Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canon has sold its last film camera

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 163 posts

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#91

Post by Darthy »

carbolite103 wrote: post #36
_ph_ wrote: post #26

This is not very surprising news - very recently I was wondering who still sells film cameras. Digital has surpassed film in almost every way. It is however quite scary to see technology completely go away which was so common not long ago, sometimes even completely lost as technology. You can’t buy proper Polaroid film any more, many other important film materials are completely gone as well.

As far as 35mm systems it's pretty much just Leica and Nikon at the moment, though I would imagine that Nikon is close to discontinuing their F6 flagship soon. Thankfully many 35mm cameras from the 70s and 80s are engineering masterpieces that will likely keep functioning well into the second half of this century. I just hope that companies will continue making film stocks for them.

Leica has just discontinued its last "regular" film camera, the M7, a few days ago:

https://www.reddotforum.com/content/2018/05/leica-m7-film-ca...

All that remains are the purely mechanical Leica MP and M-A film cameras, plus many digital cameras of course.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#92

Post by jacquesm »

CarVac wrote: post #67
jacquesm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why AF for film is hard is because AF tends to move around the point of best focus and moving a lens is terribly slow compared to the inter-frame time. So you simply don't have the time to figure out what the ideal focus is while shooting film, especially not if camera and/or subject are moving, which is sort of the whole reason for shooting video to begin with.

Film still cameras, not film cinema cameras.

Ah sorry. That's a Dutchism, 'film' here is moving.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#93

Post by _ph_ »

vanderZwan wrote: post #49
sureaboutthis wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that "professionals" still use film, particularly in the high end art market with large format and 'view' cameras in particular. One might think that's "niche" but there are a lot of them out there.

Heck, The Impossible Project managed to bring back polaroids. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_Originals

With all the respect for their achievements, their film is far from classic Polaroid.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#94

Post by ISL »

gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #85
ISL wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of Canon and Nikon rumors regarding a mirrorless option; the proof will be in the pudding. The A7 III is Sony's shot at Canon's full-frame jugular. I, too, surprised myself by recently purchasing a 6D (I, not II -- why increase weight and dark noise?) on both lens-selection/lock-in and quickness concerns. I was surprised to find that I loved being able to leave the camera switched on all day in the m…

Eye-detection AF is huge. It's so difficult to get the perfect portrait. I think most people end up using preview mode and manual focusing, which is a pain and takes a while. I'm not at all unhappy with my choice to get the 6d. It's a great camera, and Canon's lenses have all been great. Even though I've always wanted a smaller full frame, any size improvement to the body is negated by the glass unless you get a fixe…

The 22mm f/2 is awesome. Even people who know optics well dismiss it as a toy on sight, but the image quality is great. The M is at its best with the 22 f/2. Small, unobtrusive, and capable.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#95

Post by anthonybsd »

snowwrestler wrote: post #2

I'm not surprised; in SLRs at least, Canon was never the dominant film camera company with the biggest customer base. Their SLR business did not catch up to and pass Nikon until the digital era. Canon's decision to put the AF motor in the lens helped them in verticals that use huge telephotos (sports, mostly). But their film cameras lagged Nikon in the sophistication of their AF, their automated exposure control, and…

>But their film cameras lagged Nikon in the sophistication of their AF, their automated exposure control, and especially their flash exposure control.

I'm sorry, but you are completely off base here. Nikon always had the lead in flash exposure, yes. But in AF and lenses especially? Canon was the first to completely break compatibility with their older (FD mount) lenses which allowed them to have lightning fast autofocus (Ultrasonic line), which took Nikon more than a decade to catch up to. Same with exposure zones and metering accuracy combined with extremely fast drives - this basically meant that Canon took over sports photography in the mid 90s.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#96

Post by chuckkir »

I was talking to a friend who recently got into 35mm film cameras. He develops the color film himself, but then immediately scans it in and uses digital tools to work on the images. I left a bit confused; what is he gaining by using film as the medium?

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#97

Post by ghaff »

yesimahuman wrote: post #8
acomjean wrote: post #6

As someone who shot and developed a lot of film (I was a photo editor at a daily college paper..) I won’t miss it. Though printing black and white pictures was kinda fun, they often had dust and getting the exporsure and contrast right was tedious. I don’t miss film. Though there were a lot less pictures taken and shared before everyone had a camera on their phone. A different time in a lot of ways.

I think film is awesome, provided you have the right process and you actually enjoy that process (or you are fine spending $20/roll to have a lab develop and scan for you). Certainly has been going through a hipster revival of sorts lately.

B&W printing in particular has a certain hands-on craftwork aspect to it that you don't really get with digital in the same way. (Working on a computer with Photoshop or Lightroom isn't really the same thing although it takes an equal amount of skill.)

That said, I never really got into multi-hour printing sessions to get a print just perfect. I always came more from the newspaper than the fine art mindset. So it's one of those things that leads me to reminisce about how that was fun without any real desire to ever do it again.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#98

Post by shawnz »

ISL wrote: post #81
gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canon's sensors are decent, not a running joke as you say. But yeah they are known more for their colors (which is actually very important). Sony has destroyed the competition with their sensors though, and has really pushed the boundaries, at least until recently with that 50 mpix sensor that Canon released. Haven't researched that much though, I'm a few years behind myself. That said, Canon has historically been th…

There are plenty of Canon and Nikon rumors regarding a mirrorless option; the proof will be in the pudding. The A7 III is Sony's shot at Canon's full-frame jugular. I, too, surprised myself by recently purchasing a 6D (I, not II -- why increase weight and dark noise?) on both lens-selection/lock-in and quickness concerns. I was surprised to find that I loved being able to leave the camera switched on all day in the m…

> For a week at temperatures between -20 and -30 C, the 6D (and iPhones kept warm) operated normally while friends with mirrorless cameras suffered shutdowns.

This is clearly not due to the nature of mirrorless technology though, so I don't think it's fair to criticize the technology based on that.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#99

Post by CarVac »

ghostly_s wrote: post #63
khazhoux wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need a Fujifilm X100F, with the matching leather case for extra style points. Camera feels great, has a real optical viewfinder, and lots of physical controls.

Many of the XF lenses and cameras are nearly all-metal construction, also. Great quality gear.

They're all metal on the outside, but certainly not on the inside. Not that that's a bad thing.

But the tactile experience is a long way from the old actually-all-metal cameras and lenses. I was sorely disappointed the first time I held a Fuji X series camera.

Re: Canon has sold its last film camera

#100

Post by stan_rogers »

anthonybsd wrote: post #95
snowwrestler wrote: post #2

I'm not surprised; in SLRs at least, Canon was never the dominant film camera company with the biggest customer base. Their SLR business did not catch up to and pass Nikon until the digital era. Canon's decision to put the AF motor in the lens helped them in verticals that use huge telephotos (sports, mostly). But their film cameras lagged Nikon in the sophistication of their AF, their automated exposure control, and…

>But their film cameras lagged Nikon in the sophistication of their AF, their automated exposure control, and especially their flash exposure control. I'm sorry, but you are completely off base here. Nikon always had the lead in flash exposure, yes. But in AF and lenses especially? Canon was the first to completely break compatibility with their older (FD mount) lenses which allowed them to have lightning fast autofo…

Yessir. They were first to break compatibility, immediately (ish) after Minolta did it.
Post reply on HN