"Film is gone" - Kodak

"Film is gone, and single-purpose cameras are on their way out, too."

Kodak CEO Antonio M. Perez

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 19:00:53 -0600, "Etaoin Shurdlu"
wrote:

"Film is gone, and single-purpose cameras are on their way out, too."

Kodak CEO Antonio M. Perez


Jeez, you're just having a ball stirring up the flames,
eh, John? At least you could have brought some
marshmallows.

So... what do *you* think of that? Can't wait to hear
your thoughts on the matter.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

Etaoin Shurdlu wrote:
"Film is gone, and single-purpose cameras are on their way out, too."

I wonder what a "multi-purpose camera" would do...
With statements like that one, any wonder how come Fuji
is eating Kodak for breakfast?....

Noons wrote:
Etaoin Shurdlu wrote:
"Film is gone, and single-purpose cameras are on their way out, too."

I wonder what a "multi-purpose camera" would do...
With statements like that one, any wonder how come Fuji
is eating Kodak for breakfast?....

The first time I read that I thought it said "single-use cameras."
But on reading the Kodak PR blurb, I think they mean single-purpose
as in just-takes-still-pictures. They already make digicams
that can take movies, of course, but their future push appears
to be in the realm of data organization - indexing your pictures,
etc. Not to mention whether the camera should be better integrated
with your computer, PDA, etc. Who knows if this is of interest
to readers of this group, but it could legitimately be of interest
to Joe Consumer, who now has a bunch of digital photos
cluttering his hard drive and not much to help him organize
and retrieve them.

PR blurb link below, at the bottom is a link for the text of Perez's
speech. BTW, I don't think he said "Film is gone" anywhere
in this speech. I know, just a minor detail.

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&pq-locale=en_US&gpcid=0900688a80470b9b

wrote:

The first time I read that I thought it said "single-use cameras."
But on reading the Kodak PR blurb, I think they mean single-purpose
as in just-takes-still-pictures. They already make digicams
that can take movies, of course, but their future push appears
to be in the realm of data organization - indexing your pictures,
etc. Not to mention whether the camera should be better integrated
with your computer, PDA, etc. Who knows if this is of interest
to readers of this group, but it could legitimately be of interest
to Joe Consumer, who now has a bunch of digital photos
cluttering his hard drive and not much to help him organize
and retrieve them.

Very good points. I think google and M$ have file management
covered. Any attempt by camera makers to make digital cameras
"manage" images on their own is doomed to fail, quite frankly:
pcs are currently the ideal platform for file management, not
cameras...

Of course: the video+image thing seems to be popular, although
I fail to see why. Dedicated hardware is much better at these things,
I reckon. However, he's talking futures: so things might change?

This however, I find very interesting:
""Today's digital cameras are dinosaurs, with the same basic
architecture and functionality as the box Brownie camera that Kodak
introduced more than one hundred years ago," said Perez. "It's a
lens,
shutter and something to capture the focused light. All the imaging
industry has done is to replace silver with silicon. In the next era,
we
will design digital cameras from the ground up to take full advantage
of
the creative power that digital technology provides."

100% in agreement. It's my gut feel about d-slrs: they all are
re-hashes
of good old flm slrs (f-slrs?!). Nothing fundamentally new, really.
Sincerely hope the concept gets re-invented with some
really new features otherwise p&s slrs will walk all over
them in another coupla years. Kodak already has some
very good, high rez, large sensor, high quality lens p&s
cameras. So does Sony, Fuji and Samsung.

The ideal to me could be MF quality image processing thrown
in with the camera: a docking station or similar with a good
screen, mouse, dedicated keyboard and a good image editor
program. Now, THAT'd make me think about moving
to digital. And it'd keep me from having to upgrade my pc
every second year...

Relevance to this NG? Anything to do with the future
of imaging be it film or digital, IMHO has to do with
the folks here. It might take a while but it'll touch all
here eventually so it's useful to know what's going on, what
the trends are, etcetc.

Who knows, it might well be that digital will evolve into two
mainstreams: p&s for the average photo buff and d-slr technology
a-la Blade Runner to replace what we now have as MF: high quality,
"tweakability". It might well go that way...
Who here wouldn't kill for a "Blade Runner" image processing
device?


speech. BTW, I don't think he said "Film is gone" anywhere
in this speech. I know, just a minor detail.


Good point. It indeed doesn't say that anywhere. Probably
a free "interpretation" of the OP?
In that case I remove my comment on what Perez said:
he didn't say it, really.

In article . com,
Noons wrote:
wrote:
The first time I read that I thought it said "single-use cameras."
But on reading the Kodak PR blurb, I think they mean single-purpose
as in just-takes-still-pictures. They already make digicams
that can take movies, of course, but their future push appears
to be in the realm of data organization - indexing your pictures,
etc. Not to mention whether the camera should be better integrated
with your computer, PDA, etc. Who knows if this is of interest
to readers of this group, but it could legitimately be of interest
to Joe Consumer, who now has a bunch of digital photos
cluttering his hard drive and not much to help him organize
and retrieve them.

Very good points. I think google and M$ have file management
covered. Any attempt by camera makers to make digital cameras
"manage" images on their own is doomed to fail, quite frankly:
pcs are currently the ideal platform for file management, not
cameras...

I'd like to see how Kodak is going to compete with the camera-phones.

GSMs have the fundamental property you need to keep access to your photos
wherever you a network connectivity.

It is just up to the telcos and phone manufacturer to make sure that
1) saving a photo over a GSM data link is the default. In other words,
prices of data transfer have to low enough to make sure that people
will not bother transferring images first to PCs, etc.
2) some kind of SMS enhancement that makes it possible to forward references
to stored images transparently to other people.

(I'd like to see how Kodak is going to arrange for indoors GPS coverage).

100% in agreement. It's my gut feel about d-slrs: they all are
re-hashes
of good old flm slrs (f-slrs?!). Nothing fundamentally new, really.
Sincerely hope the concept gets re-invented with some
really new features otherwise p&s slrs will walk all over
them in another coupla years. Kodak already has some
very good, high rez, large sensor, high quality lens p&s
cameras. So does Sony, Fuji and Samsung.

How many electrically powered cars come with three wheels or five? Why copy
the same basic layout as a petrol powered car? Maybe six legs is even better.

Maybe the SLR concept is simply optimal for getting high quality photographic
results.

Of course, Kodak is focusing on the group of users who just want press a
button to get a snapshot. Nothing wrong with that, but the SLR concept is
not for that group of users.

P&S cameras are designed for a different market than DSLRs. Yes, a P&S may
compete with an entry level DSLR with just a kit lens. But if the DSLR user
goes beyond that, the P&S is left behind.

The ideal to me could be MF quality image processing thrown
in with the camera: a docking station or similar with a good
screen, mouse, dedicated keyboard and a good image editor
program. Now, THAT'd make me think about moving
to digital. And it'd keep me from having to upgrade my pc
every second year...

Well, if you have enough space for an extra keyboard and screen, why not
buy a separate PC just for image editing. As long as you keep the same camera
and you remain satisfied with the software you have, there is absolutely
no reason to upgrade the PC.

I sort of doubt that any company can offer dedicated hardware with an image
editor as good as Photoshop without the whole thing being much more expensive
than simply taking a PC with Photoshop. (If you just want low-end image
editing, there plenty of PCs designed for multimedia centers that can be
fitted with a simple image editor).


--
That was it. Done. The faulty Monk was turned out into the desert where it
could believe what it liked, including the idea that it had been hard done
by. It was allowed to keep its horse, since horses were so cheap to make.
-- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

"rafe b" rafebATspeakeasy.net wrote in message

Jeez, you're just having a ball stirring up the flames,
eh, John? At least you could have brought some
marshmallows.

Marshmallows? Gosh, you are easily pleased. I was going to bring steaks.

I think we could have some fun with the "multipurpose camera" concept he
mentioned. Swiss-Army knife of cameras?

wrote:

[...] BTW, I don't think he said "Film is gone" anywhere
in this speech. I know, just a minor detail.

He said it in a NYT interview.

Philip Homburg wrote:

I sort of doubt that any company can offer dedicated hardware with an image
editor as good as Photoshop without the whole thing being much more expensive
than simply taking a PC with Photoshop. (If you just want low-end image
editing, there plenty of PCs designed for multimedia centers that can be
fitted with a simple image editor).

Adobe might just do it, for example. They could easily bundle a
version of Photoshop minus all the graphic arts mumbo-jumbo,
with optimised software/hardware, for a price that no one else
could match for the quality. Dell or another OEM could provide
the hw and system sw. It might just happen...

Etaoin Shurdlu wrote:
"Film is gone, and single-purpose cameras are on their way out, too."

Kodak CEO Antonio M. Perez

He's a moron.