Re: Vs: [Leica] digital experience(very long)

[Steven Alexander <alexpix@worldnet.att.net>]

Steve:

> I agree in part about what Steven says in his post (below) that film will be
> going away. It already has in most forms of distribution such as
> documentaries, educational films, etc, etc. Talk to any film lab and they
> will tell that print sales are dead replaced by video tape and now DVD.
> 
> As far as the New York Times and Steven
 (You refer to me S. .Alexander, the article referred to another Steven,
Speilberg )
saying that film capture will soon
> die they could not be more wrong. But first let me say that I have some
> pretty significant contacts in the Hollywood film community and Kodak,
> Arriflex, Aaton and Panavision, Sony, Panasonic are all clients of mine and
> I have access to the top people. I am also connected with the DGA (Directors
> Guild 0f America), ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) and I have
> three close friends who have won Oscars
 ( I was cinematographer on one Oscars documentary and too many Golden eagle
non theatricals while shooting as a member of IATSE 644).
 Back in the early 80's the death of film was
> predicted when Panavision and Panasonic jointly developed a hybrid camera
> which and they called it Electronic Cinematography
.I have a great picture of me sitting behind one of those horrid things.
> Distribution is the easiest part of converting film over to digital and even
> that is laden with problems.
> 
> The future of film interestingly is not going to be 35mm (except for still
> photography) rather it will be that in the future feature films will be shot
> on S16mm.
People were saying S16 was the future in the '70s.
 Which economically makes the most sense. It is also very important
> 
> Yes I know that for news and other venues where expediency is important
> digital still camera
All television news and documentary.
 are the way to go as I saw last Sunday when I was
> photographing a NFL game (a project i am doing on NFL Films, whose newest
> 16mm camera by the way is about 15 years old) at least 50% of the
> photographers on the sidelines had digital cameras. There will always be a
> demand and need for film cameras and Leicas in particular.

There will always be a demand for film cameras/film, but that does not
preclude the increase use in digital capture with it becoming the medium of
choice and diminished availability of film and equipment devoted to it use.

>> .  Film is dying, if not yet dead, sorry I thought I would never say
>> that.
I will standby that opinion.

Steven Alexander