I was going to reply about this but you also brought it up briefly. That is, the effect of psychology on a media. As any technology gets to the point where it matures and is thoroughly understood (at least from a technical POV), as well as is widely used, it ceases to be fun and interesting and "new" to many.
It becomes a commodity. A good example is computers. In the old days, computers were DIY affairs and the haven of scientists, geeks, and technological types looking to push the limits and have fun. But as they got better and better, about 4-5 years ago they suddenly became appliances. Very complex, very maintainance-intensive appliances. It wasn't fun, it wasn't easy - it was plainly put, a chore.
This is an intolerable state for the human mind - it honestly hates grinding and thinking just to get stuff done. Simplicity and functionality become more and more the goal, so there's a swing back to simpler methods. You see this in cooking - from the stupidly fancy cookbooks and shows of the 90s to a shift back to simpler food. You see it in the recent interest in low-impact and natural housing. You saw it in watches - digital was the rage in the 80s and 90s and now it's swung back. You see it even in technology itself. It's why the Wii sells so well.
DSLRs amaze me but at the same time I still opt for the simplicity of my old Rollei. 4-5 things to remember, all analog and "fuzzy logic" type controls. Dials to grasp, knobs to nudge... it's simple and intuitive. So then you concentrate on the shot alone, or close to it.
And when you get it back, it's OK or it's great - you judge and live with it. No tweaking for hours to get it to look "right" - You take your chances, learn to trust yourself, and move on. The time that people now spend at their computers is amazing, really.
And years later people may look back today and amaze how little time we spent on something like computer which they may call it whatever. Photographic itself as an art does not matter whether it was produced from film or entirely digitally, art is art, and there are people switching in between, without doubt, but I believe the mass is moving to and stay with digital. But photography at the same time is not just art, it is also use to produce commercial product, and by large proportion it was done digitally, along with ever increasing online commerce and community, which eventually all need certain presentation form involves digital, and digital capture is more flexible in this regard and likely to stay, and more people jump into it. LL is a matured forum with a lot of experienced photographer who knows film, there are a whole generation of photographers or so-called photographer that never touch and careless about film, in years they will be the mainstay and further reduce the use of film, by proportion. The photography business today is much bigger than it was before, there are billions pictures took everyday, a smaller portion of it - such as film, may still support a boutique production that I also have no doubt with.
Regards, K
