Sinar saw the future coming, but the future had other ideas
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A former Sinar camera and Leaf digital back salesperson recounts the Swiss view-camera maker Sinar's decades-long history of technical innovation, including its pioneering digital shutter and the remarkable electronically-assisted Sinar E camera. Despite anticipating digital photography as early as the 1970s and building products to bridge film and digital workflows, Sinar ultimately struggled as the industry shifted, because it kept refining precision engineering that mattered less once digital sensors and software (like focus stacking) solved the same problems more cheaply. The piece draws a parallel to the historical ice-harvesting industry, which was made irrelevant not by worse ice but by refrigeration solving the underlying problem differently, arguing Sinar 'kept making better saws' instead of recognizing the future didn't want a better view camera.
