the duaflex II 
and the ricoh 126 slr 
notice the flashcube socket on the left side top?
Posted on 05/25/2006 10:08:01 AM PDT by Drew68
TOKYO - Japan's top camera maker, Canon Inc., will stop developing new single-lens reflex film cameras as more people abandon film for digital, company officials said Thursday.
The Tokyo-based Canon's move followed a similar move by its closest Japanese rival, Nikon Corp., which announced earlier this year it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models.
Canon will continue making film cameras already on the market as long as their demand remains. Whether to withdraw from the film camera business will be "decided appropriately by judging the market situation," said Canon spokesman Hiroshi Yoshinaga.
Japanese camera makers sold a combined total 64.77 million digital cameras last year globally, compared with 5.38 million film cameras, according to industry figures. Yoshinaga said his company could not disclose the number of cameras sold.
Meanwhile, Tsuneji Uchida, president of Canon, told reporters that demand for film cameras will be limited to "special needs" like camera buffs, Kyodo News agency said.
In January, Konica Minolta Holdings Inc., another Japanese optical manufacturer, said it was quitting the camera business altogether — digital and film — and selling its digital assets to rival Sony Corp.
How the mighty have fallen! My realized ambition in college was to own a Canon F1 to shoot the yearbook. The F1 was the ultimate system camera. Over the years I accumulated a number of accessories such as lenses, viewing screens, speed finder and even macro bellows. The thing I still detest about digital camera is the shutter lag time -- nothing beats a leaf-shutter rangefinder for closeup sports photography.
Ahh, the Sekonic light meter (which I still have) combined with my Nikon F, 50mm f1.2, 24mm f2.8 and 105 mm f 2.5 were all a budding college photojournalist needed. Combine with Tri-X push to 1,000 ASA.
Digital cameras take great picture while film cameras take great photographys. I look over here at my bookcase and look at a century of great film cameras, Brownie, Zeiss Ikon, Rollie mini 2.8, Rolleflex, Eastman Kodak bellows, Nikon F, Canon A2 with a Contax compact thrown in. Plus more good and bad gadgets than one can count. What memories.
Carolyn
Once digital cameras get to 14 megapixel they will then be as good as film.
English is my second language. And as a photographer I am far from spectacular - so I must be equally bad at both.
Many of the younger folk don't appreciate basic performance quality; they would rather have speed and gizmos instead.
I could be nuts, but I think that although my old 78 records sound scratchier, they still sound better in other ways than do my CDs.
And people who talk to me on cell phones or portable phones are most annoying, because their signal fades in and out and is often not the clearest.
I haven't experienced digital photography yet, so I cannot comment on that.
Speaking of land-line phones, for the quality of basic feature--ruggedness, sound quality, efficient and practical use--no one's yet beat the old Western Electrics Phones. They remain the best.
They even had concave faces on their buttons to ensure more accurate dialing, unlike most crap being sold today, which have convex buttons (probably only because they look good to the moron public).
And where there's the option on a radio, I always switch-off stereo reception. I never saw the point to stereo to begin with, and stereo reception is often not as clear as mono.
See calculation in # 43. for 24x36 mm frame a really good lens could resolve 80-100 megapixels. Best films (Velvia, Kodachrome, TechPan)could resolve up to 300 megapixels in that frame, if the lens were good enough.
You are right. Weren't pony carts one of Hillary's recommendation the other day for energy conservation? She also adviced keeping them under fifty five miles an hour for greater fuel effeciency.
I'm like you, except that I haven't sprung for a digital yet. I'm still using my old and beloved Nikon EM that I bought in the early 80's. I would hate to give it up. I have a dedicated flash, and a number of lenses for it, a lot of money invested.
I guess eventually I'll have to put it in the curio cabinet with my Dad's Kodak Brownie (from WWII) and my Grandmother's Kodak Duaflex II (from the 50's). Both of these used the old 620 roll film.
When in high school I had a Ricoh SLR that used the old 126 cartridge film. It is long gone.
I'll probably have to give up my b/w darkroom equipment that I've had since high school. No use for that anymore, either.
Quitting altogether?
I can't picture that!
Is this a developing story full of negatives regarding film cameras?
f-Stop me before I pun again!
Digital is convient and probably fine for typical average person...
However given a choice, I still prefer film.
the duaflex II and the ricoh 126 slr notice the flashcube socket on the left side top?
Agreed... nothing sucks more than pushing the button and the camera snaps a second later... High Speed Film and a Good Camera blow digital away...
Of course for the typical person who's just taking pictures of their kids birthday parties, what does it matter evertying is posed or close to it.
Real action though, give me a cheap 35 MM over an expensive digital anyday.
Still serving me extremely well about 23 years now & counting. Although, I do look forward to picking up a digital SLR soon.
As a amateur and then professional photographer I found Polariod process to be a very unstable product. The cost of prints was even worse when factoring the high waste rate. Their many consumer camera models still clutter thrift shops. I respect your father's service and concerns for the company. It's too bad Polaroid never quite made it.
Absolutely. Even if you are taking a posed shot, once you've got your subject comfortable and smiling you still have to wait out the lag time. And by the time the blasted thing finally takes the shot, the smile has become faded, the eyes are looking elsewhere, and so on. It's a frustrating experience for the photographer and the subject.
I'm with ya.
I still love my Pentax ME Super.
Still works like a champ when I need it.
I recently came into possession of the 8MP Rebel XT. While the Canon S40 I had been using previously left something to be desired in a number of different ways (though never intended for serious work), I have been thrilled with the abilities of the new Canon. It performs as well as I would expect any camera to, and there is definitely something to be said for CMOS SLRs.
I am a total hack of a photographer, but I have to say that the image quality of this new camera is essentially film-like, and handles very nicely.
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