Jump to content

How Many Film Cameras?


lieberdavid

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Yesterday I attended the Royal Flower Exhibition in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was a (very) hot day with not a cloud in the sky. The crowds were enormous even though it was a week day. I was carrying my R6 + motor winder + 35mm Summicron + 100mm Apo Macro Elmarit. This would not normally be a heavy load, but with the heat, and in comparison with what others were carrying, it certainly was. Nonetheless, I hope that I got some good pictures.

 

I do not own a digital camera, and out of curiosity I looked carefully at the equipment others were using. I saw no other Leicas of any kind, which is not surprising as Leica is not well known in Thailand. There were, of course, many Panasonics.

 

Mainly I wanted to check the proportion of film cameras to digital cameras. I expected the vast majority of users to have digital cameras, but nevertheless I thought there would be a reasonable minority of people using a good film camera.

 

The result: I saw NO FILM CAMERAS at all. Not even one! Yikes!

Link to post
Share on other sites

x

On a similar note, I was visiting the excellent war memorial museum in Canberra, Australia, last month and it was packed with tour groups from various parts of Asia and Japan. Almost without exception they were using phone cameras - hardly a "conventional" digital in sight! I thought this might be indicative of a trend. It would be pretty much safe to say I was the only film-equipped person in the place and, gulp, it wasn't one of my Leicas but a Bronica RF645 medium format rangefinder!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was walking the dog the other day and Gu came bounding out of the bushes with an old spotmatic in his mouth. I investigated and was confronted with a truckload of dead or alive film cameras

Link to post
Share on other sites

Same experience for me here in France in many circumstances. Some tourists have old film cameras (Canon AE-1 for instance) and one can see a Leica M from time to time but digital rules.

When in holidays on the coast, I went to the local drugstore to get some negative film for a friend: just Konica 400 ISO 24 views...

 

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yesterday I attended the Royal Flower Exhibition in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (...) The result: I saw NO FILM CAMERAS at all. Not even one! Yikes!

 

I have experienced the same in Germany, e.g. on the typical tourist sites at the Rhine river. Loads of Chinese people. (Remember the old Canon slogan hinting at C vs. N? Today it should read "Now it's China!") Nearly all the Chinese and the German tourists as well used digital point & shoot and some cell phone cameras. Now and then a DSLR. The only film cameras I could detect (besides mine) were some X-Minoltas and A-Canons from the Eighties on the necks of some fogies.

 

I think the reason is very simple: The vast majority of cameras used at touristical hot spots have always been p&s models and the new digital p&s truely excel over their analogue ancestors (for this reason my p&s is also digital). Hence, film p&s cameras are plain dead.

 

Among the SLR users, professionals have changed almost completely to digital for good reasons. And the remaining amateurs like me? I think a lot of them keep their classical camera and add a digicam, be it a p&s or a bridge or something else. And as these amateurs get older and lazier, their old metal monsters stay at home (to keep the tripods company :D ) and the convenient digicams are taken along. I think there is only one rescue for film cameras in the future: comfortable camera bags! And the discovery that carrying a heavy SLR system is a healthy workout for aging pen pushers... ;)

 

Best regards,

W. (always with film SLR, sometimes with tripod)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have made several trips to Asia, and yes the Asians love convinance.

Most of the people in the world are quite happy with their 10 X 15 cm photo album

so suffice a cheap Digicam will do.

 

It's a pity, but the fact of life is that most Mums and Dads who kept Film (negative alive)

are now using Digital P&S .

How many of us have made reprints from our Negatives, for myself I cannot remember.

 

Yes everyone will tell you how cheap digital is, my friend has gone through two digicams

in the last three years he has spent 1200 $ Aus, thats a lot of Film but who cares,

We need to be seen to have the latest Electronic Gismo's.

 

I have not shot on Negative for a while now, instead prefer that super medium called

TRANSPARANCIES (SLIDES) because to me, thats the only medium that shows that

full brillient optical genius generated from Leica lenses.

 

Film will continue as a very specialised item for those that want the very best

and are prepered to pay for it and not necessary follow the marketing trends.

 

 

Ken.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...