Nikon going out of the film camera business

VinceC said:
Hmmm. When I visited my dentist a few weeks ago, they took my mouth x-rays with film. As do tens of thousands of dental offices and hospitals every day. Black and white to boot. Not a big consumer market, but a strong niche market nonetheless.

.

Rather oldfashioned dentist you have. I haven't used film or developer in my practice since 1998. All digital. Chemical dental X-rays are becoming pretty rare in our country........
 
Bill's equations could possibly be simplified:
If enough people want film--someone will make it.
If enough people do not want film--no go.
Now---how much is enough?

Copake--what kind of tube gear? Collins?
I have a Drake C-Line that I still use ocassionally--bought it new in 1976.

Paul---
 
Paulbe said:
Bill's equations could possibly be simplified:
If enough people want film--someone will make it.
If enough people do not want film--no go.
Now---how much is enough?

Very close. Someone who is currently making it will continue to do so. I doubt anyone new will enter the business, unless it is to take over an existing concern, regardless of 'how many'.

Regarding how much is enough - I don't know. It would be hard to know without having a look at the financials of several companies and learning their exact plans - to be the 'last dog to die' or to 'get while the getting is good'?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
peterc said:
It doesn't say, but I'd guess they're probably 2MP cams. Give them a year or two and they'll hit my 5MP/$10 point.

Peter

Strangely enough, about the time I've predicted for the death of color print film.

Hmm. Must be some kinda crazy co-inky-dink.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
bmattock said:

The CVS Digital One-Time-Use Camera with Picture Preview is the first camera to combine the most popular features of the fast-growing digital camera market with the wildly popular disposable format.

Large format, medium format , 35mm format now disposable format! and it's wildly popular too. 😛 😀 🙂

R.J.
 
bmattock said:
Strangely enough, about the time I've predicted for the death of color print film.

Hmm. Must be some kinda crazy co-inky-dink.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Ok, who will win the Superbowl this year?

R.J.
 
RJBender said:
Ok, who will win the Superbowl this year?

R.J.

A football team?

I'm not psychic, I'm just really smart.

And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none, I can read the writing on
the wall.
- Kodachrome, by Paul Simon.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
bmattock said:
So they'll never get better?


060108_ch_15_1673_onetime.jpg
http://storecirculars.cvs.com/CVS/d...oreid=2364466&searchtext=camera&go.x=4&go.y=5
Get one.They are only $8.99 this week. See if it has better resolution than prints from 110 format film. Don't forget it's wildly popular . 😛

R.J.
 
RJBender said:
Get one.They are only $8.99 this week. See if it has better resolution than prints from 110 format film. Don't forget it's wildly popular . 😛
R.J.

See, I still don't get the point. Since when has 'better' meant anything in terms of marketplace acceptance?

The market buys what it wants - those things succeed, the things the market shuns die. "Better resolution" is an important term only for those who care about quality - and you and I do - but the world don't.

I can't play that "Film is better than digital, therefore film will never die" game. It's silly and it is wrong, and anyone with a brain should be able to figure that one out. Of course film is better than digital. So what?

An old-timer friend of mine says to me, "Oh, come back and see me when your digital camera beats my 1932 Leica I in image quality, and then we'll talk."

"No," says I, "with respect - we'll talk when you can't buy film for your door stop anymore. You can wave off logic - pretend film will exist as long as you decide it should last - but the film won't still be there just because you have your head in your .... sandbox."

Image quality? What's that? I care about it, you care about it, but Joe Sixpack and his two billion buddies don't. Guess who drives the market?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
bmattock said:
Film *is* dead.

These are not speculations, nor are they simply opinions with no basis in reality.

Is it my opinion that film is dead? Yes. It is a reasoned opinion, and I put it forward as an actual fact.

But you still do not know it is a fact. You cannot claim speculation as fact. The only person I ever heard of who did that was David Brent. Fact.

Film may be dead in the US, but not elsewhere. Personally I can't wait for Kodak to stop all film production because it means an even bigger slice of the pie for little old Ilford. Their sales increased when Agfa folded, they will increase when Kodak give up on photography too.

If film was to die, and that is very unlikely, that won't just be the loss of a hobby, it will be the loss of an entire artform. If film dies there will no longer be an artform called 'photography', just a pale imitation called 'Photoshopping'.
 
Contrary to what it kinda sounds like reading this thread, I don't think the death of film will be the end of the world.

That said, I will cerainly bemoan the day, as much as anyone else, that I can no longer use film. I owned a digital SLR, and was so dissapointed by the quality I quickly switched back to film. However, I am fairly confident that by the time that film does pass on, digital will have certainly come to the point where the quality will be comparable. (And hopefully somewhat affordable...🙂)

Being too young to remember, I am wondering if this is how many people felt when CD's started to replace LP's? While I will be the first to admit that the is something about the analog sounds of an LP that a CD just can't quite reproduce... However, the advances in technology that the CD brought us allowed for much more to be done with music, and overall the art of music benefitted, and we as consumers of that artform benefitted as well.

Also, I don't think that the death of film could be called the death of an artform. Essentially, photography is capturing an image. Whether that be by film or pixel, it is still photography. The art is in the image, not the medium. Altough the medium can aid or restrict what art can be produced, and become PART of that art, it is never the art in itself.

So, I guess there's my 2 cents.
 
Joerg said:

"hehehe...oddly enough, my other hobby is designing and building tube amps!! long live analog technology. oh...and i don't own a cd player. records only."

HA! Me too! Except I do own seedees and a player. Oh, and I do horn speakers.

What's your best effort - amp-wise? I'm running Push-Pull 6B4G's, about 15W. Pretty good, but I want to try a PP 300B.
 
squeaky_clean said:
Contrary to what it kinda sounds like reading this thread, I don't think the death of film will be the end of the world.

That said, I will cerainly bemoan the day, as much as anyone else, that I can no longer use film. I owned a digital SLR, and was so dissapointed by the quality I quickly switched back to film. However, I am fairly confident that by the time that film does pass on, digital will have certainly come to the point where the quality will be comparable. (And hopefully somewhat affordable...🙂)

Being too young to remember, I am wondering if this is how many people felt when CD's started to replace LP's? While I will be the first to admit that the is something about the analog sounds of an LP that a CD just can't quite reproduce... However, the advances in technology that the CD brought us allowed for much more to be done with music, and overall the art of music benefitted, and we as consumers of that artform benefitted as well.

Also, I don't think that the death of film could be called the death of an artform. Essentially, photography is capturing an image. Whether that be by film or pixel, it is still photography. The art is in the image, not the medium. Altough the medium can aid or restrict what art can be produced, and become PART of that art, it is never the art in itself.

So, I guess there's my 2 cents.

The Mona Lisa is art, the cheap repros made by machine by the thousands are not.

A fine art print made by a human being, in a darkroom from a film negative using light sensitive materials and their hands is art, a mass produced inkjet print produced by machine is not.


Cue the howls of protest! 🙄
 
BrianShaw said:
QSL the last QSO 10 over 10. Had to QSY to work-related activities; lots of QRM from the boss; took some time to get him to QRT. Boss QSY'd to a remote QTH so I can QSX RangeFiner Forum again.

Maybe you have come up with the perfect idea for me... I can give up photography and restore my SX-28 "boat anchor".

QRX.

Drat... another business related QSO about to start... must QRT

You might want to grab the January issue of QST which is devoted to vintage boat anchors.

I once used an old HT-40/SX-140 combo and then a Viking Valiant before moving to Japanese gear. I have a few '70's and '80's "hybrids" with tube finals and one old tube transceiver (early Kenwood).

But I'm not of the doomsday EMP mindset so very "vulnerable" now with all solid state gear. 😀

Besides, living in NYC, I figure if the "big one" starts I'm going up in smoke anyway! :angel:
 
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