William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Toralf Lund"
Subject: Re: More 35mm vs digital (price, upgradability...)
But this reminds me, during the discussions about whether there is
going to be a market for film or not, I've been thinking that surely
there are still many places where digital equipment just isn't
practical. In fact, this might be true for most of the world, and
will be for years to come. Shouldn't that mean that there can still
be a huge market for film? Or won't anyone have a camera at all, or
money to buy film, in such places?
We've had this discussion before. My opinion, not shared by most of
the list, it seems, is that by the time a developing maket can afford
to support film to the extent needed to keep it a viable commodity,
it will probably be able to support digital.
Since the industry as an entity wants the marketplace to switch to
digital, that is where developing markets will be led.
Yeah, I see what you mean. OTOH, film is always going to be simpler in
many ways, and thus ought to be easier to introduce, and as long as it's
lower-cost, or requires a lower one-time investment, anyway, I guess
some companies might find it viable to push it on markets where they
would never expect to sell (higher-priced) digital - or if you like,
dump some old technology in markets where the new one cannot be sold.
(Perhaps that was what other people said?)
The success of digital photography has nothing to do with it's ease
of use, or any quality factors.
It's about an manufacturing sector that wants you to stop using film
because there is no money in it for them.
OTOH, there is lots of money in selling you a new digital camera
every couple of years by creating obsolesence in the product you buy,
and then marketing the replacement for it by telling you that last
years camera is as useful as yesterdays newspaper.
Yes. That's more or less what's I've been thinking, too - which it's
what making me somewhat sceptical. I guess I'd like to live in a world
where technology development is lead by quality or functionality
considerations. Also, I hate to see another group of products becoming
throwaway items. However, I've seen this claim that nobody is actually
making money on digital cameras, either. Hard to believe, perhaps, based
on what you are saying above, which I think is completely true, but of
course there *is* an increase in development cost involved, too. Anyhow,
if this is true, and it continues like that for a while, I'm wondering
what will happen next...
- T
