After a record year for sales of DSLR's from all manufacturers, Nikon announced today that it is to cease development and production of film based SLR cameras completely with the sole exception of it's flagship model F6 camera - which is to be left as a gesture towards professionals who still prefer to use film.

Although I am a very strong advocate of digital photography, these moves by corporate film giants is like doing away with pencils and paper because more students do homework on computers. . . digital is great . . . I have myself vowed to never purchase another roll of color film; but b/w is an entirely different playing field. I will always (or until the last film company falls) use film for my fine art BW photography, mainly because digital cameras are designed for color. *Waits for Photoshop Monkeys to start up their arguments* But the second reason for using BW film is because hand processing requires more skill and time. I look at my fine art work much like a soldier looks back at boot camp with a bit of a smile . . . I remember all the measuring of temperatures, running test strips, tesing the chemicals, grain focusing, etc. - after all that it almost makes it more of an accomplishment, but I'll shut up now. ;-)

Agreed David, unless you splash out around $600 for some trick filters or RAW software that does a believable conversion to mono to emulate film, you arent likely to get anything like the results you could with film. It seams a shame for Nikon to do this as the actual costs of development and production of these models must be miniscule compared with the money pouring into digital development.

I agree with both of you. The sad thing I see is that a great art form that is based more on knowledge and skill will soon be gone. I do find it redundant that schools still teach in dark room considering the negative is go the way of the dodo, as the Kodak company announced that they will slow down production of there paper and completely get out of production by 2010. They also announced as Nikon, that they will stop developing negative cameras and shift to digital. I also understand that Illford will also stop production light sensitive paper. Both of my Canons have B&W capabilities and with a little on board tweaking you can get some very nice results, but it is not quite the same is it.
But yet the true sadness is that we as photographers and those who choose to take up that carrier will also become extinct. Do to the new CCD & CMOS technologies, along with the always changing program tech. More people will choose to capture there own wedding and parties. More will learn to tweak there images digitally.

yeah, im kind of hanging onto the 'anyone can buy a car but it doesnt make you Mario Andretti' scenario on that one Clay :-)

Very true Phil, I have always said any one can take a photograph, but can they take a great photograph.
I was in the mountains once and a guy was taking a picture of the same area I was. He asked me to email a copy to him and he emailed me a copy. He then sent me a massage back and asked hwy my capture was so much better? I just said it was all in the camera settings, the filter and the framing. On the other hand I drove a tweaked 66 MGB, and I would blow the doors of corvettes in a mountain road races. Imagine that with a turbo 4 cylinder. So depending on the application, size really does not matter in all cases.

My friends I think it matters little how tricked out and expensive your camera is and little what medium you use if you don't have the composition eye. Prismmagic, I'm betting the main reason you were able to take a better photo than someone else shooting the same scene is your compositional ability and your knowledge of the use of light.

I started shoting seriously after digital cameras were already "developed" to the point where they were a serious competition to film cameras, so my knowledge of film is limited. What I do know though, is that the photos I shot with my 3.2 mpx pocket camera were every bit as good as those I shot with my 8mpx DSLR (they just can't be enlarged as much). What do ya'll think?

Yes composition is a very important issue with any and all photography after all that is the key thinking the will you want to convey the message that you are trying to get across in the image. Now digital like negative has its own little issues to deal with first starting with how a CCD or CMOS collects little and visible color is first. I find those digital camera settings such as f/stop or about a quarter to one stop of from negative cameras. And you just can't develop an image to the quality and technique that you can in a dark room. So in some cases we are loosing a great art form. Also digital still can not record certain colors accurately such as reds are a bite of.

Lighting as well as composition! ;D
Large and medium format film is nice... not that i have tried it.
i dont particularly like 35mm, only it was helpful in some ways because of the costs i concentrated on getting it right first time...

For the cost I prefer 120 film. . . I wish I could shoot with an 8x10 viewfinder but the price is not very friendly not to mention that bracketing becomes quite bothersome . . . . but the quality!!!

you could always splash out on a medium format digital, and by splash out I mean remortgage the house :-)

I've never really worked with film so I can't say that I will personally miss it. However I can understand the need for film for truly profressional photographers and use in art. If film goes away completely it will definitely be a loss.

As for the fact that most people will start taking their own photos. As has been said, anyone can take a photo, but taking a good photo takes some skill. If I go back through all the shots I've taken you can clearly see that through the years I've picked up some skills. I don't think real photographers have much to worry about. Yes, it becomes easier for the general public to take snaps, but the truly memorable shots need skill and an eye for composition that not everyone's got.

Medium format maybe . . . but large format . . . hmm let's see . . . that would be somewhere around the GNP of India . . . and then we get to flash media . . . oops . . . the human back can't support that much weight so we resort to a camera bag with a built in hard drive, cable leading to camera, and solar panels for field work; then my computer doesn't have enough RAM to open the bloody file, so I grudgingly sell my dog, my wife, my car, and anything else I can dig up in the back yard to purchase a supercomputer with linux to maximize efficiency . . . Now even Bill Gates realizes that a zero has been removed from his great great great grandchild's retirement fund. And that People is what "Really Grinds My Gears"

well you could always offload the kids to a medical experiments lab on a lease with an option to buy then get yourself a spanky PhaseOne 40MP Digital Back jobbie and fix it to your medium/large format body. Just think of all the really great photos you could take of the new replacement offspring :-)

I agree with Phil , the medium format are great but a camera a house. I don't know. When and ever I can afford one I might consider it. but if I did I think it would be a larger format, maybe a Betterlight 44 meg camera, after all what’s another $20.000,000 if your going to already spend 16.000,00 to $32.000,00 and it a 5x7 camera.

As far as negative; the greatest loss will be the ability to manipulate multiple colors and layer chemicals over each other along with manipulating an image with water and temp.
You can’t do that in a digital dark room.

I'm getting the distinct impression Hasselblad are loosing the plot somewhat. They had to quickly replace their H1D after most photographers just shrugged at it and went off and bought the more powerful and much cheaper Canon 1DS MkII. The replacement was last year's H2D and while it was certainly an impressive piece of kit - it still cost the same as a small yacht. Almost instantly it was usurped by more powerful backs from PhaseOne and Betterlight. Which brings us to todays press release from them announcing the third replacement in less than a couple of years - the H2D 39. The worlds first 39MP DSLR camera back. Well, apart from the 39MP+ PhaseOne P45 model that was launched over 8 months ago that is.

I'm of the opinion that buying a Hasselblad is like buy a vintage car . . . there are other ways to get from point 'A' to point 'B' but the weight in the name combined with a positive history holds the reputation. Personally, I would love owning a Hasselblad just for the prestige of shooting one, not because I feel it will take better photographs than the other cameras in my collection. But on the same note, I would only use Hasselblad for black and white film and not for digital camera backs. I'm too biased toward Canon in the digital world.

another one Konica Minolta will stop making ALL cameras

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060119/ts_afp/japanphotocompanykonicaminolta

now that is a shame - ive had a few Minolta's in the past and always found them to be good camera's. with Kodak's decision to pull out of film production, Illfords continuing shaky stance and now this, it's looking increasingly likely that it may just end up with Fuji holding the fort in producing film materials.

Freestyle Photo out in California will remain in the film industry for as long as they can. They are importing film and paper from Eastern Europe, repacking it, and selling it at really reasonable prices.