"Japan's Canon Inc. said on Thursday that it would consider halting development of new film cameras as it focuses resources on digital models, the latest sign of the rapidly fading role of film in photography. A spokesman at Canon, the world's largest digital camera maker, said it would consider whether it needs to continue developing both compact and single lens reflex (SLR) film models because the markets for both are shrinking. Canon said it would continue to produce and sell existing models and make a final judgement on the business in the future while monitoring market demand."The only reason a company makes an announcements like this is to gauge consumer reaction before really pulling the plug - there's nothing shocking here, average consumers don't want anything but digital cameras. There will always be a market for high-end photographers that prefer film, but for the rest of the world, it's all digital.