where do we go from here?

FrankS said:
Painters still paint even though photography is faster (and easier).
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Painting is often presented as a sort of example of an "old tech" that has never gone away and an example of how (or why) film could (and should) stay around.

But it has in a sense. Most illustration work, storyboarding, matte painting for movies, etc. is done digitally now. Big, big tablets and photoshop or a paint program. So commercial work has moved into the digital domain while painting as art has remained as it always was. But the high-art world has become at least a little ambivalent about painting. It sort of hangs around.

It's hard to compare painting with photography however because painting is an old medium and photography is a relatively new medium.

To be frank (but hopefully not offensive) I think there is a sort of wishful amnesia, coupled with strong nostalgia, surrounding film and film cameras. Photography's history is one of constant technological advancement and change. Yes the pace is now much faster, but it's never stopped.

A lot of the conversation around these parts about the state of photography, the transition to digital and the love of film seems to ignore almost the first say 100 or so years of photograph (not exact of course).

We were already a long way from "View from the Window at Le Gras" by the time most of the film cameras in use on the forum were made.
 
I'm speaking only from a hobbyist viewpoint.
People who paint for personal enjoyment continue to do so if they wish, even though photography came along.

Same with film based photography and digital, IMO.
 
I don't think anybody has really used dip pens to write anything in the past 40 years, but I know a lot of professional illustrators and hobbyist calligraphers still use them. Even though you won't find them at Target or W-mart, they're still out there, they're still being made (by several manufacturers even).

If something as archaic and arcane as the dip pen can continue to fill it's niche for both professionals and hobbyists, I would expect that film photography will continue to be around for a few decades yet.
 
loquax ludens said:
I'll keep shooting film as long as I can buy it. It's not gone. Adox just released a new B&W film and a new oddball color film. Ilford is chugging along. I just bought an MP.

People worry too much. Once film is truly gone, I'll do wet plate or coat my own dry plate. Simple.
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IMHO, film will never go completely extinct. We will have fewer choices and higher prices but some sort of film will be available. I would expect B&W emulsions to outlive C41 and E6 emulsions.

If you are 40 or over, I expect film to be around at least as long as you will be here to use it.

What about the under 40 folk? It's up to them. If they quit buying digital -or at least shoot film along
side digital - they will help to keep film, chemicals and paper alive for the days when they are 40 or older.

These are just my thoughts - none of us has a crystal ball, not even the digital fanboys.

I think the first time I heard "film is not long for this world" or a similar declaration was back in 1998. That should give all film users cause for optimism.
 
Never really went to a Ritz, they weren't around here.

I've grown pretty tired of newest this or that. The MP and M9 cover nearly anything I want to do. The Rollei and the 8x10 can do the rest. I've not missed (or used) an SLR since I went to RF's in 2006.

The Leica M has become a 'real' digital, with CMOS, video, electronics for things that don't need electronics- sad really. A digital MP is still my dream camera: no screen, winder arm to cock the shutter, and low ISO. Something digital that could work when it was just cold, or even really cold. WHo really needs ISO 264,000? NASA perhaps, not me. All the hype is about the bodies, I've not yet heard anything about the lenses coming this time. Perhaps I've found my sweet spot with the MP and the M9? I can print plenty big, and use the MP anyways in the winter outside.

Perhaps I'll drift back to large format shooting, and retrofit my darkroom for the 8x10 enlarger. Settle into something less tech and more hands on?
 
FrankS said:
I think that the next big thing in digital photography coming to the consumer market is high quality still captures from video. But for me, that takes away the primary source of challenge and reward from photography. Instead of attempting to capture the decisive moment, one simply selects it.
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We kind of lost that idea of decisive moment being in your control when cameras could take over 5fps. Or the Nikon one with the gimmick mode of it taking a consecutive sequence of shots and presenting u with what it thought was the best...

Gary
 
GaryLH said:
We kind of lost that idea of decisive moment being in your control when cameras could take over 5fps. Or the Nikon one with the gimmick mode of it taking a consecutive sequence of shots and presenting u with what it thought was the best...

Gary
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Well, if you get a bad movie there might be no good frame to capture at all. The game will still be the same: light it well, compose it well, postproduce and print it well. Same skills involved, same final product. It might be just a bit easier for fast moving objects such as sport or wildlife but for fashion, still life, product, landscape...most of anything it won't help much. Still many of us will be paying big bucks to have the latest superfast, ultrautofocus, cameras...

GLF
 
giellaleafapmu said:
Well, if you get a bad movie there might be no good frame to capture at all. The game will still be the same: light it well, compose it well, postproduce and print it well. Same skills involved, same final product. It might be just a bit easier for fast moving objects such as sport or wildlife but for fashion, still life, product, landscape...most of anything it won't help much. Still many of us will be paying big bucks to have the latest superfast, ultrautofocus, cameras...

GLF
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True.. But I was thinking back when people were shooting sports with an f1/2 Nikon and then the motor drives that started to fad of need super fps fad to the f4 and f5 to the d4 of today where u hope to get the decisive moment somewhere out of the 10 plus frames u just shot off... And lol the stupid gimmick in the Nikon one in my mind took the prize :bang: 😛

For the professional, I absolutely don't blame them, they can't take the chance, but when I hear or read about someone on a board dissing camera x because it doesn't have at least x number of fps, I just start to wonder.

Gary
 
Joe: can we just expand the film vs. digital forum to include all the "film is dead" threads and have the moderators move all of them there?

Personally, I would prefer some easy way of ignoring all of them. I understand "film vs. digital" and "film is dying / film is dead" is something that posters here want to debate over and over. Please make it easier for us to ignore.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Joe: can we just expand the film vs. digital forum to include all the "film is dead" threads and have the moderators move all of them there?

Personally, I would prefer some easy way of ignoring all of them. I understand "film vs. digital" and "film is dying / film is dead" is something that posters here want to debate over and over. Please make it easier for us to ignore.
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Respectfully Bob I don't like that idea. If I don't want to look at a thread I just don't click on it ... but I don't want my choice to do so on the main page removed by the 'authorities!' 🙂
 
GaryLH said:
We kind of lost that idea of decisive moment being in your control when cameras could take over 5fps. Or the Nikon one with the gimmick mode of it taking a consecutive sequence of shots and presenting u with what it thought was the best...

Gary
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There's a Nikon camera that picks the shot of a series it thinks is best and presents it to you? How positively droll.

I was going to suggest that tne next big thing in digital would be for the camera to choose the decisive moment for you, and now I learn that they already do, after a fashion!

I'm sure they're working on that. With smile and blink detection, I can see it now ... "You click the shutter, we do the rest ... including selecting the best moment for capturing your decisive moment within the next .125 seconds. All you have to do is get within an eighth of a second of the decisive moment, and we'll snag it for you over the next quarter second. For more creative control, our decisive moment capture features uses predictive technology to capture multiple images leading up to and after the chosent moment."
 
Our relationship to objects we buy has simply changed. In the past, a watch, camera, sewing machine, typewriter, etc, was considered a once in a lifetime purchase. So you bought a good one.

Over time, manufacturers realized this was no way to make a buck, and besides--people actually enjoyed buying stuff. Why stiff them by only selling them one camera every 20 years?

Digital offers the logical conclusion of this progression. You can have a top of the line digital one year, and worry about its specs 12 months later.

Not many Hasselblad 500 or Leica M users had that worry in the 60s or 70s.
 
bensyverson said:
Our relationship to objects we buy has simply changed. In the past, a watch, camera, sewing machine, typewriter, etc, was considered a once in a lifetime purchase. So you bought a good one.

Over time, manufacturers realized this was no way to make a buck, and besides--people actually enjoyed buying stuff. Why stiff them by only selling them one camera every 20 years?

Digital offers the logical conclusion of this progression. You can have a top of the line digital one year, and worry about its specs 12 months later.

Not many Hasselblad 500 or Leica M users had that worry in the 60s or 70s.
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I agree that this is the way things mostly are. I choose, whenever possible and appropriate, not to go this path. This consumerism and disposable mindset needs to change for human life to be sustainable on this earth, IMO.

Sorry for being a wet blanket.
 
loquax ludens said:
There's a Nikon camera that picks the shot of a series it thinks is best and presents it to you? How positively droll.

I was going to suggest that tne next big thing in digital would be for the camera to choose the decisive moment for you, and now I learn that they already do, after a fashion
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When I first read about, the first thing that came to mind... Wt** what is Nikon been smoking... I am glad no one else followed their lead..

If u are interested in the specifics. Look for title "Smart photo selector"🙄

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikonv1j1/9

Gary
 
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