about it, with digital the future is full of posibilities that I think does not include P&S, the main stay of these companies.

As long as they get rid of those awful walkie-talkie phones..I hate them. There was a story recently about people getting robbed playing with these devices, they are so occupied with Ipod and Cell talking that they are not paying attention to their surroundings. Robbers and Pickpockets are having a field day.

 

[Jorge]

I would really hate to show my "artistic expression" with a Treo-like device.

Last I saw, few people buying point and shoot cameras were worried about artistic expression.

 

[Jorge]

As long as they get rid of those awful walkie-talkie phones..I hate them. There was a story recently about people getting robbed playing with these devices, they are so occupied with Ipod and Cell talking that they are not paying attention to their surroundings. Robbers and Pickpockets are having a field day.

Not to mention the morons talking on the cell phone walking on the middle of the road......almost bagged me a christian yesterday because of that.

 

[Lee Shively]

Nikon used to be a camera company. Now it makes "consumer goods".

Has anyone else noticed that the only people who are absolutely, positively proclaiming the death of traditional photography are the one's who are determined to kill it?

 

[Andy K]

Then there are the idiots who drive, phone clamped to their ear, or worse typing text messages as they drive. They should have their licences taken away before they kill someone.

 

[David Brown]

... People will carry their personal info, electronic "money", camera, phone, video, internet, etc that will be wired to your house so you can turn on the lights, start dinner and heat the house before you get there. .../QUOTE]

The flying cars! Where are the flying cars we were all promised in the 1960s?

 

[stark raving]

The flying cars! Where are the flying cars we were all promised in the 1960s?

I've got a flying motorcycle................ oh, wait, never mind, it just feels like it's flying.... heh, heh, heh

 

[Lee Shively]

My cellphone makes phone calls. That's all I want a phone to do. It may do other things but I don't care. I don't want to be "connected". Especially to those idiots I see every day saying nothing but talking a lot into their connectivity devices.

My cellphone has an on-off button. The "off" works great. I use it a lot.

 

[jovo]

It is monumentally arrogant to assume that everyone will have the economic wherewithall or inclination to commonly use all the digigear outlined above. (After all, plenty of folks never even learned how to get their VCR's to stop blinking 12:00.) There are still pay phones, typewriters, pens, pencils, bound paper diaries and phone books, legal pads, printed books and newspapers, (if for nowhere else but the beach and bathroom) etc. and, I'm sure there always will be.

I must be a contrarian to think so, but I believe there will be an increasing level of technology fatigue as gizmos come and go at a dizzying pace and price, and people will finally resist to the point that the technoworld's grip will loosen. As we all know, most everything goes in cycles. Massive dependency on technology will not be sustained indefinitely!!

 

[Jorge]

Arrogant or not, why dont you go to the mall and look at the next generation and see them walking around with Ipods, cell phones, etc. These are the people who will be making pictures and are comfortable with technology. The price of these items decreases as time goes by. A palm PDA used to be many hundred dollars when they first came out, now you can get a Palm Treo on Ebay for $70 dollars.

It is more arrogant to think everybody likes what you like and cannot afford the gizmos.

 

[medform-norm]

For those of you who savour the thrill of some more angst and horrific views on the world of tomorrow, read up on the world of blobjects, spimes and wranglers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobject -and be sure not to miss the links at the bottom of the article. You will understand why Nikon produces consumer goods (i.e. blobjects) instead of 'cameras'. It's perfectly logical.

Shiver me timbers!

 

[stark raving]

I waded through one of those turgid articles linked at the end. What I read was not vision, just mental masturbation.

When mankind runs out of worthwhile things to do, we begin to invent worthless things?

Nah. I've got plenty of worthwhile things to do: feed the homeless, comfort the sick and elderly, read great novels (more exist than I could read in a lifetime), learn to play more works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc, etc, garden, make photographs, tinker with machines (real machines), drink wine, make wine, teach children, learn to write poetry, learn to paint, learn to cook, praise God and study his Word, learn to play another instrument (cello would be my first choice), write a novel, make love to my wife, go hiking in places I've never been.......... the list goes on, and on, and on.....

Jonathan

 

[roteague]

It is monumentally arrogant to assume that everyone will have the economic wherewithall or inclination to commonly use all the digigear outlined above.

I believe you are correct. I have a friend who is a commercial photographer in Sydney, who uses a Nikon D100 for his work (he also owns, but doesn't use, a Linhof). He could easily afford a better camera.

 

[Lee Shively]

There's still pay phones? Where? I can never find one of them. That's why I'm paying $50 a month to make two or three calls. (I was never good with economics.)

I did see a recent ad for a new Smith-Corona. Could hardly believe it.

 

[jd callow]

There's still pay phones? Where? I can never find one of them. That's why I'm paying $50 a month to make two or three calls. (I was never good with economics.)

I did see a recent ad for a new Smith-Corona. Could hardly believe it.

Detroit has many pay phones, often with a line of 2 or 3 people waiting to use them. Most cities large and small allowed the telco's to let the phones waste away -- to become eye sores. I suspect that the pay phones in detroit are still making money -- oddly they are mostly intact.

 

[DeanC]

Arrogant or not, why dont you go to the mall and look at the next generation and see them walking around with Ipods, cell phones, etc. These are the people who will be making pictures and are comfortable with technology. The price of these items decreases as time goes by. A palm PDA used to be many hundred dollars when they first came out, now you can get a Palm Treo on Ebay for $70 dollars.

<shrug> I'm pretty comfortable with technology: I have a cell phone and an iPod. My two Tivo's are wirelessly networked to eachother so I can move my son's favorite episode of Sesame Street (American Fruit Stand, if anyone is curious) between the living room and the play room. I have a FreeBSD box in a colocation facility running mailman for a mailing list I maintain. I build my tools from source and I edit my own DNS zone files. I'm even the Director of Operations for an Internet company with responsibility for a couple of thousand servers in multiple data centers.

I also contact print 8x10, b&w.

One of the reasons I picked a fundamentally 19th century hobby is precisely because of what I do for a living. At the end of the day, or on the weekend, the very last thing I want to do is spend more time with computers. I like wet darkroom work because it's hands on, low tech. Technology comfort and technology fatigue are not mutually exclusive.

Dean

 

[Jorge]

You and Jovo are missing the point entirely. The cash revenue for camera and film manufacturers is the guy who buys a point and shoot to take pics of his/her kids, etc, etc. When the all inclusive gizmo has enough resolution so that the person can take the pic, beam it to Costo and pick it up 30 minutes later, point and shoot cameras will be useless. This is why Kodak and Fuji are sufffering so much, the counted on China to be a big film consumer and it turned out they took to digital instead.

As an 8x10 shooter, you dont count. Your film purchase is nothing, hell the LF film purchase from B&H or Badger is nothing compared to the revenues 35 mm film and printing and the purchases made by Wal Mart or other chain stores brought in revenues to Kodak or Fuji.

Bottom line, there are more people using point and shoots than there are people using 8x10 cameras, technology fatigue or not......

<shrug> I'm pretty comfortable with technology: I have a cell phone and an iPod. My two Tivo's are wirelessly networked to eachother so I can move my son's favorite episode of Sesame Street (American Fruit Stand, if anyone is curious) between the living room and the play room. I have a FreeBSD box in a colocation facility running mailman for a mailing list I maintain. I build my tools from source and I edit my own DNS zone files. I'm even the Director of Operations for an Internet company with responsibility for a couple of thousand servers in multiple data centers.

I also contact print 8x10, b&w.

One of the reasons I picked a fundamentally 19th century hobby is precisely because of what I do for a living. At the end of the day, or on the weekend, the very last thing I want to do is spend more time with computers. I like wet darkroom work because it's hands on, low tech. Technology comfort and technology fatigue are not mutually exclusive.

Dean

 

[jovo]

Arrogant or not, why dont you go to the mall and look at the next generation and see them walking around with Ipods, cell phones, etc. These are the people who will be making pictures and are comfortable with technology. The price of these items decreases as time goes by. A palm PDA used to be many hundred dollars when they first came out, now you can get a Palm Treo on Ebay for $70 dollars.

It is more arrogant to think everybody likes what you like and cannot afford the gizmos.

You're absolutely right about what you just wrote, and I don't disagree. My point about arrogance (and I don't mean arrogance on your part if there is any, but the arrogance of the technomasters of the universe who think that everyone will like what they like!) is the assertion that EVERYONE will be doing what you describe. (BTW, not everyone even has $70 to spend on what they can also accomplish in more traditional ways.) People still write snail mail and always will when they can perfume a piece of paper for their sweetheart for instance. You can splash perfume on your monitor and keyboard til the bottle's empty, but only you will know about it (plus the neighbors I guess.). That the use and commonality of technoinventions is on the ascendence isn't an issue for me. It's the notion that it will continue in the same way forever that I dispute. I assert the swing of the pendulum.

 

[Early Riser]

I saw a funny "New Yorker" cartoon;

It shows a guy talking on a cell phone and saying to the person on the other end;

"Hold on a sec, I just took another picture of my ear."


Too many functions, with few done well.