Digital cameras are 'dinosaurs', declares Kodak chief

[ywenz]

Well, based on your demonstrated technical analysis abilities to date - I'll buy more Kodak stock. In fact, tell me what else you think sux - I needs to make me some more money and betting contra - you seems to be a money maker.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

My analytical skills are second to none. However, should you choose to go against my recommendations - your lose will be my gain. Please do buy more kodak stocks, it certainly shows it has nowhere to go but up! :bang:

http://quote.morningstar.com/Quote.html?ticker=EK

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Buying low is a time honored tradition. And a proven strategy. The Street has a knack for not "getting" technological shifts.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

"e-moments technology"? I dread the time it's hijacked by Microsnot and our moments are given the Blue Screen of Death.

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Nah, won't happen. Microsoft's track record for imaging tech is wimpy. Even through acquisition.

IF Kodak enters the software fray they will have Adobe to deal with. Not a pretty thought. Both Apple and Microsoft have pains with Warnock's baby.

 

[ch1]

My analytical skills are second to none. However, should you choose to go against my recommendations - your lose will be my gain. Please do buy more kodak stocks, it certainly shows it has nowhere to go but up! :bang:

http://quote.morningstar.com/Quote.html?ticker=EK

To a great extent, Perez is absolutely correct about the dinosaur analogy - after all it takes one to know one.

Kodak has so wrongfooted itself for so long it is a wonder in is still around. They have been living off of their "legacy technologies" for so long that they have not been truly innovative for decades.

Perhaps at the end of the day, the brand will still be worth something and it can be sold off to some Chinese company. 😉

 

[darkkavenger]

I too have my e-moments... it's time for e-dinner and then after a while of e-music listening and e-reading, i'll take an e-bathroom-break .. then maybe I'll go sleep and will e-cuddle with my loved one! 😀 😉

Come on people, don't take this too seriously. It's not the first time some "industry" guy says something "revolutionar".

my two cents, and i'll stop here.
max

 

[oftheherd]

I laugh without any pity when my friends digital cameras run out of batteries. That's for the dinosaurs and stuff. And I'll laugh when harddisks will crash or cds become unreadable. 😉

About 15 years ago we had a house fire that damaged or destroyed all my slides (8 thousand or so) and negatives (over a hundred rolls worth). I had considered transferring all or some of them to digital, but it would have been much more expensive and digitial resolution was even less (really kind of bad) then than now. Of course I could have stored all my negatives and slides in a bank vault, also an expensive consideration for the time. Looking back, whatever would have been worth it.

I get your point, but I wouldn't laugh myself. It changed my whole outlook on photography. Sort of took a lot out of the joy. I am only now trying to recover some of them and store them. I still don't do much more than snapshooting. Of course part of that is time and other considerations for time in my life. But no, I would not laugh. I would have a lot of sympathy. Regardless of how one should have prepared, a loss is a loss.

 

[darkkavenger]

I'm glad you get my point and I get yours too.


Now I could've been a bit clearer from the beginning : this teaches me that next time I'll want to be sarcastic, I'll put my comments with <sarcasm> </sarcasm> since the winking smiley wasn't seen. Or maybe I'll simply keep my mouth shut.

 

[Socke]

I always carry film with me, and no problems to find film here. 😉

At the moment I can get AGFA Color XRG200 or Kodak Gold 200 at the supermarkets but they close 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on saturdays. They stay closed on sunday. There is a photo store at the train station which is opened on sundays from 10:00 to 17:30, Fuji Superia Xtra 400 for only 5 Euro a roll!

So I can't see a big difference.

You want to take pictures? Don't forget film and/or batteries. Come to think of it, don't forget a camera and lens 😀

 

[darkkavenger]

At the moment I can get AGFA Color XRG200 or Kodak Gold 200 at the supermarkets but they close 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on saturdays. They stay closed on sunday. There is a photo store at the train station which is opened on sundays from 10:00 to 17:30, Fuji Superia Xtra 400 for only 5 Euro a roll!

So I can't see a big difference.

You want to take pictures? Don't forget film and/or batteries. Come to think of it, don't forget a camera and lens 😀

Maybe .. maybe I'm VERY lucky, but near work (5 mins walking) there are 9 shops selling film, one of them being the largest photographic gear store in Prague, the 2nd being the supplier of most journalists for their film/printing needs. I wasn't even into photo when I started working there, what a luck! There's almost no problem to find any kind of film in any format I want. 🙂

I never forget a camera and lens... and about batteries.. I must confess.. my Minolta Hi-Matic F will soon need a new one!

 

[ch1]

At the moment I can get AGFA Color XRG200 or Kodak Gold 200 at the supermarkets but they close 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on saturdays. They stay closed on sunday. There is a photo store at the train station which is opened on sundays from 10:00 to 17:30, Fuji Superia Xtra 400 for only 5 Euro a roll!

So I can't see a big difference.

You want to take pictures? Don't forget film and/or batteries. Come to think of it, don't forget a camera and lens 😀

For twenty years my wife and I have divided our time b/w NYC during the week and the little country town of Copake in upstate New York State on weekends.

Having access to film anywhere and everywhere in NYC I have never really looked for it up here in the country - although I have noticed the usual behind the counter displays in drugstores etc.

Yesterday, Saturday, I noticed a big floor display of IGA-house brand disposable film cameras in my little supermarket. This market is independently-owned but is a member of the IGA (Independent Grocer's Assn.) system. IGA provides these indy shops with a house brand and combined buying power.

Curious, I looked past the floor display and saw a rack with both Kodacolor 200 and 400, as well as FujiColor etc. In fact, they even had a couple of boxes of 8mm VHS tape. All of this in a little country market!

So now I'll think of this whenever I see one of these heated "film is dead" threads. Film may no longer be the media of choice for most pros and many snapshooters - but it still has a large number of users.

Funny thing is, nowadays, I usually buy my film on eBay! 😀

Oh, BTW, the Nikon press release regarding limiting film camera production to the F6 and FM10 is on CNN's website (USA edition) today. Interestingly, the article makes note of the manual CZ F-lenses about to be introduced.

 

[oftheherd]

I'm glad you get my point and I get yours too.


Now I could've been a bit clearer from the beginning : this teaches me that next time I'll want to be sarcastic, I'll put my comments with <sarcasm> </sarcasm> since the winking smiley wasn't seen. Or maybe I'll simply keep my mouth shut.

Sorry if that sounded like a personal attack. It wasn't intended as such. I guess more to point out that tragedy can strike unexpectedly and we are so often unprepared.

And it can effect us in unexpected ways.

 

[darkkavenger]

That pointed out pretty well, oftheherd. No probs!

 

[Nando]

The article pushes the use of metadata to organize photos. This is not a function of the camera. The camera itself may store some metadata but it is the software on a computer that will be using the metadata to do whatever - organizing, comparing, publishing to the web, etc.

I have a computer science background but I like 35mm cameras much more than digital cameras for many reasons. However, I also like the idea of storing photographs digitally for the sake of having an extensive database of photographs that I have taken. The use of metadata for organizing everything and anything on a computer in a dynamic manner will eventually come. Its already here in rudimentary forms in software like Google's Desktop Search, Apple Spotlight, Beagle for *nix etc. At the university that I graduated from, there is currently much research and development being done in developing software (probably to be integrated in the computer's OS) that will analyze files and generate metadata automatically based on its findings. Currently I think that much of the work at my university is concentrated on music. The software can, for example, analyze a music file and store musical patterns to enable people to search for a song by humming a few notes into a microphone. Somethings similar could be done for digitally stored image information. Perhaps, there will be software that can analyze files looking for facial patterns and automatically recognize people in the photo. There is already advanced software in the security field that can do similar things. I would be able to search for "Suzie" and find all photos with my friend Suzie in them.

According to the article, the camera just acts as a source of digital information The software on a computer will be doing the work that article talks about. There is no reason why the same type software couldn't work with photos taken on film and then scanned into digital files.

 

[Socke]

According to the article, the camera just acts as a source of digital information The software on a computer will be doing the work that article talks about. There is no reason why the same type software couldn't work with photos taken on film and then scanned into digital files.

It does.

I store my photos in a document management system for a couple of years now. When we got into DMS in 1993 they used scanners attached to compression boards since the typical PC in use then was to slow to scan 10 pages a minute. So 4bit grayscale TIFF at fax resolution was the best they could do.
Since I had scanned prints on a HP Scanjet 3c, still in my cellar, on a 486/50 at that time. I could argue the programmers into including TWAIN into their software so that I could use it with 300dpi 16bit colour TIFF.

Today I have a Canon FS2710 slide scanner and a Canon DR-2580c as well as a card reader hooked up to an Athlon 1.4GHz based PC, it works! The difference on digital files is the availability of exposure data without me taking notes 🙂