An Elan 7 and EOS 3 replacement, will film ever phase out to all digital?

With all this talk of EOS 3 and Rebel style digital SLRs to come out

some time in the near future it makes me wonder about the fate of

film. Personally I don't own any digital equipment other than an

old Olympus 2100 digital ZLR. I don't desire nor feel like it is

necessary for me to buy a 10D or anything of the like.

 

I perfer film and like how films have improved over the past decade,

it scares me to think that some day film may be all but a niche in

the market. I wonder if there will be a film replacement for the

Elan 7 and EOS 3 down the road or will they be replaced by some

digital counterpart?

 

Basically I am wondering if or how long will it be before film no

longer equally coexists with digital, or will their always be nice

film SLRs availible from the big manufacturers?

I'd go for 10-15 years max. Digital is advancing very fast, and once you can buy an 11Mpxl SLR for the same price as your Elan 7E why would you go for the film camera? There are already endless places doing digital printing for a good price so that end is already there. Maybe 5 years? :)

 

Will film die out? No way, for the same reason people still use pinhole cameras, there are enough people doing this that no aspect of photography will ever really die out, it will just get a lot less common and a lot more expensive.

I'm not so sure about that. Film has a finite shelf-life, and there's a production cost curve. For it to be made up to order, in small batches, the cost to the consumer would be prohibitive. So there has to be a steady demand, and large enough so that it can be produced and sold profitably at a cost that consumers are willing to pay. A more likely scenario for a cottage industry is one of converting old classic cameras to digital capture, similar to the way there are sources for replacing the movements of antique watches with quartz movements.

In developed countries that has already happened among technopiles and computer users. However, there's a lot of basic folks out there that don't care about the internet, MP3s or digicams. I still see many pallets of single use cameras at Costco and lots of tourists carrying them in Waikiki. Those are the kind of people that shoot one roll of film a year: half at Christmas and the other half on vacation! Heck, half my students still don't have computers at home let alone digicams (their parents concentrate on gettin' food & drugs).

 

I've visited lots of places that still don't have electricity let alone digicams. I think the world's a big and varied place and film has a really long ways to go.

can some people answer some of the questions posed here, its lookin pretty bare

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005QUk

Film will be around for a very, very long time, if only at the end for enthusiast. I expect that I will keep my Leica M6TTL for a very long time, just for the beauty of using an all manual camera loaded with tri-x.

 

I personally don't expect any real serious dev efforts for high end 35mm film cameras - it is fair to assume that 99% of R&D resources are focused on digital.

I'm pretty sure everything is moving toward digital. But will film still exist? I'm more then sure it will. It was same years ago when color film came out for sure. Will black and white film still exist? No way everything will go color. Is black and white film still around? Yes it is, and it's not so exotic thing that you would need some special stores to get it. You can get it everywhere, at least here. So I guess it will be same with film and digital. Film will still be here, even if most of photo will be done digitaly.<br>

Well I think I'm quite right about this but it also might be some kind of "protection" reaction since I just bought EOS 3 not so long ago and I'm trying to convince myself I can be using it for long years :)

It'll probably end up like the battle between CD's and vinyl LP's. The photophiles will say digital images lack the warmth and timbre of a film image and will never switch over ;-)

 

Film will probably not be phazed out for a century at least I reckon.

<p><i>"In developed countries that has already happened among technopiles and computer users. However, there's a lot of basic folks out there that don't care about the internet, MP3s or digicams. I still see many pallets of single use cameras at Costco and lots of tourists carrying them in Waikiki."</i>

<p>I've just read that here in the Netherlands 63% of the population has internet access at home, and that last year 1/3 of the cameras sold was digital. So internet and digital cameras are moving into the field of non-technophiles quickly. You don't have to be a technophile to use a simple point-and-shoot digital camera. The share of film cameras will inevitably become much smaller in the future, but I agree that it will be a long time before film disappears.

<p>Jesper

Interestingly, I've read several times that film camera sales are fairly steady, and that digital is creating a NEW market.

 

Personally, though, I believe that film's days as a mass market item are numbered. When you look at how much better today's digital cameras are compared to what was around 5-10 years ago, just think how good they'll be in 5-10 years time.

 

For enthusiasts, when your digital surpasses medium or large format in image quality, film will be hard to justify and increasingly unattractive. For the average consumer, the need is for simple digital cameras and seemless intergration with the minilab (to the point where they don't need to think of anything complex at all - digital is still a bit high-tech for most at present).

 

 

We live in exciting times, but film still has a bit of life in it yet!

to Puppy's point. I easily envision single-use digital cameras (albeit without LCD screens) within the next 5-10 years.

Man I cant wait to see a technophile on a two week safari without film, already it is a nightmare with battery chargers and CF cards, add to that the portable storage devices and lap tops.. (Batteries and power)

 

Suddenly you see why a film camera will not be out done for a looong time. B&W is making a big come back as is medium format with the smaller AF slr type cameras.

 

I believe that the two will live together, as for 10 - 15 years, please please flood the African market with cheap Top end (out of use) SLR's

 

G

Film may be around, but as previously mentioned I think it will be boutique and enthusiast based. I think it will almost completely phase out when our generation dies off. Kids born in to a digital world will use that technology and film will be mostly used by a few pros who insist. Similar to the home phone which I believe will go by the wayside while more and more people convert to wireless. Somebody made a great analogy to records having a warmer sound than Digital CD's . This is true and in many multi million dollar 'digital' recording studios, you will still find a trusty tape machine from the 70's ( although made in the current millenium). People will use film until it is so hard to afford and get processed.. I personally have owned a 10D and do not think by my standards it can take over my film cameras yet. Now a 1 DS might be a different story, but I will wait until the exponentiality of technology curve brings down the price.