Nikon to stop making most film cameras

The Japanese camera maker plans to stop making most of its film cameras and lenses in order to focus on digital cameras.
The New York Times

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[Razzl]

Nikon's stubborn streak

One of the unique quirks of Nikon as a company has been their insistence on keeping obsolete camera bodies on the market as they introduce newer, better ones. Maybe it's something to do with trying to milk the last drops of investment in the tooling/etc. before closing out the model, but it's got to hurt sales of each later model, and they're doing it now with their digitals. They have a couple of expensive professional digital bodies still in play that are clearly outdated and ought to be retired, and prove to be an embarassment when compared with the latest offerings from Canon, their archrival.

[herkamur]

Long live film

I don't care what the market is doing, I still prefer to use slide film for the majority of my photography. I intend to use film for a long time for a variety of reasons, the most important of which (to me) is that I have a lot more fun with film than I do with digital. I have three Nikon film SLR's, one Mamiya medium format film SLR, and one Nikon digital SLR.

I just wanted to point out that there are people like me out there who still like to use film cameras. We're just a smaller number now.

[Mister C]

Better with age!

Years ago a friend took some pictures with his Zeiss Ikon 35 mm camera. I was stunned!. I have yet to see anything digital that comes close to the quality of those photographs!

[Geri Yoshioka]

Long Live Film

I'm with you Brian. I use film because I enjoy it -- and specifically I enjoy developing and printing my own pictures, painting with light as it were. Until digital can give me the same experience I will remain, stubbornly up to my elbows, in fixer. (with gloves on of course...)

[bobby_brady]

When it's time to change, you have to rearrage!

As the old Brady Bunch song went.

Don't ask me why this popped into my head, but at least it had merit on this story.

[Below Meigh]

Just wait...

50 years from now, those C-41 negs will still make a picture (even scanned). But thos digital Epsons you made will all be yellow and cyan...

Film is still a medium.

Hey, OT, but why are some Nikon lenses listed for Digital cameras only? Yet have standard mount...

[Razzl]

Because some digitals require different optics

I can answer that one: lenses made to produce the best image on a digital sensor, which until recently were always smaller than 35mm frames and a different distance from the rear lense element, are not optimal for use with a 35mm film configuration, and manufacturers would rightly discourage people from using them where they wouldn't produce the best result; but it still makes sense for the camera manufacturer keep their mounts standard, to hold down complexity and extra expense, as well as make the lense/body tooling usable for future models of any format (though it appears for Nikon they will all be digital henceforward).