Kodak is hiring?

Hi all I started a please make a new film camera thread last year I think. It was a very interesting discussion.

But since then...

Leica ha s new film camera `no-one' can afford. (Yeah I know, plenty can)

And...

Kodak is hiring according to latest David Hancock video

Come on Nikon. Please? A new film camera?

Would folks here buy a new film camera from Nikon or anyone else, and what would be a reasonable price?

Not a survey. Just general discussion again. Has much changed since the last time we discussed this?

My Nikon F4 and FM3a are fine for now but they're not young

Nikon discontinued all of their film SLR cameras in 2006 with the exception of the F6 and the Cosina made FM10.

The F6 was officialy discontinued at the end of 2020 but I strongly believe that the last batch was made well before than and that last film camera production line had already been sent to rest.

(Canon discontinued their EOS 1V in 2018 , 8 years after they made the last run)


So I really don't think that Nikon will start building another film camera production line anytime soon.

In theory they could get Cosina to make some more but I doubt it.

yes good point and you're probably right but there's always hope as Banksy said.

In the last couple of months

MiNT Camera Plans to Make a New Premium Compact 35mm Film Camera - https://casualphotophile.com/2022/09/20/mint-camera-new-35mm-film-compact-camera/

Alfie Tych wins Best In Show award for the Photography Show - https://www.amateurphotographer.co....w-awards-for-the-photography-show-2022-174891 and the Kickstarter is funded


I expect any new cameras to be compacts rather than SLRs. From my experience over the past five years or so on eBay , compacts sell quickly for good money, SLRs are a much more difficult sell and there’s less movement in the prices. For the first Mju zoom I bought on eBay I paid ~£10, the last one I sold went for £100. Nothing had changed apart from prices have gone up. SLR prices have been pretty stable.

I've always been doubtful. There's no good reason for Nikon to make a new film camera; after all, a film camera is basically a one-time purchase, and then the consumer spends money on consumable items from other companies (film/developer). With digital, Nikon (and other camera companies) can add incremental features that keep customers coming back to re-purchase -- effectively, the camera becomes the consumable item.

You'll notice the companies still making (or coming out with) film cameras also make film -- Fuji Instax, Polaroid, and Kodak.

Leica, I imagine, makes enough profit on a single camera that it's worth the development cost. One thing I know from the car industry is that it doesn't cost much more to make a big, extravagant car than a little economy model. I doubt it costs Leica a whole lot more to design and build a film camera than Cosina, but Leica can charge 12x as much and people will pay it.

Also, I think the film audience today is just too diverse. Back in the film days, you had casual snapshooters who wanted P&S cameras and advanced amateurs/pros who bought SLRs and generally wanted the latest features. And for anyone who wanted otherwise, they had lesser models based on older cameras. If there was going to be a new film camera, what do you build? Some filmies want a new Olympus Mju, others want a continuation of the NIkon F6, still others want a Pentax K1000.

Me, I'd love to see a continuation of the Pentax KX/LX MX-- manual-wind, manual-focus, manual and maybe semi-auto exposure. I'd be unlikely to buy a Nikon F7, not when a $20 Minolta Maxuum 5 gives me all the automation I need. I'd consider a Pentax NX, but it'd have to be cheaper than buying a K2, MX or ME Super and having it overhauled, which right now is about $250. So that's a low price point to hit.

Honestly I doubt I'd buy a new film camera when there are still so many wonderful old ones on eBay... and on my shelf!



Aaron

I'd buy an updated Nikon F6s or F7 that could use "E" lenses along with a few other improvements such as Multi-CAM 37K AF from the D6.

I'm not holding my breath though. :-|

The world is flooded with great 35mm film cameras. Sure, modern tech could create "better" cameras, but, in the end a film camera needs to hold the film flat and have accurate shutter speeds. Metering is optional. Everything else is just bells and whistles. Last week I picked up an absolutely mint Nikon FE2 for ~$200. I'm pairing it with Zeiss lenses that sell for around $500. Really, what more does anyone, except maybe a sports or bird photographer, need?

What we do need are new medium format cameras that can handle older glass.

Yes good point. My Nkon F4 will work with G lenses and will AF them but not my 70-200 E lens.

I was going to say back in the film days the camera was a one-time purchase too but companies still made profits but then like you say the market was huge because there were no mobile phones or digital cameras. That’s a very good point. It would certainly be a niche market today, maybe a boutique market and I guess that means expensive product.

Bags27 said:

The world is flooded with great 35mm film cameras. Sure, modern tech could create "better" cameras, but, in the end a film camera needs to hold the film flat and have accurate shutter speeds. Metering is optional. Everything else is just bells and whistles. Last week I picked up an absolutely mint Nikon FE2 for ~$200. I'm pairing it with Zeiss lenses that sell for around $500. Really, what more does anyone, except maybe a sports or bird photographer, need?

What we do need are new medium format cameras that can handle older glass.

Click to expand...

Not fancy a new Rolleiflex - https://rolleiflex.us/collections/rolleiflex-hy6-and-hy6-mod2-cameras ?

There does seem to be more new MF kit than 35mm, but much (all ?) of it is 3D printed

thayes15 said:

I was going to say back in the film days the camera was a one-time purchase too but companies still made profits but then like you say the market was huge because there were no mobile phones or digital cameras. That’s a very good point. It would certainly be a niche market today, maybe a boutique market and I guess that means expensive product.

Click to expand...

Cameras were expensive though. A Canon AE1 in 1981 was £160, which is £725 today ( https://issuu.com/retromash/docs/argos-no15-1981-springsummer ). The Nikon FM10 was around £300 when it was discontinued 4 years or so ago.

Overrank said:

Bags27 said:

The world is flooded with great 35mm film cameras. Sure, modern tech could create "better" cameras, but, in the end a film camera needs to hold the film flat and have accurate shutter speeds. Metering is optional. Everything else is just bells and whistles. Last week I picked up an absolutely mint Nikon FE2 for ~$200. I'm pairing it with Zeiss lenses that sell for around $500. Really, what more does anyone, except maybe a sports or bird photographer, need?

What we do need are new medium format cameras that can handle older glass.

Click to expand...

Not fancy a new Rolleiflex - https://rolleiflex.us/collections/rolleiflex-hy6-and-hy6-mod2-cameras ?

There does seem to be more new MF kit than 35mm, but much (all ?) of it is 3D printed

Click to expand...

Yes, those are just way too high tech (not to mention expensive!) for me. I love my Rolleicord: that scratches (most of) my Rollei itch.

What I've seen of the printed MF kits are fixed lenses. Many seem great for landscape photography. I suppose it's an issue of shutter control.

Why is NIKON aka CANON making a "new" film camera when their last top-of-the-line cameras are still around like eBay? Recently I sold two top CANON cams on eBay. They sold in four days.

Same Leica. There are so many "mint" Leica cams. I purchased R9 virtually brand new on eBay since I can use those R lenses on my Sony A7R's. By the way, those R lenses are simply fantastic.

OBI656 said:

Why is NIKON aka CANON making a "new" film camera when their last top-of-the-line cameras are still around like eBay? Recently I sold two top CANON cams on eBay. They sold in four days.

Click to expand...

Nikon and Canon aren’t making new film cameras

OBI656 said:

Same Leica.

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Presumably because they can sell new M6s every day of the week, used ones ar3 going for £2k - £3k

OBI656 said:

There are so many "mint" Leica cams. I purchased R9 virtually brand new on eBay since I can use those R lenses on my Sony A7R's. By the way, those R lenses are simply fantastic.

Click to expand...

Leica R isn’t an M though, the R camera bodies are much cheaper than M bodies.

Nikon (and or others) open a repair and refurbish facility to keep the multi thousands of old camera bodies working.

Those old cameras were built really well, and with a little TLC can last a lifetime or two

I don't need a new film camera, but I do need to service the ones I have occasionally. And the old knowledge is disappearing

We had a repair center down here in Melbourne Australia but it closed. I think for me that's part of the issue. The only option I think now in Melbourne is a private firm that fixes old cameras. But you're right. If they can continue to service film cameras that makes a big difference.

Yeah good point I keep forgetting that.

OBI656 said:

... LOL I know they do not make new film cams, what I am saying is that there are a lot of MINT Canon and Nikon top-of-the-line camera bodies around.

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Sorry, it was the line ‘Why is NIKON aka CANON making a "new" film camera’ that fooled me

Anyway, I don't think anyone expects Nikon or Canon to make new film cameras, that ship has sailed. There are a lot fewer mint film camera bodies around at low prices than people think, particularly when you look at older bodies. Many cameras from the 1980s and earlier are in need of a full service, and there is an unavailability of key replacement parts, so things have to be salvaged from parts cameras. Cameras from the 90s and onwards don’t have the same desirability. A second hand Nikon F6 sells for upwards of £1k, which is a bargain compared to a Z9, but hardly pocket money prices.

I recommend this interview with Bellamy Hunt aka Japan Camera Hunter, skip the first 20 minutes (if you don't want to know about JCH's fav cameras), then he starts to talk about the current state of film and camera industry (he has deep insights):