Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In short what you are saying is that 35 will soon be DEAD You guys are comparing apples and oranges Photo albums and slide viewers will be around years after production of the last 35mm camera and lens has stopped. I'de calculate 5 years before 35mm starts getting challenged seeriously and about 5 more years before the major camera manufacturers announce that they are ceasing production of dedicated 35mm systems. About 2 years after that the major film makers will announce a reduction in the linup of film types leaving everyone with 100 or 400 ASA colour reversal film to choose from. A couple of years later they will cease production all together and sell off the equipment two third parties who will continue small volume production at exhorbitant prices. As for the audio analogy, all I can say is there are many more people listening to other people's old music than there are people looking at other people's old pictures. Furthermore, you don't need that much equipment to look at pictures but you do need lots of it to listen to vinyl and get god results. How Dead is Dead. Funny thing though in 500 years assuming the world hasn't been destroyed by nuclear radiation or Clintonian Socialism, there will still be small groups of nuts lsitening to vinyl. In fact there may even be a few small companies producing hand made turntables! Similarly there will also be a few nuts hand loading 35mm film into cartridges. and developing their own film. The only difference is that the vinyl guys will be playing with history while the 35mm guys will be playing with a standard. That's right, while dedicated 35mm cameras with advance sprockets and film wells may go by the wayside, the 35mm standard wil be around for quite a while! Furthermore, just about every 35mm camera will be digitizable. The quality of the lenses alone will determine whether it worth converting or not. I suspect that Ms and Rs will all be converted! The same can be said about most 6x4.5 6x6 6x7 etc format cameras Also, as the price of semiconductor mfg equipment goes down, we'll start to see medium and even small firms acquire their own mfg facilities. Now the high res optical expertise of Leitz, CZ and Schneider will become invaluable This assumes of course that CCD wafers are made in the same way as CPU and ram chips. I think they are but I'm not sure. Whatever the case Chemical film may be dead but photography will live on as the junior partner to cinematography. This puts us back in familiar territory and appears to have been the way things always were. Did you guys notice that in that in the WW2 photo documentary with that Hanks guy nobody even mentioned still cameras! Now that sucks! Javier Tom Schofield wrote: > The real cheap stuff disappeared, and the prices went way up on the better > stuff since sales volume is so low. Vinyl albums of current artists can be > obtained from importers of pressings from Japan and Europe, at high prices. > Super 8 even still has a nitch with the film student market. Even if dgital > takes over, 35mm will be around for a long time to come, even if only as an > art media for we eccentrics. > > Tom > > > Vinyl is making a comeback, at least emong enthusiasts, and high-end > > turntables have never been more popular. The low end crap has > disappeared, > > but that's never a bad thing. > > > > I expect silver-based to be somewhat similar. For the mass-media and > > proles digital will be "good enough" because it's quick and has certain > > virtues. But emthusiasts will demand silver-based for quite a while to > > come. I'm not planning on selling my Leicas or any other "old fashioned" > > cameras and I will continue to maintain and expand on my darkroom > proficiency. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com