Ivo, perhaps the very high cost of film is part of the problem, the greatest disincentive to buying. I still have a Nikon F3 that’s almost unused, and a lot of film remains in the bottom of the freezer, a mixture of black/white negative and colour transparency material. Just for old time’s sake, I hang on to some cassettes of Kodachrome that will never be exposed or developed. Oh, I also have a brick of Velvia 50 on 120 format, but no 120 camera anymore.
My Canoscan remains unused, wishing, perhaps, to see that stuff in the freezer, but the darkroom was dismantled years ago, freeing the office from water supplies and drains. Sadly, that lovely scanner can’t work with Windows 10, and I would have to get a computer to operate with an older system. I think I could get that done, but it’s the film and processing cost that kills it for me. The entire Pro section of my website exists because of that scanner… friggin’ “progress”.
Though digital is probably now the superior system, I do have sympathy for those people who think that digital has made them sloppy. God knows how they feel about what the iPhone cameras have done for technique! I think that after using mine for so long, going back to my digital camera will be a bit of a shock!
Yes, unemployment is a tough call, and not everybody is capable of retraining for something else, much depending on age as well as opportunities available.
