EricM Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 i'm going to load my holga and release a few. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nels Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Wasn't there a book titled "Deliver or Die"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivek iyer Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Now, no need to trash a finely crafted machine like the Minox! This isn't your average Holga that costs less than a roll of film and with good reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 I try to see a positive side on this. Sony is one of the strongest companies in the digital arena with own sensors and very advanced and innovative prosumer cameras like 828 and R1. What they don't have is a base to build an SLR system. If KM now gives them that, we could have some interesting times ahead. They are in much better position than Olympus to be a serious player in the field. If digital M and digital Ikon are successes, what is stopping Sony to reintroduce digital Hexar? Maybe they are building it already. Whoever comes up first with a really good digital that takes M lenses at somewhat reasonable price will have a good customer base waiting for them. Cosina/Epson was a good start but it was a bit quirky and many people took a wait and see attitude. Now there is an even bigger base of potential customers with the introdcutions of Zeiss Ikon and M-mount Bessas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blowingsky Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 And full size sensors have got to be on the near horizon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_lazzarini Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Ron Bose <p>Why should your <i>"girlfriend... be pi$$ed,"</i> because <i>"she just bought a KM 7D last summer and shoots film with a Maxxum 9?"</i><p>Actually, the press release <a href="http://konicaminolta.com/releases/2006/0119_03_01.html">on their website</a> <br>states that <i>"In order to continue to have our customers use Maxxum/Dynax lenses... we came to the conclusion that it was best to transfer assets concerning camera business to Sony."</i><p>Looks to me that your girlfriend will still be able to get additional K/M lenses from Sony.<br>Besides that, camera equipment when handled carefully lasts a good number of years. <br>Just look at the number of <i>"old"</i> Minolta cameras being used today.<p>Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis1 Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 konica and minolta merged? when? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leica ron Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Bob: I should have explained, my GF is easily pi$$ed ... Let's hope that Sony keeps this line of products running. Although, who really knows what corporations agree to when they acquire other company's assets. For all we know Sony will be given the freedom to drop it in six-months after taking all of the 'technology' for their own purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melaniec Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Crappy point and shoot cameras have been around way longer than digital, so you can't really blame rampant photographic mediocrity on digital. My first camera was a Kodak Disc camera (remember those?) and wow, did the images it produced suck. Digital only makes it easier to share sucky photos with others. I became mildly interested in photography when I got my first digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 950). Taking beautiful photos is hard. It is harder, and even less rewarding (for most people) when you (a) have to wait for film to be developed to see what you did wrong and (b) pay for your mistakes. Digital eliminates both of those pitfalls. It frees you up to experiment and learn without bankrupting you. In my case, it led me to look at photography in a different way and to finally pick up my father's old M3 and decide to use it. Now I can (start to -- I am a serious neophyte) appreciate the M3 for what it is and value it for what it can do (photographically, emotionally, and artistically) that a digital camera can't. But I never would have gotten there in the first place if I had never had a digital camera. I would still be taking three to six months to finish each roll of film, because I only used my P&S film camera to take "necessary" pictures -- birthdays, events. Most of those "masses" waving their digital cameras around and taking zillions of terrible photos did exactly the same with their film cameras (except maybe they took fewer terrible photos) and will never look at photography artistically no matter what, because being a good photographer is a talent that not everyone has and it is not easy. There are a lot of people out there playing pick up football or basketball in a mediocre fashion. Should they all be trying to be pros? Should they not be playing because they never will be? My father's old M3 now lives in my purse so that I can use it whenever the mood strikes. But I also just got a Nikon D70s, and you bet I'll be using that camera too, and taking way more pictures with it, and emailing them to friends, and all sorts of annoying proletariat- like things because I can, and why not. There's a difference between "photography" and "taking pictures." Most people take pictures, and there's nothing wrong with that. I've decided to try and learn to be a photographer, but I might lack talent and never develop an eye and fail miserably. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop taking pictures. -- Melanie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beau 1664876222 Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Melanie is on the money. The elitist dismissal of digital camera users is dubious at best; a lot of great photographers got started with digicams and some great photographers still use them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nels Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Brava, Melanie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zave_shapiro Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 I can almost quote a company slogan "You push the button, we'll do the rest". I believe that was Kodak's a hundred years ago. We all know that it's a real skill to balance the variables of shutter, aperture and focal length to create a satisfying image and companies have spent years coming up with improvements that could help them sell cameras. Aperture-priority, autofocus, all were developed to help the marketers sell to the largest part of the market. My father was like that and I have his last camera, an ELECTROfying Yaschica GSN (and yes, it's pristine). Auto everything, no choice. I'm interested to see what'll happen when the digital market is saturated; there are a lot of bit players (Samsung, etc) that'll drop out then. Sony has acquired anti-shake technology and probably some factories that produce lenses. Minolta had a great reputation for their ergonomics. Sony has an interesting history, great distribution and a rather snotty attitude. Predicting is very hard, particularly if it's about the future. So if you have Fuji and Kodak each with a line of colour film and a couple of B&W's, you've got Efke and a couple of smaller guys. If Kodak gets out of film I would expect some smaller outfit to result, or a management buyout and narrower distribution. Heck, I buy half my film from B&H and I live in Western Canada. Artistes like us will find a way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelife Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 While I emphatize with those of us who see the KM corporate bean counters' actions as a necessary evil for the KM bottom line, I am convinced that there will be avenues for other companies to take on new film-related business challenges. A case in point is Rollei in Germany. When Rollei was in financial distress in the early 90's, they were purchased by Samsung. Eventually, die-hard Rollei employers (I think) raised capital and bought themselves out of Samsung and became their own entity again in 1998. I think that a Scandinavian investment group owns the majority of Rollei now, but at any rate, my point is that in last year's Photokina, they announced a new line of B&W films and chemistry (Rollei bought into the MACO company's product line and rebadged the film as Rollei R3). Modern chemistry has done wonders to film technology; while one manufacturer of film may cease to exist, others will spring forth with new film technology that, when coupled with the HiRes scanners, will still give a leg up over digital. Notice how Rollei packages their 10-pack like a fine box of Havanas! Definitely for a high end niche!<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bart feliciano Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 wow, that's nice packaging for the Rollei film. Anyone remember the Seinfeld "Sponge Worthy" episode? Maybe film manufaturers should start marketing along "film worthy" lines. "Tri-X/Rollei/Neopan for those Film Worthy moments" ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nesrani Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 " We all know that it's a real skill to balance the variables of shutter, aperture and focal length to create a satisfying image..." I disagree, it's dead easy. Two variables to set exposure? What on earth is hard about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 "I disagree, it's dead easy." yep, exposure is the easiest part of photography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelife Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 <I>Warning: Before reading further, I need to state that I am partial towards the quality of film results vs digital. </I> <P> I am no hifi nut but some of us will recall the time when solid state electronics took over vacuum tube amplifiers, and some decades later, CD's took the place of cassettes and LP vinyl records. Eventually a new era of "audio-consciousness" developed into a very lucrative niche market for high end tube amplifiers...and collectible vinyl recordings. In the mean time, companies selling LP's or cassettes just started selling CD's. Some companies folded, others evolved....like The Gramaphone Company (the famous "His Master's Voice" trademark) became today's EMI, while others were bought up by, ehhhh....SONY (re: Columbia Music in 1998). I bring this up because it may seem plausible to think that film will become a high end luxury commodity for the artistic or epicurean few. However, film is still and will remain relatively inexpensive and the consumer (grocery store) variety is really not that bad, esp. if the processing lab knows how to handle that film type. Therefore, while the market may shrink drastically in 10 years' time, I cannot foresee the same fate happen to film as to vacuum tube amps and vinyl records....i.e. near extinction. On the otherhand, I only know one person today that shoots daguerreotypes for a living; he uses a Canon 20D camera to take pictures of his daguerreotypes for sale on the internet! For the rest of us, there is always today's latest Zeiss Ikon/Leica/Canon/Cosina-Voigtlander body and modern film + photochemistry......! And if you buy more film to shoot with your existing film camera(s), you will ensure that the nefarious clutches of the digital world will not drag down what you love....and for some of us....passionately live for! I would think that most of us will not call up our loan officer for a second mortgage to finance a digital M. My modus operandi is to scan 35mm and 120/220 film. Here are my results: http://www.travelife.com and http://gallery.leica-users.org/ThirdEye<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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