End of a reel affair?

Digital cameras are first replacing the darkroom days of photography. Ritusmita Biswas wonders whether film cameras would find a place in museum in near future

It is the end of an era. With new technology taking over film cameras will soon be a thing of the past. Loading film, developing them in darkroom and being apprehensive if you have managed the perfect shot will soon be a forgotten memory.

The new age camera or the digital camera is the in thing now and even the giants of manual cameras are downing their shutters as far as the SLR cameras are concerned. Camera giant Nikon a few weeks back announced that it will no longer manufacture SLR cameras. If rumors are to be believed another popular brand Canon will soon announce its decision to withdraw SLR cameras from the market.

“They are simply not selling,” says Mr. Parekh, a prominent retailer in Kolkata. His shop that has been selling cameras for the last 50 years have noticed that in the last few years no one is going for anything else but digi cams. “The price of a good Olympus Camera even 8 years back was around Rs 20,000. Now the same model is priced at Rs 4500 yet there are no takers for it,” he says.

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Technology buffs are saying that it's smarter to go digital. The obvious benefits include - digital cameras are convenient, easier to handle and the results are instant. There is no cost of buying film, developing and making expensive prints later. Digital cameras offer a greater depth of field and if you are not satisfied with the results you can delete the picture and click again.

Renowned photographer Raghu Rai recently said in an interview: "Earlier, top-of-the-line digital cameras were very expensive, bulky and would deliver low-quality output. But all that has changed now. With the way technology is developing, the future is digital. The possibilities and advantages offered are amazing."

Agrees Rana Bose, among the well known fashion photographers in the country. “Three years back I have gone digital. Right now I use Nikon D2X that is priced at around Rs 1.80 lakh. The best thing about digi cam is that there is now no hassle of preserving the negative. It is a difficult task preserving negatives and often the later print qualities are not as good as the first one. With digi cam I can preserve the pictures in CD for over 50 years and that’s a great boon to us,” he says.

For the laymen, however, the best part of digital cameras is the fact that images can be seen before you print. Says Neena Mitra who has just got herself a digi cam: “For me the best part is that the images can be previewed on the LCD screen. This ensures that I do not waste my money printing photographs that are not up to the mark.”

With digital cameras post production process has also become easier. It is now possible to work on the images in computer, correct the color, and increase the resolution for depth. Darkrooms have been abolished for ever.

However, several people still continue to be diehard fans of manual cameras. Says owner of one of the oldest shops of camera repairing at Wellington in Kolkata: “There can be no comparison at all. Manual cameras are quicker to use as you don't have to wait for the camera to start up, for the photo sensor to capture the image, or for the picture to be compressed and saved to the memory card. Batteries last much longer in film cameras. A digital camera's LCD can become unusable in very bright light. The user does not need to know how to handle a computer.” “Besides the sensor of a digital camera is nowhere near that of a film,” he adds.

Whatever the supporters of manual cameras might claim it goes beyond doubt that they are on their way out. Says photographer Rana Bose: “No one uses manual cameras except in our third world countries.”

The digital camera is slowly but surely creating a niche in India too. Official sources say that for the last one year film is accounting for less than half of Kodak's profits. The company is keeping up with changing technology and digital is the way to go. Some reports suggest that many leading companies including Kodak will soon stop selling film cameras and switch to the digital version.

But does switching over to digital cameras make anyone and everyone a photographer and it is no longer an art form? No, believes Rana Bose. “You need to have an eye for photograph and if you do not have that artist’s eye even if you see the image in the LCD screen you will not manage good photographs,” he says.

However much there maybe a hue and cry over the fading away of analog cameras it is now well accepted that digital technology is here to stay. With Nikon stopping manual camera manufacture it is the end of an era. And maybe all for better. The photographs need not be in the dark room any more at the mercy of laboratory assistant.