The death of the film camera/housing market?

Check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...3875355672&rd=1

$862 for a full Sea and Sea NX100 setup, INCLUDING fisheye dome and macro focus port... un-freaking-believable...

Cheers

James

James,

I'm surprised YOU'RE surprised! I've been beating this drum (along with Jim Watt, Eric and others) for 3+ years......

I still see the occasional Nikonos RS system or 15mm Nikonos lense garner some decent $$$$ But I've also quit helping my NEW digital equipment customers sell their film gear as it's too painful.....For them.....

I predict some folks will buy housings for ports and other parts in the next few years at continually plummeting prices.....

Once a photographer (and especially an underwater one!) sees their images pop up on the magic window it's all over...You can take any decent sized file in for prints tons of places for low cost. Or print in your own home on a high quality / low cost inkjet printer.

Digital rules!

David Haas

Ikelite dealer

www.pbase.com/dhaas

That's why I am keeping my NX100 as an antique. $863 is less than the two ports if new, why bother?

Well shoot, if I was going to get into a Sea and Sea digital system, I would have bought this fellow's housing, kept the port, and sold the rest.

It's a small world though - the fellow that won this NX100 is the same guy that bought my 105mm extension ring when I sold my Nikon gear...

Cheers

James

Yep, it's a sad world to still be in.

I sold my NX-100 for $560 (housing only) having bought it for $1100 less than a year previously. The seller of the system linked above would have done much better by parting the system out.

You still see people list NX-100s and port systems with reserves and starting prices of $3K, obviously believing that they should get back ~50% of the $6K or so they spent on the system, but they never get a bid.

I know a guy in the UK who chucked more than 10 Nikonos V bodies in the bin because it wasn't worth his while to repair them.

I think older DSLRs and housings may begin to suffer the same fate. All underwater cameras seem to be disposables these days.

Alex

Subal doesnt even sell non-digital housings anymore. Luckily we found an F100 housing real cheap on the used market

Cor

S&S nx100 and F100 body just sold for $710 on ebay...I think it is time for me to go digital

That's why I won't even try to sell mine, for that kinda price I'd rather keep it as an emergency backup.

It's going to be the same for the D100 era, or already is. As digital quality improves and becomes more and more affordable, those of us who paid $1500 for a D100 might be lucky to get $300 for it this time next year...maybe a year later. Look at all the people dumping their D100's and housings for the next best thing. It becomes a commodity item in relative terms...ther'll be a lot of them on the market soon, and $3000 housings for $750.

Joe

Yep, I agree, just like I paid 1900 for a XT computer (remember that, before 286?). And 2000 for my first Pentium 133mhz, etc.

All underwater cameras seem to be disposables these days.

Alex

Is that related to the water in the housing syndrome

Cheers

Rob

I just bought in a Subal F100 outfit for an embarrasingly small sum - essentially for the Inon220 with it. Its very sad but I can now put my old F100 into it and it may look good on the mantelpiece (along with 3 other Subals). If you think that this is bad, I recently removed the flash connectors from one (near mint) Subal (Canon EOS50) housing because I figured that they were worth more than the housing!

And I have a friend's Nik III and late 15mm lens for sale (as a favour) which need a service and for which there has been no interest for 18 months.

Film may not be dead but in the underwater arena its doing an extremely good impression of it at the moment.

You know i will never consider giving up my Nik V and 15mm lens. It is the single most amazing piece of glass for underwater. The DOF of is and the sharpness around the edges is incredible and just can't be replicated by a housing.

And there are just so many uses for the manual focus lens. So many times feeding different creatures off the back of a boat i just put it on min focus and hold the thing underwater and snap away when said creature gets close, no focus problems ever. Same thing for extremely fast stuff, the fact you don't need to use autofocus when composing could mean the difference between getting the shot and not.

I use it still and will never, ever give it up.

Sure, digital has huge advantages in different areas but in certain situations the 15mm lens just can't be beat by anything.

I would like to hear if Steve Frink is still using his Nik V's as well as his digital stuff, last time i saw him he was but that was two years ago so could have changed. There are very few people more prolific in underwater media (if any) than Steve.

Sure film can be a pain in the butt these days for such things as decent E6 processing but it is not all that hard to digitize the capture afterwords.

Me? keeping the Nik V and 15 and still using it and am pround to say it! (In fact i can lean over and touch it right now if i wanted to...)

Mike

Film may not be dead but in the underwater arena its doing an extremely good impression of it at the moment.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No comments to add. I just wanted to put this up in a quote box!

Alex

Alex, didn't i just read in one of these threads that you were out shooting your Hasselblad the other day??!!

Out of interest, we (the Northern Underwater Photography Group in the UK) held our annual Splash-In a week ago. the ratio of digital to film was 50/50 and images held up well from each. The SLRs made a better showing than either 'wet' film cameras or compact digitals, and the (close) winner was shot on film. In the print competition digital won in the temperate section but film won the tropical (less entries though). And this in only the second year in which digital has been accepted. Given people's constraints in changing expensive systems over, this indicates to me that the future is very much digital.

If you are happy using film, now is the time to buy - there are some real bargains to be had which are capable of extremely high quality results (which many tend to foget).

The phrase which Alex kindly quoted refers to the sales of digital versus film - some photographic dealers have gone out of business in the UK and its likely that more will follow through reading the changing market wrongly.

At present I have in my safe the following:

Hasselblad 500C

Hasselblad ELM

5 Magazines

NC2 Prism

Polaroid Back

The following Hasselbald lenses: 40,60,80,120,250mm.

Numerous other Hasselblad accessories

Nikon F2 Photomic with 24 and 85mm original lenses

Nikonos V with 15mm

Nikon F801S

Nikon F90

Nikon F90X

The following Nikon AF lenses: 20,28,50,85,105mm macro

Nexus N90 with dome

Sea & Sea N90 with flat port and dome

In my case packed for travelling:

2 Fuji S2 Pro

The following lenses: 12-24, 35-105mm

Subal

So, any offers for the entire contents of my safe?

John, all that gear and no cash?

A month ago I missed out on a Subal housing for the N90. It came with a dome and a flat port. The selling price was $250. Just the ports would have made it worthwhile.

Still, even during pre-eBay days there were good deals. 5 years ago I bought my Aquatica 80 housing used for $200. It came with a scratched 6" dome port and a macro port w/ extension. I already had another dome port from my aqualens. I UPS'd everything to Underwater PhotoTech for serviceand a week later I was on my way to the Keys.

There was a fascinating thread on robgalbraith.com - "what do you miss about film?".

My resonse was (and I stand by it) absolutely nothing!

Athough I know that housed film cameras are very capable (I have 2 fully operational ones) the bottom line is that I have no intention of using them. Digital is just SO elegant with its instant feedback and confirmation of a viable photographic result. What the next few years will bring is anyone's guess, but we do live in exciting times.

Back to the subject - I reckon older housings could easily be fitted with a clock face inside the port ........ it has been done with Nikonos already I believe. And yes Alex, I too have heard stories of repairable old Nikonos cameras being skipped!