Okay, here's what I've learned in this thread.
1. Those who act the most horrified by being insulted seem to be willing to dish out only slightly more veiled insults themselves with no apparent awareness of having done so. Frankly, that makes me sick. The definition of ad hominem is when the debate changes over from ideas to the people expressing them, and yes I've been occasionally guilty of it myself. It makes me sick when I do it, too. Dressing it up in polite language doesn't change its nature. But I'm a piker compared to some, even as exemplified in this thread. I recommend the following credo: If what we are typing negatively addresses the intelligence, maturity, experience, skill or any other personal aspect of the person with whom we are debating an idea, and not the the idea itself, we should delete it before hitting the send button. The more intelligence, maturity, experience, and skill we have, the quicker we should go for that delete key in our own posts. When I don't hit that delete key as I should, I expect to be called names. When I have been called names, however, it wasn't because of that, it was because someone disagreed with my ideas, and I don't recall their posts being deleted by the moderators, but there it is.
2. In an elastic market, supply will emerge to satisfy demand, but only that portion of supply that can be produced at a cost low enough for the price that portion of the demand is willing to pay to provide the desired profit. In the short term, the problem is inelasticity. Kodak and other high-production film manufacturers can't cut their production by 80% and still make enough to maintain high-production equipment. Film companies will have to retool for lower production capacities to be profitable at new demand levels. Some have done so. Some are unwilling to. Some haven't done so yet. When there is demand, there will be supply, though the boxes may not be the same color we are used to. The question is: Will the demand remain even if there are temporary interruptions in supply while these inelasticities get sorted out?
3. I seem to be attracted to niche hobbies. I am renovating a 1973 GMC motorhome. I do amateur radio. I play the tuba. Each of these provides an example of a declining market. In each case, the prices of equipping the hobbies at the same quality level have increased as the demand has declined. In each case, low-cost and therefore low-price manufacturers have entered the market to provide supply at lower price points, even if that has meant a decline in quality that must be tolerated by buyers at those price points. With view cameras, this process has been underway for decades, and was going full steam long before digital started competing with film. At least since the 70's, large-format manufacturers have been trying new ways to capture market at low price points. Low-end amateur use of large-format has steadily declined at least since the SLR boom of the 70's, and little that view-camera manufacturers have done has been able to recapture that market. The reason is that for those users, the SLR was a more appropriate fulfillment of their requirements.
4. Professionals have different requirements than amateurs, and commercial photographers have different requirements than art photographers. Each will make choices based on fulfilling their requirements, and those requirements will be based on what they need to do to satisfy their customers. Amateurs are just the same, except that they are their own customers. The film medium still uniquely fulfills requirements of a determined few art photographers and amateurs, but not most commercial photographers. This is a statement on how good digital tools have become, and on how poorly film fulfilled the requirements of many users. It is also a statement on changing desires and standards of photography customers. Wedding customers, to cite one example, seem to prefer choosing from 1000 images, many of which look like plain snapshots, on some vast web page. Those of us who used to show up at a wedding with two pro-packs of Vericolor and a Mamiya C-330 may kick the dirt about it, but that is where the customers are these days. The digital photographer can have those thousand images online in a day, and let the customer do their editing for them. No more spending hours sending the film out to a pro lab, numbering and sleeving the negatives, providing printed order forms, and only making money on the enlargements because of the time required just to produce a proof-book. No more long-term storage of negatives. No more inventory of proof-books, negative sleeves and enlargement folders, and on and on. Much of what is happening in the market is easier to explain if we go back and look at requirements as driven by what customers want and photographers need.
5. The requirements that are best fulfilled by film are still with us, and likely will be, at a reduced demand, for some time to come. The high-production film manufacturers might not be able to follow that demand, but someone will, if film users are willing to survive occasional lapses and changes in the available products.
6. Branch electrical circuits are protected based on the current-carrying capacity of the wire used in the branch circuit. In the U.S., most branch lighting circuits use 14-gauge copper wire which is sized for 15 amps maximum current, according to the National Electrical Code. Standing equipment that requires more current to run reliably should be provided a special circuit. It is quite common for an appliance circuit to be wired with 12-gauge copper wire and protected with a 20-amp breaker. It uses a (single) receptacle that properly provides for one horizontal spade on the appliance plug, but that will also accept normal 15-amp plugs with two vertical spades. Freezer equipment that requires more will run on 240 VAC and will use special circuits, receptacles, and plugs. But circuit breakers do wear out, and sometimes a flaky breaker can be replaced by a new one of the same rating and solve a problem of frequent tripping.
Rick "whose current requirements are only fulfilled using large format" Denney
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Originally Posted by Van Camper
Fast forward, Jan 2011, Mini Moogs used on ebay $3500.00 - 6000.00 depending on condition, Jupiter 8's two right now at $9000.00, Oberheim OBXa $2000.00 - 4000.00.Studios that have them in their keyboard rooms are in high demand, and kids half my age lust after them even though high quality digital samples of em all abound.Though I have a high end studio utilizing all digital synthesizers these days that get the bills paid, I truly miss the old boys and their unique personalities. 
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