The march of silicon, part 2

I have been a semi-professional or professional photographer for most of the last 40 years. About a month ago I put my SLR away and switched entirely to my Digital SLR. It would appear that the end of silver photographer is near as Nikon, Inc has announced that it will be all but abandoning it's film camera line to concentrate of digital.
Nikon prepares to strengthen digital line-up for 2006

Following the success of our digital line-up over the last seven years, which has resulted in more than 95% of Nikon’s UK business being within the digital area, Nikon Corporation has made the decision to focus management resources on digital cameras in place of film cameras. This decision will allow Nikon to continue to develop products that match the demands of an increasingly competitive market place.

[.....]

As the film camera market shrinks and the popularity of compact digital cameras increases, demand for products that offer advanced features and extra value is continuing to grow. High performance digital SLR cameras are performing well as users shift from film-based SLR cameras or upgrade from compact digital cameras to digital SLR cameras.


As a result of the new strategy Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large format cameras and enlarging lenses with sales of these products ceasing as soon as they run out of stock. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses and related accessories. Although Nikon anticipates that the products will still be in retail distribution up to Summer 2006.

What would Ansel Adams say? He would have been ready to take up the new technology and my only regret he is not here today to instruct us on how to get the most out of this new photography.

Cross posted at Just Pictures