Eastman Kodak Co. on Tuesday said it will stop selling traditional film cameras in the United States, Canada and Western Europe, another move by the troubled photography company to cut lines with declining appeal in favor of fast-growing digital products.
Kodak ships CD-ROMs with prints, but I'm not sure how that helps them with the transition to digital. Seems like HP, Cannon, etc. will kill the need for Kodak printing for the masses.
When you get a 2 megapixel camera free with your cell phone, why would you buy a consumer film camera? (I'm talking 18 - 24 months from now.) What would the point be? I guess film will continue for a small segment of the pro market (although most of them are already digital) but I just can't see how film isn't dead. Digital cameras are *free*, or will be soon. Hard to compete with that.
As I've said before, Nokia is on track to be the largest producer of cameras in 2004. And they are basically giving them away. It's over for film.
If you look at the razor/blade analogy, film and paper are the blade. I agree that film is dead (or mortally wonded) for the masses. And I think Kodak will lose out on the paper market as well to companies who market the printers/cartriges/paper for home computers.
D got some film printed at a megastore on Kodak paper recently. The print/negative envelope also holds a CD-ROM with scanned images, but there's no tie-in for the home version of Kodak paper. And the Kodak image manipulation SW on the CR-ROM is sub-par. It won't even load up images from other sources. "No, don't let them load up random JPEGs with our software, force them get comfortable with someone else's software."
I don't get it. Kodak will soon join the junk heap of once great brands.
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- jim 1-14-2004 6:20 pm
Kodak ships CD-ROMs with prints, but I'm not sure how that helps them with the transition to digital. Seems like HP, Cannon, etc. will kill the need for Kodak printing for the masses.
- mark 1-15-2004 1:36 am
When you get a 2 megapixel camera free with your cell phone, why would you buy a consumer film camera? (I'm talking 18 - 24 months from now.) What would the point be? I guess film will continue for a small segment of the pro market (although most of them are already digital) but I just can't see how film isn't dead. Digital cameras are *free*, or will be soon. Hard to compete with that.
As I've said before, Nokia is on track to be the largest producer of cameras in 2004. And they are basically giving them away. It's over for film.
- jim 1-15-2004 5:37 am
If you look at the razor/blade analogy, film and paper are the blade. I agree that film is dead (or mortally wonded) for the masses. And I think Kodak will lose out on the paper market as well to companies who market the printers/cartriges/paper for home computers.
D got some film printed at a megastore on Kodak paper recently. The print/negative envelope also holds a CD-ROM with scanned images, but there's no tie-in for the home version of Kodak paper. And the Kodak image manipulation SW on the CR-ROM is sub-par. It won't even load up images from other sources. "No, don't let them load up random JPEGs with our software, force them get comfortable with someone else's software."
I don't get it. Kodak will soon join the junk heap of once great brands.
- mark 1-15-2004 7:15 am