Film shooters will be happy to know that there was film at PMA this year. Although they weren’t exactly showing it off, both Fujifilm and Kodak had film on display at the show. Fujifilm had it stashed in the back of their booth but they had slide film, print film, and their instant film. Kodak had their film a little more prominently displayed. They are also the only manufacturer to have introduced a new film recently – Ektar 100 print film. In fact, Kodak’s Ektar 100 will soon be available in medium format as well as 35mm rolls.

I didn’t see any news about new film camera introductions this year. And just this morning I noticed that dpreview is announcing that the Leica R-Series 35mm SLRs have been discontinued. I haven’t confirmed that myself and Leica didn’t mention it when I met with them yesterday. But it wouldn’t surprise me and it’s certainly true that the number of available new film cameras is declining. I sense a little bit of defensiveness and maybe even resignation when I talk to the film reps at Kodak and Fujifilm - as if they know it’s on the way out but feel they have to go through the motions of defending it. On the other hand, there’s actually been a bit of a resurgence in film interest on PhotographyREVIEW.com and some photographers who started with digital are just now discovering it. For the most part, film has become more of an artistic specialty and a medium for portrait and wedding photographers. For the sake of the new and remaining film photographers I hope the volume stays high enough that Kodak and Fujifilm can still make a profit on it. Because when they start losing money, it won’t be long for this world.

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