[filmscanners] Re: Next Cycle of Scanner Tech

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

I doubt that film is departing soon.  Yes, the masses will go to the
digital camera approach for all sorts of reasons, the main one NOT being
that of quality, because it has rarely been a major issue for the
masses, as long as the person in the image is recognizable, hence the
reason why Kodak's disk film and other silliness caught on.

What will continue to drive film is that it isn't fully mature either.
I speculate we will be seeing non-silver halide films out in the next
few years which improve upon sensitivity, exposure latitude and cost,
and will be environmentally friendlier to process, and those will be
embraced by professionals who are seeking the ever incremental
improvement and other benefits film can offer (a big one still being
methods of storage).

Eventually, film will be replaced with another method, just as
eventually all movie theaters will toss their film projectors.  But that
was predicted years ago, and I still haven't seen cine film distribution
being drastically effected, and I still seem to be noting that little
"Film stock by: Kodak and Fuji and Agfa" logo at the end of every movie
I go to (or even watch on video).

Yes, processing will become more and more digital in nature, but it will
be the labs doing it for those millions of film frames.  My local drug
store chain no longer uses an optical printer for the $.39 reprints.
They use a digital Fuji lab, and offer digital camera reprints for the
same price. So the source of the image (electronic or film) makes no
difference to them, and in many ways, it makes little, if any,
difference to the customer either.

PS: Also, consider ASF's newer kiosks which now are a real option, which
take film and process it, scan it, make a CD-R and all in 7 minutes.

Art



Anthony Atkielski wrote:


> Most film in the world has not yet been scanned.  And if the world is going
> digital, all of that film--billions of images--will eventually have to be
> scanned.  So scanners are going to be around for a long time, and in fact
> they'll be around long after film is gone.  Additionally, I'm not at all
> convinced that film is on its last leg quite yet.


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