Matt Zoller Seitz looks at the [end of an era](http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/r_i_p_the_movie_camera_1888_2011/singleton/):
> [T]he three major manufacturers of motion picture film cameras — Aaton, ARRI and Panavision — have all ceased production of new cameras within the last year, and will only make digital movie cameras from now on. […]
> What this means is that, even though purists may continue to shoot movies on film, film itself will may become increasingly hard to come by, use, develop and preserve. It also means that the film camera — invented in 1888 by Louis Augustin Le Prince — will become to cinema what typewriters are to literature. Anybody who still uses a Smith-Corona or IBM Selectric typewriter knows what that means: if your beloved machine breaks, you can’t just take it to the local repair shop, you have to track down some old hermit in another town who advertises on Craigslist and stockpiles spare parts in his basement.
Typewriters are a tempting but imperfect analogy. Motion picture cameras have traditionally been a rental rather than a retail business, which means Panavision will have the parts and expertise to repair its cameras for quite a long time.
And film isn’t going away tomorrow. It’s still a better choice than video in many situations, for both technical and artistic reasons. A few weeks ago, I visited the set of R.I.P.D in Boston, where they were happily shooting digitally. But director Robert Schwentke told me there were still film cameras on set for high-speed work.
Other filmmakers will choose film for its look or its ruggedness. And they’ll keep having that choice. Film cameras last a long time. Part of the reason Aaton, ARRI and Panavision can stop making new ones is that they already have plenty, and can keep them running.
Still, it’s a moment worth noting. In an [article at Creative Cow](http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/film-fading-to-black), Debra Kaufman observes that we’re not talking about something that *will* happen; it’s already done:
> “Someone, somewhere in the world is now holding the last film camera ever to roll off the line.”