Re: [Leica] Digital usage

[Marc Attinasi <marc@attinasi.org>]

There are several distinct markets for photographic equipment. Most 
sales are in the large middle 'consumer' range, that goes for digital 
and film products. If the 'great masses' switch to digital, then we 
will probably have problems getting 35mm film from WalMart and 7-11. 
Kind of like how I can never find 120 film at WalMart or KMart or the 
grocery store - there is no mass market for the stuff anymore. That's 
OK, I'm glad I can buy paper and ink and USB cables at WalMart now :-) 
But there will be plenty of film around, and it will be getting better 
and better, as it will maintain dominance in some parts of the 
marketplace - the part that uses $2500 rangefinder cameras with $2000 
lenses that don't even focus by themselves. Notice how slide film just 
keeps getting better, despite the fact that very few film cameras are 
being sold? I bet very few mass consumers ever used slide film anyway, 
at least not for 20 years. The markets that use film will continue to 
expect improvements too, and will be willing to pay for them.

As long as there is a market, however small, for high quality 35mm 
film, it will be produced. The prices may go up, but does that really 
matter? We'll all be shooting more digital to offset that anyway, 
right? ;-)

OK, back to my private delusions now.
- - marc

p.s. Where is this statistic of more than 90% new cameras sales being 
digital coming from? It seems off by a lot, based on my limited 
experience in several mass consumer marketplaces (WalMart, Costco, Ritz 
Photo).
.
On Wednesday, June 18, 2003, at 08:18 PM, Don Dory wrote:

> The major photo retailers are working their a------ off to make getting
> pictures from digital cameras easy.  Why?  Roll counts are dropping by
> double digit percentages and if they can not replace lost business in
> developing film with making pictures from digital files then they are 
> dead
> meat.  It is no secret in the industry that the profits were in 
> film(and
> paper and chemistry) for the manufacturers and in processing film and 
> making
> prints for the shops.
>
> Sometime in July you will be able to e-mail your digital files to major
> retailers and pick up your pictures within four hours at literally your
> choice of hundreds of locations.  Polaroid has a neat little kiosk 
> that can
> make 24 prints from your digital file in a couple of minutes.  You can 
> find
> someone's kiosk just about everywhere to make prints from your digital
> files.
>
> Don't delude yourself that film will be around for a long time.  Right 
> now
> more than 90% of all cameras sold in the US are digital, excluding
> disposables.  I suspect that next year sometime you will start to 
> notice
> that film is not at the check out line of your local grocery, and that 
> the
> giant warehouse stores have moved a smaller selection of film to the 
> back
> corner somewhere.  I think that sometime next year you will see the 
> one hour
> labs start to disappear from drug stores as the roll counts drop so 
> far that
> they can not afford the square footage to a loss leader.  We have in 
> fact
> reached the critical trifecta of good enough quality, availability of 
> output
> options, and marketing buzz where film is a walking dead product.  
> Yes, we
> all will still be able to buy film, but just like buggy whips, way out 
> of
> the way or mail order.
>
> To keep this on topic, Leica as a niche player with a fairly loyal 
> customer
> base,  will survive in some shape or another just as you can still buy 
> a
> buggy for your horse to pull.  However, if they can not develop or 
> rebadge a
> digital highish end product then we will all seem to be collectors of 
> Colt
> revolvers: still potent devices but largely irrelevant to anyone 
> outside the
> club.
>
> This time 0.05
>
> Don
> dorysrus@mindspring.com
>
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