Film Cameras Head for the Hospice

It's no secret that film cameras are a dying breed. With the rapid rise of digital cameras, the death knoll has sounded for a product that's been with us since before the American Civil War. But time and technological innovations marches on.

It reminds me in some ways of the death of LP records. They were with us for years, even though their quality was questionable with all those ticks and pops. But, along came the CD and LP records passed into history rather rapidly. So it will be with film cameras.

I bring this up today because one of the long-time icons of photography, Nikon, announced that it would stop making most of its film cameras and lenses in order to focus on digital cameras. Nikon is the choice of many professional photographers (the other major player being Canon). For years, many photographic devotees dreamed of owning a Nikon film camera. Now, most of those folks dream of owning a Nikon or Canon SLR digital camera. Canon has already cut back on most of its film camera production as has Kodak.

Nikon said it would halt production of all but two of its seven film cameras and would also stop making most lenses for those cameras. The company will halt production of the film camera models "one by one," though it refused to specify when.

A company spokesman said Nikon made the decision because sales of film cameras have plunged. In the most recent fiscal year ended March 2005, Nikon said that film camera bodies accounted for only 3 percent of the $1.5 billion in sales at the company's camera and imaging division. That is down from 16 percent the previous year. By contrast, sales of digital cameras have soared, the company said, jumping to 75 percent of total sales in the year ended March 2005, from 47 percent three years earlier.

As I have written here before, the rapid rise of digital cameras caught everyone off guard. The sales of digital camera exceeded even the wildest expectations of camera manufacturers. The main reason, of course, is the instant gratification offered by digital, not to mention the quality. And with all the options offered on many digital cameras, one can almost be guaranteed a high quality picture nearly every time. And, images are easily stored on tiny computer chips, eliminating the need to carry and develop clunky rolls of film.

As a fairly recent convert to the world of digital photography, I can testify that it is definitely better. I can't image shooting a wedding anymore with a film camera. And, for me, being able to process each image shot in RAW mode before creating the actual photograph is a Godsend for those shots that aren't quite up to my expectations. And except for those art shows that still require slides of my work for jurying, I may never use my excellent SLR film camera again. But, because of my life-long interest and activity in photography and the many hours spent in a real dark room, the passing of film camera does bring with it a touch of nostalgia and sadness.

Sidebar Story

Since we are talking photography here, I thought I would pass along a story that first appeared recently in the New York Times and has been republished by CNET. It is the story of how camera buyers who use the Internet have become enraged by the questionable business practices of several on-line camera resellers. A majority of these firms are located in Brooklyn.

It focuses not only on the many consumer complaints against these firms, but also on the story of one customer who was so outraged by his experiences with one company that he wrote a irate blog, which was eventually picked up by hundreds, if not thousands of web users. They all set out to shut down the company in question and have apparently succeeded.

One of these outraged New York consumers, Don Wiss, used his web site to publish photographs of most every camera company in Brooklyn and New York, using the addresses listed on each web site. His photographs reveal a plethora of shuttered warehouses, mailbox stores and apartment buildings...and a few legitimate businesses. You can see them on his website by clicking here.