Google trends on film and RF cams

[gho]

We hear opinions about the future of film here in the forum. I want to see figures. Figures are hard to find. Then it struck me: if google trends can tell us about the interest in swine flu, maybe it could also tell us about the interest in film. Not that film is like the swine flu.

So I entered tri-x, neopan, rodinal and rangefinder camera into google trends.

What are these graphs telling us?

There seems to be a decay in all three time series up to mid 2008. From there on until today, the situation seems to be quite stable. I am not sure if interest is linked with sales, but this does not seem to be too far fetched.

If we are focussing only on the last year, the stability is becoming more obvious, except for a small bump in the search volumes maybe linked to the M9 release date.

The developer Rodinal seems to be of more interest in Europe. Rangefinder cameras as a whole seem to be of more interest in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Other interesting comparisons:
digital camera, playstation
Leica M9, Nikon D700
Nokton, Summilux
...
Enjoy 😀.

Not that I would recommend google trends to the market analyst though.

 

[RayPA]

Interesting. I hadn't used that feature before. Thanks.

 

[Roger Hicks]

You aren't going to find reliable figures on Google. True figures, or even good estimates, are well-guarded trade secrets; require a lot of ferreting out; and are quite expensive to buy from consultants who have their ears VERY close to the ground, and maintain numerous trade contacts. I know: I've been there (as a consultant). Though alas not recently enough or expensively enough.

Cheers,

R.

 

[antiquark]

Interesting, but hard to arrive at a concluson. Notice that "digital camera" has been declining for many years now, but "film camera" stabilized in 2007. Does that mean digital is dead? 🙂

 

[gho]

Interesting, but hard to arrive at a concluson. Notice that "digital camera" has been declining for many years now, but "film camera" stabilized in 2007. Does that mean digital is dead? 🙂

Probably not, as digital has a much much higher search volume.

 

[gnarayan]

Rangefinder cameras as a whole seem to be of more interest in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Cameras in general seem to be of a lot of interest in Hong Kong and Singapore. 35mm Film and rangefinder seem to track pretty reasonably actually.

Try this one -
http://www.google.com/trends?q=DSLR,+rangefinder,+35mm+film&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

or this one

http://www.google.com/trends?q=digital+camera,+Kodak,+fujifilm&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Might be telling you something about who is buying, more than who is interested in rangefinders but probably telling you nothing useful at all. If you change DSLR to digital camera, the trend goes the opposite way.

The peaks near the end of each year are probably the most reliable thing to take away but we already knew that.

Not that it matters either. People form opinions, and then gather data to support them.

Cheers,
-Gautham

 

[Pickett Wilson]

The problem with google is that the results you get depend on the search criteria you enter.

 

[gho]

The problem with google is that the results you get depend on the search criteria you enter.

Right, I would also be very cautions with interpreting these figures. Obviously a DSLR is a digital camera, but the trend reverses depending on the input as gnarayan pointed out.

Another problem is that the term you entered may mean something completely different in different languages, so you can not be sure if the results are actually representing what you had in mind.

 

[gho]

Not that it matters either. People form opinions, and then gather data to support them.

Good point.

 

[Fujitsu]

Product names are better indicators I guess:

Velvia
http://www.google.com/trends?q=velvia&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Portra
http://www.google.com/trends?q=portra&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Leica M6
http://www.google.com/trends?q="leica+m6"&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

filmscanner
http://www.google.com/trends?q=filmscanner&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

 

[ampguy]

searched more, could mean more extinct - compare t-rex with tri-x ...