The Last New Film Camera likely made...in 2009...Film Fades to Black..magaine article

[Steve Das]

Appropriately got this in the mail the day Kodak's latest troubles
caused it's stock to dive 50%. The article is now online and very well
written and researched by Debra Kaufman. Variety and The Hollywood
Reporter should take note how it's done right as they always
have the most terrible tech. writers and articles. Thank you Creative Cow magazine.

Among the Bombshells:

"The demand for film cameras on a global basis has all but disappeared," says ARRI VP of Cameras, Bill Russell, who notes that the company
has only built film cameras on demand since 2009.
______

Phil Radin, Executive VP, Worldwide Marketing, notes that Panavision built its last 35mm Millennium XL camera in the winter of 2009,
although the company continues an "active program of upgrading and retrofitting of our 35mm camera fleet on a ongoing basis."
______

Aaton founder Jean-Pierre Beauviala notes why. "Almost nobody is buying new film cameras. Why buy a new one when there are so many used cameras around the world?"
Three years ago, Aaton introduced a new 35mm film camera, Penelope, but sold only 50 to 60 of them. As a result,
Beauviala turned to creating a digital Penelope, which will be on the market by NAB 2012. "It's a 4K camera and very, very quiet,"
__________

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/film-fading-to-black

 

[Bud Anderson]

Pretty interesting article but to me, it is sort of like reading a seismographic damage report instead of pinpointing the earthquake, which was pretty much Jannard. I can't help but wonder why people do this?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

It's a bit misleading to connect sales of 35mm movie cameras to the amount of movies being shot on film as some sort of 1:1 equation -- it's not unusual to shoot on an Arri or Panaflex made 20 years ago, it's not like the image is going to look any different than if the film were loaded into a camera made last year. The cameras themselves don't need to be updated at the same rate as digital cameras since the image quality itself is more a function of the film stock and the lenses used. But it is correct to point out that there is no real need to build more 35mm movie cameras since 35mm production is in decline and there are so many functional bodies out there already. I think a bigger question is whether Kodak and Fuji will continue to release improvements to negative stocks or are we now seeing and using the last generation of stocks, the most recent being the new 200T Kodak Vision stock and the new Vivid 250D Fuji stock.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

It's a bit misleading to connect sales of 35mm movie cameras to the amount of movies being shot on film as some sort of 1:1 equation -- it's not unusual to shoot on an Arri or Panaflex made 20 years ago, it's not like the image is going to look any different than if the film were loaded into a camera made last year. The cameras themselves don't need to be updated at the same rate as digital cameras since the image quality itself is more a function of the film stock and the lenses used. But it is correct to point out that there is no real need to build more 35mm movie cameras since 35mm production is in decline and there are so many functional bodies out there already. I think a bigger question is whether Kodak and Fuji will continue to release improvements to negative stocks or are we now seeing and using the last generation of stocks, the most recent being the new 200T Kodak Vision stock and the new Vivid 250D Fuji stock.

Also there is no need of making overpriced digital cine cameras just because technology, especially sensors are changing pretty fast. I see a lot of digital cinema makers running out of the money soon just because a profit made by camera sales can't pay R&D of new cameras without serious investment in the sensor technology, new sensor R&D or of the shelf buying new sensors. Making film cameras before was much easy business compared with making new digital cine cameras because camera makers didn't invest any dollar in development of new film stocks.
What I wanted to say is that digital cinema makers without serious plan to R&D it's own sensors don't have future.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Sounds like you are making the opposite argument -- if film camera makers had it "easier" because they didn't have to manage the R&D costs of new film stocks, then wouldn't digital cinema camera makers be better off not having the burden of developing and manufacturing their own sensors? After all, Apple doesn't make its Intel processors.

But certainly the cost of advancement is so much faster and so much more competitive with digital cameras that controlling the sensor end of things is a way of controlling the market. But that's not easy, to get into the business of designing and making sensors. That requires a level of manufacturing infrastructure that most camera makers probably don't want to get into.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Sounds like you are making the opposite argument -- if film camera makers had it "easier" because they didn't have to manage the R&D costs of new film stocks, then wouldn't digital cinema camera makers be better off not having the burden of developing and manufacturing their own sensors? After all, Apple doesn't make its Intel processors.

But certainly the cost of advancement is so much faster and so much more competitive with digital cameras that controlling the sensor end of things is a way of controlling the market. But that's not easy, to get into the business of designing and making sensors. That requires a level of manufacturing infrastructure that most camera makers probably don't want to get into.

Steve Jobs showed Apple A5 Chip

Btw, Apple is making it's own mobile processors otherwise they would be already whipped by the competition. Also that's why Google recently acquired Motorola.

"Imagers are a core competency of Sony's, which produces them for everything from our consumer cameras to the professional ones,"
says Alec Shapiro, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Professional Solutions, Sony Electronics.

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