Hi, no serious business is going to hang large parts of their future income on that kind of fragile dependency or by sheltering under some other company's umbrella. It would be impossible to plan for longer than the very shortest term if they had to keep looking up to see if Kodak & Fuji were still making cameras.
It would be foolish to plan any business on the assumption that consumer levels of film will still be around in 10 years. The mass market will be all digital very soon. Even if Kodak and Fuji are still making film, the mainstream retailers won't be selling it. Some film will still be available, of course - I have no plans to sell all my film cameras - but you'll have to go out of your way to get it. -- Cheers, Bob Wednesday, December 24, 2003, 10:33:20 AM, you wrote: > Not at all, Bob. > The specialist camera makers can shelter under the umbrella of the film and > camera manufacturers. So long as Kodak and Fuji sell film cameras the > ~hardware only~ manufacturers can rest assured that film will be available > for the required period. > But on the day that no film manufacturer also sells a film camera there will > be much rearranging of the deckchairs on the Titanic. I predict that no > company would risk the legal ramifications of selling a film camera if Kodak > and Fuji also withdraw from film camera sales. > Like I said, while Kodak and Fuji sell film ~cameras~, film has ten years > minimum life expectancy. > regards, > Anthony Farr