[filmscanners] Re: Nikon scanner availability

["Arthur Entlich" <artistik@shaw.ca>]

When was the last time you saw a 8mm movie film to video transfer system
sold retail?  I imagine there are some commercial outfits still offering
video transfer services, but even those are probably disappearing.

What I am getting at is this: Film will become specialty product,
available by special order or through a few minimal manufacturers.
Non-commerical dedicated film scanners will disappear, as flatbeds take
over that market niche.  Even the flatbed market long full of brands and
models has reduced to a handful.

Will the prices on these last dedicated film scanners suddenly
skyrocket?  Not likely.  Did 8mm film cameras skyrocket when video came
out?  Has the cost of 35mm camera bodies skyrocketed as the digital
camera market took over?

Instead, they will sit gathering dust in the corners of retailers until
someone makes an offer.  The used market will flourish for a while, but
only at discounted values.  As you suggest, film scanners aren't
designed to be robust for decades of use.  They will die, and service
and parts will become difficult to come by.  You will find them at
thrift stores and government surplus sales eventually.

What probably will happen, is several commercial labs will offer
reasonably priced scanning services, since they will need to maintain
scanners so when people bring in old film based images for printing,
they can make prints.

The days of demand crunches causing price increases on basically
obsolete products is over.  It almost never occurs anymore, because
people recognize the next generation or product is usually cheaper and
offers more options.  If you honestly believe, for instance, CRT
monitors are going to become pricey as they stop manufacture, I've got
some to sell you ;-)

The only way I could see something like a dedicated film scanner
becoming more valuable is because it became a collector's item, sort of
like a DeLorean car, Maybe someday people will be dragging old XT
computers and film scanners to the "Antique RoadShow", but it may be a
while yet ;-)

Art


Francis Corvin wrote:
> The past few years have seen a regular erosion of the silver-based
> photography products. The names are too numerous to mention: Agfa,
> Kodak, Fuji... all made announcements that either their will stop
> making new products, or that they are altogether shutting down they
> traditional photography production.
>
> In the recent months, it seems that the movement has accelerated:
> Canon has quietly stopped producing some film bodies; Konica Minolta
> is dead; and Nikon has openly terminated all its 35mm cameras (except
> the FE-10 in developed countries, and the F6).
>
> There is, however, an area where silence has been conspicuous:
> scanners. I feel it is legitimate to ask how long before Nikon ceases
> producing scanners. The day they will, I expect a few people who have
> been postponing their purchases will rush to buy: sudden demand,
> limited supply, you can guess what that's going to do the prices. I
> am one of those people, and. So how to guess when is the right time
> to buy (I can't right now)?
>
> We know that they are not going to produce new models; but ongoing
> production depends on the stock of film taken. If there aren't any
> films to buy, any bodies to use them, any labs to process them, then
> all Nikon can rely on to make some money is the conversion of old
> film stocks. Big as they are, that's not going to last.
>
> Are there any market watch people on the list with an idea of when
> the tipping point is for the scanner market?
>
> Regards,
>
> Francis
>
>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe 
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or 
body