Friday, September 26, 2008

Fuji film camera

Fuji is coming out with a camera which uses an interesting capture medium from last century, known as "film".
Wow, talk about bucking a trend!

Maybe film will stick around, like vinyl records have.
On the other hand those in the know tells us that a film factory is spectacularly expensive to run, so it has to have a market over a certain size to survive...

5 comments:

Johnnie Walker said...

I hope it survives, since film is better.

Monsieur Beep! said...

An entrepreneur can make a living in a small market niche.
When film started at the beginning of last century, small firms (later big ones like Kodak) earned money with it.
Now the pendulum is swinging back, and big Kodak can no longer make a profit with film but an entrepreneur in his garage still can.

Hey send me all your films, I'll develop them for you. I reckon this could make me rich.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, but a modern color film is way, way more complex and difficult to produce than a BW film. I read an expert saying it. They simply can't be produced by a small, cheap factory. Can't be done.

Alex said...

Small factories are only cheap when there are other cost benefits. Insurance, benefits etc hinder large factories. It also depends where the factory is, I can't see a mom and pop film factory starting in California, they would have a huge upfront cost in making it environmentally friendly enough, but in some small African state, or Polynesian Island there would probably be less concern on pollutants.

In the auto industry small is not cheap. Tried buying a Morgan or TVR lately?

The question on is film better? It depends what you are doing? Is a Rolls Royce better than a Toyota Yaris? Which would you commute in?

Film quality is only really important when the final image quality has to be just so. For a lot of uses other than film is better. That's a vague fuzzy statement. Technically film may be superior, but is it appropriate? I am sure there will be film for as long as it is needed, but we will find selection of brands deplete. Is Ilford still around? I suspect they would outlast Kodak in film, but Kodak have diverged and will stay around as a recognized name.

Anonymous said...

Film has one advantage. It forces you to be economical with the pictures you take. People with digital cameras when on vacation always take about 1000 pictures. They'd never take that many with film.