Are we about to see the last of film photography.?

Question

I have some nice old cameras, and it saddens me to think I will never use them again. OHhh for the old days.

Answer 1

it's a shame really... if you want to photograph with not only old but awesome cameras you can't, just because you can't find the film for the camera, or if you find... the film has expired.

I think that no photoshop can replace the pleasure of taking, manually, great pictures and then develop them!

I hope we're not assisting to the end of film photography!!

Answer 2

Film will be around for a long time. In fact, film salls are at an all time high! Fuji just reintroduced its Velvia 50 and there are more than a handful of pros that only shoot film. Go to any newstand and look at all the beautifully photographed cover shot. Those were all shot on film. The fact of the matter is, in order to get the quality and detail of a 120 film frame on digital, you'd need a camera that could record 350 megapixels. With the standard being between 7 and 12 these days, there will be decades before we get to that point with digital. Even the Hasselblad digital backs that sell for $40,000 only get into to 30 megapixel range.

The thing you should be worried about with your old cameras is finding batteries for them. Adorama sells loads of hard to find batteries just so you can continue using your film cameras.

Answer 3

I don't know if it will be any time soon, but I think it's inevitable sooner or later.

You can still use your old film cameras! You can get the negatives scanned (or buy a film scanner) and have wonderful digital images to work with in Photoshop.

There is a great romance attached to old film cameras. Sometimes I find myself browsing EBay looking at old Rolleiflexes, Nikons, Leicas, Speed Graphics, etc. I used to be very interested in stuff like that. I could see buying them just to collect them, and I suspect the only reason they're still so expensive is that lots of people are doing just that.

But I spent years as an amateur photographer working in a smelly, cramped darkroom in my garage, making one print after another until I got just the contrast and brightness I wanted. It's just SOOO much easier to do this on the computer screen! Not to mention a lot cheaper!

Answer 4

I think so. It's so much easier and cheaper (despite the initial cost) to use a simple point-and-shoot camera with a memory card than a camera with rolls of film. Think about it this way; you can review the pictures before you print them on a 2/3 inch screen, take as many as you want, and delete them. With film, you get about 30 shots, and if you screw up, sucks to be you. It's also all or nothing, You print all 30 pictures for the same static price whethere you like 5 or 25 of them. Digital is the way to go.

Answer 5

Let's hope so.

Computers replaced darkrooms years ago. It's appropriate to have an input device with maximum compatibility and efficiency. ...No nasty flatbeds or lousy photo cds processed by some "pro" that spends more time lamenting film than learning how to work with his equipment. ...No messing with some cantankerous transparency scanner or sending stuff out to some guy who just happens to be having a "really bad day".

I have some nice old cameras as well and I've not touched them since I got the nice new ones. Digital photography is just more enabled photography.

Answer 6

Yes I agree with you. I also have some expensive film cameras with zoom, wide angle etc and have done a fair bit of colour slides over the years. The trouble was that all that glass in the lenses makes them very heavy. I have recently bought a Cannon A710 digital camera and I am very pleased with the results. It is of course much lighter to carry and is easy to process the results on the computer and print out. I heartily recommend it.

Answer 7

Medium format seems to be making a comeback. Two years ago, you could get a killer system for next to nothing. But I have noticed lately that prices are starting to climb again, at least on larger format film cameras.

I do believe that 35mm processing will get harder to find, as many mom and pop labs are already gone, and the mass market retailers are dropping their one-hour labs. Kodak's processing division is being cut yet again, and Konica's is already history.

I hope it will be around for some time yet. But if you miss using your old cameras, by all means, dust them off and use them while there is still time!

Answer 8

Well y'know the internet and electronic books were supposed to spell the end of the paper and publishing industries but we use more paper and sell more books than ever before.

CDs were supposed to be the death of vinyl but the hip hop movement changed that too.

Yes, digital photography is way better than electronic books but I suspect that there are enough people like you (and me) out there that still like film photography that it will survive longer than predicted (though probably only in a niche market)

Heck, I still use cassette tapes and videos. I don't care if there is better technology out there, I have a large collection of tapes with interesting music and movies on them and I still get enjoyment from them.

The mainstream will likely always go for the newer and better technology but there are also those of us out there who still use and enjoy the older technology. We don't HAVE TO always upgrade to the newest technology despite what technophiles and the media want us to do.

We're humans and we can do whatever we want. If you long for the 'good old days' you can just recreate them.

Answer 9

Certain film formats are no longer made, 126, 127, 110 to name a few, but as for film photography being dead. Far from it. After all, there are still people doing daguerreotypes.

And when digital is replaced as the main form of photography by the next leap of technology, there will still be people doing daguerreotypes.

Answer 10

I don't think film would disappear anytime soon because there's way too many people who still using their 35mm slr because they can't afford to upgrade to dslr quite yet. Also their are way too many old school photographers who prefer to be using film and enjoy being in the dark room developing film. Plus I've known people who kept their 35 mm slr as a back up just incase something happens to their dslr.

for me personally, I've tried to do this on this on the computer but black and white doesn't look right on the computer which developing printing black and white in the dark room just turns out so much better over the computer.