Digital Backlash?

drewbarb said:
A digital FM2 with 5 or 6 megapixels (or more) would be all I'd ever need- and I too would be happy enough to buy a new one when they double the pixel count or make other similar upgrades to image quality. Hell, I'd buy two or three cameras like that.
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Economy of scale is working against you, this camera would be more expensive than a massproduced full featured camera. Remember the the Epson R-D1, it was more than double the price of dSLRs with the same sensor.

As the 6Mpixel Sony sensor could be fitted into a Bessa R I'm sure the current 10MPixel sensor could be fitted into a VSL43 or Bessaflex, but would you pay some $2500-3000 for it when you can have a Pentax K100D for a couple 100?
 
Wow, thanks everyone for contributing to this thread...

Thursday night I was asked to take some pics of students to frame and display around the school. (I was asked to do this earlier, but procrastinated...) I would post some, but (no offense) I'm a little squemish of posting people shots on the web who might not want their pics posted.

Of the several fixed lens rangefinders I own (Lynx 14, Konica S3, Yashica CC, GSN) I designated the GSN as my "school" camera. (Lynx is my indoor home camera, S3 and CC take turns as my walking around cameras/street shooters...) I wanted to "get out of there" and go home, so I snapped a roll and a half of film in about 20 minutes. One was a full roll of 36 Kodak UC Professonal, the other was about 1/3 a roll of Kodak Gold 200.

Practical advantages:

1. Fast. The GSN is the fastest camera to operate imo, this includes digital. Shot about 50 frames in 20 minutes - 1/2 hour, mostly all candids of students and instructors.

2. Fast. The lens that is... Shot both at ASA 200 (I like the look of UC stopped down a stop...) No need of a flash with a good f1.7 lens you can shoot hand-held at 1/30. Shot at night, with just (yecchy) florescent lighting. Printer made the necessary adjustments, images look fine with "perhaps" only a very slight cast evident.

3. Fast. Got film developed and printed in less than an hour, while I ordered a pizza for dinner and picked out a nice Pinot Noir at the wine shop. No futzing in Photoshop fiddeling with curves, sharpening, cropping... etc. How long does it take to print 60 frames with a software-computer- inkjet combo? (What's the cost in expensive inks and paper? About the same as processing, perhaps a little less...)

4. Fast. When I picked up the 6X4 proofs, I pulled out 15 right there to have enlarged to 8X10s. Had me pizza, glass of red... drove back to the photoshop got there before they closed. Picked them up...

(The wine store, camera shop (with a good/big Fuji C41 processor), and a good pizza place are all in the same strip mall about 1/2 mile from my house...)

5. Fun...

6. "Considerate/Inobtrusive" Though the GSN isn't the smallest camera I own - no flash needed, fast to focus, and nearly silent "click" of the shutter = great camera for candids. No giant 3.5-5.6 zoom lens with pedal hood and giant flash attachment. zapping people with autofocus preflash, then blinding them with a flash, causing subjects to see the negative imprint of the flash burned into their iris for the next several minutes...

It's not for sentimental reasons I shoot almost always with film these days but for practical considerations, including equipment costs.
 
Kin Lau said:
Does it actually come standard? I have aftermarket focusing screens on my 20D & 300D that I installed myself, but I wasn't aware of any dslr that came with one as standard equipment.
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Kin: Gene has a *istDS2, and I have looked through it. The vf is quite nice, and appears big and pretty right, however they do it. It is not OM or Bessaflex class, but it is more than acceptable. At the next meet, maybe he'll tote it along and you can have a peek.
 
Very interesting thread. About two weeks ago, I found myself shopping with a good friend for his daughter's first "serious" camera for a high school photography class. The instructor specified a non-AF, non-AE 35mm SLR, so I took him to Central Camera in Chicago, which has a good selection of used SLR's. We looked at Pentax K's and Spotmatics, even a decently priced Nikon F2 body, but he happily settled on a new Cosina-manufactured K-mount SLR with a 50mm f1.8 (one-year warranty). The point is that it's encouraging that this next generation of photographers still wants to learn traditional film-based "analog" image-making, including film processing and silver-based printing. But the upshot was that I returned a couple of days ago and bought the Nikon F2 for myself. :eek:
 
...he happily settled on a new Cosina-manufactured K-mount SLR with a 50mm f1.8 - l.mar
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I have that camera - love it. Or I should say, its ancestor, the V3000s. They're basically the same Cosina made camera for the past couple decades. It's the only 35mm SLR, I want, need, have... Purchased circa 1990 at K-Mart for around $100 with an okay f1.7 50mm prime. I wanted a Pentax K1000 but when I saw that one sitting in the counter looking sexy and cheap - all in black, I snapped it up. Its body is more compact than most the rangefinders I own, and is quite light. Great choice, imo, even if it's not a "name" camera. 1-2000 shutter speed + bulb, keeps the light out... Worked for the last 17 years except for once when it jammed an a good thwack with the palm unjammed it...

This has become my portrait camera - and I've basically converted it to an M42.
50/f1.8 Pancolar, 35/f2.4 Zeiss Jena Flektogon...

But the lens I usually have on this one is the Jupiter 9 portrait lens... simply excellent, and inexpensive realtive to other top-notch fast portrait lenses.

Hope you don't mind some recommendations for your friend:

1. M42 adaptor to play with those M42 lenses... (Note, however, they're a pain to get off and on...)

2. 24mm Sigma F2.8. Photodo MTF rates this lens at 4.4 - right up there with the modern Leicas. Excellent fast wide-angle lens, and dirt cheap given its specs. This lens is in Pentax K mount only.
 
Yes, that sounds much like the camera he ended up buying. Felt solid enough, although definitely much lighter than the F2 or the Pentax K1000 I handled that same day. The chassis and controls felt oddly similar to those on the Cosina "Bessa" rangefinder series (gee, I wonder why...:p) Thanks for the lens suggestions --- I'll definitely pass them on.

NickTrop said:
...he happily settled on a new Cosina-manufactured K-mount SLR with a 50mm f1.8 - l.mar
-------------

I have that camera - love it. Or I should say, its ancestor, the V3000s. They're basically the same Cosina made camera for the past couple decades. It's the only 35mm SLR, I want, need, have... Purchased circa 1990 at K-Mart for around $100 with an okay f1.7 50mm prime. I wanted a Pentax K1000 but when I saw that one sitting in the counter looking sexy and cheap - all in black, I snapped it up. Its body is more compact than most the rangefinders I own, and is quite light. Great choice, imo, even if it's not a "name" camera. 1-2000 shutter speed + bulb, keeps the light out... Worked for the last 17 years except for once when it jammed an a good thwack with the palm unjammed it...

This has become my portrait camera - and I've basically converted it to an M42.
50/f1.8 Pancolar, 35/f2.4 Zeiss Jena Flektogon...

But the lens I usually have on this one is the Jupiter 9 portrait lens... simply excellent, and inexpensive realtive to other top-notch fast portrait lenses.

Hope you don't mind some recommendations for your friend:

1. M42 adaptor to play with those M42 lenses... (Note, however, they're a pain to get off and on...)

2. 24mm Sigma F2.8. Photodo MTF rates this lens at 4.4 - right up there with the modern Leicas. Excellent fast wide-angle lens, and dirt cheap given its specs. This lens is in Pentax K mount only.
Click to expand...
 
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