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This week's CNET poll shows only 15% believe film is dead

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Meryl Arbing said:
Now that everybody has cars, do you think that there are the same
number of blacksmiths around as there was 100 years ago? Do you
think that there are the same number of horses bred as there was
100 years ago? Does it bother you that there still are blacksmiths
who still shoe horses? Probably not. I doubt if you even think
about it as you cruise Main Street on a warm Saturday night. It
certainly doesn't keep you up night worrying about whether cars are
still the dominant transportation technology...right?
In the past 10 years of "Car and Driver" magazine, I don't think
anybody ever wrote in proclaiming "Riding (horses) is dead!" They
wouldn't bother.
Well, it should be the same thing with photography. It shouldn't
bother you how many film photographers there still are or even how
many people prefer their film cameras to the new digitals. It
shouldn't keep you awake nights obsessing about film sales figures
and you shouldn't think that you need to rush out and proclaim
every time there is a .5% decline in market share. That smacks of
insecurity.
Why then do we see this obsession with what other people are using
to take pictures? Who cares? Also, why be obsessed with whether
people think that 'Film is dead' or not? It shouldn't bother you.
Concentrate on your photography and don't worry about what other
people might be using. Are people worried that a really great
picture that they admire might have been taken with film? Would
that destroy your world?
Come on everybody, Get a life! Concentrate on making the best
pictures you can with the equipment you have and stop looking over
your shoulder to see what 'the other guy' is using.
Click to expand...
Good post. I agree just about totally, except on the number of horses and farriers (the guys who shoe them: blacksmiths make iron products). It's a massive subculture for the near wealthy, and the not-so-wealthy in the U.S.
--
Charlie Self
http://www.charlieselfonline.com
 
As lesser people develop film the cost benefit to high volume fil processing will also be reduced. It will eventually become more expensive and harder to get a film developed (harder to find a place which does it). When the time come to replace old film development equipment many shops will not incur the replacement cost and simply stop providing this service.

Film will never die, it is in so many ways simpler. But it will become a specialist medium.
 
--
Artist Eye's
APS? I'm thinking thats half frame (of 35mm) film and not 35mm am I right?

I don't know about new but the brick and mortar camera shops usually can get one, also try KEH Camera Brokers.
I use regular 35mm film cameras and they are available everywhere. Try B&H.

I also use DSLR's -a lot as I own Canon 350XT, 20D and also EOS 1Ds Mark II DSLR's.

What I like is all my EOS lenses work on all my film & dslr's and so I have an extended range of possabilities now.

Example my 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS L zoom is exactly that on my EOS-1V and Elan 7N film cameras and also on my EOS 1Ds Mark II, but put it on my 350XT or 20D and it's like a 160-640mm zoom. My 70-200's also benifit with the different cameras.

My 24 f/1.4L, 35mm f/2 and 17-40 f/4 L and even my 15 f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4 all have two focal lengths now with my dslr's but I still use them with the film slr's.

I actually like the 85 f/1.2L better with the dslr's and my 135 f/2 L is great all around.
 
Hennie de Ruyter said:
As lesser people develop film the cost benefit to high volume fil
processing will also be reduced. It will eventually become more
expensive and harder to get a film developed (harder to find a
place which does it). When the time come to replace old film
development equipment many shops will not incur the replacement
cost and simply stop providing this service.
Click to expand...
And as it gets more expensive and more difficult to process more and more people will move to digital.

Then don't discount the probable fact that many of the film die-hards are older photographers (and old folks set in their ways).

Those people will die out and are unlikely to be replaced by 'people of the digital age' who will move to film.

--
bob

The Blind Pig Guild
A photo/travel club looking for members
http://www.jeber.com/Clubs/Blind-Pig/

Flowers of Asia
A photo club for appreciators of Asian flowers - looking for members
http://www.jeber.com/Clubs/Flowers-of--Asia/

Travel Galleries
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips
 
One can still buy horse drawn carriages. That doesn't indicate a flourishing market.

B&H still has one page of APS cameras. But I'm seeing APS film becoming harder to find when I travel. In fact, I'm finding film in general less available.

OTOH, I had a street seller in India selling memory cards. And he checked the battery type in my KM A1 and said that he could get me one in an hour or two. And this wasn't a major Indian city.

And - anyone else noticed the change of role for digital cameras at B&H?

Not long ago they were treated as unloved step children. Listed in a minor fashion beneath the 'real cameras'.

Now digital cameras are "Featured Category" items. One finds film cameras by clicking on 'Cameras/Photo Gear' and then selecting film cameras.

The world changed.

--
bob

The Blind Pig Guild
A photo/travel club looking for members
http://www.jeber.com/Clubs/Blind-Pig/

Flowers of Asia
A photo club for appreciators of Asian flowers - looking for members
http://www.jeber.com/Clubs/Flowers-of--Asia/

Travel Galleries
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips
 
BobTrips said:
insectman said:
Your comments are great....there aint no way... given the
cost.....and hassle and expenses of transferring a
digitally-captured image to print.... that digital photography will
ever rival the convenience of using a point-and-shoot film
camera.... and handing in your roll of film .. and within an hour
or so ... getting a set of prints that are perfectly acceptable to
the photographer.
Click to expand...
Are you:

a) a troll?
b) non-observant?
c) completely out of touch?
Click to expand...
You forgot to list

d) all of the above
 
One major issue YOU and the article overlook is the fact that in most countries only 4 % of the population own and operate PC's and film camera's outnumber digitals by the millions. This and most other articles are aimed obviously at people who own computers? I'm sure many are buying Canon Mark 11s's when they don't even own or operate a PC. Internet cafe's aren't conducive to manipulating CS2?
--

' You don't have to have the best of everything to get the best out of what you do have'.
 
Bill Force said:
One major issue YOU and the article overlook is the fact that in
most countries only 4 % of the population own and operate PC's and
film camera's outnumber digitals by the millions. This and most
other articles are aimed obviously at people who own computers?
I'm sure many are buying Canon Mark 11s's when they don't even own
or operate a PC. Internet cafe's aren't conducive to manipulating
CS2?
Click to expand...
I have a camera and a few computers. I don't have CS2. You don't need a PC to have a digital camera. The flash card is the same as film.
 
Tell that to all the people in Red China or in Africa with film cameras and no computers. If you don't own a PC and do own a digital camera, then your not playing with a full deck.
--

' You don't have to have the best of everything to get the best out of what you do have'.
 
You missed the point that ONLY 4% of the population of third word countries OWN a computer? What are you doing to do, put the flash card in your toaster?

' You don't have to have the best of everything to get the best out of what you do have'.
 
at the lab I work at..... rolls per day has remained the same over the past 3 years....however an increasingly higher percentage have come in via disposable cameras....prints per day have increased exponentially YAY DIGITAL. As a lab tech and a photographer, digital WILL replace color neg and color trany relatively quickly, the holdout will be true b/w film.
 
Who gives a damn. Most people cannot name the nation's capital and have problems finding their own &%hole. Yeah, that's a perfect audience to ask about viability of business sectors.

Just look at all the WalMart employees who make $12 an hour and buy $40K SUVs consuming $500 worth of fuel a month, and then to their absolute shock and surprise they go broke 6 months later.

Accept it, most people are incurably dumb, and most polls are therefore worthless.

Yawn.
 
Bill Force said:
Tell that to all the people in Red China or in Africa with film
cameras and no computers. If you don't own a PC and do own a
digital camera, then your not playing with a full deck.
Click to expand...
Sorry, you're wrong there. I travel quite a bit in Asia and I can attest that digital is taking over from film in a big way.

People may not own computers, but they do have access to inexpensive computer time in thousands of internet shops. People do own TVs and DVD players. And there are digital printing facilities all over the place.

A couple of years back Kodak was selling a 4 meg compact for ~$100US. That is very much within the budget of the middle class. The poorest people shoot neither film or digital.

If nothing else people own cell phones. And those cell phones often contain cameras.

--
bob

The Blind Pig Guild
A photo/travel club looking for members
http://www.jeber.com/Clubs/Blind-Pig/

Flowers of Asia
A photo club for appreciators of Asian flowers - looking for members
http://www.jeber.com/Clubs/Flowers-of--Asia/

Travel Galleries
http://www.pbase.com/bobtrips
 
Perhaps china, but in other parts of the world who are not technical oriented like the growing China, film is still MUCH larger than digital i.e. South America where I have lived for 7 years. Try the Amozon or the Andes. A digital camera would be as rare as "chicken teeth" but even the poorest have an old Canon Sureshot 35 mm. Incidently, I travel to over 20 countries and witness much the same. Of course digital is gaining, hell, so are PC's but the majority of the population can't enjoy them. It may eventually take over the lions share of the market, but not for some time to come. Digi techies, like techies in general are always in denial because of their own wants and desires but fail to see reality.

Get around the world some more, then try to convince me than I'm currently wrong, you are WRONG!
--

' You don't have to have the best of everything to get the best out of what you do have'.
 
JustMosing said:
Who gives a damn. Most people cannot name the nation's capital and
have problems finding their own &%hole. Yeah, that's a perfect
audience to ask about viability of business sectors.

Just look at all the WalMart employees who make $12 an hour and buy
$40K SUVs consuming $500 worth of fuel a month, and then to their
absolute shock and surprise they go broke 6 months later.

Accept it, most people are incurably dumb, and most polls are
therefore worthless.
Click to expand...
Where do WalMart employees make 12 bucks an hour? More like $8 after six or seven or eight years. And I've seen very few employee owned 40K SUVs in any WalMart parking lot. Far more clunkers.

People who overemphasize the stupidity of others have their own problems, IME.

--
Charlie Self
http://www.charlieselfonline.com
 
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