On Fri, 10 Oct 2003, Alin Flaider wrote: > Kevin wrote: > > KW> I really dont think Pentax is too fussed about the dSLR market, consentrating > KW> more on point and shoot folks is where the dollars are. > > Hopefully Pentax doesn't share your opinion. > The DSLR potential market _is_huge_ - virtually every film SLR owner > is going to eventually buy a DSLR in the next five years or so. > Especially when the industry starts to drop film support and DSLRs > enter the mid level SLR price area.
Perhaps a bit optimistic about the timetable. Guys that are buying the $200 film Canon Rebels, and there are a lot of them, aren't going to buy the digital Rebels until Canon can get them down to $200 or so. Canon clearly cut every corner it could to get the digital Rebel down to the price it is, and I think the technology has to mature a lot before digital SLRs will get that cheap. Film will be with us for a while yet. Probably fewer kinds, and more expensive, but enough people will still want slides and B&W and to use their cheap film SLRs to keep it in business. Kodak has announced that they are cutting back on DEVELOPMENT of new films, since the pros who really care about film quality are going digital for cost-of-business reasons, but I doubt they are going to stop MAKING film any time soon. DJE
