Jeff.U

Personally, I'll be 59 in 1 week. I got a young guy I work with interested in "real" ( his word, not mine ) cameras 6 months ago. He bought his first DSLR 6 weeks ago and sometimes accompanies me on my weekly Thursday woodlands excursions. He picked up on the technical aspects very quickly, and is delighted by the level of artistic control full manual gives him.
He's 22 and has the bug bad. I'm happy to say he caught it from me.

Here is one of his shots:

(Download)

Abo

sailor2545 Loc: Victoria, BC

In our camera club, the majority are older, and we have a large active club

photonutt1970

While I agree that cameras are a little "Old fashioned" there is no substitute for the creativity of a person and their DSLR, long live the photog!!!

Abo

Funny thing about this subject is the Eddie Steichens of this world, could create far superior
images with a cell phone than the majority of "photographers" can with $5000 DSLRs.

The amount of artless rubbish created with DSLRs that could be more easily created with
cell phones, and even primative 1.3mp pocket cameras is almost infinite. I know I've done
it, but my excuse is the D700 was at hand and I needed to create a documentary image.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

One thing that does strike me as relatively true: The only folks who have the time and money to do serious photography outside of the professional world are teens and single young people, and people old enough to be grandparents. In our child-rearing years, we are too busy with kids to dedicate much time to a demanding hobby. And these days, it takes a LOT of disposable income to afford a camera, lenses, lights, computer, software, Internet connection, printers, scanners, drives, cards, light modifiers, and all the other niceties of an advanced hobby.

As a teen, I bought my camera gear on proceeds from sales of prints to my high school newspaper and yearbook advisors, and to parents of school "royalty".

My twins graduate HS this June. Then they'll both be in college at the same time... MAYBE when I'm 65, we'll be free of economic stress...

I was lucky to work for a photography company for 33 years, and to have access to lots of good gear for most of that time.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

I was wondering when I wrote that if anyone would comment. Actually I didn't post it with my computer. I posted it with my Samsung Note. I thought I was a bit mixed up; but a fine day on a dark and stormy night. What exactly is that? I always thought a fine day was bright and sunny with clear warm breezes. I am only a Luddite when it comes to cell phones. I absolutely hate them. They turn people into ill mannered types so busy with them that they will walk right into you if you don't dodge fast enough. They have made people so socially inept that conversation will also soon go the way of the point and shoot camera. Walk into a room and everyone is twiddling their thumbs texting, probably someone in the same room.

usken65

Who cares we will be dead

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Well I'm glad for you that you have things well established. I like dive bars, so might take you up on that, but we'll need at least two beers, 'cos I'll be buying as well! I'm not a biker, but I get what you are saying about the hard tail frame. The camera market is certainly changing, but the market for interchangeable lens cameras is still quite robust. Sensors for smartphones matter because they are revenue for the companies that are in the imaging market such as Sony and Canon, it helps defray R&D costs. It's not that hard to project what will happen to the camera market if one understands market research (which I do), which is why I called the Lensvid observation / study flawed. One issue is that UHH is not a representative sample of the total market. Another issue is that if one only looks at digital cameras then that also doesn't really represent the quality camera market over sufficient time. A multi-decade study looking at camera sales since say the introduction of SLRs might actually reveal the underlying market trends independently of consumer age and technology changes.

I'm confident that the high end camera market will continue, that the major vendors will manage the transition and will survive. Some will prosper better than others. I have a thesis about the market dynamics, but I haven't done enough work to substantiate it yet.

Take care Tom, and enjoy the life that you have apparently built very well!

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Weather in the UK and Britany (France)

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Tell me about it. I have twin HS seniors. I've seen them texting their girlfriends who are in the same room... except they're also having four simultaneous chat conversations with people all over the city and state and world!

I sometimes joke that I can have more intelligent conversations with them via text than I can face to face!

That said, huge numbers of us are addicted to screens these days, whether of necessity (work) or by habit.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

If your camera was a Zenit E, with a Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 lens, then yes it was interchangeable and easy to use on a modern DSLR with an inexpensive adapter. Do you still have the camera and lens? I have both, and it's a fun lens to use on a modern DSLR if you like that kind of thing.

Abo

A fine day on a dark and stormy night is the same as a three sided square which is the same as a luddite that uses a Samsung Note which is
the same as a Jewish NAZI.

romanticf16 Loc: Commerce Twp, MI

Or did the demise of Kodak as a film /paper manufacturer and rising prices of materials make those formats too expensive to experiment with?

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Very, very unlikely, there a few laws of physics and optics to overcome...