Soon, No More Film Movie Cameras 227
phil reed writes "Creative Cow Magazine reports that manufacturers of movie cameras have quietly discontinued production of film cameras. There are still some markets — not in the U.S. — where film cameras are sold, but those numbers are far fewer than they used to be. If you talk to the people in camera rentals, the amount of film camera utilization in the overall schedule is probably between 30 to 40 percent. However, film usage is dropping fast, which has ramifications up and down the production line. Archivists are worried."
Right. So start archiving then. (Score:3, Insightful)
Archivists might be worried but you can't say there wasn't enough warning. Production houses have been switching to digital since at least the 90's.
Re:Why are archivists worried? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why are archivists worried? (Score:1, Insightful)
They weren't worried about their jobs. They worried that now movies will be stored in physical mediums that last a lot less than 100 years. I know that digital information isn't bound to the physical medium - you can copy it to newer mediums, but there's still a valid concern.
Film doesn't last anywhere near 100 years. Go look up the degraded footage from the original Star Wars cellulose. 30 years made the master copies look like hell. Digital lasts longer.
Re:Why are archivists worried? (Score:5, Insightful)
Old film isn't exactly the most stable stuff out there either. Nearly every film before 1951 was recorded on nitrocellulose film which is very susceptible to breaking down (also to burning as well). We've lost many of the films from the silent era to the film simply eating itself.
Every generation of media has a special challenge which is eventually overcome. Digital is no different.
Re:Movie theaters (Score:4, Insightful)
While it's recorded on film, it's edited on a computer, and then duplicated back on to "film", which really is just a long strip of color laser printer transparency paper. The edited digital film is transferred at 4096x2000 give or take. The only films shot in 1080p were independent films. You'd be shocked at how many films are distributed this way. Something like 90%.
The end result is that the picture you see in the theater isn't as clear as the image you saw in the 1980s, but it's still ultra sharp for the purpose it's used for.
Re:Movie theaters (Score:4, Insightful)
Given that most post-processing in film has been digital for decades but digital projectors have only just started to become widespread, I'd say we already have perfectly good ways to produce 35mm prints from a digital source.