Regular Camera OR Digital Camera...which do You prefer?
- Thread starter Cruzah
- Start date
My Canon Digital looses its fracking mind every 9 months. Removing the batteries and pulling the memory card for 3-4 days repairs it.
My Minolta SRT-101 always works.
My Minolta SRT-101 always works.
danj
modern primitive
Count me as a digital convert.
I stayed with film until a couple years ago. I sold my T90 and ME-Super but still have a beautiful Canon 10s and a fun Olympus Pen 1/2 frame which see little use. I wonder why I waited so long to go digital.
I like digital for the immediate feedback. Two weeks ago I shot a major event using my Canon dslr and 550EX. I took about 500 shots - on the same set of batteries with camera and flash - all without having to stop to change film every few minutes. I did all my composing in viewfinder (live view in a dslr isn't that convenient for the kind of shooting I do). Basically, digital is more convenient than film, at least for my brand of shooting, and the quality is at least as good as I ever got with film.
And then there is the cost factor and lack of quality processing available. And there have been whole threads about that.
I stayed with film until a couple years ago. I sold my T90 and ME-Super but still have a beautiful Canon 10s and a fun Olympus Pen 1/2 frame which see little use. I wonder why I waited so long to go digital.
I like digital for the immediate feedback. Two weeks ago I shot a major event using my Canon dslr and 550EX. I took about 500 shots - on the same set of batteries with camera and flash - all without having to stop to change film every few minutes. I did all my composing in viewfinder (live view in a dslr isn't that convenient for the kind of shooting I do). Basically, digital is more convenient than film, at least for my brand of shooting, and the quality is at least as good as I ever got with film.
And then there is the cost factor and lack of quality processing available. And there have been whole threads about that.
Cruzah
Super Member
WoW...great points Everyone.
but if you really stop and think about it...Depending on what kind of Printer You have.
The Ink for your Printer/Photo Paper Vs Store Processing?...Which is cheaper?
Now with Regular film its gonna cost ya about $8-$10 Bucks for 24 doubles.
You try printing 48 color prints on your printer and figure out the cost.
but if you really stop and think about it...Depending on what kind of Printer You have.
The Ink for your Printer/Photo Paper Vs Store Processing?...Which is cheaper?
Now with Regular film its gonna cost ya about $8-$10 Bucks for 24 doubles.
You try printing 48 color prints on your printer and figure out the cost.
rnorton
Super Member
Lets see, I've got a Nikon D3100 plus 2 other digital point and shoot cameras.
I take shots with em at the Zoo, Maybe a Portrait and stuff for Myself.
But I don't trust them/Myself enoufh to shoot a Wedding or any other Important event with em.
For the important Money Makin stuff I'd STILL rather go with my Old Nikon FG or My Minolta 5000 in a Heartbeat. :yes:
Do any of Youse folks still feel more comfortable with older non-Digital equipment?
I'd much rather shoot digital when money is on the line. Instant feedback and a MUCH greater ability to alter the image later without losing a big chunk of the profit margin on reprints. That said, I prefer the feel of my old film cameras in my hands.
rnorton
Super Member
I still have a 124G but when the idiots outlawed mercury batteries it became a real pain to use the metering with zinc-air batteries that seldom last a week. Haven't used it in years. A shame, as I always liked working with TLR's.
How come you can't buy a little mercury permanently sealed in steel while they force you to buy mercury sealed in glass (CFL lamps)?
bspe
bspe
Yes the mercury battery thing is a shame but TLR's just beg to be used with a hand held meter
OvenMaster
Baby, you're my winterblue
Mine does too, Wiggy. I should have specified useful optical viewfinders would be nice. Like having one with under or over exposure, out-of-focus, flash or low battery warnings, or even a bright line system.
Then again, my digicam is ancient, so don't go by me.
I have a lot of digital cameras, 2 Canon dlrs(xsi,T2i) 7 Nikons(D70,D90,D3200,D5100,D7000,D700,D800), a Fuji X100 and many point and shoots. But there is something about the film cameras that draws me to them. I paid $900 for my F2AS in 1989 but I just bought 2 more for $300 a piece. My T90's cost nearly $1000 back in the day, now you can get one for under $200. I bought a Hasseblad 500CM for $250. I like mechanical things. A film camera is like an automatic watch, while a digital one is like a quartz watch. I am glad film cameras are down, it means I can get more of them. For everyday use, you cannot beat a digital camera. For fun, I will take out a film camera.
Brian
An Old Geezer
Go for the C.R.I.S. adaptor to cure the mercury battery problem.
I shoot maybe 2/3rds film and 1/3rd dslr. I find shelving my Leica, Bronica and Rolleiflex just against the grain. My dslr takes longer to setup for a shot that any of the film cameras. My hand held meter, zone focusing and, the Sunny 16 rule is so much faster that drilling down levels and levels of software.
My "lessor" film cameras include Yashica FX-3, Ashahi S1a and others. I just loaded some APX-100 into my Kionica AA-35 1/2 frame camera that is as shirt pocketable as the little digital things with no viewfinder that you can not get a 3-point hold with. With 72 shots sitting in the pocket, I'm set to go.
I like my dslr, the Oly E-520, and the kit lenses ar very good but, it is larger than my Asahi and just as heavy as well as bulkier with hse zooms. The loss of DoF markings kill setting up the zone focusing I use and with the dslr autofocus there is that loss f control. In manual focus you can get some of the control back but, the lenses are not really designed for it as there are no stops.
I shoot maybe 2/3rds film and 1/3rd dslr. I find shelving my Leica, Bronica and Rolleiflex just against the grain. My dslr takes longer to setup for a shot that any of the film cameras. My hand held meter, zone focusing and, the Sunny 16 rule is so much faster that drilling down levels and levels of software.
My "lessor" film cameras include Yashica FX-3, Ashahi S1a and others. I just loaded some APX-100 into my Kionica AA-35 1/2 frame camera that is as shirt pocketable as the little digital things with no viewfinder that you can not get a 3-point hold with. With 72 shots sitting in the pocket, I'm set to go.
I like my dslr, the Oly E-520, and the kit lenses ar very good but, it is larger than my Asahi and just as heavy as well as bulkier with hse zooms. The loss of DoF markings kill setting up the zone focusing I use and with the dslr autofocus there is that loss f control. In manual focus you can get some of the control back but, the lenses are not really designed for it as there are no stops.
Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
Brian; with respect, I am an old-school film photographer too, and while I sympathize with you, some of your assertions about digital just aren't true - or at least, they don't have to be. I find this a lot with the crotchety old men like myself - we decide we don't like something and then come with reasons to support it. So please, I mean this with respect.
Yes, they are good adapters. Frankly, I was never that into using TTL metering anyway. I love me a good hand-held Sekonic with a 1 degree spot attachment. But I must admit that the TTL metering in my digital SLR cameras does a fine job. Nothing to complain about.
Hehehe, you said 'grain'. Nice film pun. I just sold my Yashica TLR, my Bronicas are next. I never owned a Leica camera, but I've sold all my Leica lenses. However, I could have kept the lenses at least and used them on some of the newer digital cameras, including the m4/3 style electronic viewfinder cameras. A lot of people are doing that and seem to be doing well with it.
It does make me sad that my Bronica C bodies are virtually without value in terms of resale. I'll be giving them away, basically. Ah well. I wasn't using them anymore. Great cameras, but huge, heavy, and sound like a tank racking back a round prior to firing.
With my Pentax dSLR cameras, I don't have to hunt through menus. It's all available through thumbwheels and shows up in the viewfinder.
I used several smaller cameras of the Konica rangefinder style over the years, and shot some great photos with some of them. But I've *sold* photos I took with a 6MP Kodak point-n-shoot and that was several generations of technology ago. They're really amazing little devices now, and very cheap for what you get.
I use Pentax dSLR cameras (I also have a Sigma SD14). They can be as basic and you want them to be. I don't have to use the menus, and I can make the basic adjustments of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO using knobs and wheels that my finger finds as easily as it once did the knobs on my Canon FX. I see the readouts in my viewfinder.
I also use a custom aftermarket split image viewfinder in my older Pentax, the *ist DS. Works a treat for manual focus, and speaking of manual focus, I don't have a problem with DOF marks or IR focusing or whatever because I *can* mount all my old manual focus Pentax glass on my modern Pentax dSLR bodies with NO modifications, NO adapters, just mount them and they work. I even mount M42 glass from old German cameras for fun; that does require an adapter, but it was the same with M42 lenses on K-mount film bodies, so nothing new since the 1960's there.
My Sigma SD14 is a throwback for those who want it. Looks and feels and acts like a film camera, complete with all the lack of modern conveniences of the more recent digital SLR cameras. It has limited ISO (just like being stuck with whatever roll of film is currently in the camera), it can be slow to use, and the controls are nearly all knobs. I love it, even though it is a PITA to use sometimes. Just 'feels' like a proper camera.
Yeah, I love film. It's also going away, very quickly. If you prefer film still, by all means stick with it. I fully understand and grok your position. Nothing is quite as sensuous as the feel of a high-quality Leica or Zeiss camera or lens in the hand; it's incredible. No one can doubt the quality of the photos such cameras and lenses can produce, either. They have soul, and they have raw technical ability.
It is also fairly said that one had to be a proper photographer to get the best out of these instruments, and modern cameras do good work without requiring that the photographer know what they are doing. Well, that's the way it goes. There are still things that a camera cannot do for the photographer, such as deciding what to take a photograph of, how to frame it, where the point of interest is, and so on. I hear that some of the modern cameras even have menu choices now for things like 'Rule of Thirds'. Yeah, good luck with that; cameras will never know when to break rules, even assuming they can figure out how to apply them.
But having said that, a camera is a tool. Digital cameras can be fantastic tools, and if you choose to get over the bias and look at them honestly, they can be set to work in many of the ways old codgers like you and me find most efficacious. I like shooting full manual on my Pentax dSLR cameras, and I've got exactly as much control as I did when I shot film; even more, since I can also control things like ISO now without hurriedly changing a roll of film mid-roll. All the tricks, all the techniques that I learned in the old days still apply. The only thing that has changed is that my fingers don't smell like fixer anymore.
Yes, they are good adapters. Frankly, I was never that into using TTL metering anyway. I love me a good hand-held Sekonic with a 1 degree spot attachment. But I must admit that the TTL metering in my digital SLR cameras does a fine job. Nothing to complain about.
Hehehe, you said 'grain'. Nice film pun. I just sold my Yashica TLR, my Bronicas are next. I never owned a Leica camera, but I've sold all my Leica lenses. However, I could have kept the lenses at least and used them on some of the newer digital cameras, including the m4/3 style electronic viewfinder cameras. A lot of people are doing that and seem to be doing well with it.
It does make me sad that my Bronica C bodies are virtually without value in terms of resale. I'll be giving them away, basically. Ah well. I wasn't using them anymore. Great cameras, but huge, heavy, and sound like a tank racking back a round prior to firing.
With my Pentax dSLR cameras, I don't have to hunt through menus. It's all available through thumbwheels and shows up in the viewfinder.
I used several smaller cameras of the Konica rangefinder style over the years, and shot some great photos with some of them. But I've *sold* photos I took with a 6MP Kodak point-n-shoot and that was several generations of technology ago. They're really amazing little devices now, and very cheap for what you get.
I use Pentax dSLR cameras (I also have a Sigma SD14). They can be as basic and you want them to be. I don't have to use the menus, and I can make the basic adjustments of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO using knobs and wheels that my finger finds as easily as it once did the knobs on my Canon FX. I see the readouts in my viewfinder.
I also use a custom aftermarket split image viewfinder in my older Pentax, the *ist DS. Works a treat for manual focus, and speaking of manual focus, I don't have a problem with DOF marks or IR focusing or whatever because I *can* mount all my old manual focus Pentax glass on my modern Pentax dSLR bodies with NO modifications, NO adapters, just mount them and they work. I even mount M42 glass from old German cameras for fun; that does require an adapter, but it was the same with M42 lenses on K-mount film bodies, so nothing new since the 1960's there.
My Sigma SD14 is a throwback for those who want it. Looks and feels and acts like a film camera, complete with all the lack of modern conveniences of the more recent digital SLR cameras. It has limited ISO (just like being stuck with whatever roll of film is currently in the camera), it can be slow to use, and the controls are nearly all knobs. I love it, even though it is a PITA to use sometimes. Just 'feels' like a proper camera.
Yeah, I love film. It's also going away, very quickly. If you prefer film still, by all means stick with it. I fully understand and grok your position. Nothing is quite as sensuous as the feel of a high-quality Leica or Zeiss camera or lens in the hand; it's incredible. No one can doubt the quality of the photos such cameras and lenses can produce, either. They have soul, and they have raw technical ability.
It is also fairly said that one had to be a proper photographer to get the best out of these instruments, and modern cameras do good work without requiring that the photographer know what they are doing. Well, that's the way it goes. There are still things that a camera cannot do for the photographer, such as deciding what to take a photograph of, how to frame it, where the point of interest is, and so on. I hear that some of the modern cameras even have menu choices now for things like 'Rule of Thirds'. Yeah, good luck with that; cameras will never know when to break rules, even assuming they can figure out how to apply them.
But having said that, a camera is a tool. Digital cameras can be fantastic tools, and if you choose to get over the bias and look at them honestly, they can be set to work in many of the ways old codgers like you and me find most efficacious. I like shooting full manual on my Pentax dSLR cameras, and I've got exactly as much control as I did when I shot film; even more, since I can also control things like ISO now without hurriedly changing a roll of film mid-roll. All the tricks, all the techniques that I learned in the old days still apply. The only thing that has changed is that my fingers don't smell like fixer anymore.
bspe
bspe
Yes all very true and respect for your preferences Wigwam.
The digital v analogue debate will go on and thats fine so long as we're mature about it.
For myself it's the 'journey' towards making a picture that's important and I actually like to stumble about in the dark, sniffing fixer, racking out an industrial enlarging machine and watching real materials react with each other ! In this all-too-virtual world we inhabit, it's nice to to work with something thats tangible.
It's also nice that in the right hands a £5 boot sale film camera can produce a print (and I mean a real print as opposed to an image on a screen) that can compete with the latest megapixel multi million £ DSLR. When I say compete I obviously don't mean in conveneince, but in terms of picture quality, contrast range of tones etc.
The £'s depreciation of modern photographic technology is also something I find hard to digest and the amount of stuff that becomes superceeded by the 'next best thing' and then ends up in the skip is crazy.
Not intending to trounce digital capture (I use it myself when needed) but my passion for things tangible often gets the better of me
PS: if you ever fancy a holiday in the UK come and stay with me, bring all your old Bronica and film stuff and I'll gladly relieve you of it !
The digital v analogue debate will go on and thats fine so long as we're mature about it.
For myself it's the 'journey' towards making a picture that's important and I actually like to stumble about in the dark, sniffing fixer, racking out an industrial enlarging machine and watching real materials react with each other ! In this all-too-virtual world we inhabit, it's nice to to work with something thats tangible.
It's also nice that in the right hands a £5 boot sale film camera can produce a print (and I mean a real print as opposed to an image on a screen) that can compete with the latest megapixel multi million £ DSLR. When I say compete I obviously don't mean in conveneince, but in terms of picture quality, contrast range of tones etc.
The £'s depreciation of modern photographic technology is also something I find hard to digest and the amount of stuff that becomes superceeded by the 'next best thing' and then ends up in the skip is crazy.
Not intending to trounce digital capture (I use it myself when needed) but my passion for things tangible often gets the better of me
PS: if you ever fancy a holiday in the UK come and stay with me, bring all your old Bronica and film stuff and I'll gladly relieve you of it !
ofajen
Daddy-O-Daddy-O-Baby
I think I've taken about 11,000 shots with my little Canon G3 since I picked it up cheap in about 2005 or so. Very little film shooting since then. It works fairly well for most things I want to do, but I'm shopping for a new digital, probably of the SLR type.
I did like film and still do. Once I started shooting MF, I learned to appreciate less wide aspects (6x6, 6x7, and 6x8) and 35mm seemed mostly too wide. So, I'd like a dSLR that lends itself to more "square" formats and multiple formats.
Of course the thing I miss from, say, the RB67, is the control of depth of field and the ability to really isolate a person and blur the background. That's the thing that a camera with a larger sensor can offer that is missing.
Until I decide what I want and can spend some money on it, I probably will shoot some MF portraits on occasion, but the vast majority of shots will be on the G3.
With the film cameras so devalued, I don't plan to sell them. I'll either keep them and display them in my office or give them to my friends if any get interested in shooting film.
Cheers,
Otto
I did like film and still do. Once I started shooting MF, I learned to appreciate less wide aspects (6x6, 6x7, and 6x8) and 35mm seemed mostly too wide. So, I'd like a dSLR that lends itself to more "square" formats and multiple formats.
Of course the thing I miss from, say, the RB67, is the control of depth of field and the ability to really isolate a person and blur the background. That's the thing that a camera with a larger sensor can offer that is missing.
Until I decide what I want and can spend some money on it, I probably will shoot some MF portraits on occasion, but the vast majority of shots will be on the G3.
With the film cameras so devalued, I don't plan to sell them. I'll either keep them and display them in my office or give them to my friends if any get interested in shooting film.
Cheers,
Otto
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Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
You were saying?
Punk Statement by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr
Brother-in-Law Gregory by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr
I just use those great old manual focus lenses (one German, one American) from a bygone era and work 'em on my small-sensor digital camera. Seems to work for me...
But I do still have people tell me it can't be done...
Brian
An Old Geezer
I tried Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Sony and, Sigma dslrs before deciding on the Oly (originally E-500, ten traded to the 520). All drove me crazy. The Oly has buttons, thumbwheel, etc. but, they are shortcuts to the software. Worse is something like 6 types of metering, 3 different focus points that are selectable, going from continious autofocus to single, blah blah. My goal was to move to digital but, the best I could do to get the control I wanted was to go to manual iso, manual focus, manual aperature and shutter speeds. I wish they'd come out with an all manual dslr with a prime lens w/ DoF markings.
Sadly, I see so many technically acceptable, as to exposure, but uninteresting partly b/c of violations of basic rules or original thought, conveying little story or emotion. OTOH, it has expanded interest in photography. Sadly, I suspect fewer will survive a couple of generations due to the nonarchival media storage systems we currently have.
Add to my frustration that my kid also uses the dslr and he sets it up very differently, almost every option. I can not use it without resetting it that takes several minutes. With the Bronica, slap on a different back and possibly change viewfinders; about 30 seconds to go from his Bronica setup to mine.
For me it was deciding I did not like it and then found reasons but for these reasons found I did not like it, the cameras, not digital. Iwish I could snap a digital back on my Rollei or Bronica. Fuji has a series moving towards being interesting.
I do have a AE finder for the Bronica but, generally use the wl or non-metered prism and either a Weston Ranger or Metrawatt meter. Also, keep practicing the Sunny 16 rule to stay sharp. The adaptors with batteries last more than 3 years in them.
My Bronica has more value than the Oly to me but, resale pricing is fa below the value. Unless and until that reverses, no reason to think of selling. I've owned for a quarter century so in no hurry.
I totally agree with your 2nd to last aragraph and 1st sentence of your last.
I another generation using a film camera will be like using something like a person using something like a Speed Graphic today as their main camera.
Sadly, I see so many technically acceptable, as to exposure, but uninteresting partly b/c of violations of basic rules or original thought, conveying little story or emotion. OTOH, it has expanded interest in photography. Sadly, I suspect fewer will survive a couple of generations due to the nonarchival media storage systems we currently have.
Add to my frustration that my kid also uses the dslr and he sets it up very differently, almost every option. I can not use it without resetting it that takes several minutes. With the Bronica, slap on a different back and possibly change viewfinders; about 30 seconds to go from his Bronica setup to mine.
For me it was deciding I did not like it and then found reasons but for these reasons found I did not like it, the cameras, not digital. Iwish I could snap a digital back on my Rollei or Bronica. Fuji has a series moving towards being interesting.
I do have a AE finder for the Bronica but, generally use the wl or non-metered prism and either a Weston Ranger or Metrawatt meter. Also, keep practicing the Sunny 16 rule to stay sharp. The adaptors with batteries last more than 3 years in them.
My Bronica has more value than the Oly to me but, resale pricing is fa below the value. Unless and until that reverses, no reason to think of selling. I've owned for a quarter century so in no hurry.
I totally agree with your 2nd to last aragraph and 1st sentence of your last.
I another generation using a film camera will be like using something like a person using something like a Speed Graphic today as their main camera.
eddantes
Drone, Sector 7-G
I was a photographer in another life. After having sold my 4x5 and MF Bronica I bought a cheap Canon Rebel XS and have never looked back. It has the smaller sensor but still takes standard EF lenses so I just reused all my old lenses. I only use fast fixed lenses (the cheap stuff like the 1.8 50 and 2.8 28, though I am craving something truly wide...) and I can still take a fenom. pic if I care to do so. All the bokeh I could ever want and since it's digital - I can take 10 exposures where before I might have taken 2. Lazy? Might be - but I know I got it in the bag. Oh... and if I do miss it with regards to exposure, composition or focus - those multiple exposures come in handy for composting what I wanted to take in the first place in Photoshop. In the end - do I have on my wall what I had in my minds eye? If yes - all is good.