There are also a lot of people declaring that digital is not going to wipe out all the traditional photo chemistry from the face of the earth anytime in the near future.

Kodak, for example, notes that interest in black and white photography is up and the popularity of Agfa's Scala monochrome transparency film reflects yet another form of that interest.

Certain areas are certainly moving toward digital quicker then others, like high end studios who are plugged directly into pre-press operations or high volume catalog photography. In addition, there is a wave of new, low end digital cameras at this Photokina, many from traditional camera companies. Even a traditional company such as Leica is showing a prototype of a digital camera. But the most ardent of sales people is quick to admit that the strongest market for this digital wave of less expensive cameras is among special groups. For example, real estate people, law enforcement, educators, and desk top publishers, as opposed to the general consumer market. Here, film is simply the preferred medium, and customers are likely to buy a digital cameras to use in additon to their point and shoots or SLRs, as opposed to replacing them.

Overall, the larger tendency among professional products seems to be to find ways of combining aspects of both digital and conventional technologies to the advantage of both. Many manufacturers of traditional photographic equipment are adapting to this reality and looking to cover both avenues for the making of images.

A good example of this is the design impetus behind Linhof's new M679 modular view camera, shown here for the first time. Linhof sees it as "a perfect solution" for combining both digital and rollfilm photography in one camera." This beautifully made monorail has a wide range of adjustments that provide for the demands of studio work in a choice of formats between 6x6cm to 6x9cm. This format size, they argue, more closely matches up to the actual size of the chips as opposed to "adapting down oversized" 4x5 equipment. Furthermore, with appropriate adapters provided by Linhof, the studio photographer can use already owned film backs from their Bronica, Hasselblad, or Mamiya studio cameras, as well as from Linhof, making it easier for this camera to integrate into any studio setting. There are also special high resolution lenses from Schneider-Kreuznach, which are ideal for medium format digital recordings.

In addition to the versatile M 679, Linhof has revamped their conventional panoramic cameras. The Technorama 612 PC has an integrated viewfinder with separate bright lines for the two choices of lenses: a Super Angulon XL 58mm f/5.6 super wide, and the 135mm Apo-Symmar f/5.6 which has a built-in rise of 8mm for converging lines correction. There is a 35mm-like thumb-stroke film winder, ergonomically placed shutter release, and hand grip sides built into the body. The previously fixed lens Technorama 617 panoramic camera is now called the 617 S III and is an interchangeable version taking either a Schneider Super Angulon XL 72mm f/5.6 lens, an XL 90mm f/5.6 lens, or an XL 180mm f/5.6. All lens for both cameras are mounted in their own self-contained lens cones that fit into the bodies of their respective cameras.

Returning to this theme of combining the best of both worlds, I stopped by to see the Encad Art Gallery which was part of the Encad booth showing their latest mural-sized NovaJet inkjet printers. The work of four photographers was on display, including three Americans: Robert Farber, Joseph Holmes, and Timothy Wolcott. These three artists related several practical reasons for using the inkjet process, including the consistency from print to print, and how much easier it was to have these prints made, as opposed to either making them for yourself in conventional large sizes, as Holmes and Wolcott related, or having to devote darkroom facilities and personnel. "Besides," as Faber put it, "this is another medium of expression for the photographer which did not even exist a few years ago." Indeed, prints of mural size with a high quality rendering, like the ones I saw at the Encad booth, have only come about as a result of the the electronic imaging revolution. And even though the participants, who all have long traditions of making conventional prints, worked with conventional film and cameras, they were quite pleased with the results produced by one of the new digital technologies.