Of course I exaggerated a bit to say they're useless. But it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they're seldom used.
Unless you're really consciously going on a photo-taking trip, you're generally not carrying around these huge old mechanical cameras, getting the film developed, etc. Every step of the process is more involved and time consuming -- where are you getting the negatives/slides printed afterwards?
Unless you're a high skills photographer, it just doesn't match people's use cases these days. Also, I've seen friends take up medium format as a fad, but they generally lose interest after a year at most.
That said, I borrowed an old Bronica several years ago, and I enjoyed it a lot. There something so satisfying about loading that film up, winding, exposing, and getting your hands wet on the chemicals, and having a big negative to look at, with sharpness outdoing anything you see even today in digital.
Unless you're really consciously going on a photo-taking trip, you're generally not carrying around these huge old mechanical cameras, getting the film developed, etc. Every step of the process is more involved and time consuming -- where are you getting the negatives/slides printed afterwards?
Unless you're a high skills photographer, it just doesn't match people's use cases these days. Also, I've seen friends take up medium format as a fad, but they generally lose interest after a year at most.
That said, I borrowed an old Bronica several years ago, and I enjoyed it a lot. There something so satisfying about loading that film up, winding, exposing, and getting your hands wet on the chemicals, and having a big negative to look at, with sharpness outdoing anything you see even today in digital.