I understand... I lived in NYC for many years and now I have lived in Santiago Chile for 1.5 years. I see more people at these kiosks in Santiago than I did in NYC. However, Adorama does a lot of print business in NYC... really. Here, I am seeing film stores pop up, but it appears that everyone who does film here might average 1-2 rolls a month and use cheap SLRs. It`s just expensive here.
MCTuomey
Veteran
It's one of those strangely poetic moments. As industry sales decline, the cameras have never been better.
B-9
Devin Bro
Print kiosks in my local are ALWAYS busy.
Typically with a 1-2 person wait. Unless your out at unusual hours.
Typically with a 1-2 person wait. Unless your out at unusual hours.
I agree... we have such great tools at our disposal, no matter what your camera fetish is...
Ted Striker
Well-known
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Y'all should check out how popular Instax is by seeing how many of them are being resold at shopgoodwill.com. All of those cameras work and almost all of them are available for under $10. What does that say about the durability of the Instax Market?
Phil Forrest
Phil Forrest
Ted Striker
Well-known
INSTAX is pretty popular in Asia. I've seen young people shooting with those cameras fairly often. Never seen a single one in the US out in the wild. Not even one.
Huss
Veteran
My local Costco and Samys camera have people picking up prints all the time. It’s also what I sell at my gallery.
In other news I have never actually seen a kangaroo. Or a Kardashian. That means they do not exist.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Z,
I think my upbringing is very conflicted. I was born in 1958, and in the 1960 Census there were less than 238K Asians in the U.S. (about half were Chinese).
Racism was different. My dad only was one of 1428 Chinese who were allowed to become an Naturalized American citizen because of a loophole in the Chinese Exclusion act of 1885 because of his service in the U.S. Army during WWII. My dad was an illegal immigrant here for about 15 years prior to that.
I grew up during the Vietnam era looking like the enemy, but realize I grew up in the Long Island suburbs where we did not fit in. The first thing I learned in kindergarden was how to fight. By the third grade I was good at it.
So I learned to defend myself and was forced to deal with potential violence that could happen at any time. Add on top of that that I learned later in life that really I am a product of culture and my surroundings, and I one day discovered that I'm a white boy trapped in an Asian body with a very confused identity.
I don't speak Chinese, and the harsh reality is that I fill a grey inbetween area a place where I never feel I belong. Because I don't speak Chinese I'm kinda excommunicated. I only reinforced the Asian stereotype because it was a path of least resistance where I was allowed to succeed.
Tom Bro-Cough recently insulted Hispanics and makes a comparision to Asians that they should have the same values and work ethic. I too feel insulted as an Asian because his profiling of Asians I take exception to and are just as racist.
Not sure everyone can realize the limitations placed on groups of people that is everyday for some.
I was trained in art school as a studio artist. This involved creating skill, discipline, and expending mucho time pursuing the arts and one's craft. This is a very solitary thing to do, but very exhilerating. I find this type of artistic solitude very fulfilling, and it is so complete that I think I don't need much more to be happy. In a Welcome to Marwin manner I kinda create a safe place of my own invention where I basically live in a bubble and not the real world.
Having a relationship (been with my gal for over 20 years) means not being so selfish and involves compromise. A way to explain this is when traveling alone and shooting alone, verses trying to shoot in another country with your gal in tow. Sharing your life has its own merits.
Cal
Filter Factor
Established
I would say that is a good thing; the cameras are not being forgotten in a drawer or disposed of in some other means. One of the best things about the Instax system is that it serves as an introduction to film photography and it is most likely all those Instax cameras you see at Goodwill once belonged to young photographers who have since moved on to other, more traditional film formats and cameras.
Fueled at least in part by Instax, film photography is experiencing record growth in Italy, Belgium, Scandinavia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia, Australia as well as of course in the US and the UK. Despite the dark clouds expressed by the naysayers.
Cheers, Robert
Emile de Leon
Well-known
To those that proclaim the resurgence of the camera industry...just imagine this..
You just inherited a cool 20 mil...but you can only receive it on condition that you invest it for 10 years in 1 company... all 20 mil..
Will it be a company in the photo industry..
Unless you are so rich already that you don't care about losing the 20..
I think...not..
You just inherited a cool 20 mil...but you can only receive it on condition that you invest it for 10 years in 1 company... all 20 mil..
Will it be a company in the photo industry..
Unless you are so rich already that you don't care about losing the 20..
I think...not..
Ted Striker
Well-known
I "invested" a whole $120 in a film company (Film Ferrania). Lost every dollar.
That so many are sold that they even end up at goodwill?
littleearth
Well-known
I've been seeing a lot of Instax cameras lately. Mostly young people !
Even a friend of mine that is not into photography bought an SQ6 this christmas. Fuji sure is marketing them well !
Even a friend of mine that is not into photography bought an SQ6 this christmas. Fuji sure is marketing them well !
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
One case study is my gal. She wanted an Instax for Christmas back when, and I loaded her up with film.
The camera now goes unused as the novelty wore off. In my frig is a handful of both color and B&W Instax films.
"Maggie" is not so pleased with the IQ, and now IMHO the novelty wore off. Digital pictures shot on her Iphone 10 and the CL end up being more practical and useful.
Meanwhile in my frig is over 20 packs of Fuji FP100 that is my stash. Back when I could buy 25 packs for $20.00 each I did, and since then the prices have gotten crazy. Pretty much I could double my money.
The IQ of the FP-100 with a Zeiss 100 Planar mounted on a baby Linhof is respectable and wonderful.
So in this single case study I mentioned above I think the novelty wears off if there is no practical use for the images. Film is not inexpensive either. With my FP-100 on a Baby Linhof I'm having/experiencing difficulty coming up with a cool project that is worthy of expending the FP-100.
In other words I would rather just shoot B&W film and save the FP-100 which is costly.
Cal
HHPhoto
Well-known
Instax was introduced in 1998. It had its first sales peak in 2001. Then a short decline until 2004.
Since 2004 the instax sales are increasing every year. Fujifilm has published the chart some time ago.
For their current fiscal year Fujifilm has planned a global sales volume of 10 million cameras. That with such a huge production volume you see some cameras offered at shopgoodwill is not surprising at all.
Cheers, Jan
olifaunt
Well-known
I'd say about a third of the photography shelf space at my local big box electronics chain store (Northeast U.S.) is devoted to Instax. Pretty huge deal this deep into the digital era, I'd say.
justins7
Well-known
Getting back to the main subject...
It seems like surviving camera companies need to focus on "lifestyle branding" rather than strictly functional electronics. The uptick in interest I see from young people is about nostalgia, history and restoring the tactile (which they never experienced first-hand). Obviously there is enormous interest in this trend, but to make a profit it is usually tied to marketing, branding and "lifestyle." Perhaps the best analogy is to the vinyl record "resurgence": suddenly I hear people in their twenties talking about their record collections and buying records at Urban Outfitters, etc. While these sales are still pathetic compared to what the industry once was, it is the only lively aspect of the music business (in my view), and keeps some people connected to music.
In the same way, people probably won't be using an actual camera for everyday photos since smart phones do that. But the devices themselves (either vintage equipment or new) are what would be the lifestyle choice, the cool accessory, etc.
A prime example is the InstantKon Instax rangefinder. They can't keep up with demand and are not even taking new orders until the second half of the year. I know this is a low number in the scheme of things, but it does represent the kind of demand that Canon, Fuji and Nikon either ignore or don't need. That is the future, though, I think, for cameras.
I've seen five vintage Leica's being used recently on the streets of NYC —*all by people in their 20's. Presumably there's something there that phones are not providing.
It seems like surviving camera companies need to focus on "lifestyle branding" rather than strictly functional electronics. The uptick in interest I see from young people is about nostalgia, history and restoring the tactile (which they never experienced first-hand). Obviously there is enormous interest in this trend, but to make a profit it is usually tied to marketing, branding and "lifestyle." Perhaps the best analogy is to the vinyl record "resurgence": suddenly I hear people in their twenties talking about their record collections and buying records at Urban Outfitters, etc. While these sales are still pathetic compared to what the industry once was, it is the only lively aspect of the music business (in my view), and keeps some people connected to music.
In the same way, people probably won't be using an actual camera for everyday photos since smart phones do that. But the devices themselves (either vintage equipment or new) are what would be the lifestyle choice, the cool accessory, etc.
A prime example is the InstantKon Instax rangefinder. They can't keep up with demand and are not even taking new orders until the second half of the year. I know this is a low number in the scheme of things, but it does represent the kind of demand that Canon, Fuji and Nikon either ignore or don't need. That is the future, though, I think, for cameras.
I've seen five vintage Leica's being used recently on the streets of NYC —*all by people in their 20's. Presumably there's something there that phones are not providing.
Ted Striker
Well-known
Great post. Enjoyed reading it. The above point you made is very pertinent to the film industry. Previous to digital, every day life was captured on film. When people did that, 3 BILLION rolls of film were coated per year at its peak.
Now in the digital era, that number is 96% less if not more so. So when we talk film resurgence, we are starting from an extremely low number.
Instant photography is where the resurgence is at for the most part. It was many folks hope that INSTAX sales would help support traditional film stay in existence. Sadly, we know that is not the case with the past axing of Acros by Fujifilm.
Ted Striker
Well-known
I tossed my old P & S digital cameras to goodwill. A few years ago I gave away my Fujifilm F10, F20, and F31fd. My iPhone X more than matches what those old cameras can do so rather than clutter up the house, I gave them away.