What will happen when the digital imaging wave dies

[bwcolor]

Will vinyl records make a blazing return? No..never.
Sure, a few of us continue to listen to these old formats.

Digital has real appeal to the masses. It will only become a better format with time. Moore's law applied to digital photography in contrast to a shrinking film market is what we will see. We will be lucky to have more than a handful of films available in fifteen or twenty years and the high cost will be in contrast to more for less as digital continues to fully dominate the market.

Watch where Fuji and Kodak put their R&D money. I bet it won't be heavily invested in film.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Perhaps not, but they've both put a lot of money into new pro color films in the past year or two.

 

[Micky D]

Perhaps not, but they've both put a lot of money into new pro color films in the past year or two.

Indeed, Kodak alone have released 7 new emulsions in the last two years.

 

[Al Kaplan]

They've introduced several new motion picture films also.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

It seems to me that the current "wave" of digital imaging is very similar to when Kodak introduced the Brownie.

That was when, in 1900? As film is not dead (yet), although that drum has been beat louder and louder since about 2003, I think by using the same analogical logic would put the perceived death of "digital" towards the first years of the 22nd century.

Just as much as the introduction of the horseless carriage has not killed the horse or train, or the invention of jet-propulsion airplanes hasn't killed the use of gliders, parasails, hot air balloons or the Goodyear Blimp.

But, I wonder: with the current popularity of briefs, is boxers' death imminent?

 

[emraphoto]

you know you don't have to pick a team. you can use both and be happy as a clam.

 

[greebo]

I think I hear that more from people who are younger and started with digital and then explored film than from people my own age or older who started with film and then moved to digital. Just as many younger people who essentially grew up with digital and are now bored with it and find film exciting and new, I grew up with film. Still use it, still like it, but I don't see the downside of digital, and I do see considerable upside, so I use it and like it too.

The younger people who now love film seem not to hate digital as much as the older folks who just cannot (for whatever reason) change. Those worthies will continue to manufacture 'reasons' why digital is inferior to film until they cack it, so I have ceased listening.

Yeah, I fit into the younger group, although I started very briefly with film. My first dslr is 2003, things have changed an amazing amount since then, I have to say.

 

[Ronald M]

People don`t evem know what a non synchromesh gearbox is. They do know about manual transmissions though ( if you have to ask, it is not the same).

In time nobody will remember sheet film, then roll film, then 135 film. 110 and APS is already forgotten.

I don`t want it to happen, but it will. Although there are a FEW youngsters exploring film.

 

[Al Kaplan]

There are probably a lot more film shooters today then there were in 1949, sixty years ago.

 

[wgerrard]

John Sypal, among other activities, runs a site many here might know: [URL="http://tokyocamerastyle.com]Tokyo Camera Style [/URL]. He posts photos of new and old classic camera carried by folks in Tokyo. Yesterday, he said most of the Leicas seen on the site belong to people no older than 30-35. That may say as much about the spending habits of young Tokyo residents with discretionary income as it does about the prospects of film, but it is something.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

There are probably a lot more film shooters today then there were in 1949, sixty years ago.

- but sales are way down!....everyone here has freezers full of the stuff!😉

 

[Chuck Albertson]

"But it's...it's a passing thing...it's uh.... I mean I would never tell them this but this is uh...this is a fad."

--Bruno Kirby in "This Is Spinal Tap"

Al, we're having such unreasonably sunny weather in Seattle that I've loaded up the 'Blad with FP4+, might even burn through some PanF+ if it keeps up.

 

[Michael Markey]

Will vinyl records make a blazing return? No..never.
Sure, a few of us continue to listen to these old formats.

Digital has real appeal to the masses. It will only become a better format with time. Moore's law applied to digital photography in contrast to a shrinking film market is what we will see. We will be lucky to have more than a handful of films available in fifteen or twenty years and the high cost will be in contrast to more for less as digital continues to fully dominate the market.

Watch where Fuji and Kodak put their R&D money. I bet it won't be heavily invested in film.

I use both film and digital. I don`t process my own film anymore but send it to Ilford for develope and scan. Recently there has been an increase in the turn around time, in fact my K64 has been coming back quicker. The reason;they say that they have been inudated and have had to take on and train more staff. So Ilford, at least, are investing in film.

 

[Darkhorse]

Will vinyl records make a blazing return? No..never.
Sure, a few of us continue to listen to these old formats.

This brings up an interesting point. Vinyl has been obsolete for about 20 years now. However, aside from the devoted audiophiles that never left, there has been a bit of a resurgence in the medium. Increasingly, no one really listens to CDs all that much. I know I don't, I just listen to my iPod. But because there's a demand for physical copies, you have vinyl selling complete with a free MP3 download of the album on top of it. USB turntables are also selling.

Basically, the medium continues to survive because it's married itself to current technology the most it possibly can.

Personally I think black and white film will be the last one standing because you can process it at home fairly easily. But for E6 and C41, most people expect to send away film to be processed, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to do. This is unacceptable in a world where technology must indulge instant gratification.

I think if film is to survive in a niche it needs to focus on home processing, and affordable but high quality scanners (and bundle the two if possible).

 

[Trius]

There are probably a lot more film shooters today then there were in 1949, sixty years ago.

What was the population of the planet in 1949? Depending on exactly when in 1949, count me out ... or in. 😀

 

[Anton Caro]

Ammm... I would like to add a nuance in your discussion...
A colleague visited me. And then at some moment I exclaimed "I need to show you my diapositives! Because you will say - I visited him and he spoke of photography and he did not show any photo!". Ant then I switched on the projector. She reacted in a nice way for me - she was astonished by the charm and effect the photos had. ON the pther side - by the perfect technical quality film offerred. She then said "I take so many digital photos and when I upload them in the computer, I just burn them on a disc and forget about them. I have no mood to watch these hundreds of photographs. Yet, I cannot stop shooting... I shoot everything. I wish I had a limit of 36 exp daily, so that I can have some reasonable amount of photos."... end of the story.
But you all know this. Digital is nice. Digital is cheap (here I could argue).
I am doing some experiments with blueprints. Surely not the best ones, but all my friends ask me for a cyanotype...
I was angry when digital cameras were introduced. Because everyone could get an immediate result with a P&S camera. And I was shooting medium format those days. Imagine the Kiev with all the lenses in a bag... and they were getting better results sometimes.
... another story... I was at a meeting. I took some photos with the Nokton. It was in the evening. Then I sent the photos to a colleague. She told me that something was wrong with the photos, because they did not appear like normal photos do... can you guess why? Imagine a photo at f/1.4 from 1.5 m... I was so surprised... People do not need anything apart from a P&S camera in general. I think all these devices will stay. Because there will be always people who would like to deminstrate that they are not just "telephone-shooters"... and there will be always some that would not like to be taken for "amateurs"... and then would come those, with the funny cameras... the "artists"... shooting on film...
I do not think painting became more expensive after 1839 (when its popularity started to decline). My sister is painting in oil... so we have something in common with her...
Actually I think that it is high time digital photography separated from classical photography... and both to continue their life as "filmography" and "digitography"...
Like it happened many years ago with painting... It lost its documentary power and it became more "Art" than before... the same will happen to Filmography... it will become a real art. Surely digitography is an art, too. But more popular ... like t was with photography 60 years ago...

 

[ElectroWNED]

Maybe it is too late to be asking this, but should I be stocking up on film, chemicals, and paper?

Does anybody think that film and chemical production will stop altogether.

 

[sevo]

Maybe it is too late to be asking this, but should I be stocking up on film, chemicals, and paper?

Does anybody think that film and chemical production will stop altogether.

Has the production of lithography stones, woodblocks, oil paints or canvas stopped altogether?

 

[ElectroWNED]

good point... guess I didn't think of that because I've never lithographed anything.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I wouldn't rush to stock up. With most TV production and a lot of movies being done digital, and when was the last time you saw a B&W movie? Kodak is still manufacturing B&W movie film.

Kodak and Fuji have both recently introduced entire new lines of color negative film for wedding and portrait, as well as for commercial photography and motion pictures.