Film is dead - according to this!

I see... I'm just helping out getting you some geographical knowledge and all you can do is making fun of Luxembourg.

Don't think the point is this store called Dixons. The point is a big retailer has phased out film cameras. Here in Canada stores that have either phased out film cameras or have a VERY small selection (under 5 models) are BestBuy, FutureShop, Sears Canada and more. In Edmonton the Camera store is McBains, it has maybe 10 Film Camera models they sell new in box. Henry's of Toronton I belive is about in the same place. Only place I know of with an abundence of film cameras is eBay. eBay where you can get a great deal, like an EOS-1 for $400 USD! What a deal.

I understand the need for phasing out film cameras because the demand is no longer there. Even grandma's (like my mom) are switching to digital. They're simple to use and almost everywhere has those Kodak machines where you plug your memory card into them an simply select the picture you want to be printed and 1 hour later you get prints.

I betcha the direction that film is going at processors is this, soon 1 hour will either be the only available option or multi day where they send the film out (that does a horrible job!). One or the other but I doubt both. But that will be about 4-5 years from now.

I'm actually amazed how FAST digital photography is catching on. Just one year ago I sold two Rebels for about $200 US on eBay. One was the very first Rebel (worst RED EYE ever!) and the other was the toy called a Rebel 2000. Now you can get them, 1 year later for $80-$120 US! I sold my first Digital Camera, a Sammy-Sung 2 MP (piece of junk) for $100 US but now you can get a used D30 for only $300! Sure technology always goes down but so quickly? It's amazing!

I was just putting a little zing to the original post and all you can do is to make fun of american ego.

but on a pratical level, what I said would be correct. It wouldn't be an insult to a particular country, but rather a fact.

And I was just illustrating EOSAddict's remark...
Of course, in some sense you're right... few trends originate in small countries, a lot of trends originate in large countries, some statistical stuff

Hmmm I see now that I forgot the humor-tags in my previous post... I guess I have to be more cautious about that, or perhaps some larger nation will invade my country just because I tried to make some fun

Don't kid yourself, no one would invade Luxemburg.. what's there that would be worth the effort? Perhaps your Deutschlander neighbor would, since they have a tendency to do that now and then...

booggerg wrote:
Don't kid yourself, no one would invade Luxemburg.. what's there that would be worth the effort? Perhaps your Deutschlander neighbor would, since they have a tendency to do that now and then...

Go on...you had to get an atlas out and check that didn't you?

dewmuw wrote:
Go on...you had to get an atlas out and check that didn't you?

Guess that's possible

I read somewhere (I think it was the readers letters in NGM) that during last (US-)wars, the soldiers had to take NationalGeographic-Maps to find the country to attack.

(Note to the Mods : I'm not getting political here and I hope no one will get... Let the fun continue...)

Good friend of mine flew in the two recent middle east wars where we helped out a bit apparently. Quite a few of the briefing were joint and he said the interesting thing about the US ones was that they had lots of pictures of what they were supposed to be bombing . I guess NG hasn't covered that area yet

Hey guys - don't fell bad - there are many who feel that unless your in NYC, Chicago, or LA, the rest of the country doesn't count either...

Back to the other topic - it is funny here too that you go to the camera shops and the displays are choke full of used film cameras for sale - to whom I have no idea. Frankly I still have my old EOS 3, AE-7, and first camera a minolta xg-7 around just for the old memories. I doubt anything but the Eos 3 will ever see a role of film again. The medium formate I am going to buy a digital back for... so in my house, film is dead - long live digital (or until something better comes along).

When I bought my EOS 20D in february this year, I tried out my lenses I still had from my EOS500. So I put the Sigma 18-35 on it, pressed the shutter button : Err99. Bad luck... this lens (bought in 1997) was too old for my 20D, a mail to Sigma (took over a month to get an answer) told me the lens was too old to be rechipped.
My tamron 28-200 worked but the images were too soft, a thing I didn't notice when shooting film.
So I went to a Fotoseller who had a lot of secondhand stuff too and asked what he'd give back for the two lenses. 200 Euro was all I got for both even though the buying price had been something like 700 Euro.
The argument was that the lenses were only good for analog EOS and therefore the seller didn't even know if one day he'd sell them...
That's perhaps not an argument that film is dead, but that sales of film cameras had diminished to a point that it would be hard to sell lenses second-hand...

dewmuw wrote:
Go on...you had to get an atlas out and check that didn't you?

And a junior highschool history book as well.

I still have my Canon AE-1. Not going to let it go until they quit making film.....
Of course then it will be too late to let it go....
I think I would like Sweden or Australia... never been there, but would like to go...!

For one, they have the history. How many of the "new world" can say that. I guess it's relative. For some, 1889 is very old. For others, it's like yesterday.

I see... material profit is the only thing that's worth a war starting for. But you're right... we don't have any oil-fields...

(Note to the mods : I still don't want to be political. If my statement bothers anyone, feel free to remove it...)

I think that film on a consumer level is gone for good. I would say wait about 5-10 years before it really starts having a big effect in the professional world. It's had its effect, but I would say that film is still a very big player.

Digital is still shy of perfectly replicating film and is also fairly expensive, especially in the med/large format market.

Speaking to a many people here outside of the boards, I know that many have come into photography after the digital revolution and have never shot film and seen their work on a quality film. Film still does look better out of the box then any digital camera. To be perfectly honest, before many of the people who really started in film that are purists/traditionalist​s start being overlapped by a new generation of photographer, film will not go away. When my generation is the force of the market, that is when film will be all but phased out.

Considering digital has still a long way to go before it becomes a perfected system, many will not make the move. Basically all good, full-time photography schools still teach with film, even if it is for teaching photographic discipline, which most people who start in digital are very weak. So long film is still considered the best way to learn, and provides the best looking product, then it is not gone.

Sure all mainstream electronic shops phase film out, but any real photography store still sells lots of film equipment. Don't look at a board like this or what your local electronic shop does, this is a digital board, people here are the digital shooters, electronics stores sell small $300 digi-cams that every last person wants. Go out in the pro photography world and see how many people still shoot film, more then half.

I think digital will obviously take over soon enough and for the most part, film is dead when it comes to those $40-$100 point and shoots, but it's not dead completely, it's still alive and kicking when it comes to the higher end equipment.