Future of Photography....Your take.

What do you think the future of photography hold?

Is 35mm Film gonna be Photography history?
Is it almost to that point?

What do the Pro's use these days Film or Digital?
To elaborate more....are the Pro's who do Photo Journalism and Nature going Digital?

My take:
I think in Photo Journalism it's handy to be able to shoot around the world...jump to the laptop....send off photo's to your publisher via the web and get your work published in no time at all!
The old days you for the most part had to smuggle your FILM out of a Country(esp during a war like in South America years ago....my Buddy had to do it....cuz the Sandinestas didn't want the US to know what was going on down there)
Way I see it.....Film is costly (Film and Developing)....flexabi​lity is limited.
With a Digital shot you can edit it yourself and what can be done with a shot is unlimited thanx to the computer!
With the improvement of Printers....Ink and Photo paper you can get results that rival about any film developer for the same or less cost.

I have my flame suit on so feel free to throw your cards on the table!

I think you are correct. Seems like few shoot film anymore. I really like digital because I have about the same number of keepers, but with film I had to pay for all the shots, good or bad. Also, I do not send to a publisher, but share with family and friends. I can upload to my smugmug account within hours of an activity and all can look at them and print or download them.

Lots shoot film SLRs still. You just get the impression that fim is dead when you come to a forum dedicated to digital. No doubt that new users are largely purchasing digital SLR's and I doubt that many film P&S cameras are sold, but there is a huge base of existing film SLR users out there that still feel they get better results than digital, especially if they shoot B&W.

Personally I think the technology has to improve quite a bit more before you will see the final jump to digital.

Bob_A wrote in post #2243455
Lots shoot film SLRs still. You just get the impression that film is dead when you come to a forum dedicated to digital. No doubt that new users are largely purchasing digital SLR's and I doubt that many film P&S cameras are sold, but there is a huge base of existing film SLR users out there that still feel they get better results than digital, especially if they shoot B&W.

Personally I think the technology has to improve quite a bit more before you will see the final jump to digital.

I agree with you Bob for the most part!
I don't think film is dead just dying.
There are still quite a few film'ers out there but they are slowly switching.
Technology is VERY close right now....the 5D definately rivals a Film camera!!

I shoulda said that my statements were more directed to the more serious photographer.
Many Soccer Mom's are going to grab the "Bridge Cameras" (Tiny P&S digital cameras)as we used to call em in my film days.
I was watching the the election coverage and I noticed that many of the Photo Journalist were sticking their Digital Cameras in the way of the camera. I might add I saw a LOTTA white lenses! Saw a lotta Sto-Fen's as well.

I have noticed that many of the old timers refuse to change to Digital and still swear that with a Digital Camera ANYONE can get a good pic.
Many think the Digital Camera does it ALL for you and you can't use em full manual operation.
Now with this in mind.....we are also talking about PPL that refuse to learn or use a computer...have no idea what you can do with em and don't care to keep up with the times.
I always say......don't beat up on something you don't understand.....losing battle on my part!

Geeee kind expected more input!

More dynamic range...

And if holographic/3D displays ever take off.. Stereophotography should make a big comeback.

I saw a point and shoot film camera.. my evil stepgrandmother brought it to dinner last week... I took a picture but then I saturized her so her skin looked green... J/K... well no. I did make her look green...

back on topic

I don't think that film is going by the wayside I know some very good film photographers who don't have any plans to change to digital.. to each their own.. and personally I do hope to someday give the whole darkroom experience a try.. But, there are the oldfashioned medium and large format cameras and the day that those go by the way side from 30MP DSLR's I might just sit down and cry... I think that as long as somebody is using the tools they'll still be there...

sari

Film is history, will die almost completely. Digital will continue to improve.

I also predict that DSLR will increase in popularity. The FIRST company to come out with a much more simple user interface, and possibly much lighter lenses, will allow many P & S owners to make the switch. The user interfaces will make it almost as simple as P & S to get great pictures. The interface will even make it more simple to get the types of pictures on wants, and hard core suers will become somewhat frustrated that the average Joe can take pictures with as much "talent" as pros, except at picking the subjects. Post processing will also become easier and easier, user interfaces will become more simple even for powerful programs like PS.

It will be a revolution like when Mac came out and the average user no longer had to use difficult commands to operate their computers. It is coming, Canon should be there already, but still cater to the "DOS" type users.

My two cents.

Of course the DSLR will increase in popularity that is a fairly safe assumption. There is however, a novelty effect to digital photography to a generation that was used to film. There are those that don't participate here that just want a picture for memory. For many, a paper picture is just fine. They are told to go digital and their worries are over. For many in this generation computer literacy was not a priority.

To assume that film will die or even on its death bed is premature. I still shoot regularly with medium format cameras. It depends on what the final use of shot will be. I do not have the business to lay down the money it would take to have a medium format digital. I think that allot of established photographers are in the same boat. As the digital technology progresses the prices of these should come down and be more attainable to the masses. Imo, we are still a long way from that happening.

I'll use one of my sisters as an example. She was more than happy with her point and shoot film camera. I tried hard to convince her to go digital and her resistance was consistent. Not that she was afraid of learning something new, she just didn't want to have to spend the computer time. I finally got fed up and gave her a Canon P&S for Christmas a few years. She does use it but primarily for those moments when she wants to be able to email a picture to someone. She still uses her film body quite regularly which drives me crazy. There has to be more than one silly sister in the world.

The cameras are becoming feature laden pieces of complexities. For those of us that love photography this is probably good thing. For those that just want a picture of the kids, do they care about most of these things. I would guess that a very high percentage of the digital owners (including allot of DSLR users) just put the thing on full auto and shoot away. Heck, I finally met someone that actually uses the direct print button to a small 4x6 sized printer. At the end of the day they just wanted those prints again.

I think the majority of the answers here will be that film is close to death. I think that it has a presence in the market place quite some time to come. To the masses, I don't think that they care one way or the other. They just want that picture. If you did a national poll I think the answer we got from it would be vastly different from that which we will see here. Photography is just not that big of an issue in most people lives. Even for those that do invest in a DSLR it is more of having the latest and greatest than it is about living photography, which many of us on here do. I think that you would be surprised at the percentage of people that buy a DSLR and them participate in an active forum such as this one. I'm betting it would be less than 2 percent.

For film to be officially dead,imo, it has to stop all production. There will always be those high end photographers that are shooting 4X5 or larger sheet film. We aren't going to see a sensor of this size in long long time. For the consumer market, the film camera is slowing dramatically. As the future generations come along in time to the point where they enjoy the buying power there will be more digitals sold as these generations will be more computer proficient. While the consumer market will be one of the more significant driving forces on where the photographic industry evolves to, specialty film requirements will probably continue to live. I will be long dead and gone by the time we can bury the last film cannister.

I agree and also think film is headed out pretty soon, but not completely. Heck, there are still folks out there taking pictures on glass plates, not many, but some. And while we’re gazing into our crystal balls, I believe that the future of SLRs is not that bright either.

While SLRs are at the top of the quality mountain today, the P/S guys are but a few technical advancements away in matching today’s finest SLR. If technology over the last 80 years has shown us anything it's that technical limitations are just a way to challenge engineers and we will soon see small compact cameras with fixed lenses capable of wide angle to ultra-zoom and delivering Hasselblad quality. Heck, we might even see some enterprising company deliver an entirely new format, lenses and all.

There is nothing magic about the 35mm format. It is just some size standardized long ago. SLRs are slaved to that legacy and as a result are big and heavy, expensive to manufacture, and the market is limited. I see technology continuing to make great leaps forward in the next decade but the big advancements will be in the P/S market as that is where the vast majority of the buyers are. It is already happening today. Canon’s newest Digic III is targeted directly to the P/S market with features that will never be ported to a SLR because of the SLR design.

So imagine this. A camera small enough to fit in a pocket with interchangeable lenses each maybe the size of a 35mm film case. An electronic back panel that can deliver 5000x5000 resolution with digital zoom focusing assistance that can zoom as well as CS2 does now just for the pixel peepers and delivering 40mp pics of Hasselblad quality all for under $1000. And toss in video as well just for good measure. All I got to say is sign me up… I am so there.

I think digital has revolutionised photography. It has brought costs down tremendously. Using the Sandanista argument, you can buy something like the Minolta Dimage Xi which will probably slip inside a pack of cigarettes. You can take all the photos you want without worrying. Then you can take the memory cards out and conceal them and as the camera is so cheap that can be dumped. Easy way. It'd even be possible to upload to a palmtop computer to send via email. Digital is wonderful for forbidden photography.

As far as digital taking over from film... I think that is a certainty. I think we're seeing film in its final death throes. Film was good. It's still good but digital is faster, easier and more productive. The only reason why my wife still uses film for dental x-rays is because the digital x-ray gear is horribly expensive and because she already has the film setup.

Why do people go out and shoot with Pinhole cameras?

It's fun, it's something different, it's expermential, etc.

In another 10 years, we'll be shooting with out 35mm film bodys for fun, to do something different...

according to places like the ASMP and NPPA, of the working pros, 25% still shoot only film, 25% shoot only digi, and 50% shoot a combo.

There are some areas that it will take a long long time to get to digital, like high end architecture and food photography where you really need a large format camera and digital backs are too pricey. Some forms of portraiture are just done best on specialty films.

sports, PJ, etc are obviously very digi friendly because of the cost factor.

there will always be a place for film, and probably for digital as well.

gjl711 wrote in post #2245341
So imagine this. A camera small enough to fit in a pocket with interchangeable lenses each maybe the size of a 35mm film case. An electronic back panel that can deliver 5000x5000 resolution with digital zoom focusing assistance that can zoom as well as CS2 does now just for the pixel peepers and delivering 40mp pics of Hasselblad quality all for under $1000. And toss in video as well just for good measure. All I got to say is sign me up… I am so there.

That sounds like the Pentax 110 SLR. That was a neat concept for its time. Now imagine that Pentax 110 body having a digital sensor. And it's all possible.

NickSimcheck wrote in post #2245389
Why do people go out and shoot with Pinhole cameras?

It's fun, it's something different, it's expermential, etc.

We home school our son. One of his physics experiments is to build a pin hole camera. I am really looking forward to that one. We headed out to Science and surplus and already have all of the materials. BTW, I will be painting a red ring around my "L" pin hole.