Via the AP: How much longer can photographic film hold on?
At the turn of the 21st century, American shutterbugs were buying close to a billion rolls of film per year. This year, they might buy a mere 20 million, plus 31 million single-use cameras — the beach-resort staple vacationers turn to in a pinch, according to the Photo Marketing Association.
[…]
Scott’s Photo in Rochester finally switched this year stopped daily processing of color print film because fewer than one in 20 customers are dropping off film. A decade ago, “we could process 300 rolls on a good day, and now we see maybe 8 or 10 rolls on the few days we actually process,” owner Scott Sims says.
The hold outs tend to be older, and poorer individuals (i.e., who are less likely to be computer enabled/technologically savvy or who simply have a fondness for film) and certain high-end fine-art photographer and the like.
As an amateur photographer myself who used to use film (lo, these many years ago), I can’t imagine going back to film (although I have a nice Minolta 300x gathering dust if someone wants to pick up the dying art of film photography…).
