I agree that the impact is and will be large. I just don't see film or film cameras going away completely. My point about the consumer is this... Our office consists of 25 people. Our company owns 3 digital cameras for taking and sending pictures of well locations, equipment. Of the 25 people all have film cameras, only 3 have digital cameras. Mr Spiehler's $350 Olympus digital is broken and he has not bought another. He has a large family and is a millionaire several times over. His wife loved the camera but can't make it work. Bruce is the President. He also has a working Olympus digital that he uses to take pictures of his kids soccer team to make ID's for the soccer events. Otherwise it remains in his desk drawer at work. I have a none working Nikon. Remember this is a group of highly compensated people (engineers). Our non degreed office manager makes $75000 a year. She doesn't have a digital camera. Most do not even own a SLR.
I think this group is too close to the industry. Film is still too easy and familiar and will remain so. A lot of people still can't work their VCR's. I do agree that large corporate mentality is pushing this to happen. -----Original Message----- From: J. C. O'Connell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 1:15 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: An observation re Pentax for sale I disagree. Film will die in 35mm and medium format because digital will soon be better. I see it just like what happened to the home movie market in the 70's. video cameras quickly killed them and you dont see too many people shooting super-8 film now do you? Those cameras and projectors are essentially worthless now. JCO ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- J.C. O'Connell mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://jcoconnell.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 12:21 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: An observation re Pentax for sale I think the whole digital thing has to be put in perspective. It IS taking off. People are trading in their film cameras to get money to buy digital cameras because they must have the LATEST AND GREATEST thing. There are thousands of used film cameras coming in to camera stores and not too many buyers. The potential buyers (like many of us) are thinking to ourselves that we might want the ist-D so we are not going to buy the LX going for a good price or the MX going for a song. That pushes the prices down even more. Camera companies and film cameras are sending out signals that their focus is shifting. People panic. Trade in more film cameras for digital. Prices keep going down. (Sounds like the Stock market a few years ago. Actually it sounds like the burst of the high tech bubble in the markets.) My prediction: Things will eventually quiet down. Digital will be a strong influence in our society and one that will continue to grow. Film will still be around and co-exist with digital for many many years. Eventually film cameras will start to increase in price and then everyone will want them. It's just one big cycle. I'll bet alot of the photographers who went digital were also among the first to sell their mutual funds when things turned bad. Just my 2 cents Vic
