It seems to me digital is actually forcing more folks into the 'darkroom', into actually making the prints and starting to concern themselves with the finished product. Previously it was the professional in their darkroom or the local photostore lab that magically created the finished product.
So while digital vs. film may be a debate over quality of finished product (and that debate has raged between people and their favorite cameras/film/paper for decades), I expect the future will show greater demand for higher-quality products. Japan Inc. is mass-making 6/8/10mp cameras because the general public wants better quality and is demanding a better camera than the 3mp point-and-shoot they bought 2 years ago (and likely few of these consumers were ever interested in the high quality film cameras). Improvments are also evident in the consumer-grade printers and papers, all designed to help any photographer make better prints - all without investing in a special room with various chemical baths that they have to be concerned with the issues of storage, mixing and disposal.
Will film be more difficult to work in the years to come from the end-user perspective? Sure. We've seen that with large format systems that through the years got supplmented with more convienent equipment to use, and their supplies dwindled or disappeared.
Will professionals have to spend $$$ to replace all their equipment? Sure. But ask any business leader who has run a company for 10/20/35-years how they survived and I am confident you will hear "change" and "capital investment"; if you want to succeed you need to keep on top of or be out front in your market. An Adobe Photoshop professional can be as much an expert as any darkroom specialist - different tools being used to make outstanding and original results (truly there is no philosophical difference between making changes in the darkroom vs. on a computer).
Will film die? Probably, and probably not in our lifetimes.
Is it worth spending this much time talking/writing about? Probably not, because the market is going to steam roll most everyone, forcing the digital solution upon us (at some level) whether it's wanted or not. You can hold out on film, but don't expect major leaps in technology as the R&D $$$ will move away from it. In the end, the convience of digital (in all aspects: review/edit/print/transfer/storage) will simply be too seductive for society as a whole to want to stop.
Me, I'll continue to use my M, but I'll be learning and preparing for my Digilux 3/4/5 (if Leica survives) when the time comes to move onward.
To fight back or not to fight back?
in Leica and Rangefinders
Posted
It seems to me digital is actually forcing more folks into the 'darkroom', into actually making the prints and starting to concern themselves with the finished product. Previously it was the professional in their darkroom or the local photostore lab that magically created the finished product.
So while digital vs. film may be a debate over quality of finished product (and that debate has raged between people and their favorite cameras/film/paper for decades), I expect the future will show greater demand for higher-quality products. Japan Inc. is mass-making 6/8/10mp cameras because the general public wants better quality and is demanding a better camera than the 3mp point-and-shoot they bought 2 years ago (and likely few of these consumers were ever interested in the high quality film cameras). Improvments are also evident in the consumer-grade printers and papers, all designed to help any photographer make better prints - all without investing in a special room with various chemical baths that they have to be concerned with the issues of storage, mixing and disposal.
Will film be more difficult to work in the years to come from the end-user perspective? Sure. We've seen that with large format systems that through the years got supplmented with more convienent equipment to use, and their supplies dwindled or disappeared.
Will professionals have to spend $$$ to replace all their equipment? Sure. But ask any business leader who has run a company for 10/20/35-years how they survived and I am confident you will hear "change" and "capital investment"; if you want to succeed you need to keep on top of or be out front in your market. An Adobe Photoshop professional can be as much an expert as any darkroom specialist - different tools being used to make outstanding and original results (truly there is no philosophical difference between making changes in the darkroom vs. on a computer).
Will film die? Probably, and probably not in our lifetimes.
Is it worth spending this much time talking/writing about? Probably not, because the market is going to steam roll most everyone, forcing the digital solution upon us (at some level) whether it's wanted or not. You can hold out on film, but don't expect major leaps in technology as the R&D $$$ will move away from it. In the end, the convience of digital (in all aspects: review/edit/print/transfer/storage) will simply be too seductive for society as a whole to want to stop.
Me, I'll continue to use my M, but I'll be learning and preparing for my Digilux 3/4/5 (if Leica survives) when the time comes to move onward.