Mike wrote: Sorry to be a grouch, but I stand by my statement: film is obsolescent. Not obsolete, but obsolescent. No, I don't think it will disappear...but the handwriting is on the wall...the stormclouds are gathering...and all the other clich�s you can think of! > > --Mike
Sorry to say, I think you are right. I do think at sometime it will disappear though, if not entirely 100%, then in a practical manner of speaking for most people, including those of us that are in that rank of devoted amateurs and many "pros". Let's say 5 - 7 years from now 75 - 80% of all photography, professional and otherwise is digital. There's goes a big hunk of your mini-lab developing machines. Most people won't be able to get film developed conveniently and easily. There goes publications wanting/much less accepting work that is not of a digital nature. The price of processing film will skyrocket and it just won't make 1) economic sense or 2) common sense for any of us to use film, when the rest of the world does not. Dodging and burning B&W in a dark room will be a true about-to-be lost art form like real stained-glass already is. Even film scanners will become a thing of the past, except as a way to archive those sentimental family albums. Maybe it will take longer for larger formats, medium, 4x5, and up. Maybe those formats become the domain of a slowly dwindling few artisans and such. I'm not looking forward to it. Smelling the inside of a freshly opened film canister has aphrodisiacial properties, at least to me. :-) At some point we will convert and recognize that it's the image that counts, not the media it was recorded on. I don't like it any better than you guys do and I'm going to go down on my belly, kicking my feet and pounding my fists. Tom C. . - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
