Interesting video

[AndyMcD]

This video attempts to explain the demise of Kodak, and I thik it does make some interesting points.

I remember my late father coming back from a Kodak conference (I think in the early/mid 80s). During one talk, the Kodak speaker had held up a colour 120 negative and declared that there would never be a computer with enough memory to store as much information as that negative. Which is why digital would never defeat film.

Technically this may be true but I think he missed the point that most people would find digital to be "good enough" and that film shooting would become the niche. I think that the same could be said about mirrorless against DSLR arguments.

 

[Lightmancer]

Convenience has crushed more "old tech" than anything else. The fountain pen largely replaced the quill, the ballpoint the fountain pen... Now hardly anybody actually writes anymore...

Full plate was replaced by half plate, then quarter plate, then rollfilm, then 35mm (which was originally known as "miniature format") Convenience is the driver. Less to carry, smaller, faster, cheaper.

But.

Artisans endure. Most of the things that have been "replaced" actually haven't... You can still listen to a vinyl lp through a valve amp. I wear a clockwork watch and write with an italic fountain pen. I still use film.

Some of these technologies have bottomed out, and enjoyed a resurgence. Often it is because the" older ways" are perceived, rightly or wrongly, to have more "character", more "soul", more "authenticity".


Companies that fail deserve to fail. "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent but the one most responsive to change"

(Not) Charles Darwin​

I just know that, as a consumer, it is good to have a choice.

 

[AndyMcD]

@Lightmancer you make a really good point, some of this stuff hits rock bottom and then bounces back to a base level, which is where film etc. has got to now I guess.

Of course, the real reason that Kodak went under was that they didn't give me a job when I interviewed with them when I left University back in 19xx