New poll from a wireless image provider finds death of film cameras “imminent”
If one new poll is to be believed, the death knell has already rung for traditional film cameras.
Ontela, a provider of wireless imaging solutions for saving images from your camera phone, conducted a recent survey that found ownership of traditional film cameras is on the decline, while camera phone ownership is on a definite incline.
The survey of 414 people found that 67 percent of respondents in 2007 had a film camera, 61 percent in 2008 and 48 percnt in 2009.  This is compared to 70 percent saying in 2007 that they had a camera phone, 78 percent in 2008 and 87 percent in 2009.
Where the survey gets interesting is how many of those camera phone owners are expressing frustration with getting images off of their phones once they have taken the picture. Â In the 2007 study, 74 percent were not able to save their images to a web site or their own computer compared to a a massive 81 percent in the 2008 study. Â Luckily the number dropped to 61 percent in the 2009 study, but that is still a significant number of people that have no idea what to do with their images once they have them.
“While the death of the film camera marks a sad day in photographic history, consumers can take solace in the fact that Ontela is working hard to preserve the memories they capture on their camera phones,†said Dan Shapiro, CEO of Ontela. “As camera phones are now recording five, eight, and even 12 megapixels, consumers need to know that they will be able to peruse their pictures on the computer the same way their parents looked back on the stack of photos in the shoebox stuffed in the closet.â€
We certainly don’t want to say the study is tainted as we haven’t seen the questions, but doesn’t this feel like all those studies that find miraculous health benefits to wine that you later discover were conducted by wine companies?  A wireless imaging company finds that wireless imaging is growing, and there needs to be easier ways to save those images … how shocking.
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October 6th, 2009
Very reasonable questions – let me share some details with you.
The survey was pretty comprehensive, with 75 questions ranging from computer usage to social networking preferences to photography adoption. We had over 1,000 respondents; the data we reported on came from the subset of respondents who live in the US. This is our third such (annual) survey; we keep the question wording similar so we can compare year-to-year trends.
Every year, we look for interesting information in the results. This was the first year we had enough historical data to draw a clear trendline, so we decided to share the trends we measured of film camera usage.
The questions we asked in that particular section of the survey are:
Do you have a camera that takes film?
No
Yes, but I don’t use it
Yes, and I use it occasionally
Yes, and I use it a lot
Do you have a digital camera?
No
Yes, but I don’t use it
Yes, and I use it occasionally
Yes, and I use it a lot
Do you have a mobile phone?
No
Yes, but I don’t use it
Yes, and I use it occasionally
Yes, and I use it a lot
No survey’s perfect, and many of them can be misleading, so your skepticism is well placed. We do the best we can to gather accurate data (we use many of the questions for our own planning), though, and we’re pretty sure this represents a bona fide trend.