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[OM] Re: The new digital discourse [was: Looking back and forward]

Subject: [OM] Re: The new digital discourse [was: Looking back and forward]
From: "Allan Mee" <bigalsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 04:26:41 +0000
I thought Nikon had actually fully pulled out the film market very recently 
(their last film camera being the F6). Interestingly, it was Kodak (a film 
company) that in 1986, invented the world's first megapixel sensor, capable 
of recording 1.4 million pixels that could produce a 5x7-inch digital 
photo-quality print. The first commercially available digital camera was the 
1991 Kodak DCS-100. In 1991 Nikon brought out the D1, a 2.74 megapixel 
camera that was the first digital SLR developed entirely by a major 
manufacturer. In 2003 Canon introduced the Digital Rebel 300D, a 6 megapixel 
camera and the first DSLR priced under $1,000, and marketed to consumers. 
And since then digital photography has almost already fully supplanted film 
photography for the masses and even for most professional photographers.
This rapid switch from film to digital is, imo, the result of convenience 
and ease of use rather than marketing or company strategy. Even newcomers, 
armed with digital technology, can produce results comparable to the 
professional photographers of yesterday - and, more so than with film, users 
have wholeheartedly embraced the technology because even a very cheap 2 
megapixel compact provides convenience, makes photography easier and 
produces 'acceptable' quality for very little outlay. Add to that 
[perceived, at least] lower running costs and instant and generally pleasing 
results it's little wonder the digital revolution is well and truly under 
way. I don't think the general public are that interested in the 
technicalities of photography - they just want to point and shoot and 
accurately record what they see. They are, imo, more opften than not 
perfectly happy to let the camera decide what shutter speed and F-stop to 
use, and to let the camera do the focusing etc. For many, all the control 
they want or need is to decide when to press the magic button. Even 
professionals are much happier to leave many of the decisions for any 
particular shot to the camera nowadays - but the pros will probably always 
want creative control and the ability to manually overide the 
settings/features. Digital photography caters for both camps - and I now 
personally believe that film currently still survives simply due to 
nostalgia. Not many (if any at all) photographers use glass plates and 
powder flash and manually open the shutter (i.e. remove a cap) anymore - it 
won't be much longer before loading a film into a camera will be seen as 
being just as archaic as glass plates and powder flash. I also think that 
it's highly probable that all future phtographic development will be 
'digital' (of some description) rather than 'analogue', i.e. film.
Just about the only problem I see for digital camera makers is market 
saturation - why will people buy new if existing cameras fulfill all their 
needs and everyone has one? Computers are fast approaching that point I 
think. This is maybe the 'real' (even cynical) reason why modern DSLRs are 
not generally as well built as the older film SLRs. Obsolescence (more as 
lack of lasting quality of build) and innovation are/will be the driving 
force of the photography market - but how much more innovative can digital 
photography get? (Relatively speaking, I personally think not much - without 
a radical rethink in camera design - arguably the biggest remaining general 
problem is the need for a flip-up mirror in SLR design). I suspect that 
before very long most or all new DSLRs will eventually have EVFs and will 
become high-end 'digicams' with interchangeable lenses - and be able to 
shoot movies and make sound recordings too. In a few short years to come I 
suspect that people will be amazed that earlier digital cameras had flip-up 
mirrors and that youngsters will be saqying, "Why dad, why?" concerning 
mirrors.
I also think that professional photography will become a more 'specialist' 
industry - and professionals will be far and few between. Of course, the 
photography poplulace will be besieged by marketing (assuming more than one 
major manufacturer survives the developing market). It'll probably end up 
being a kind of war between, say, Nikon and Canon, much like computers today 
is a kind of war between PCs and Macs.
Allan

PS No trees were harmed in the sending of this message and a very large 
number of electrons were asked their permission to be terribly 
inconvenienced. (And threw a party for them afterwards for being really cool 
about it).

Disrupting the unnatural balance that you, as a conscious human being and a 
confused mass of energy, have created.
-Disturb the mind -


I thought Nikon had fully pulled out of the film market recently (their last 
film camera being the F6).



PS No trees were harmed in the sending of this message and a very large 
number of electrons were asked their permission to be terribly 
inconvenienced. (And threw a party for them afterwards for being really cool 
about it).

Disrupting the unnatural balance that you, as a conscious human being and a 
confused mass of energy, have created.
-Disturb the mind -





>From: Winsor Crosby <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
>To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [OM] Re: The new digital discourse [was: Looking back and forward]
>Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:49:29 -0800
>
>
>Sorry, but you insult the intelligence of most of the people on this
>list. They are not dupes. No one twisted their arms and forced them
>to buy a digital camera. They are not silly people who want to take
>their cameras to the bath, unless their bath is more interesting than
>mine.
>
>The technology of photography has changed and the progress has been
>very rapid. You may not have noticed that it is real. There are
>credible comparisons of full frame digital and even reduced format
>digital that challenge medium format film in a short 10 years. There
>has been no answering challenge from the film companies and they are
>going out of business as a result. Camera companies have gone out of
>business with the transition to digital. Nikon has only one remaining
>film camera that it makes because it could not sell them. Canon still
>sells some film cameras. Why haven't they discontinued them so people
>do not have a choice with their evil strategy? How do you square that
>with your manipulative industry model?  With any new technology it
>takes a while for the price to go down. You can no longer buy a high
>end digicam because there is no profit in it because of the
>competition. That sounds like a good sinister, manipulative plan.
>Nikon just brought out a D40 for $600 including the zoom lens. That
>is cheaper than the new OM4T body I bought in the 1980s. When
>corrected for inflation it is as cheap as any film camera ever made.
>The D40 is about the same weight as the OM, includes a zoom lens,
>autofocus, is faster, more comfortable in the hand, is quieter and
>more refined and you don't have to buy film for it or a new battery
>when it is discharged. And most people think the images are better
>unless they are mired in an attachment to the past. Oh, those dastards.
>
>I am sorry you are so uncomfortable with change that you have to
>ridicule people who have found value in it. The thing is, there will
>be film for a long time because some people like it. So you can
>continue to use it to your heart's content and even praise it in this
>list without being criticized because we almost all have a well
>earned fondness for it too.
>
>
>
>Winsor
>Long Beach, California, USA
>
>
>
>
>On Dec 26, 2006, at 5:29 PM, Christos Stavrou wrote:
>
> > Now can you also listen the emerging cultural hegemony that loudly
> > reiterates:
> > oh buy digital, it is so cool... oh digital makes my photos shine...
> > oh digital is so convenient i can take it to the bath... oh digital
> > makes my coffee tastier... oh i must buy the D567 because it makes a
> > pic in 1/1000 of a second quicker than my D566..
> >
> > All that is so nicely fitting with the simultaneous marginalisation
> > (and often unreasonable stigmatisation) of the film (which you can
> > find it almost nowhere now because of the industry's intentional
> > shift)....  How conveniently, this new digital discourse helps us to
> > rationalise that we 'need' digital cameras.. it's such a progress...
>
>
>
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