And other ramblings…
Have you noticed? Everybody’s shooting with a smartphone, anytime, anywhere, and nobody seems to be objecting or even paying attention. But pull a conventional, dedicated camera from a photo equipment bag, and people start freaking out.
And suspicious neighbors or passersby are not the only ones panicking at the sight of a camera.
Two weeks ago I was stopped for a good 20 minutes at a TSA checkpoint at the Atlanta airport, because the agents were intrigued by the camera I was carrying (a Nikon D700 with a 28-70 f/2.8 zoom lens). Admittedly, it was a relatively bulky camera + lens combo, but I’ve also been stopped when I was carrying a much smaller Nikon FM with a 35mm fixed focal lens. It’s just that photography as we knew it – with dedicated cameras – has to a large extent left the mainstream. Shooting with film cameras was already an oddity, but it increasingly looks as if shooting with DSLRs is following the same route.
You can see from time to time, typically in touristy areas, a young person carrying a film camera strapped to his or her neck (a Canon AE1 in most of the cases), but I don’t see them actually taking pictures (they wear a camera like you would wear jewelry) and I don’t see film making a come back. Not with those prices, for sure. Film is getting expensive, and the cost of processing and scanning has gone to the roof during the COVID years. My favorite color film is Kodak’s Ektar 100, and it’s now costing $15.00 a roll. Fujifilm are raising their prices massively as well. Processing and scanning are now around $20.00 per roll – which brings the total cost of a scanned image to more than $1.00.
Of course, users of digital cameras don’t have to pay the Kodak or Fujifilm « tax », but cheap cameras have almost totally disappeared from the new equipment market. And even the best dedicated digital cameras are still miles away from the convenience of smartphones: what the software engineers manage to do with « computational photography » on modern smartphones never ceases to impress me, and the simplicity of the integration of the iOS or Android native photo apps with all forms of image sharing services is something a dedicated camera user can only dream of: if you’re happy with the resolution of a 12 Mega Pixels image, and with a focal range equivalent to a 13 to 75mm lens on a full frame camera, the smartphone is hard to beat.
Beyond the obvious (launching cameras with higher resolution sensors and long range zoom lenses that don’t have an equivalent in the smartphone world), the historical camera manufacturers are working at slowly transposing in the dedicated camera world advances we’ve enjoyed on smartphones for years (“global” electronic shutters and the near real time upload of the pictures to the cloud is the most recent example). They’re also working at making the conventional digital workflow of the pros and enthusiasts (shoot in RAW, post-process in Adobe Lightroom, and export to JPEG for social media consumption) less of a given – with film simulations and picture control modes, images can be shared “straight out of the camera”.
Lastly, there seems to be a renewed interest for compact digital cameras. Since nobody manufactures them anymore, the second hand market is the only option. And (for no reason I can think of), the Nikon Coolpix seems to be the hottest item – in particular if it’s painted in a striking “velours red”. Maybe it’s the color? Modern dedicated cameras are high end products built out of magnesium, and they would not convey the same image of competent seriousness if they were pink or yellow.
After a long pause, I’m returning to this blog. With a pink compact camera (not a Nikon), a full frame DSLR (a Nikon), and a best of breed mirrorless camera. Stay tuned.
CamerAgX - a new life for old gear 
Welcome back. I’ve flown a bunch with my (film) cameras and generally don’t get harassed too much, though I make sure I ask for my cameras and film to get hand-checked.
As for film, while it’ll never “come back” in the way it did when it was the only game in town, I don’t share your pessimistic outlook. Yes, film has gotten more expensive, but I do see plenty of people using it, and I wouldn’t assume young folks “wearing” AE-1s are not taking photos. I tabled at a film camera swap over the winter, and the majority of folks seemed to be in their 20’s. Film offers something different to those who grew up as digital natives. They may not use it the same way us old folks did, but they are using it.
Hi – welcome back to the comments section. Yes, it’s been a long time. Let’s say all the film cameras I had bought recently had been disappointments, and it’s only when I started experimenting with Fujifilm’s “film simulation” and Nikon’s Picture Control that the urge to use a camera came back.
The supply of good second-hand film cameras is drying up, and film has not become easier to process. I’m curious about Pentax’s return to film cameras. Will it be a dud? Or will it be the begin of a renaissance? If that camera meets its public, there is a chance that other camera makers will jump in, and more importantly, that a company, somewhere, will invest in building an ecosystem to provide more affordable film as well as affordable and convenient processing. A one stop shop.
Sorry to hear about your recent camera disappointments. As for the expense of film and development (something I either didn’t notice when I originally read your post or you added it in afterwards), there are options. Kodak’s pro stocks are not cheap, but the consumer-grade emulsions are cheaper and good. $20 is a bit steep for dev/scan, but there are lower-cost labs out there. And there’s always home development.
As for the “drying up” of second-hand camera stock, yes, there is some truth to that, as some electronic cameras are now bricks. But I’m going to push back at this drying up concept, as anytime I scan eBay for what I think to be a random model I’ll get a couple dozen listings. What has been “drying up” is the inexpensive cameras. Film cameras were undervalued for so long, which made it very easy for folks to amass a camera collection with little effort or cost. But there are values out there, you just have to look towards those brands and/or genres that are still undervalued. Like the idea of a Nikon F2 but don’t want to spend over $100 or more? Try a Minolta SR-T 101 instead. Want a fun late-era compact but not willing to shell out for an Olympus Stylus/mju? Try a Pentax IQZoom 150SL instead. And so on. They are out there.