Cinephemera

I read a news story recently about the death of Polaroid film. The Polaroid company has announced that they are ceasing production of their Polaroid film effective December 31st. I’ve wanted to purchase a Polaroid for a while because I love the way that the pictures turn out and it is now perhaps too late. The passing of physical film most likely due to the prevalence of digital cameras.

Of course this is not entirely unexpected. The writing has been on the wall for quite a while. You can find digital cameras now in mid to high double digits. Seems everywhere you look now teens and even kids are sporting point-and-click cameras (usually pointed toward themselves and a group of friends all throwing gang signs). While it is not a complete surprise, it is still a rather sad passing of an era.

I am certain that the film medium will never really die. There are still far too many artists and filmmakers who still use it but there is definitely a huge shift to digital media not only in regards to photography, but music and movies as well. Thanks primarily to iTunes, digital music and movie rental has gotten a major boost. A lot of major DVD releases now come with digital copies.

All of this makes sense financially of course. If you shoot everything on a digital camera, you don’t have to worry about buying film, developing it and having to store it. I know some people who swear by digital media and wonder where it has been all their lives. I also know people who will cling to their film and CDs until they die. I happen to fall in the middle. I own a digital Canon Rebel and I love it to death but I also cling to my DVDs and CDs and rarely ever buy digital music.

So let us have a moment of silence for the passing of Polaroids and remember to hug a CD.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS