Nikon: exit from compact film cameras?

by Eric Cheng Tuesday, June 15th, 2004

Article Summary:

Things continue to be exciting in the film-to-digital transition in industry. I always tell people that they don't have to switch to digital imaging right now, but they should be aware of what is happening so when they are forced to switch, they will be ready.

Excerpt from "Nikon Boosts Digital Cameras, Eyes Exit from Film":
"Canon and Nikon control nearly all of the nascent digital SLR market. They are also the leading makers of film SLRs, but demand is declining due to a rapid switch to digital models.

"Kimura said Nikon had no plans to stop producing film SLRs, but that it may next year start considering pulling out of the film compact camera business due to a sharp plunge in demand.

"'There is still the matter of timing, but eventually we will have to dissolve [the film] business," Kimura said. 'There really is no region in the world where you can do good business in compact film cameras anymore.'"

True, I expect film SLRs and film itself both to continue to sell for a while, but I do think that we are starting to go in to an exponential decline phase in film sales, and this will feedback on both availability of film and the appeal of the higher end film SLRs. I could buy an F5 now for less than a second-hand d100... but I don't. In our lab, five people have dropped compact film and gone to consumer digital in the last year alone. There, as here, I'm pretty much the last dinosaur holding out with film. And my inhouse E6 processing guy has declared that there will be no more inhouse E6, as I was the only person in the whole college still regularly using E6... prepaid mailers and waiting 10 days for results from now on :( The writing on the wall gets bigger every day, and now it is starting to drip blood.
Posted by Craig Ruaux on 2004-06-17 05:23:56 The headline is a bit deceiving. The pull out is for compact camera's only. Canon released two new film SLR models this year. Nikon is expected to do the same. But I seriously doubt any truly new film models will be seen after this year. I expect film SLR sales will continue for quite some time.
Posted by on 2004-06-16 02:15:17