Jan 13 2006
Nikon Phasing out Film Cameras
On a recent canoe trip, I wanted to take a camera, but didn’t want to risk dunking my expensive equipment. I took along my cheap, manual Nikon FM10 body and a manual lens. The camera has only one small battery, for the light meter, and can take pictures without any battery at all. It’s extremely lightweight and great for hiking and backpacking, too.
Thanks to an announcement this week by Nikon, I might not have that option much longer.
Nikon UK on Wednesday announced that it has started phasing out film camera products. Only two bodies, the F6 (flagship professional 35mm), and the FM10 (manual 35mm camera) will remain in production. Many lenses are going away.
When an industry stalwart like Nikon makes such a huge move away from film, it’s big news.
If film really dies, then I’ll miss my Nikon 35mm cameras. So, what will be the magic date for me to sell them? I have an N8008S, an FG, an FM10, and an N80 (used about 10 times before I got my D100). Anybody interested?
I’m not a betting man, but I would bet that most people who use digital cameras for their personal photos are not backing them up at all. But, I bet they have those old negatives or slides somewhere, and they’ll still be there even if a hard drive crashes. Don’t talk to me about a fire, flood, or tornado wiping out all that film, either. It will also wipe out a hard drive and any backup media you choose. Everybody who keeps their pictures (in any format) in a fire safe or a safe deposit box, stand up.
Thought so. Me neither.
Even if you do that diligently, you might want to consider this: a recent story about the longevity of self-burned CD’s again brought into question the format’s value as an archival medium. One expert (can’t find it right now) put the average CD-R disc’s life at two to five years, but that can be affected by storage conditions. Consumers will have to keep moving their digital pictures and other files to new discs to ensure they don’t lose them. He recommended archiving to magnetic tape. Magnetic tape?. So, to backup the photo files from these bleeding-edge digital cameras, we need to utilize a medium that’s older than computers?
Mind boggling.
Yes, that is not really a good option. I have all of mine on CD’s but never thought about re-burning them after 2-5. Maybe a couple of flash drives for storage of pictures? I have dozens of CD’s…….not sure how many gig of space I would need for storage on a flash drive. Glad you mentioned the life of a CD though……never occurred to me.
I read the same thing, but didn’t it say it was ending “MOST” film cameras?