First, the news:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Japan­ese cam­era and pre­ci­sion equip­ment maker Nikon said on Thurs­day it will focus on dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy and stop pro­duc­ing most of its film cam­eras, except for a few pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­pher products.

“Nikon will dis­con­tinue pro­duc­tion of all lenses for large for­mat cam­eras and enlarg­ing lenses. This also applies to most of our film cam­era bod­ies, inter­change­able man­ual focus lenses and related acces­sories,” it said in a state­ment on its British website.

The com­pany expects stock of ana­log prod­ucts to sell out in retail dis­tri­b­u­tion in the sum­mer of 2006.

Things to worry about:

1. What will become of ama­teur photography?
2. Will sec­ond­hand (“used”) cam­eras become a niche item, since digital-crazy con­sumers only buy new? As a byprod­uct, will future cam­eras be designed with a short lifes­pan in mind?
3. The arti­cle sug­gests that film cam­eras are “ana­log cam­eras.” This is a stu­pid abuse of lan­guage, and I hope it is not a trend. Despite what the dic­tio­nary says, “ana­log” and “dig­i­tal” are not oppo­sites, and even if they were, the dis­tinc­tion is inap­pro­pri­ate in the con­text of cam­eras. The Widelux, for exam­ple, has no elec­tron­ics in it at all.