Did I just witness the end of film cameras and film?

F5 Penguin · Feb 3, 2018

I was going to post this in my other thread and started typing but then thought it really is a topic of it's own. Quoted is the last post made by another member in the thread I was going to respond too before I thought a new thread may be required.

timor said:
And good luck with this. Shoot film and do not overthink it. Whatever you gonna created it is only for your personal happiness. Same with any digital shooters. No other consequences at all.

Thanks but you know what, I may just pack the F5 away and retire it along with film. I notice the LCD is beginning to fade, still totally fine for use but it ain't what it was, I have a good memory. Kinda disappointing as a silly little LCD is going to bring this great camera down. Same with any other camera with a LCD, it's just a matter of time. I was going to shoot film long term (along with digital) buy a film scanner, I currently have a no longer working Nikon LS2000 but as I can see the end of the line for the camera doesn't seem much point. I have 2 other film bodies with LCD's and of course they will suffer the same fate, if they are not already there, haven't tried them. All my bodies will die due to silly LCD's. Everyone's camera bodies will die in time so maybe best to just live in the moment and use what is current and new? Eventually today's cameras will die as well, all have LCD's so why not use them like mad while they still function 100%?

No matter how much people wish to continue using film, I believe I can now see the end of the line for it. A large chunk of film users will have film bodies with LCD's. Once these cameras die, you would think most film users won't bother with the effort to try and keep going with film and will simply move to full time digital. The limited market that is there for film even now will become totally minuscule. Surely won't be viable for anyone to produce film related products any longer???

Any thoughts? I know the last few days I've gone on a roller-coaster ride from great excitement about film again to mass depression! lol

How about some company start producing some LCD's please??? Pretty please!

Vtec44 · Feb 3, 2018

Older film cameras were made with all mechanical parts without internal metering, so to some film shooters the LCD screen may not be as important. All I need is the dial for shutter speed and the ability to change the aperture. If I remember it correctly, the Nikon F6 is still in production. If my Pentax 645nii's LCD screen dies, I don't think it matters much to me.

john.margetts · Feb 3, 2018

Only one of my film cameras has a LCD screen (EOS 650). Cameras like my Voigtlander Vito B have a good century or more of working life ahead of them. My Contessa Nettel Piccolette which is already a century old (made in 1919 so strictly 99 years old) is as good as the day it was made.

limr · Feb 3, 2018

That is some kind of paper-thin argument. Your false premises are that a) most people who still shoot film use cameras with LCD screens, and b) those same people would have no interest and/or ability to continue using film if those cameras break, and c) the only option left for those who still want to do photography is to use the latest, shiniest new technology.

Weak.

Overread · Feb 3, 2018

Also you're ignoring the fact that film likely will survive. Sure it won't be sold and developed in every single highstreet chemist as it once was; but mail order film and processing is already here. I fully expect that there will a few companies that will start up that will produce quality film camera bodies; or which might well repair those LCD and other common issues with existing film cameras.

You might not see a new film camera from the big names, or if you do it might be a once-off release (potential high price or limited stock/marketing); but I'd be very surprised if film vanished entirely.

At present the mail order film and processing is around, but there's a huge bloat of 2nd hand quality film camera bodies on the market. So there's no real pressure to produce new bodies as there is a lot on the market (heck the local auction houses have loads of old film stuff going through them quite regularly). So right now there's no market pressure for brand new film cameras in any big way (and where there is its for advanced cameras rather than basic ones); but I'm sure as time goes on that market demand will rise (even if the market size itself doesn't).

Asides which why not get your camera repaired or buy a replacement; if you enjoy shooting film keep shooting it I don't see why you need to start singing the swans song so early

Braineack · Feb 3, 2018

they still make record albums for some reason too.

webestang64 · Feb 3, 2018

Just glad I have over 200 film cameras, 6 turntables, 4 audio cassette recorder/players, 5 VHS players and 3 typewriters.

Ysarex · Feb 3, 2018

Ain't no stinkin' LCD in my Rolleiflex. Doesn't take a bleepin' battery either.

Joe

Gary A. · Feb 3, 2018

No stinkin' LCD on my Nikons or Leica.

timor · Feb 3, 2018

F5 Penguin said:
I was going to post this in my other thread and started typing but then thought it really is a topic of it's own. Quoted is the last post made by another member in the thread I was going to respond too before I thought a new thread may be required.

timor said:

And good luck with this. Shoot film and do not overthink it. Whatever you gonna created it is only for your personal happiness. Same with any digital shooters. No other consequences at all.

Click to expand...

Thanks but you know what, I may just pack the F5 away and retire it along with film. I notice the LCD is beginning to fade, still totally fine for use but it ain't what it was, I have a good memory. Kinda disappointing as a silly little LCD is going to bring this great camera down. Same with any other camera with a LCD, it's just a matter of time. I was going to shoot film long term (along with digital) buy a film scanner, I currently have a no longer working Nikon LS2000 but as I can see the end of the line for the camera doesn't seem much point. I have 2 other film bodies with LCD's and of course they will suffer the same fate, if they are not already there, haven't tried them. All my bodies will die due to silly LCD's. Everyone's camera bodies will die in time so maybe best to just live in the moment and use what is current and new? Eventually today's cameras will die as well, all have LCD's so why not use them like mad while they still function 100%?

No matter how much people wish to continue using film, I believe I can now see the end of the line for it. A large chunk of film users will have film bodies with LCD's. Once these cameras die, you would think most film users won't bother with the effort to try and keep going with film and will simply move to full time digital. The limited market that is there for film even now will become totally minuscule. Surely won't be viable for anyone to produce film related products any longer???

Any thoughts? I know the last few days I've gone on a roller-coaster ride from great excitement about film again to mass depression! lol

How about some company start producing some LCD's please??? Pretty please!

There is something inconsistent with you. I think you just like to shoot nice, shiny, fully automatic cameras. Doesn't matter film or digital. I am puzzled now, what was about your previous discussion film versus digital.

vintagesnaps · Feb 3, 2018

What LCD screen? My oldest camera is about 100 years old. I have one that's maybe 80 years old, has a level that still hasn't hardened and the liquid still moves to level the camera. They seem to have been built to last. Not that they can't break down, but are reparable, with some small tools and a parts camera.

Film came back, vinyl came back, I think because they were & are good. Not that they're back on a wide scale but still. 8 tracks though, I don't think those are coming back.

Derrel · Feb 3, 2018

The vast preponderance of film cameras had no LCD screen of any kind. And likely more than 80% of film cameras were mostly-mechanical (mechanically-timed shutters, mechanically actuated iris, mechanically human-powered focusing,etc) and needed a battery of some type only to perform metering. From maybe 1975 onward, the electronically-timed shutter became more and more common, and as time went by, electrical current to both time and power the shutter became the normal type of camera design in most, but not all, categories. Medium format or rollfilm cameras were mostly mechanically-timed and operated; sheet film cameras were pretty much all-mechanical. So...this LCD screen argument....ehhhh, no, not buying it, except for the examples of very late-stage cameras produced after say, 1985 or so, until the end of wide film-camera production. MOST film cameras have no LCD.

As for scanning film: I truly believe that for the majority of amateurs and hobbyists, and most professionals as well, (except pro's who demand high-dollar drum scan type levels of quality) that the NEWEST-era digital cameras (24 to 50 megapixels on APS-C or FX), when paired with a quality flat field macro lens and a decent light source, are producing better digitized images from film than the vast majority of scanners, and are doing the work faster, easier, and with fewer bad dust and scratch effects. My admittedly limited research has turned up examples of 24-megapixel and 36-megapixel d-slr "scans" of slides and negatives that look BETTER, flat-out better, than the results of most scanners. So, I think moving forward, we'll see more and more people moving to digital camera set-ups using the equivalent of old-school "slide duplicator" set-ups as the easy and productive way to transfer film-captured images into pixel-built images!