The word from Japan is that Canon is shutting the door on film-based camera development. With Nikon stopping production of the majority of its film cameras and Konica’s impending departure from the world of film, call it a trifecta. Que up the rise of the online photo labs, and the digital revolution marches on … the end of film is in sight.

Film is (about to be) dead! Long live the camera!

I don’t miss the bad old days … not one bit. I’ve always loved photography, but I always hated the costs involved with developing roll after roll of film. Heck, I could barely afford it as a kid.

Not that there aren’t (considerable) costs involved these days. (Yes indeed, I’m in the market for a zippy new zoom lens for my Digital Rebel). But at least the costs are in the hardware and the prints … not in the pesky film and processing, where twenty shots on film might only land one or two worthy images.

Every time I delete a blurry image from my Digital Rebel’s memory card, I hear a ca-ching sound … another quarter drops into my mental piggy bank, justifying the purchase.

And when folks speak kindly of a shot I’ve taken?

I never hesitate to share my secret.

“You like that photo?” I ask with a smile. “You should have seen the twenty crummy shots I tossed out to get it.”