With the outsourcing of compact 35mm cameras to countries such as China, the price of these cameras has dropped. Several companies have eliminated all but the low-end and the very high-end line of 35mm cameras. One well-known company has gotten completely out of the business of creating cameras.
The increasing offers of secondhand cameras that have been refurbished, and the low price of 35mm and APS compact cameras, has further reduced the market for new 35 mm cameras. One company stopped production of a new film camera even though it would later in the year receive an award for "camera of the year."
The last four years in a row, digital cameras have outsold all other types of cameras, but the use of 35mm cameras is increasing in the developing countries. Along with the decline in film cameras is, of course, the lowered sale of film for these cameras.
One of the larger companies will end the production of color film and paper by this March. These decreases have reduced the number of people employed by 1/3 over 20 years earlier. Whether these job losses have been compensated for by the digital industry are unknown.
Technological advances in cameras have, of course, changed the way people view photography. Prior to the 1970s, most people in the US viewed their photos on a slide projector. Color prints followed that, with the simultaneous increase of Internet and email use shortly after. Lower-cost computers and digital photography have dramatically increased the number of digitally formatted photographs.
A dramatic decrease in the sales and production of film and film cameras has followed the increase of viewing images on computers and cell phones. People do, however, still make and look at prints of the photos they take.
In addition to lowered sales of film and film cameras has been the decreased use of film processing, and many department stores are switching to the development of digital film as a means to keep up with the trends. Sales of film, film cameras, and the development of film has seen a dramatic decrease, and many stores that used to sell these items no longer offer them.