Give me reasons why I should keep my DSLR

[Uwe_Nds]

IMHO, this is a good reason to keep your DSLR.

Best regards,
Uwe

 

[Mike Wood]

Size is all

Size is all

"A DSLR can do anything a Leica or other rangefinder can ..." Well maybe you've got bigger pockets than me but the Nikon D80 couldn't fit in my jacket pocket. As others have pointed out, a DSLR may be good for people who take a lot of pics - and who don't mind lugging round a brick. I sold mine and bought a beautiful Biogon 21mm lens for the Contax IIa. I'm sure it will still be worth using in 10 years when the D80 is ancient technology - if it is even still working then.
I am not against digital. I just want to wait until there is a digital camera that can take pictures that match the quality of soething like the D80, but in a reasonable size package [and price].

 

[Bobfrance]

This thread has got me thinking.

Recently I've been considering selling my DSLR.
I hardly every use it but keep it "just in case". It seems a waste of money and I've though of using the cash I could get for it to put towards another rangefinder.
However on reflection It is good to have a digital camera around but maybe not a big bulky DSLR. the camera I always carry is my Ricoh GR-1, so perhaps my digital backup camera should be a Rocoh GRD?

 

[giellaleafapmu]

I dislike macro

😱 😱 😱 Dislike MACRO?!?!?!?!? 😱 😱 😱

I cannot believe what I come to read after a week I was away...

GLF

PS
Just kidding, the fact is that I LOVE macro! ...and I like this forum because there are so many different people!

 

[pvdhaar]

The main reason for me to have and keep the DSLR is its flexibility and dependability in adverse situations..

Of course this also implies a fast zoom lens and an external flash with all the essential features in..

 

[lilin menyala]

blacklight - my kind of thread exactly. i've gotten all my film cameras out of their boxes again because i came to realise that using my EOS 350D has taken all the fun out of photography. i seriously considered selling it as fast as i could and to spend the money on some extra lens or maybe just reinvesting it in a small pocketsize, but decent quality digital camera. but reading all these posts and thinking about it, i've decided to keep it. as someone else pointed out earlier, it's worth more than i would get for it and it does take great quality pics. it'll come in handy again some time...

 

[Finder]

I can't think of a single reason for you to keep your DSLR. Why not just send it to me?

 

[migtex]

The main reason is to have options. It's good to have options!
Unless you really need he money, then sell it, but you will have less options, besides it is not the material where you paint that makes the diference, it's the painter, in this case you can try new roads, new materials, new shades and light, new perspectives.
And being not a fundamentalist helps too, the world is tired of fundamentalisms (either sides), these "all Film" or "all Sensor", is so brain dead... IMHO of course.

Fight Ghetos, Mix is the answer! Enjoy Options!

 

[Al Patterson]

The main reason is to have options. It's good to have options!
Unless you really need he money, then sell it, but you will have less options, besides it is not the material where you paint that makes the diference, it's the painter, in this case you can try new roads, new materials, new shades and light, new perspectives.
And being not a fundamentalist helps too, the world is tired of fundamentalisms (either sides), these "all Film" or "all Sensor", is so brain dead... IMHO of course.

Fight Ghetos, Mix is the answer! Enjoy Options!

I concur. Film and digital is like hammer and screwdriver. They are only tools. I wouldn't take a rangefinder on a railroad photo charter that needed long zooms to get the shot, and I wouldn't take a DSLR with a long zoom to shoot street shots. Of course, YMMV...

 

[Kin Lau]

That makes a whole lot of sense. The 350D isn't too big like the sports shooter toys. The Canon 35/2.0 is small for an SLR lens and not terribly expensive. My only question: Does the 350D actually produce useful images at 1600? I ask because I have no clue. Not trying to start anything negative.

1600 is fine if keep the limitations in mind. Noise wise, I find it about the same as iso 400 using most consumer negative film.

Here's a recent shot at a street festival with my 20D + 85/1.8 @ iso1600. The 350D is the same noisewise. This is just a resized jpg, no noise reduction software was used.

 

[NickTrop]

If it's "gathering dust" it means you're not using it, it means you prefer other options. You will use it occasionally out of a sense of "obligation". Sell it! And quick! Digital equipment depreciates faster than the speed of light. Use the money to buy other photo stuff - more film, processing, filters, other accessories, a scanner, an enlarger. Get it out of your sight so it won't nag at you for not using it.

 

[shadowfox]

Hi,

since I started to shoot on film, my Canon 350D is gathering dust. The only thing that kept me so far from selling it is that I would get about 500$ less for it as I payed, which kinda sucks, but that's life. So what do you think, should I bite the dust and sell that thing or are there any reason why would you keep it?

P.S. Oh if only I'd discovered this forum before I got it :bang:

I have an Olympus E-300, and I would not part with it. The only reason I'll get rid of it is to fund its replacement, which will be another Olympus DLSR (waiting for the successor of the E-1).

DLSR is immensely useful, it has zero shutter-lag, old lens compatibility (some at least), and indispensable when you're learning off-camera flash/strobe lighting.

Don't get me wrong, I'm here on RFF because I just adore film photography, but I'll always have a DSLR and use it too.

Besides, what am I going to use for taking pictures of my film cameras if I get rid of my DSLR? 😉

 

[Eric T]

Keep the dSLR

Keep the dSLR

Rangefinders (digital or film and I have both - Leica M8 and IIIf) are great and are ideal under some situations. But when I have to have the shot, my Canon dSLR never fails. There are just too many situations when the Leicas are not ideal. Macro shots are difficult with Leicas. And forget distant telephoto action photos under low light when the focusing must be done perfectly and quickly - very difficult with a manual focus rangefinder.

So when my daughter is running a high school 3200 meter race late at night, I use my Canon 400D with an image stabilized, fast telephoto. But next week, when hiking in Hawaii, the M8 will be my primary camera.

So dSLRs and rangefinders both have their place in the photographic world and both can be enjoyed.

 

[arbib]

If you sell it, It is THEN you will have a need for it.
I'd keep it. It has it's strengths over a RF in some areas. And A RF has strengths over a DSLR or FSLR.

I own, 1 DSLR, 2 FSLR's (1-AF, 1-MF) and a RF needing a repair SOON !!!, I use all of them. I keep one of my FSLR's with me at all times. (until I get the RF fixed).

But when my film expence gets too high, I shoot with the DSLR.

Don't worry about the value. Your expertise in using it PUTS VALUE in it.

 

[TheHub]

I have the same camera (called the Kiss Digital N here.) I keep mine for auction photos - like the D1x I just sold a few weeks back 😀

 

[tedwhite]

I have a DSLR because I can make a lot more money with it than I can with a film camera. For example, recently I was engaged by a local artist to photograph his 4X4' painting, which will sell for $25K. I have a Rolleiflex, and its format (6X6) would be ideal. But then I'd have to farm out the 'chrome for processing. That would take a few days. When I got it back I would then have to send it to his agent in New York. A few more days.

So I shot it with my DSLR, put the images on a CD and overnighted it to New York. Everybody was much happier because these people are always in a hurry. Maybe that's what digital is all about...

But, when I'm shooting for myself, I usually use film.

 

[javimm]

Even if I have just bought my first rangefinder, a M6, and I'm planning to use it everywhere, I'll keep my 350D. It's a great camera, and proved to have very good image quality. It's served me well, since I have it. Now it's an outdated body, because the 400D is a reality, but I don't have plans to sell it. I'll keep it and shoot both film and digital. For me, digital has a lot of uses. Pictures of friends, you can email them quickly, pics for sells/auctions, tele and macro, you can review pics inmediately...
What made me buy a film camera again is that I'm starting to feel that the "digital look" is too cold for me. I've reviewed pictures from my compact film cameras, and even if the resolution of those is not great, the color of the pictures is. And B&W, it's just way better in film. If you want to get good quality prints from digital, you better do it yourself, learn about color profiles, calibrating printers and monitors, buying a printer, inks, and paper... Besides that, the color prints from local labs are worse than those processed in C41, just because C41 is a fixed process. Digital isn't. Every lab applies some kind of retouch to your jpgs, to "improve" them. I took some pictures in my sister's wedding, and the lab screwed the prints by not using the correct color profile I used (Adobe RGB), and using their own instead of converting. Result, greenish skin tones YUCK.


I took my 350D to Cuba, and I swore that it was the last time I'll ever carry the camera, a Canon 10-22, a Sigma 17-70, a Canon 75-300, and a Canon 50 1.8 during a 10 hour walk in La Habana. My back was hurting badly at the end of the day.

Javier.

 

[Spider67]

If it's "gathering dust" it means you're not using it, it means you prefer other options. You will use it occasionally out of a sense of "obligation". Sell it! And quick! Digital equipment depreciates faster than the speed of light. Use the money to buy other photo stuff - more film, processing, filters, other accessories, a scanner, an enlarger. Get it out of your sight so it won't nag at you for not using it.

I don't share the opinion but that's a clear statement few people dare to make.
It's a statement that you can agree or disagree. No trying to

OK. I disagree
Before selling think if you'll (financially) be able to replace it if you decide after a few weeks/month that a DSLR would be a nice backup.
Forget "purism" that is lurking through our brain on spidery legs: Digital exists; DSLR is one of it's best products.
I would keep it except the only gfamily car is needing a repair urgently!
Only reason I don't have a DSLR: I can't afford it right now. A thing I'd desperately want: A DSLR as handy as my Nikon FM or FG.

 

[blacklight]

Thanx for all responses. Eventually I've decided to sell it - because I really don't have a use for it now and even if I'd find one in the future I could buy it at probably half the price I'll sell it now. And it'll get me closer to my dream - M2 or M4 ..or some MF RF .. or some LF 🙂