A couple of classic cameras amidst books

Herb Keppler's wisdom

On the joys of collecting:
"Among the many things I resent about digital imaging is the slamming of the door on one of my favorite hobbies, camera collecting. Aside from getting a discontinued model cheap to use as a backup, can you tell me why someone would be excited about buying an obsolete digital camera for any purpose other than to use as a doorstop?"
(Popular Photography & Imaging, August 2007)

Film is here to stay:
"No, no, dammit, film is not going to disappear, so stop writing me scaredy-cat letters about how 'we duffers are gonna fade away silently clutching the last rolls of Kodachrome to our breasts.'"
(Popular Photography & Imaging, September 2007)

Relating a comment by renowned photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt:
"After Nikon introduced the first motordrive-compatible in 1954 (2.5 fps), I asked Eisie if he ever used a motor. 'Never,' said Eisie. 'It might miss something that this would have caught.' He wiggled his shutter release finger at me."
(Popular Photography & Imaging, April 2007)

If you were alone on a deserted island and could only have one camera and lens, what would it be?
"An all-mechanical Nikon F with a coupled selenium meter (no battery) and a 105mm macro lens to photograph flora and fauna, big and small, and to take a fine portrait of the person who rescues me!"
(Popular Photography & Imaging, August 2006)

Roger and Frances on why they love film

Welcome to Film

There are no books and precious few articles for those who want to go from digital to film: surprisingly few editors are far-sighted enough to publish them, say Roger and Frances Hicks. "Well, we still use film, and here is why, garnered from our own experience and that of others who have never stopped; or have gone back to film after trying digital; or who, after growing up on digital, have decided to use film either alongside or instead of digital.

"The last point is important. We use both digital and silver halide. We also ride motorcycles as well as driving cars, and eat vegetables as well as meat. You don't necessarily need to abjure the one in order to enjoy the other -- unless, we have to say, you want the best possible results on the lowest possible budget, in which case silver is a clear winner in most cases. Increasingly, too, people take a hybrid silver/digital route, scanning and printing from film. In colour, this is the way we do it, though in black and white we still print the vast majority of our pictures in a traditional 'wet' darkroom."

Roger and Frances conclude: "You may get hooked. You'll be so intrigued by the pictures that you'll buy a good quality scanner, or maybe even set up a darkroom -- which is easier than you might think, as evidenced in the free module on our darkrooms. Then you'll want another camera, and some more lenses... Nah, stick to digital. You don't want to enjoy yourself that much."

Out of focus

An anonymous owl, with eyes wide open at f 1.2, once said: " One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photos out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photos out of focus are a style."

While another wise owl said, at f 2.8: " Everyone has a photographic memory, but not everyone has film."

How prescient! Now no one will have film anyway! Digital delirium...

Film Cameras Officially Dead In Japan

According to a report in Wired magazine by Charlie Sorrel, So few film cameras were sold in Japan in the last two months that the trade body CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association) has stopped compiling sales figures. According to Amateur Photographer, only 529 35mm film cameras were made in Japan in February. We're not sure how that figure was reached, but if we compare it to CIPA's own figures, it looks like there really were only 529 actual cameras sold, an incredibly low number.

CIFA's figures are only compiled for member companies, and the last update for film was in January (subsequent reports list figures for lenses only). But here's how they break down for January. New digital still cameras sold: 5,417,563, up 128% from the previous year. New film cameras sold: 1580, a tiny 2.8% of those sold in January 2007.

So, in Japan at least, film is now a niche product. We still don't think it will die, though, anymore than CDs killed vinyl. Film will just be one more boutique process for the curious. We predict that there will be a resurgence in 2018, and all the cool kids will be carrying Instamatics, writes Sorrel.