Are film cameras making a comeback?
Little wonder that smartphones dealt a near death blow to many older cameras as AI-powered erasers, blur correction, dedicated night modes, and grain removal made it possible to pull high-quality photos out of both entry-level phones and premium devices.
Smartphones also provided the automated storage and backup options lacking in older cameras, cancelled out the heavy environmental cost of developing physical photos, did away with the need to constantly recharge or replace Lithium-ion batteries, and solved the weight and breakability problems of older cameras.
But, is the line dividing digital and analogue photography blurring? Young film photography fans are blending the two for an altogether new experience.
The Polaroid market is expected to nearly double in 2031 to $5.72 billion, from $2.93 billion in 2024, driven largely by the influencer economy, according to the Verified Market Research company. With features like soft focus, old-fashioned grain, mild colours, and beautifully diffused light, the cameras of yore document snapshots from the past in a dreamier way. Some consumers are also switching to traditional digital cameras to capture the beauty of their surroundings in a more organic way, sans generative AI. Others want to really sink into the shooting experience, rather than snapping images on a phone that can also interrupt you with calls and spam notifications.
But these come at a cost. Consider this for a moment: Fujifilm's hybrid instant cameras range from ₹15,999 to ₹37,499 in price. Then, there is the luxury digital camera segment. Leica, dubbed the 'Rolls-Royce' of film cameras, offers the compact Leica D-Lux 8 digital camera at a price of ₹1,65,000.
For a slightly more affordable buy, the Leica SOFORT 2 hybrid instant film camera retails at ₹39,990. However, film rolls can cost thousands of rupees in India with a limited number of shots. By contrast, an entry-level smartphone that shoots perfectly usable photos costs less than ₹10,000.
Camera-makers look to the future
While nostalgia triggers buyer behaviour, camera makers are more keen to promote their new offerings, rather than older models.
Leica and Polaroid did not respond to requests for comment for this story. While Tokyo-based camera maker Canon declined to comment about demand for its older cameras, another camera maker, based out of the same city, offered a unique insight into what drives the younger generation to buy a new camera.
Young photographers are interested in modern cameras with an old-world design. In other words, film cameras may not be making a comeback, but its form-factor endures.
'We [Nikon India] have seen a significant rise in interest among younger generations who are gravitating toward cameras that blend nostalgia with modern technology,' said Sajjan Kumar, Managing Director at Nikon India. 'The dominant trend is toward mirrorless cameras that offer a retro aesthetic with high performance.'
Mr. Kumar pointed out that in the early 2000s, buyers used both compact digital cameras and DSLR cameras, such as the Nikon COOLPIX series as well as the Nikon D90 DSLR series. Meanwhile, the Nikon Df (Retro DSLR) helped bridge the gap between traditional film cameras and the digital era, according to him.
On the use of advanced technologies, including AI, Mr. Kumar noted that: 'We will be incorporating AI technology into our product not only to capture the high quality videos and excellent still images but also to improve the user's workflow in ease.'
Beyond the form-factor
Today's shutterbugs need to think of their social media strategy before buying their cameras. Many desire a camera that snaps top-quality images and shoots clear video footage that can be easily edited, uploaded, and shared in large batches.
Then, there are the budget-conscious photographers. For them, app storefronts offer virtual filters or film camera simulators that let device owners shoot from their own phones with added effects such as light leaks, graininess, or discolouration to mimic the 35mm film aesthetic.
Some of these apps have been downloaded over 10 million times, unlocking retro-style images without burning a hole in buyers' pockets. Virtual Polaroid frames and instant photo printers also let users turn a smartphone photo into passable film shots that can be shared both online and offline.
Photography — whether through traditional film cameras, hybrid instant cameras, mirrorless digital cameras with film camera-inspired designs, fully mechanical toy cameras, or even 35mm film apps — continues to find innovative ways to thrive.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
27 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Microsoft rushes to stop hackers exploiting SharePoint security flaw
By Jake Bleiberg, Jane Lanhee Lee and Ryan Gallagher Hackers exploited a security flaw in common Microsoft Corp. software to breach governments, businesses and other organizations across the globe and steal sensitive information, according to officials and cybersecurity researchers. Microsoft over the weekend released a patch for the vulnerability in servers of the SharePoint document management software. The company said it was still working to roll out other fixes after warnings that hackers were targeting SharePoint clients, using the flaw to enter file systems and execute code. Multiple different hackers are launching attacks through the Microsoft vulnerability, according to representatives of two cybersecurity firms, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. and Google's Mandiant Consulting. Hackers have already used the flaw to break into the systems of national governments in Europe and the Middle East, according to a person familiar with the matter. In the US, they've accessed government systems, including ones belonging to the US Department of Education, Florida's Department of Revenue and the Rhode Island General Assembly, said the person, who spoke on condition that they not be identified discussing the sensitive information. Representatives of the Department of Education and Rhode Island legislature didn't respond to calls and emails seeking comment Monday. A Florida Department of Revenue spokesperson, Bethany Wester Cutillo, said in an email that the SharePoint vulnerability is being investigated 'at multiple levels of government' but that the state agency 'does not comment publicly on the software we use for operations.' The hackers also breached the systems of a US-based health-care provider and targeted a public university in Southeast Asia, according to a report from a cybersecurity firm reviewed by Bloomberg News. The report doesn't identify either entity by name, but says the hackers have attempted to breach SharePoint servers in countries including Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the US. The firm asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the information. In some systems they've broken into, the hackers have stolen sign-in credentials, including usernames, passwords, hash codes and tokens, according to a person familiar with the matter, who also spoke on condition that they not be identified discussing the sensitive information. 'This is a high-severity, high-urgency threat,' said Michael Sikorski, chief technology officer and head of threat intelligence for Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks Inc. 'What makes this especially concerning is SharePoint's deep integration with Microsoft's platform, including their services like Office, Teams, OneDrive and Outlook, which has all the information valuable to an attacker,' he said. 'A compromise doesn't stay contained—it opens the door to the entire network.' Tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of businesses and institutions worldwide use SharePoint in some fashion to store and collaborate on documents. Microsoft said that attackers are specifically targeting clients running SharePoint servers from their own on-premise networks, as opposed to being hosted and managed by the tech firm. That could limit the impact to a subsection of customers. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment beyond an earlier statement. 'It's a dream for ransomware operators,' said Silas Cutler, a researcher at Michigan-based cybersecurity firm Censys. He estimated that more than 10,000 companies with SharePoint servers were at risk. The US had the largest number of such firms, followed by the Netherlands, the UK and Canada, he said. The breaches have drawn new scrutiny to Microsoft's efforts to shore up its cybersecurity after a series of high-profile failures. The firm has hired executives from places like the US government and holds weekly meetings with senior executives to make its software more resilient. The company's tech has been subject to several widespread and damaging hacks in recent years, and a 2024 US government report described the company's security culture as in need of urgent reforms. The Center for Internet Security, which operates a cybersecurity information sharing system for state and local governments in the US, found more than 1,100 servers that are at risk from the SharePoint vulnerability, said Randy Rose, the organization's vice president of security operations and intelligence. Rose said more than 100 were likely hacked. The Washington Post reported that the breach had affected US federal and state agencies, universities, energy companies and an Asian telecommunications company, citing state officials and private researchers. Eye Security was the first to identify that attackers were actively exploiting the vulnerabilities in a wave of cyberattacks that began on Friday, said Vaisha Bernard, the company's chief hacker and co-owner. Eye Security said the vulnerability allows hackers to access SharePoint servers and steal keys that can let them impersonate users or services even after the server is patched. It said hackers can maintain access through backdoors or modified components that can survive updates and reboots of systems. The SharePoint vulnerabilities, known as 'ToolShell,' were first identified in May by researchers at a Berlin cybersecurity conference. In early July, Microsoft issued patches to fix the security holes, but hackers found another way in. 'There were ways around the patches,' which enabled hackers to break into SharePoint servers by tapping into similar vulnerabilities, said Bernard. 'That allowed these attacks to happen.' The intrusions, he said, were not targeted and instead were aimed at compromising as many victims as possible. After scanning about 8,000 SharePoint servers, Bernard said he has so far identified at least 50 that were successfully compromised. He declined to identify the identity of organizations that had been targeted, but said they included government agencies and private companies, including 'bigger multinationals.' The victims were located in countries in North and South America, the EU, South Africa, and Australia, he added.
New Indian Express
40 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Looming over two cases threatening Musk's car company is a single question: Can he be trusted?
'I've seen punitive damages go to the hundreds of millions, so that is the floor,' said Miguel Custodio of Los Angeles-based Custodio & Dubey. 'It is also a signal to other plaintiffs that they can also ask for punitive damages, and then the payments could start compounding.' That Tesla has allowed the Miami case to proceed to trial is surprising. It has settled at least four deadly accidents involving Autopilot, including payments just last week to a Florida family of a Tesla driver. That said, Tesla was victorious in two other jury cases, both in California, that also sought to lay blame on its technology for crashes. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the Miami case argue that Tesla's driver-assistance feature, called Autopilot, should have warned the driver and braked when his Model S sedan blew through flashing lights, a stop sign and a T-intersection at 62 miles-an-hour in an April 2019 crash. Tesla said that drivers are warned not to rely on Autopilot, or its more advanced Full Self-Driving system. It says the fault entirely lies with the "distracted driver" just like so many other 'accidents since cellphones were invented.' Driver McGee settled a separate suit brought by the family of Benavides and her severely injured boyfriend, Dillon Angulo. McGee was clearly shaken when shown a dashcam video Monday of his car jumping a Key West, Florida, road and hitting a parked Chevrolet Tahoe which then slammed into Benavides and sent her 75 feet through the air to her death. Asked if he had seen those images before, McGee pinched his lips, shook his head, then squeaked out a response, 'No.' Tesla's attorney sought to show that McGee was fully to blame, asking if he had ever contacted Tesla for additional instructions about how Autopilot or any other safety features worked. McGee said he had not, though he was heavy user of the features. He said he had driven the same road home from work 30 or 40 times. Under questioning, he also acknowledged he alone was responsible for watching the road and hitting the brakes. Summarizing the testimony, Tesla said in a statement after the court adjourned that McGee had "stated the simple truth that we all know: If he had just paid attention to the road instead of searching for his dropped cell phone and pressing the accelerator —which he was doing for over a minute before the crash — this tragic accident would never have happened.'
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Microsoft server hack hit about 100 organisations, researchers say
A sweeping cyber espionage operation targeting Microsoft server software compromised about 100 organisations as of the weekend, two of the organisations that helped uncover the campaign said on Monday. Microsoft on Saturday issued an alert about "active attacks" on self-hosted SharePoint servers, which are widely used by organisations to share documents and collaborate within organisations. SharePoint instances run off of Microsoft servers were unaffected. Dubbed a "zero-day" because it leverages a previously undisclosed digital weakness, the hacks allow spies to penetrate vulnerable servers and potentially drop a backdoor to secure continuous access to victim organisations. Vaisha Bernard, the chief hacker at Eye Security, a Netherlands-based cybersecurity firm, which discovered the hacking campaign targeting one of its clients on Friday, said that an internet scan carried out with the Shadowserver Foundation had uncovered nearly 100 victims altogether, and that was before the technique behind the hack was widely known. "It's unambiguous," Bernard said. "Who knows what other adversaries have done since to place other backdoors." He declined to identify the affected organisations, saying that the relevant national authorities had been notified. The Shadowserver Foundation confirmed the 100 figure. It said most of those affected were in the United States and Germany, and the victims included government organisations. Another researcher said that, so far, the spying appeared to be the work of a single hacker or set of hackers. "It's possible that this will quickly change," said Rafe Pilling, director of Threat Intelligence at Sophos, a British cybersecurity firm. Microsoft said it had "provided security updates and encourages customers to install them," a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. It was not clear who was behind the ongoing hack, but Alphabet's Google, which has visibility into wide swaths of internet traffic, said it tied at least some of the hacks to a "China-nexus threat actor." The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment; Beijing routinely denies carrying out hacking operations. The FBI said on Sunday it was aware of the attacks and was working closely with its federal and private-sector partners, but offered no other details. Britain's National Cyber Security Center said in a statement that it was aware of "a limited number" of targets in the United Kingdom. A researcher tracking the campaign said that the campaign appeared initially aimed at a narrow set of government-related organisations. The pool of potential targets remains vast. According to data from Shodan, a search engine that helps to identify internet-linked equipment, over 8,000 servers online could theoretically have already been compromised by hackers. Shadowserver put the number at a little more than 9,000, while cautioning that the figure was a minimum. Those servers include major industrial firms, banks, auditors, healthcare companies, and several U.S. state-level and international government entities. "The SharePoint incident appears to have created a broad level of compromise across a range of servers globally," said Daniel Card of British cybersecurity consultancy PwnDefend. "Taking an assumed breach approach is wise, and it's also important to understand that just applying the patch isn't all that is required here."
