Rob Galbraith breaks a news release from Nikon stating that they are stopping production of most of their film camera sales:
Nikon U.K. has published a press release announcing that Nikon Corporation (Japan) has decided to cease manufacturing most 35mm film SLR bodies, all large-format lenses and enlarging lenses, most manual focus 35mm lenses, and related accessories. more
In more positive news, the web is buzzing about Adobe's new Lightroom. I've downloaded it and it seems like it fixes the most serious of my peeves about Apple's Aperture -- namely the use of a proprietary database into which all images had to be copied. Lightroom is happy to leave your files where you want them. Michael Reichmann has a good review of both Aperture and Lightroom on his website.
I really love this site I always can get the lastest news good or bad. Oh God no, not again. It figures Nikon would abandon the lens line for the film cameras also. They want to push the so-called digital lenses which are even more pricey. I would love to have an F6 and a D200; The F6 is very expensive. The only thing Nikon isn't dropping are their inflated prices!
Interestingly, Canon hasn't made any announcement yet about the future of its film cameras. While point and shoot film cameras are perhaps history, they do have a nice EOS line of film SLRs that stll sell quite well to both amateurs and professionals (although the camera stores I've talked to have said new sales of the EOS-1 series has essentially become nil).
Canon does have a nice line but it seems they will do the same in the near future. The EOS line would do just fine but the cost of changing systems is a bit much for me. Nikon should at least keep one model that serves the non-professional folks. The N80 is a real nice and inexpensive deal. I can't believe Nikon jumped out even before Pentax. I am praying that Pentax continue making the 67II for a few more years. Bronica, Leica ?, Hassy, and now Nikon. I think even Minolta stopped making film cameras. I have tried to get a Maxxum 7 before they were discontinued by I simply gave up.