Leica Man

[daveh]

At the steam fair on Sunday gone there was someone sporting a Leica M7 with B&W film in place. It turned out he had just about every M series film camera, as well as at least one digital version. With the lenses, quite a few bobs worth.

He said he got into photography with a digital camera several years ago and had 'regressed' to B&W printing the proper way.

Most of us have done it the the other way round.

That said, my brother has an enlarger he doesn't want, so even if my nephew hasn't still got my Opemus, I might do a little B&W enlarging myself. I have never found inkjet printers that good for B&W. Perhaps if I had the Canon 9500 (or another with several black/grey cartridges), I would think differently.

(correcting an error)

[Deleted]

A friend of mine has a Leica 9 digital. He says it doesn't handle colors as well as his Nikon D700 does--which costs A LOT less than a Leica 9.

I may still occasionally shoot a roll of film. I think it's been about a year since the last time I shot film. But I could never go back to the darkroom and trays and enlargers, now.

W

[nikonbob]

Dave

I have never printed traditionally, I have always had a hybrid work flow. When I shot film it was scan and print with an ink jet. I have had two printers, both HPs, the last having the grey cartridge. The last one, an HP 7960, has given me good B&W prints. That is good to my eye and likely not to a fine art aficionado. Ink jet printers are cheap these days, especially if you only need 8x10s.

Bob

[herron]

I grew up with darkrooms, red safe lights, projection enlargers and trays of chemicals. Don't miss them much. Still shoot some B&W film (and process it myself), but the computer is now my darkroom.

[Rachel]

A friend of mine has just told me that he has ordered a Leica M9. He is a dyed-in-the-wool Leica man but one could buy a small car for that money

[daveh]

Rachel, as you say the cost of Leica equipment is quite frightening. Lovely stuff, but......

[barbarian]

I, too, grew up with chemicals and trays and enlargers. But I'll never forget the thrill of seeing the image come up out of the paper.

[daveh]

barbarian, quite so. There is a magic to it that seems to be missing in the modern method. Perhaps though the magic is getting one decent print after spending hours in the darkroom - this modern stuff is too predictable in its ease of getting it right.

[mickeyobe]

See-sawing a roll of B&W orthochromatic film in an open tray under a ruby light and watching that image magically appear is what hooked me on photography 66 years ago.
I never became fond of darkroom work although I still have a well equipped one sitting unused and unloved in my basement. It has been 5 or 6 or more years since it smelled like a fish and chip shop.

I have a treat to use Durst 605 enlarger with dichroic colour head, an electronic Vivitar Process Time Commander, a Besler PM2L Colour Analyzer, and those great developing drums by Cibachrome, Unicolour and Besler and other nice, now useless paraphernalia that presently constitute part of my collection of photographic equipment.

I prefer working from a comfortable chair rather than a cement floor and getting my pictures in minutes rather than hours. I doubt that I could now stoop over an enlarger magnifier and then straighten up. I would not, could not go back to the "good old days."

However, If I could get my precious Canon T90 camera made digital I would eagerly take that one retrograde step. I miss it.

Mickey

[daveh]

Mickey, I did have a vision of those clever Chinese making a little cassette with flexible CCD sensor so an old camera could be used as it always was, except the result was digital. I might make one, patent it and earn my millions.

Dave.

[mickeyobe]

Dave,

"I might make one, patent it and earn my millions."

You may consider this your first confirmed order.

Mickey

[nikonbob]

Mickey and Dave

IIRC some 10 or more years ago some company was making noises about introducing a cassette that took the place of film and had a digital sensor. It may have been called efilm at that time but it never made the light of day.

Bob

[daveh]

Bob, I didn't know that. It would be easiest on those cameras with a removable back I would think. There are some for the posh medium-format cameras I believe, but I've never really properly investigated them

[nikonbob]

Dave

The device did not call for a removable back of any sort. I appeared to simply take the place of a film canister with what appeared to be something like a tongue of film protruding into the shutter opening. I think there are a few people who might want a digi-back for,as you say, a camera with a removable back. I would not mind one for my FM/FE bodies even if it were the same cost as present consumer grade DSLRs. The ability to recycle film cameras and work with a preferred control layout would make it worth it for me. Especially considering a Leica M9 is way out there on the price to value ratio for me to even consider.

Bob

[PeterW]

Bob, I too would like a digital back for some of my Canons, but I don't think anyone is likely to produce one.

Just as well, perhaps, it would send the price of top quality used film cameras way back up again.

PeterW