Thinking of Going Digital

[minoltaman]

I've recently shot a few rolls of color negative film on a trip to Upstate New York. Landscapes, waterfalls, flowers, old barns, farms, etc. Took the X700.

I used some expired Kodak film, 100 and 200, which I bought at a tag sale for 50 cents, which I guess was my first mistake. Never will I use expired film again no matter what.

Second mistake was that I took advice from some guy and used an 81A softening filter which he said would soften alot of the harsh midday sun light. Awful decision on my part. Almost all the photos came out with muted colors and a funky haze.

Lastly, the processing place I took the two rolls of film for processing lost one of my rolls!! The guy said I only dropped of one! I said you guys must've mixed up my second roll with someone else's. That was two days ago and I've yet to hear from them. I'm so disgusted.

This experience has forced me to come to terms with the limits of my photographic skills. I made some terrible decisions and although I'll be back in Upstate NY soon, I've wasted time and money. This has forced me to look into going digital. Since I'm just a photography hobbyist, I think for the sake of my sanity and wallet, I'm now looking at some advanced point and shoot digitals in the $250-$300 range.

Any thoughts?

[Reiska]

There is no question mark after that headline so why not, just do it. I have made that decision years ago. My reason was that I love (like) cameras and actually all kind of technical and optical gadgets and I collect film cameras for the reason I mentioned before. I can not see any conflict in it.

Of course I like to use old film cameras occasionally, I hope more frequently than I have used. Just like if I had some vintage car I would use it on a sunny day for cruising around. Not for a drive to work.

With $200-$300 you can get a decent pixel-beast. I should say, that keep in a known brands, Canon, Nikon, Olympus etc. so you would not be disappointed. dpreview is a good place to make comparisons.

Regards

[GeneW]

One of the things I like about the Camera Collector forum is that there's no pronounced anti-digital bias, as there is on some other film-cam related groups. I've been using digital for a bit over five years now and have loved it. For its convenience, of course, and for the little ultralight cameras you can carry with you everywhere and still get respectable shots. I still shoot film regularly as well. I don't thing one excludes the other.

Gene

[TimH.]

That's definitely the spirit around here. Live and let live, and use the best tool for the job. In fact, if it's appropriate, do an oil-painting.

The only exception is the friend of mine who changed to digital, according to him, because he kept taking rubbish pictures with film. So he changed to taking rubbish pictures with digital instead. But at least it cost him less.

[minoltaman]

Thank you gentlemen. My previous aversion to going digital has been wiped away by these recent experiences with film. I think once you start using a digital camera, the ease and predictability of them would render using film cameras as impractical. If I start using digital, I'd probably never use film again, but that's just me.

I love film cameras, especially my Minolta SLRs. I'm a stubborn believer in the so-called "art" of film photography but it's come to pass that I can't justify the expenses and unpredictability of using film while also carrying around a bag of lenses and filters with me wherever I go. It slows me down.

I used film all through my travels through Europe in years past but if I went on a major trip again today, I wouldn't even think of using a film camera anymore.

I've always felt that digital cameras produced flat and lifeless photos but after getting flat and lifeless photos from my film cameras, I dunno anymore.

I'm probably just losing my touch. Thanks for listening.

[minoltaman]

reiska said:

With $200-$300 you can get a decent pixel-beast. I should say, that keep in a known brands, Canon, Nikon, Olympus etc. so you would not be disappointed. dpreview is a good place to make comparisons.

What do you think of Kodak's advanced digital point and shoots with the Schneider lenses?

[galenk]

I just bought a kodak Z650 6.1 mp with 10x zoom and like it a lot. It's light and compact and feels like a small slr, gave $189 for it

[herron]

reiska said:

........Of course I like to use old film cameras occasionally, I hope more frequently than I have used. Just like if I had some vintage car I would use it on a sunny day for cruising around. Not for a drive to work.....Regards

My sentiments too, although not exactly. I still love my old film cameras, and take the vast majority of my images with them.

However, I also have a Canon 300-D dSLR, and just picked up a Canon Powershot A410 (3.2mp) for a song. I also have an old Corvette, that I don't drive very much (less than 2000 miles all last year) and I don't drive at all if it's not a nice sunny day. Same feeling, I guess. I wouldn't trade the Vette, because I like driving it, and I wouldn't abandon my film cameras, either, because I like using them.

[Reiska]

Kodak Z650 6.1 or even Z710 stays inside your budgeting. My opinion is, that Kodak is so proud and valued manufacturer, that it will not introduce any clearly low quality product. "Z Kodak" cameras are pretty big sized so, you have to decide whether you want, a tiny pocket camera or a bigger and more featured one. Lens (the zoom range) is the biggest difference between these two options.

Kodak cameras are to manufactured mostly in China (Flextronics, Singapore) but there is no significance to day where the production is. Anyway, as a brand, Kodak is the most American digital camera.

[kiev4a]

Since getting my Nikon D100 "collecting" is the key word with film cameras. I do intend to take out a Zorki and or FED this summer and shoot some B&W, however.

My dilemma now concerns my Nikon FM and F3HP. I know I'm probably not going to use them (I've got a couple if "Fs" for shooting black and white) I hate to see the newer cameras languishing but can't get as much as I think they are worth by selling them.

As I have stated previously, I would pr0bably be more inclined to shoot color with film if I had a good dedicated film scanner rather than a flatbed. But the price of something like a Coolscan V is up there near the price of a D200 camera, plus the time required to scan properly is mich higher than post processing a RAW digital file. And when I compare the D100 shots to scanned color shots well, there simply isn't a comparison. The digital wins.

[nikonbob]

Sorry to hear about your recent run of bad luck with film cameras. I do use digital cameras of the P&S variety and find they give good results. They are less hassle when traveling overseas by air and can be a good learning tool with their instant feed back. Be aware that it is also possible to loose photos with a digicam be accidentally erasing them or through a technical malfunction of the card or camera. It is a case of trading some possible problems for other different ones. Like others here I still use my film cameras a lot and like using the older technology. There certainly is room for both in a camera bag. There is such a variety of models out there that coming to a decision on which is best for you can be a hassle. Do a lot of research on the net and operate a few on the short list at a store before you buy to see if it really is for you. Have fun.

Bob

[minoltaman]

Thanks NikonBob for the good advice. A few months I shot about 4 rolls of film on a trip to Florida. One of those rolls I had processed was blank! A complete bummer.

I'm looking into some of Kodak's Z series digital cameras because they have the look of an SLR without the DSLR's enormous price tag and also have aperture/shutter priority functions as well as many others. And for the price of these cameras.....well, that's like the price of processing 10 rolls of film!

I knew I'd have to face reality one day.

[kiev4a]

Kodak makes some excellent point and shoots. Some of the Fujis have the look of a DSLR, too.

[minoltaman]

Just bought a Kodak Z710 digital directly from Kodak, and they threw in a 1GB card for free. The camera has the Schneider Krueznach lens. It's done and there's no turning back now!

Got a bunch of my old film cameras that I'll be listing on ebay very soon. I'll probably just keep my XG-1 for some black & white photography.

[kiev4a]

The only thing that steered me away from point and shoots is shutter lag. With my Canon A80 I would try to shoot pictures of my granddaughter. I would push the shutter release and by the time the camera fired she would be in another room. I suspect a lot of the newer P&Ss have solved that problem.