No, film camera aren't dead.

[oftheherd]

http://www.designnews.com/author.as...6,industry_consumer,aid_265687&dfpLayout=blog

So take that you digital only freaks!! 😛 😀

Buy yours from a person with a 3D printer soon. They will be rare. 😀

Be sure to click the photo and look at photo number 2. It shows the parts. And the number one photo of it should go in the current thread on most ugly cameras for sure. Makes the Hassy there look elegant. 😱

BTW, is that an old Pentax lens shown on the camera?

 

[Jan Pedersen]

That is an ugly beast for sure. The lens looks like an early Nikon 5,8cm 1.4 from 1959 to 1961

 

[John E Earley]

The not-so-good news is........how difficult it is, at least for some, to take a single picture.

Nothing new there.

 

[thegman]

Not my cup of tea really, at the moment I've got my eye on a Fotoman 45PS, film cameras are nowhere near dead, they're just coming from the less obvious sources.

 

[Mackinaw]

Interesting idea, but I wonder if the real value of 3D printing will be to make parts for old 35mm and 120 cameras. Stuff that can't be fixed because of lack of parts may find a new life.

Jim B.

 

[dtcls100]

Interesting idea, but I wonder if the real value of 3D printing will be to make parts for old 35mm and 120 cameras. Stuff that can't be fixed because of lack of parts may find a new life.

Jim B.

Yeah, like the famous plastic wind mechanism of the Mamiya 6! I think (and have been told by Nippon Photo and Precision Camera Repair) that the purported weakness of this mechanism is greatly overblown, if you advance the film wind lever reasonably gently as opposed to hammering it. Hammering the wind lever of the Mamiya 6 is completely unnecessary as this is not the type of camera intended for very fast action shots by any means. But replicating this part with 3D printing would be very welcome as the pool of available parts is fairly limited.

 

[oftheherd]

Interesting idea, but I wonder if the real value of 3D printing will be to make parts for old 35mm and 120 cameras. Stuff that can't be fixed because of lack of parts may find a new life.

Jim B.

I hadn't thought of that. Good idea!

 

[Archlich]

We'd better admit it's dead and feed on the corpses that are widely available around.

 

[dave lackey]

Admit what? There has been no better time to shoot film than now.
Any camera one could possibly have dreamed off in the past is available for very little money!
Then there is the digital pairing which is such a great teaching tool for film newbies.
Why anyone would pass on shooting film is beyond me. It makes no sense to choose digital and let the film market shrink further. In 20 years, if film is indeed rare or gone, those who chose digital can only look back and wish they had bought that high end film camera and shot film to enjoy the experience. Today is the day!!!

 

[shadowfox]

Admit what? There has been no better time to shoot film than now.

Well said, Dave!
I can only see good things out of this.

Yes, the first prototypes would be rough, but that's a given for any kind of manufacturing initiatives.

Parts are good, but I see the potential of making custom medium or large format cameras. There is a lot of old but perfectly good lens+shutter assembly out there.

 

[enzozhang]

We'd better admit it's dead and feed on the corpses that are widely available around.

LOL we're camera zombies!😎😎

 

[thegman]

Why anyone would pass on shooting film is beyond me. It makes no sense to choose digital and let the film market shrink further. In 20 years, if film is indeed rare or gone, those who chose digital can only look back and wish they had bought that high end film camera and shot film to enjoy the experience. Today is the day!!!

I think many people just want to take a side, Mac users who despise Windows, Windows users who despise Macs, Linux users who....

I think lots of people like to categorize themselves to give themselves and identity of sorts. If it's not football clubs, or mods/rockers, it's something else.

 

[zauhar]

Is it me, or does the axis of the lens seem a bit askew?

Fascinating article - we have a 3D printer here, but so far I have not seen it in action. But I don't think I want to start with this camera.

Randy

 

[henri klein]

Well, camera aficionados, try to get your pictures accepted by some respected gallery. THAT's a task.

 

[KoNickon]

Can someone tell me what an "open source" camera is?

 

[zauhar]

Can someone tell me what an "open source" camera is?

Like open source software - the design is available, you can construct the camera as spec'ed or modify the design if you like.

Randy

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

what will be cool for 3d printing would be a 6x9 or 6x12 Camera.
Doesn't need a reflex mirror, just some mechanism to fit the film
and a back for 120 film or polaroid.

 

[Spanik]

what will be cool for 3d printing would be a 6x9 or 6x12 Camera.
Doesn't need a reflex mirror, just some mechanism to fit the film
and a back for 120 film or polaroid.

Why would you need a 3D printer for that? With a file, the remains of an old folderand some small stuff from the DIY you can carve one from a block of metal yourself with as great precision as the current home 3D printers.

On the other hand... film camera's may not be dead but if Fuji really discontinous provia 400X then for me it all stops. All my camera's will end up in a display case.

So what is the difference?

 

[Thardy]

Why would you need a 3D printer for that? With a file, the remains of an old folderand some small stuff from the DIY you can carve one from a block of metal yourself with as great precision as the current home 3D printers.

On the other hand... film camera's may not be dead but if Fuji really discontinous provia 400X then for me it all stops. All my camera's will end up in a display case.

So what is the difference?

But you'll have all of those Fuji X digital cameras to choose from.

 

[zuiko85]

I don't know how to construct a poll, but.....

I wonder how many of the membership here, when they say "film", only think B&W negative film?

I ask because when I read the word "film" in a post, B&W is the first (and usually only) thing I think about. Color negative, and especially color slide, has dropped off my radar. And, it seems, commercial C-41 is getting very scarce and pricy when available.

As to new film camera's. Well, other than this crude reflex featured, there is precious little still made. (Please don't wave your hands and go on about MP's and M7's, they are made in vanishingly small quanties at prices that exclude 99.3 % of the market.) Granted of course, with all the top of the line 35mm reflex cameras of the 60's-70's-80's going for 5 cents on the dollar I suppose there is little market for new stuff.