Embracing digital

[raid]

I like film and digital. The M8 and the M9 give me high quality images. The EP2 is also good when the lenses are exceptionlly good. With film, almost any csmera is good.

 

[kuzano]

The legacy we leave behind....

The legacy we leave behind....

Being extremely connected to the "Legacy we leave behind", and the impact of my photography on the world in the future, digital doesn't cut it.

I've been shooting digital since the Logitech Fotoman came out in the early 90's, doing this alongside film.

The realization that digital is not likely to ever achieve a longevity in archive much more than 10, perhaps 15 years is a deterrent to me for leaving film altogether. I have prints and negs and transparencies that go back 30-40 years.

I do not have digital files back to anywhere near the beginning of when I started taking pictures with digital, and I have been religiously migrating my files forward as technology has evolved. Still lost a lot in the process. In addition, files are degraded just a little bit, due to "signal noise" on every migration, or new write to newer media.

Now, it turns out that optical media is ROTTING as I type this. If I sit quietly, I can almost hear the sound of the chemical reactions rotting into the substrate of the DVD's, sitting in the file drawer next to me, here at my computer. (Search CD or DVD ROT, on the internet)

And other storage media tending to lose access after ten years of sitting idle? Hard Drives that do not respond to simple inquiry because of idle non use?

And who is going to carry my work forward? Who is going to migrate those digital files to new media?

It's heart wrenching to know that all my work may be inaccessible within ten years of my demise. What will be left for Humanity? Will anyone recall my greatest works?

And even short of that, If Iran, or North Korea, drop the big one anywhere within the range of an EMP from my location... well.... need I say more.

Oh, the futility.....

But my Prints, My Negatives, My Transparencies... Yes!! Therein lies the hope that my vast body of analog work will survive...

And yet.... YOU ALL THINK I JEST... Methinketh NOT~~~

The promise of digital is seductive, but the Reality of Retention is Harsh!

 

[jsrockit]

And who is going to carry my work forward? Who is going to migrate those digital files to new media?

It's heart wrenching to know that all my work may be inaccessible within ten years of my demise. What will be left for Humanity? Will anyone recall my greatest works?

And even short of that, If Iran, or North Korea, drop the big one anywhere within the range of an EMP from my location... well.... need I say more.

Oh, the futility.....

But my Prints, My Negatives, My Transparencies... Yes!! Therein lies the hope that my vast body of analog work will survive...

You can make prints from digital too. Also, will anyone really care about your stuff it actually survives? No way to predict that.

 

[shadowfox]

I started photography with digital, so I guess I had embraced it fully since the beginning.

But film introduced me to a whole new world of photography... and to darkroom printing. Now I have no desire to escape from that world. Though I still shoot digital whenever I want to.

 

[kxl]

I started to shoot digital sometime in 2002; since then, except for the extremely rare desire to shoot slides, the only film I shoot is B&W film.

Even when shooting B&W film, I only seem to gravitate toward my ZI's. I am using my film SLR less and less and may soon sell it. For digital photos, I use a Nikon D700, a Sony NEX6 and an IR-converted NEX3.

 

[peterm1]

I started to shoot digital sometime in 2002; since then, except for the extremely rare desire to shoot slides, the only film I shoot is B&W film.

Even when shooting B&W film, I only seem to gravitate toward my ZI's. I am using my film SLR less and less and may soon sell it. For digital photos, I use a Nikon D700, a Sony NEX6 and an IR-converted NEX3.

Something the same here. I had a large collection of SLR and rangefinder cameras and lenses and shot them constantly till around 2002/03 approx. This is when reasonably good digital equipment began to become available and the price / quality ratio improved enough to warrant the shift. I started with a Sony (one of the models with a huge swivelling lenses hanging off the front) then graduated to a Nikon D70 when this model came out. Since then have not done much but fondle my older cameras - those that have not been sold off to fund digital equipment. Occasionally I may take a film camera out to shoot but increasingly I find the advantages of digital are so great that its hard to justify the time and extra expense. I now use an M8 and a Nikon D700 as my main digital kit backed up by a Sony NEX 5 and a Lumix GF1.

 

[airfrogusmc]

How many of you have fully embraced digital cameras?
I really enjoy shooting film, but I'm starting to less and less need to.
For one, it's expensive compared to digital.
Two, I just put the photos on my computer anyway. Although, I do like having negatives and prints. I would just need to not be lazy and get prints of my digital photos too.
Third, the future is only going to get more digital. I'm actually pursuing photography as a career so I'm thinking I might as well get used to digital, eh?
One thing that really bugs me about it though is trying to imagine not wanting to shoot my M6.

I went out of film kicking and screaming. It was sort of a perfect storm. Had to downsize (divorce) and not long after the split and loss of darkroom, my clients started pushing me in that direction. Have been totally digital since Dec 2005. Was never thrilled with digital B&W until I picked up an M Monochrom in Nov. I really like it.
All digital though there are times i really miss B&W film and the darkroom experience.

I make prints of my better personal work and all of the work I do professionally usually winds up in ads in newspapers, magazines, billboards, annual reports, corporate and university websites, etc.

 

[Stuart John]

I just can't fully embrace it. I like it for color but B&W film is where it is really at for me. Try as I may, I am always a little disappointed with I myself when I shoot digital and then try and convert it to B&W. I kind of feel like I am faking it. As much as I may like another persons digital B&W work and even if I can't tell another persons film from digital B&W images I just prefer to shoot B&W film for myself.

 

[f/14]

I spent 45 years using analog cameras and BW film. Plus the occasional colour slide film.
I have totally embraced digital, and have used nothing else for the last 5 years.
Technically film has nothing to offer any more.
Artistically, - that may be open for argument.
But, I still miss the processes and the smell of the chemicals.
And the sheer joy of placing a new film in the camera.
I put down some thoughts on this in http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130029

 

[Chris101]

I love digital photography. I do film for my (art) work, and use digital when I'm just having fun.

 

[Photo_Smith]

When I owned a lab back n the 1990's we were one of the first labs (in the world) to invest in a digital minilab, later followed by larger format printers and the then new Imacon 343.
Personally I started shooting digital (well MVC) in 1989 and bought a new Agfa 1280 in 1997; by the time the Canon D30 came out I had dispensed with all my film cameras and turned toward the future.
By 2001-2 I began to realise that digital was going to change the game in more ways than I could have imagined in 1996 when we started ploughing many hundreds of thousands into 'digitising' our lab.
People just weren't going to replace film shooting and processing with digital shooting and (lab) processing, it's easy to see now with hindsight, but back in 1996 we couldn't see Flickr coming.
By 2003 I decided to quit the partnership and change career, it was also the time I decided to shoot film again which for me just feels more tangible-real if you like.

Fast forward to now; Last month I sold my D700 and all lenses leaving me with just one digital camera; the ageing D2x used with AIS lenses which has no real worth so I'll use it for a while.
When (If) film no longer becomes available I'll just hang up my photographic hat, I have no interest in gear and the direction photography seems to be going.
But until then I'm enjoying making great images and having fun.

 

[Turtle]

I've been shooting DSLRs for a while for more commercially orientated work and like them. The 5D III has, for some reason, proven dramatically better than the Mk II in terms of dragging me in the digital world.

For personal work it has all been film and nothing I have used or see for B&W has threatened my stead Kodak and Ilford diet. Until the Monochrom came along, that is... a camera that will see me use less B&W film as time passes. I can see it coexisting with my Leica film bodies for many years to come.

 

[Spanik]

Only use digital these days if I know I want it on the pc/net and nowhere else. But I'd like to use a DP1 once to see if that wouldn't suit me.

 

[Aristophanes]

LIke both but there is no film processing save by mail order available where I live. The growing trend, obviously. It's not even possible to purchase film except by mail order.

Digital has conveniences and flexibility. Film has soul and discipline.