Darkroom vs. digital

Traditional, or film, cameras are expected to remain in the picture, at least marginally, for the foreseeable future. Even though digital cameras get more advertising, promotion and sales, camera manufacturers and those who teach photography insist that the film format will endure.

“I would say in five to 10 years, [film] will progressively disappear,” says Roberto Bocci, assistant professor of digital arts and photography at Georgetown University in Northwest. “Some companies will make film cameras, but it will be a specialty, like black-and-white printing is becoming a specialty in schools.”

That specialty will be used by art photographers, as film cameras provide them with a direct, hands-on approach to the “magic that occurs in the darkroom,” says Peggy Feerick, assistant professor and division coordinator of photography at George Mason University in Fairfax.

Other photographers, amateur and professional, already are working more with digital cameras. An exception is portrait and wedding photographers, whose clients want access to negatives, Ms. Feerick says.

“It’s a leap they haven’t totally made yet. If a client requests it, they will still shoot digitally, but I think they are still working more with film,” she says.

Suna Lee, owner of Lee’s Photography in McLean, is one of the few who has made that leap. The portraitist, who also does wedding photography, switched to digital photography more than a year ago.

With digital, Ms. Lee, says, she does not have to change rolls of film and has more control after taking her photos. She can crop or adjust the colors for the proofs, then do her own touch-ups in house.

“All the manipulation is icing on the cake,” she says. “The choice of film versus digital is what the photographer chooses to use. It has nothing to do with their skill or expertise.”

Digital-camera sales account for 70 percent of revenue generated in the camera market in North America, Europe and Japan, says Jan Woelfe, digital camera product manager for Hewlett-Packard, based in Vancouver, Wash.

“Over the years, primarily price wars and declining prices of digital cameras have dominated and driven digital cameras to the mass market,” he says.

For instance, digital cameras are a more likely purchase for those who already own a film camera, says Chuck Westfall, director of technical information for camera products for Canon USA Inc., based in Lake Success, N.Y.

“There is no question the sales in film are declining rapidly,” he says, adding that sales of Canon’s 35mm compact camera are half what they were three years ago. “Customers are speaking with their wallets that digital is the way they want to go.”

Like Canon, Fujifilm is continuing to produce film cameras, though “the number of film cameras being sold is declining as digital grows,” says Tom Shay, director of corporate communications for Fujifilm, headquartered in Valhalla, N.Y., with its parent company in Japan.

Eastman Kodak Co. discontinued selling reloadable film cameras in early 2004 in the United States and other developed markets, responding to a decline in demand as interest in digital cameras increased, says Joe Paglia, senior manager of public relations for the Americas division of digital and film imaging systems at Kodak.

The company still produces film and plans to do so for years, he says, adding, “It is the film business that generates much of the cash that we are investing in the digital businesses.”

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