Here's the deal...

aureliaaurita

aureliaaurita

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Apr 24, 2007
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I need to go digital, must. I am far too disorganised for film.

I bought a nikon dslr before christmas, sold it.

It's too big, too obtrusive and too expensive for me needs.

I am trying to find a a fixed lens camera, wide angle, under five hundred pounds with manual options.

So far all I have come up with is the gr digital and I believe that is all that exists??

I like it but have been informed by someone that has actually used the thing that it is utterly irritatingly slow-definetly not something I could deal with. I knew from the reviews it was poor when shooting RAW but this hadn't bothered me as I'd usually opt for JPG but apparently it's not much cop with that either.

Another option is the lumix:

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/creative/dmc-lx2eb-k/index.htm#

But again I wonder. I know their lenses aren't really leica equivalent but from the reviews they seem good in their own right.




http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.c … mId=798641

that's some of my photography...not much recent stuff but some.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea … e547df0a2d

bit more there....

That help?! Am really worried I'll choose the wrong jobby. The ricoh has a little more appeal for street work also as it doesn't look as though it's worth stealing.

Don't much like the 'prosumer' things. Would rather a bloody nice compact with manual settings and a wide lense-those are my basic requirements

I feel I am :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: and may just stick with the holga at this rate.
 
Film opens up your options significantly. And given your budget may be the only way to get the images you say you want.

Just sayin.

I can't think of any current digital options that really do what you want. Maybe the Olympus 5050, which you could find used. It had manual override, and you could preset focus distance. Nice sharp 1.8 lens on it, I think roughly 35mm equiv on the wide end.
 
Film is where it's at. b&w is easy to process at home, you don't even need a darkroom, just a changing bag, some Paterson tanks and reels and a few beakers for mixing chemicals in, you should be able to get everything you need secondhand. It's fun too, provided you don't drink the chemicals.

Failing that, your choices are pretty limited. I like my GRD but raw write times are completely useless if you want to shoot more than 5 pictures in a minute. B&W jpgs straight from the camera are very good though, and if you set it to snap focus there's no shutter lag either. Really quiet and discreet too.

Ian
 
There's a recent thread about the GX100 somewhere on here, opinion seemed not too favourable.

The GRD is fast enough for me with jpgs. Probably the only way to tell if you like it is to see if you can find somewhere to try one out.

Ian
 
Besides write times (especially RAW), the GRD is not slow; I usually shoot in "snap" mode (2.5m pre-focus) and there's practically no shutter lag. Even with AF it's very quick, look here.

I shoot JPG and ISO 800 all the time and I'm very happy; the noise looks better than on any other digital camera that I've used. Truly excellent stealth camera.. all the photos at http://2038.cc/ were taken with the GRD at ISO 800 (+a few 1600), no noise reduction, and certainly very few even realizing that I was taking pictures :)
 
aliceelizabeth said:
mmm I'm thinking of giving up and going film but it's a scary prospect.
Click to expand...

Nothing more scary than a corrupt memory card, or the archival capapbility of digital files. I actually believe that for the unorganized person such as myself, negatives are easier to file and keep track of than worrying about what computer I loaded the images on and did I back them up?

As others have said, make the most of your budget and use film based equipment. Unfortunately, although 500 pounds isn't a paltry sum, in the digital market it is somewhat limiting for pro-level equipment. There is plenty of used equipment out there, especially medium format if you fancy a go at that?

Cheers,

Scott
 
I'm living in cornwall so trying one out is looking none-too-possible, more a case of opting for a store with a no quibbles return policy.

How fast? what do you use it for?

I previously had an olympus digital point and shoot and all the stuff on my site there that wasn't taken on the holga can be attributed to that. It's more because I knew the camera itself 'wasn't so great' I paid more attention to what I was doing....i miss my shoddy little olympus.
 
Are you looking at the GX100? The GRD kit includes an optical viewfinder. Personally I prefer the 28/35 mini-finder from CameraQuest, I think it looks better & more discrete, plus the camera still fits in my pocket even with the finder on.
 
I would but it's a US site and I may be jipped with customs. Do all viewfinders fit on the hot shoes then? I wasn't aware they were standardised. £110 for a hole seems a bit steep though.
 
Wait for Backalley to chime in or hop over to DSLRx.com (sister site) where there's a couple of grd threads going as well.

The Sigma DP1 might be a good possibility.
 
I'm trying to think how to address your concern about being disorganized. All I can think is that you should plan to get a CD with each roll and copy the pictures to your computer. If you're not concerned with RAW then this is a viable approach.
 
They are standardised.
I live in Sweden bought my finder from CameraQuest, no problem with customs - it's so small you can send it by regular airmail (and it also helps if the declared value is low :)).
 
it's a life issue, doesn't just relate to cameras. I get my dad to back everything up everytime I go home-about once a month. He's the sensible one. What I loose I loose and it's entirely my fault, anything I am especially proud of is backed up right away.
 
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