Here's a philosophical question for everyone to share their thoughts on:

There's no hiding that things are on the decline for film users and even more so for large format users (e.g. fewer film options, fewer manufacturers for LF hardware, etc.). Of course, the lower demand, due to a healthy used equipment market on the world-wide-web, is partly to be blamed. On the other hand, because LF equipment have a higher longevity and hold their value reasonably well, they're not so bad investments for people wanting to get in to LF. But lenses are going to get scratched, basements are going to be flooded and eventually usable old equipment will slowly reduce in numbers. I'm sure every year we have fewer "rare and endangered" lenses than we did the year before. All of it's not going to disappear very soon but it might happen after we have too few new (and affordable!) LF equipment makers.

So, if you care about the future of LF, do you think buying new is the way to go? Or should we stick to buying used, since it's one of those "put the oxygen mask on yourself before you attend to the child" things? Or... is LF doomed, regardless?

What do you think?

G

PS: Sorry if this has been asked before...