End of 35 mm Cameras

[GeneW]

What should we call our cult? Any ideas anyone?

Photography? 😀

Gene

 

[ErnestoJL]

Well, having noticed that 35mm cameras and film are coming to a soon to reach end, I´ve decided to open the National 35mm Camera Disposal Facilty (as some of you suggested in previous posts). As suggested, I´ll charge a small amount for the service of picking cameras and dispose of them properly..... So, the south of South America is under my responsability!!

Well... now seriously, IMO pehaps in a close future, 35mm film will still be available, but at premium prices, as well as other formats, just made for a "selected group of amateurs who still keep alive the original photographic technniques" (no doubt also, film will come from China). Digital technology is here to stay, but the quality is not yet on par with big film sizes. Then, the transition from film to full digital will take some time, perhaps 10 years or so for that range... maybe less...
I´m sure that this will benefit collectors and users of 35mm RF as prices will fall steeply, much lower than they are today.

I think we have to admit we´re kind of dinosaurs ... but alive today!
Long live to dinosaurs!!

 

[John Robertson]

Yes and Dinosaurs were around on Earth a damn sight longer than us human beans! 😉

 

[einolu]

Film will be around for a long time. Kind of like vinyl came back to a niche market. Im just an analog kid I guess. I like how tangible analog things are. for example, on my records the music is actually there, I can just take a pin and scratch it to hear, or like on a negative, the picture is right there. I dont need a computer or a DA converter just to see or hear it.

 

[ErnestoJL]

Film will be around for a long time. Kind of like vinyl came back to a niche market. Im just an analog kid I guess. I like how tangible analog things are. for example, on my records the music is actually there, I can just take a pin and scratch it to hear, or like on a negative, the picture is right there. I dont need a computer or a DA converter just to see or hear it.

Your post, Einars, made me think on another issue: there should be some correlation and/or similarity between the many factors involved in the equation which defines the people in RFF...
Age?, Profession?, and how many others....
I do like and still have many vinyl discs, and love the estar or polyester based images, still use transistors and electron tubes in my audio system, I still print with a conventional enlarger...

Perhaps I´m a bit nostalgic...but I don´t regret for the benefits of many of the technologies of today. Anyway, hope film do not dissapear from one day to the following.

Ernesto

 

[blakley]

Dinosaurs still ARE around. Just ask an alligator.

 

[kuvvy]

Dixons is where I bought my first serious camera, a Canon AE-1 many years ago. Mainly because I could buy it on instalments. Dixons have always been regarded as a bit of a joke by real photographers. Inexperienced staff trying to flog you the latest shiny box with an expensive warranty. Last time I was in Dixons, not too long ago, I asked to look at a Nikon D70. The assistant handed it to me and I was horrified as it was covered in a layer of dust and had a couple of big greasy finger marks on the lens!

I saw the announcement about Dixons on the TV news. What worried me more was the fact that they showed Patrick Lichfield agreeing with the statement that digital was the way to go, while he was shooting a model with the Olympus E-1. Is he right?

Paul

 

[GeneW]

Dinosaurs still ARE around. Just ask an alligator.

Actually they are, but as birds, not alligators.

Gene

 

[Azinko]

So why did Dixons, a company at the cutting edge of technology (according to their managing director!!) feel it vital to get into print and TV time to tell the ignorant British public that they will simply not be able to stock those quaint old film cameras anymore??????...........

Could it be that the British 'high street' is having its worst time for about 3 years and takings in all high street chain stores are badly down????......Could it be that a bit of free publicity and advertising was always handy to a large and not too clever company feeling the pinch??????.....Could it be that the relatively few film cams stocked by any Dixons branch is getting in the way of all those tellys, Karoake machines, portable DVD's, baby alarms, MP3 players and all the other sh*t which makes Dixons so avoidable by anyone with half a brain????????........Could it be that that is the reason why takings are down???????

 

[satbunny]

Your post, Einars, made me think on another issue: there should be some correlation and/or similarity between the many factors involved in the equation which defines the people in RFF...
Age?, Profession?, and how many others....

Well I am 40 and I like digital and analogue technology. I use CDs, DVDs, MP3, my EOS300D, but I also like vinyl, archiving old tapes, my Leica and my Bronica..

The fullest range is fun, so I am happily in love with 35mm and yet also quite happy to dig out a memory card when I need that approach.

 

[satbunny]

So why did Dixons, a company at the cutting edge of technology (according to their managing director!!) feel it vital to get into print and TV time to tell the ignorant British public that they will simply not be able to stock those quaint old film cameras anymore??????...........

Same reason they announced the death of VHS at Xmas. They'd stopped selling them in numbers but it is a significant decision to make. It cements the view of Dixons as cutting edge, leaders, and influential. All bollocks IMHO of course but good publicity for them, so a good marketing ploy.

 

[Ray Kilby]

I have no idea if it's the beginning of the end of 35mm photography. But I do know it isn't the end of photography. It is more about a retailer making ends meet. Now I do worry about 35mm slipping away at some point as I have a very fine M6 that I would hate not to be able to use. But my gut tells me that I'll be able to get film for a while.

Therefore I will buy that much desired quick mechanical wind on leicavit and enjoy it while it lasts. Then when the sun sets on 35mm and film in general I'll use digital cameras exclusively. But I'll still take pictures and that surely is the most important thing.

 

[p.ath.]

azinko is absolutely right. dixons has only ever supplied the mainstream highstreet consumer consumer market and its obvious that the largest slice of the market wants digital.
it takes no real leap of logic to follow that its to dixons advantage to infer that analogue is dead.
fortunately dixons doesnt decide how we take pictures and never will. neither do other consumers, however numerous they be.
as long as there are people like us for whom digital just doesnt give the pictures we want (dont bother having this discussion with a digital clingon), there will be an analogue option.
btw, i also shoot digital (slr) but i couldnt imagine not having the option.
if you shoot primarily digital, you can of course buy another battery and another card to keep shooting. but for the same price you can have an analogue backup on which the photos are safe from hackers, hardware failure and nuclear war (well, nearly).

paul

 

[bmattock]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/233248_digi20.html

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Photo companies struggle to keep up with digital revolution

By DAN RICHMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

...

Grasping the brief lifecycle of digital products has been one challenge for retailers, including Glazer's Camera, a 70-year-old, family-owned business at the south end of Lake Union.

"The life of a film camera is measured in years," said operations director Swan Mossberg. "It holds its value. Today, you better sell every single digital camera you have on the shelf within 3 1/2 or four months, because it will be obsolete."

Early in the digital era, about five years ago, the store "got stuck with some $75,000 digital camera backs that didn't sell," said general manager Ken Smith. "You can't afford to make many mistakes like that."

...

Originally called Seattle Film Works, that company grew to an 800-person, $100 million business by the late 1990s through mail-order and kiosk-based film processing. By 2000, the unexpectedly rapid rise of digital photography had caught it by surprise. Four years later, revenue had dropped to $20 million and the staff to 250.

"Consumers adopted digital technology much faster than anyone anticipated. I don't know why Film Works weren't able to adapt," said Phillipe Sanchez, who was appointed chief executive in October 2003 after it ejected his predecessor.

On the bright side, the niches that still process film are doing well:

Seattle has a few traditional photo labs that continue to optically print both color and black-and-white images. And, in an ironic twist, they're flourishing.

At Panda Photographic Laboratories Inc., on lower Queen Anne, revenue has increased this year as the 12-person company picks up business from shuttered color labs elsewhere in the city, said co-owner Dana Drake.

"We're counting on film to remain viable, even if it becomes a narrow niche," Drake said. "We're picking up a lot of business that used to go to mom-and-pop places, which have closed."

Many of us love film, and we still agree that film does many things that digital cameras cannot (yet, if ever). However, the market has spoken, and that's the end of that. Doesn't matter how stupid the market is, dollars talk.

And no, there will be no niche market - not after the last film manufacturer shutters their factory. Unlike many other niche and hobbiest markets, film slitting and coating is probably not something the average enthusiast can do at home, and it will cost too much to do business on a very small commercial scale.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[hughjb]

"However, the firm will continue to sell some 35mm cameras at its airport branches, to cater for professional photographers"

Pretty soon only pro photographers will be the only ones using film, cool I can raise my wedding prices 🙂

 

[John Robertson]

<<I saw the announcement about Dixons on the TV news. What worried me more was the fact that they showed Patrick Lichfield agreeing with the statement that digital was the way to go, while he was shooting a model with the Olympus E-1. Is he right?>>

No -- he's no doubt being well paid either in money or in kind to say so!!

 

[Byuphoto]

Well anticipating the demise of film I just acquiered 4 cases( 2 of Fuji Superia 100 and 2 of Suoeria 400) of 35mm film. Anticipating a world shortage I will be able to sell each roll foa Kazillion dollars each. It is out of date but in the future it will not matter. So buy it now while it is a measly $10.00 a roll.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

My boyfriend has wondered why I tend to stockpile film. I have various kinds in copious quantities at all times. I do not want to be caught someday without a roll of my favorite film. In fact, once I get a job again I'm going to buy bulk rolls of the film I really love so that I can put it in the freezer. To tell you the truth, I see film going that route instead of necessarily completely dying out.

 

[TimF]

I saw the announcement about Dixons on the TV news. What worried me more was the fact that they showed Patrick Lichfield agreeing with the statement that digital was the way to go, while he was shooting a model with the Olympus E-1. Is he right?

For someone like Litchfield, whose film and processing costs came to something like £10,000 a year, undoubtedly digital made financial sense. I think a lot of companies are trying to put a squeeze on the costs of photography - presumably so the poor old directors can shovel more cash into suitcases on the way out, and such would make it harder to pass such costs on to the client.

For the vast majority of us here, it'd take many years to amass that kind of spending on film.

I do occasionally go into Dixons, just to kill some time between coming back from "the smoke" on the train, and catching the bus home. Its no surprise they don't sell (m)any film cameras when they're stuffed away in a remote corner of the display.

As an aside, they are worth getting batteries for your Leicas in. Last time I paid under £2 for a Duracell DL 1/3N (Jesssops charge about twice that).

 

[Socke]

My boyfriend has wondered why I tend to stockpile film. I have various kinds in copious quantities at all times.

And my girlfriend thinks I'm totaly mad because I stock film in my fridge 🙂