As cameras become more digital gadgets than optical instruments, it is going all to hell for many traditional camera manufacturers.
In Munich, Germany, the former Agfa building was demolished in February 2008.Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Fall of the Old Camera industry
The Rise of Digital imaging and the Fall of the Old Camera industry, article.
As cameras become more digital gadgets than optical instruments, it is going all to hell for many traditional camera manufacturers.
In Munich, Germany, the former Agfa building was demolished in February 2008.
As cameras become more digital gadgets than optical instruments, it is going all to hell for many traditional camera manufacturers.
In Munich, Germany, the former Agfa building was demolished in February 2008.
I read Christian Sandstroem's article on the demise of Hasselblad but despite the long article, the question remains: if Hasselblad saw the digital revolution coming and even hired an in-house digital team to explore digital photography, why were the Japanese able to beat the Swedes?
ReplyDeleteI think Sandstroem misses this point: Hasselblad's niche was "perfect photography." They were afraid less-than-perfect imagery would hurt their name. They would not accept the poorer digital quality that was the norm in the beginning.
The Japanese, on the other hand, understood that 99% of photographers were happy with "just good enough" photography especially when it was so much cheaper and offered so much more in other respects.
Photography is as much about emotion as imagery. I still have my Kodak Brownie photos; though very poor quality, they bring back wonderful memories.
I think about that when I look at glamour photos. I would wager that 99% of those who look at glamour photos are happy with "just good enough" and aren't concerned about ever-better imagery.
While those consumers are content with "just good enough," entrepreneurs are looking at ways of monetizing this, and thus the competition between high-end photography sites and sites similar to YouTube.com. I wager that the latter-type sites will win and will get better.
Excellent points, Bruce. Really.
ReplyDeleteIt would be fun for me, for example, to make a "super-domai" site with high end art nudes, super-everything. But almost nobody can make that kind of content, and almost nobody can really see the difference, so it would not make any money.
If they ('they') had gotten the people who dumped the WTC towers in NYC, USA to demolish the AGFA building in MÜNCHEN, it would have come straight down instead of tipping over like that.
ReplyDeleteSloppy work.
"Sloppy work"
ReplyDeleteAardvark, I just exactly thought the same.
Thanks for the explanation, Bruce.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Eolake, I just understood something about domai... :-)
Why it too is sloppy work? :-)
ReplyDelete