With the ever-growing popularity of digital cameras and equipment, film manufactures and users are left waiting to see what develops. Many photographers, amateur and professional alike, are switching to a digital format, forcing long-established film companies and suppliers to shift with the changing market or risk fading away.

According to InfoTrends Inc.’s Web site, a U.S.-based market research and consulting firm for digital markets, more than 75 percent of all camera sales today are digital. Digital camera sales are projected at nearly 89 million units in 2006, a 15 percent increase over sales in 2005. Moreover, currently 70 percent of all professionally taken pictures are digital. In 2010, that percentage is predicted to reach 90 percent.

Rod Bates, former owner of Bates Camera, 210 E. Green St., knows firsthand of these market changes. His camera shop was forced to close in late February and he is currently seeking employment. Bates said the rise of digital cameras and Internet shopping were reasons for his closing. Customers were able to buy cameras cheaper online and required fewer supplies, cutting into his business.

“You need a certain volume to keep [a business] running,” he said.

In December of 2005, Film Processing Ltd., an optical printing and film processing lab at 309 S. Neil St., closed its doors, as well.

Barry Brehm, president and treasurer of the Champaign County Camera Club, sees the closings as another indicator that film is being replaced by digital.

“Pretty much everyone is converting to digital,” Brehm said.

Brehm estimates that the majority of his members, including himself, use digital more often than film cameras. He notes that the efficiency, quality, simplicity and low cost of digital cameras make them desirable. Rather than spending time and money on developing negatives and printing images, users can immediately view, edit and delete their photos for free.

Linda Robbennolt, an associate professor of photography, sees the same changes taking place. She points out that, in the past, black and white film was the cheapest and most efficient method to create an image. Now that digital photography has unseated film, the time-honored black and white developing process has become less common among students.

Camera makers across the globe are taking heed and adjusting to the digital revolution. Today’s shrinking photographic market is making this transition all the more necessary.

Konica Minolta, a Japan-based camera and film producer, is withdrawing from the film business altogether, selling its shares to their competitor, Sony.

Nikon Corp., a Japan-based camera maker, has stopped making seven of its nine film cameras to concentrate on digital models.

Both Fuji Photo Film Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co. have cut thousands of jobs and discontinued film products in recent years. Exacerbating the situation, these companies and others face competition from newcomers, like Hewlett-Packard Co., Panasonic, Samsung and Sony.

Brad LaPayne, owner of LaPayne Photography, 816 Dennison Dr., is himself adapting to the market transformation.

“The photo industry is in a pretty radical rearrangement,” LaPayne said.

LaPayne still uses film as a professional photographer but now utilizes digital cameras and developing methods as well.

“I expect to use film for somewhere around two to six more years,” LaPayne said.

Like vinyl records and manual typewriters before, film seems doomed to an anachronistic fate. As the number of buyers dwindles, producers of film and chemicals will find it harder to eke out a living. And as the number of producers slips, selection decreases and price increases. It is this progressive loss that some declare will be the death of film.

Susan Smith, co-owner of the Art Coop, 410 E. Green St., said the future of film is in the hands of the manufacturers. She envisages film entering a niche market, serving a small hardcore group of artists.

“I feel in the long run it all evens out. People are still doing printmaking. What’s more archaic than carving in to a clay pot?” Smith said.

Sarah Krohn, a senior in Business, puts her prediction on film’s future more bluntly.

“Nonexistent. Do you see 8-track tapes anymore?” Krohn said.

Krohn, an amateur and former Buzz photographer, admits to not using film for at least a year and plans on sticking with her digital camera.

Although dark days are ahead for film, it may not totally fade to black. David Lanzillo, a spokesman for Kodak, said that his company remains committed to the industry.

“As long as there are people looking to buy or interested in film, we will continue to produce it,” Lanzillo said.

Robbennolt sees the whole film-digital debate as unnecessary. She said there is no victor or vanquished in the end.

The change is simple evolution. Cameras and pictures, whether film or digital, are all just means to an artist’s end: expressing a message or emotion through images.