Film gets a reprieve from Fuji

It started when Kodak stopped making film cams two years back, with Nikon and Konica Minolta following as recently as this January.

But today’s story in The Times about Fuji pulling out of the film camera business turned out to be a mistake.

We’ve just been on the blower to the maker of the fabulous Finepix range and it informs us that it’s not withdrawing from 35mm.

Indeed, it points out that it’s firmly committed to the medium, which came as a surprise to us considering everyone else in the photography world is ditching old analogue.

What a blessed relief that drunken outings will continue to be accompanied by Fujifilm throwaways (pictured above).

What’s true is that film cameras are fast going the way of hi-fi – a future where they’re collected, adored and used by a niche of enthusiasts but largely irrelevant to the rest of us.

If you’re near a radio at 1.30pm today you’ll be able to tune into us debating the end of film with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2.

Although film still has a place for pro snappers, we can’t see anyone else lamenting an era when you could cut people’s heads off during once-in-a-lifetime travels, pay over the odds to develop a load of fuzzy photos and had to wait weeks to borrow mates’ negatives.

Anyhow, all this talk of the Death of Film is academic. What we’re looking at now is the Death of the Standalone Camera, with this week’s Sony Ericsson camphones spelling the beginning of the end for dedicated, standalone compacts.

Update: you can hear us fighting digital’s corner as Jeremy plays the sentimental cumudgeon by firing up the BBC’s Listen Again player.