What will be the future for cameras?

hpulley · Dec 14, 2010

You're really in the wrong forum to ask about the future of digital cameras. Go check out photo.net or something I guess.

Cell phones with DSLR sensors? No, not enough real estate and honestly there is no market pressure for it.

Still images going away? Maybe, the current focus sure seems to be the, "oh and one more thing, this entire commercial was shot with this Canon/Nikon/Olympus _blank_!" Everyone seems to love video, youtube and all that but oh well. It isn't for me. I don't want to watch a video for minutes, "oh but you didn't wait for 2:32? that was the good part." Then give me a still image of the good part.

As said above photography didn't doom painting and sketching. It freed it. The same can be true for photography over digital work. People still make oils and hopefully there will still be film.

wblynch · Dec 14, 2010

When people tire of digicraps they will look for new avenues for artistic expression. Film will come back as a niche and there will be demand for new film cameras with many of the features of digicraps.

I think there will be some manufacturers introducing new analogue cameras. But they will be much different from the film cameras we have now.

Perhaps they will have self-developing film.

They will have to bridge the gap between film's physical permanence and digicrap's instant gratification.

To go along with the cameras, there will likely be a film printer where one inserts their film and gets an instant print. Those prints could easily be optical with paper that develops in room light in a simple water bath. People will want to watch the print develop, like a polaroid, for the full experience.

The appeal will not be purely on superior quality but more on the "easy-bake" aspect of artistic expression.

Serious photographers will decry these new cameras as crappy toys. Digicrap users will hang on till their last memory card fizzles.

lovetodraw · Dec 14, 2010

Hi,

I am new to this forum. I hope that film camaras will be around for a long time to come. I shoot 35, medium format, and digital. My favorate camara is the mamiya 7. I love the look of negative print film. I like the new Portra 400 film in 120 format. I think that the masses will settle for new digital version of camaras in the future. However, I also think that many of us, old and young, will still embrace film, because of its look and feel. But most of the people, will indeed, will shoot digital.

Perhaps, the cell phone camara or something similar will take over the mass market.

nosmok · Dec 14, 2010

Film is not dead...

Yet. But digital may be, at least for me. I spent a few months looking for a reasonably priced used digital back for MF, and the only stuff that reliably came up for under 3 grand were very early ones that have the resolution of a digital p+s; or stuff that had to be used with some out of date computer that they'd sell you with it. Seemed like a lot of trouble for arguably still-inferior results, so I gave up. I probably don't have a real good line on the good stuff, but it seems to still be more trouble than it's worth for "hi-fi" digital.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

--nosmok

erikg · Dec 14, 2010

"FSLR" ? Really? This is Apug. It is SLR, son.

removed account4 · Dec 14, 2010

the problem is not so much how long with the continue to make
film cameras, or consumer film, but how long will there be places
the average person can take their film to and have it processed and printed.

it won't be long that the celcam will make all roll film cameras obsolete ... they
have pretty much made 35mm cameras obsolete already ...

wblynch · Dec 14, 2010

Loss of demand does not equal obsolescence

waynecrider · Dec 14, 2010

I say 35mm film cameras will go out of production soon. Cosina is probably the biggest producing seller at this point.
I feel overall that digital stuff should not be labeled 35mm. It's a DSLR. Digital P&S's will continue to outsell DSLR bodies.
MF film will die first. Not enough shooters and there is too many pro people talking about how digital slr's beat MF film. I've seen the pictures and cannot tell a difference many times. Certainly image buyers don't give a crap.
MF digital is currently for big pockets and may not ever come down.
Camera phones will become the largest single source for capturing images. It's the camera you always have with you.
Facebook will become the largest depository for pictures if not already.
All my metal cameras will become Hybrid cars; All my plastic bodies will become pollution.

2F/2F · Dec 14, 2010

I guess it all depends on what happens with film, first and foremost.

Whatever film format is the last standing, somebody will make cameras for.

Digital is, of course, not 35mm. However, I do call full frame digital cameras small format (unless, of course, it is medium or large format digital). I call small-sensor digital cameras (like 10D, D70, etc.) subminiature format, as their sensor is pretty much like a piece of 110 film or smaller. It is pretty silly to me that the digital subminiature cameras are about the same size as the small format digitals. IMHO, the best submini digitals are the Rebel/D40 types and the high-end point and shoots like the S95 and G series, because they are small. When I go to upgrade from my 10D, I may just get a Rebel or a Nikon D40 type camera.

Pumalite · Dec 14, 2010

Digital will continue to have its uses, but that's it. I was a photographer at 12 and have continued all my life. I still have the F-1's, F-2's, F3's and F-4's. They are all still functional. As life advanced; I've took detours: motorcycle racing, studying Medicine; all the Doctorates, but I have continued to take Pictures. On the road I have accumulated about 200 cameras; curiosity mainly. As life advanced; I'm more a collectionist than a Photographer. I am one that think that film will never dye. As for price; luckily I've never have problems with that. I think I will dye before film. I will predict that Digital will take unrecognizable forms, but a Nikon F-1 or a Canon F-1 will never be replaced.

removed account4 · Dec 14, 2010

wblynch said:
Loss of demand does not equal obsolescence

loss of demand = loss of need for roll film/processing
loss of roll film means nothing to feed them
which means they will be obsolete

wclark5179 · Dec 14, 2010

I take pictures with my eyes.

Pretty soon I won't be taking any pictures but immediately transmit them to the recipents right from my brain! Or will it be left from my brain?

Ya, sure!

I tried thinkin' once but nothin' happened! Curly!

Have a wonderful Holiday season!

You're goofy photographer Bill

hpulley · Dec 14, 2010

It does seem like it could be home darkroom only soon doesn't it? We'll see I guess if demand for C41 at least keeps the labs open. As long as you can buy film, paper and chems for both I'll be happy.

alex66 · Dec 15, 2010

I dont know but would guess that if fuji and Kodak stop making film someone will take up making a few select emulsions and there will be a couple of labs that can make a good living from the dev side of things. It wont be for a long time yet as most towns have a mini lab or six. Also there are labs in Tesco etc, so there have to be a lot of people out there who don't want digital yet. The Lomo crowd also create a large enough market for film. I cant see there being no film for at the least twenty years.

Curt · Dec 15, 2010

All cameras will be obsolete, duh!!

The last cameras standing will be the the same ones that were available at the beginning of the history of photography. They will be cameras that use glass plates. It's interesting that film photography has had a relatively short run of about two hundred years. It lasted from just before the industrial revolution right up to the information age. That's not a bad time to be in existence.

I feel fortunate to have been involved for the last part of it, I do hope to continue to the end, mine or its. My kids will talk about when dad had a darkroom with chemicals and developed film he shot in a camera and printed on photographic paper that was readily available. To them they will be looking through lightweight 3D glasses and musing on the past or have 3D eye implants that activate with thought.

Ric Trexell · Dec 17, 2010

You've given me something to consider.

I guess we have covered about all there is to cover in this post, and you have given me some things to consider. Mostly I never even thought about the cell phone camera. I guess because I don't own a cell phone I wasn't thinking about those as a camera. I didn't mean for this to get into a digital/film debate as I believe there will be both types for years to come. I'm actually sort of an oddball in that I see a return to film to some extent. I think real cameras will be able to take both types of 'film'. That is why I look for cameras with removable backs to be in the future. Even if cell phone cameras are sharp, you still can't get past the quality of a bigger lense with either film or the large sensor of a big camera. Thank you for your time and comments, they have been interesting. Later, Ric.

hpulley · Dec 17, 2010

Removable backs for digital are so rare that they still cost many thousands of dollars. There is so little demand for them that I see no chance of them becoming mainstream, absolutely none. I dreamed years ago of this on my Canon AE-1, then on the EOS-1 but instead they made dedicated bodies for them which could only be salvaged back to film use. Of course there is no way to turn an EOS-1D into an EOS-1V now.

Richard Mendales · Dec 20, 2010

While I'm not terribly surprised to see the decline in 35mm film cameras, I must admit to being surprised and disappointed at the rapid decline of medium format film cameras, which haven't been used much by consumers for a long time, but have been the preserve of serious photographers. A medium format negative still contains far more information than its digital counterpart--and the digital "equivalent" of medium format costs as much as a Mercedes and will lose value more quickly. Moreover, it isn't really equivalent; my Nikons still do better with b & w, and there is a big problem with electronic storage of any image--my slides and negatives from 30 years ago are mostly as good as ever, but the electronic images may not be readable, even if the media are still around, by the time the baby grows up. I sometimes worry that our generation will leave few documents for history--and so it may be time to learn how to paint...

wblynch · Dec 20, 2010

Worse is the loss of hand-written letters.

Can anyone imagine a future grandchild finding a stack of neatly tied love "e-mails" or "texts" from Grandpa to Grandma?

No diaries either.

What will be the future for cameras?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency