Digicam as RF

[GeneW]

This is just me musing. I like and use my traditional RF cameras a lot so I'm not getting into one of those film vs digital things.

Two years ago I wanted to try digital and picked up a Canon G2 -- a decent "prosumer" model with a 35-100mm rough equivalent of 35mm. A P&S when you want it, with full manual override. A decent 4 megapixel sensor.

Now that I have a DSLR (mainly for my nature photography) I find I'm using the G2 more and more as a city cam, in the same way I'd use an RF. I close the LCD panel and use the optical viewfinder. The fast lens -- f/2 at wide angle -- allows me the kinds of shots I take with RF.

Just wondered if anyone else has been experimenting with a digicam for RF style photography. Here's an example of a shot I took two weeks ago on my way to a breakfast meeting with a friend.

Gene

 

[Maccabi92]

I love my G2, it serves me well. I live in Rochester, film is king, but Kodak too has moved on to digital. I have some great Polaroids. Keep taking pictures!

 

[chenick]

I have a Pentax Optio S which travels everywhere with me. It's so small that it's very very easy. When driving I keep it in the door pocket, set to Infinity focus to avoid focus lag so I can just fire at will.

Pity the lens is soft and there's no manual aperture or shutter controls. 🙁

Photo below was taken through the sunroof, while stopped for a few seconds in traffic. Was so bright I couldn't see much so it came out rather well.

-Nick

 

[bmattock]

I'm not anti-digital. I'm anti-digital for ME for NOW. I have three digital cameras - representing first, second, and third gen digital cameras. My wife has a great Nikon Coolpix 995. But I've been through the expense and the pain, and now I'll wait for awhile before diving back in. Film is just fine for me for now and perhaps for a long time to come.

I have an Olympus D-40. I got it when I was a road-warrior, since it was small and I was on a plane twice a week. I used it, it worked well, I liked the images it produced. Then it started gobbling up batteries. Like 3 or 4 shots from hi-capacity nimh batteries, which I replaced with new and 'aged' and charged with recommended hi-quality slow chargers, etc, appropriately. Major suckage. Called Olympus - they'd fix it for $180. Yeah, right; I paid only $270 for it two years ago.

However, it still serves a purpose - I use it in the house to take photos of my classic rangefinders for my camera reviews. I don't take it outside much anymore.

In any case, I found that even when it worked properly, it had some limitations that kept it from being an ideal street camera. One was the noise it made - beeps and clicks and such. I finally figured out how to turn those off through the menus. Second was that although it had 'manual' controls, they were mostly accessible only via menu; rather tedious when trying to set up for a shot outdoors and you can't even read the lcd, let alone go through the various levels of menus to change aperture or shutter speed. And on top of that, at times it would decide that it just didn't like my choice, and it would refuse to change to the setting I wanted. "Nope, not letting you use f2.8 @ 1/125, I know better than you." Third and finally, it was too slow. I'd compose, set up my focus pre-set by half-pressing the shutter release, then my subject would move and before I could release the shutter release and half-press it again so it would refocus, the subject or the moment was gone. Arg! Nope, no more of that nonsense for me. I press the shutter, I want a click. NOW. If I set the aperture at f2.8, then that's what I want - no argument.

I know digital cameras are getting better and addressing those shortcomings. Very cool - I do like them. But I'll wait now. I was in on gen 1, gen 2, and gen 3 of the digital cameras era. Now I'll wait for maybe gen 10 and buy gen 8 at that time. Should be cheap and good by then. Maybe another couple of years, maybe sooner. I really like the Pentax *istD, but it has to be less than $500 or I won't even consider it.

And don't bother quoting to me the latest models and their response times, start-up times, etc. I appreciate it all - and I *do* keep up with them on Steve's Digicams, etc. I'm interested. But I'm not buying again for awhile yet. Prices must drop more, quality must get better. No more bleeding edge for me!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ZeissFan]

Bill, I'm with you in that I was an early adopter but more or less use them (Coolpix 700, 950 and a Sony Mavica CD500) only for taking photos of my film cameras.

The life cycle of digital cameras is too darn short, and the price too darn high. For what you pay for a high-end consumer digital camera, you can buy nine or 10 classic cameras and have a lot more fun (my opinion).

Currently, I'm playing around with the Contessa S 310 and a Rollei A26 (126 film camera).

Bill, I loved your piece on the Agfa Karat, and it inspired me to pre-load a cartridge for my Agfa Karat 12. Unfortunately, your results far surpassed mine!

I have a "Mess" Ikonta C on the way -- I'm really excited about taking that for a spin.

Digital cameras just don't excite me the way that the older cameras do.

By the way, kudos to Gene and Nick on their photos. Didn't mean to denigrate your work in any way with my semi-rant.

I still have an Epson Photo PC 500 -- excellent colors for a 1/2-megapixel camera. Or was the resolution even that high?

 

[GeneW]

I hear y'all. I should add that I purchased my Leica CL after I was already moving into digital. There were a few reasons for it, one being that I'd always wanted to shoot with one but, in my earlier life, just couldn't afford it. I really wanted to own and use one good rangefinder in my lifetime.

I'm enjoying digital more than some of you, from what I read in the forum. That's fine. It meets my needs for a lot of my photography but I'm not a pusher 🙂 I respect photography and good photographers, period. No matter what equipment is being used.

There is a lot to be said for simplicity and mechanical cams.

Cheers,
Gene

 

[chenick]

Well I love my little digicam, despite it's many faults. 🙂

However these faults are what gave me the idea of getting a manual camera... I don't seeing myself getting a better digicam for a long time, until I can focus, change shutter speed/aperture like on a manual camera, none of this menu, submenu stuff.... and at a reasonable price!

In the meantime there are lots of nice rangefinders looking for a good home!

-Nick