Can't resist the chance to jump in when Martin talks about photography
I watched the Fujifilm v Kodak video the other day after it came up on my Youtube homepage - somebody must have got it promoted to the top. I guess there are many other cases of companies just sitting back and being phased out by more active ones. You have to predict the future and move with the times otherwise you get left behind.
Fuji Velvia used to be my choice for colour back in film days although you needed a nice day or a tripod - no image stabilisers back then and the lenses weren't as good at wide apertures either. Ilford was always popular in B&W although they mistified a lot of people by launching XP-1 which was a B&W film nominally rated at ISO400 that could be developed in C-41 colour chemistry rather than the ID-11/Perceptol mixes traditionally used with FP4/HP5 B&W films. You could push XP-1 upto ISO1600 using the colour chemistry without suffering the grain associated with pushing traditional B&W.
36 shots to a roll ! Digital changed all that although maybe not always with better results. The fastest shooting digital Nikon I have ( D3S ) shoots upto 11 frames per SECOND. Best carry a few spare memory cards. Mind you that was on a traditional DSLR with the mirror slapping up and down between every shot and a mechanical shutter. These days electronic shutters go way beyond that ( Olympus goes to 50 FPS and I some are even higher )
I wish I had spent some money 20 years ago stockpiling the decent film cameras when they were being sold off for peanuts - prices are going up all the time on them now - usually when somebody posts on Youtube how great they are.
Rob