and Agfa is gone, Kodak is gone, Polaroid is gone, Fuji last man standing.
And if some of the few leftover "cameramakers" won´t pay attention, they will follow. We are now leaving the beginning of the digital hybrid market and starting fully into miniaturisation, standardization and substitution of mechanical functions by electronic and software.
I think it is good. Just for some larger companies it seems to be incredibly difficult to cope with the speed it happens.
And still - I would wish they would be more visionary and brave to try things. There was a time when Photoindustry was blooming in the 50ies and 60ies, where this exactly was done. Today it seems to me if there wasn´t Sony, which is actually not a Photomaker but an Electronic Corporation by it´s core philosophy, conceptual innovation would have come to a halt.
Changes have always been radical to be successful. Dry film, Rollfilm,24x36, Polaroid, digital chip,to connect cameras(in smartphones)to the internet, next will be no more mech,full global shutter, multishot hdr-highres, augmented reality, the connection of photography with big data, liquid or magnetic lichtfeld universal focus optics.
All this will happen. To refuse to deal with it, means extinction.
I am very curious and happy to be with that devellopment and being able to see all that happening.
Greetings from Germany
Stefan