As you know, we still sell and offer film processing services in our store. We've vowed to continue to sell film as long as it is available. Yet we've found that there has been an ever decreasing demand for film & processing, and we've finally have gotten a reliable projection on how much longer film will be available for sale. An article written by Ben Hobbin of The Associated Press ( http://tinyurl.com/3vb6haw) speaks of the signals of an iconic technology's fade-out by highlighting the fact that at the turn of the 21st century, American shutterbugs were buying close to a billion rolls of film per year. But in 2011, they might buy a mere 20 million, plus 31 million single-use cameras - the beach-resort staple vacationers turn to in a pinch, according to the Photo Marketing Association. Equally startling has been the plunge in film camera sales over the last decade. Domestic purchases have tumbled from 19.7 million cameras in 2000 to 280,000 in 2009 and might dip below 100,000 this year.  For InfoTrends imaging analyst Ed Lee, film's fade-out is moving sharply into focus: "If I extrapolate the trend for film sales and retirements of film cameras, it looks like film will be mostly gone in the U.S. by the end of the decade."  The article also speaks of the hold-outs that insist on using film and the reasons why. As stated before, we will still sell and process film for the forseeable future, and just about everyone on staff still remembers all the basics of film use from how to load it onto most cameras to the nuances that Fuji Pro film have as opposed to Kodak Provia. If you have film questions, we're here to help, so don't hesitate to ask if you have any... And in an ironic twist, we remind you that our class for the week is "Digital Point & Shoot Basics", tomorrow night at 7, here at the store. (Photo by Fred Bonilla)

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