The Contraction(s) of the Camera Market - Part 1

  Updated June 18, 2022

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

- Jean-Baptisite Alphonse Karr c. 1849

or as it is commonly rendered en Anglais:

"the more things change, the more they stay the same"

    As of the spring of 2019, this maxim still rings true in the photographic equipment world (and the larger world in general :-)). 

 ***FAIR WARNING*** - This series of articles contains numbers (please, no), history (bleccch!), and eventually, analysis (make it stop!). 678 Vintage Cameras cannot be held responsible for drowsiness, general lethargy or any other sleep-inducing effects should you choose to continue. Parallels are about to be drawn between the digital and film eras, which will be an immediate turnoff for adherents of the "either/or" crowd, and therefore an utter and complete waste of such a person's time. (As opposed to the standard waste of a person's time that this space traditionally occupies ;-))

    Now that we've got that out of the way (is it too early in the spring for crickets to be out and about?), let's see how a 170-year-old saying relates to events in the camera industry today. In this first portion, we will look at the present state of affairs and some underlying factors, and Part 2 will deal with the breathtaking details of the Auto Focus revolution of the 1980s. (I swear I keep hearing crickets...) 

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