I am digitaless

[amateriat]

I consider the possibility of getting rid of my film scanner to afford a real darkroom setup.

I am very near to doing that, if anyone wants a very clean Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro and a Canon IP5000. It will probably be in the classifieds sooner than later.

Don't ditch the scanner...I've got an Omega B22-based setup you can have crazy-dirt-cheap (I had dreams of setting it all up, then I moved...I'm lucky I can still process film).

I've yet to run into a digital camera I could learn to like, much less love (Olympus C8080 comes closest, and I'll probably get one for for some of the practical day-to-day stuff digicams are good for), but digital-darkroom tools are, IMO, way too useful to toss away, especially good scanners like yours.


- Barrett

 

[XAos]

I know I don't honestly have ALL that much invested in Kmount lenses. A 28-105/f2.8 Sigma., Tamron 24mm/2.8 and a few serviceable pawn shop specials. But I kinda liked the *ist DS for its low light capabilities too. I expect what will probably happen is that I'll pick up a 2nd hand DS when the new 10mp comes out. But when I bought my RB67 I decided I was gonna sit out a generation on the DSLR. I can spend this now on a consumer digicam, and it will be worth crap in 3 years. Or I can spend it on the RB and still have a phenomenal camera worth about the same thing in 3 years, then buy what I want. It's been hard to stick to my guns on that, but I'm trying. And it was still about half the cost of buying a DSLR at the time.

 

[Krasnaya_Zvezda]

I know just what you mean. I am happy with my *ist DS camera...
Bill Mattocks

Bill, how the heck do you pronounce "*ist DS"? I was in a discussion with someone regarding DSLRs and found myself at "... and Pentax has the... well, I don't know how you say it, but they have one."
I would appreciate it if you would enlighten me. About that, I mean.

 

[RJBender]

yeah. You're right. The prices on SLRs have dropped dramatically. I think for a different reason, though. They still have more value than an obsolete digicam.

I see Nikon F bodies go for decent prices, though.

About stores getting rid of their secondhand - I've seen that here in Seattle as well. Good for us, though. Means more stuff will hit the net, more people will be trying to sell their stuff off, and that means better prices.

I guess 35mm SLRs just fit the category that high end digital fills so well. We, the RF users, are safe in our spot for a while. Except for Leica, I don't see any major manufacturer breaking out a digital rangefinder. They just wouldn't have the market.

In the end, I think a film system has a higher inherent value. Or more accurately, I higher minimum value. A 6MP DSLR will drop to lower value over time than a good SLR like the Nikon F system. 35mm is always 35mm. Digital sensors will grow in numerous aspects from size to DMAX to resolution to color range.

During the computer boom, at the beginning when personal computers were taking over word processing, I remember people figured their typewriters would become worthless, impossible to sell. One might have said at the time that they would become utterly valueless . . .but a good typewriter is worth a larger portion of its initial value than is an ancient computer. You couldn't even GIVE a monster 1980s desktop away. Those ones with the green screens and 5 inch floppies.

Did you see what this F went for?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7612180365

R.J.

 

[Socke]

Did you see what this F went for?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7612180365

R.J.

And have you seen the prices for medium format cameras lately? The Contax 645 Kit with prism, 120 back and 80mm sold used for some 2000 Euro last year can be had for less than 1000 today! A friend thought about selling his Rollei 6006 with standard lens and was offered 500 Euro for the kit. It's now in a showcase.

A Contax RTSIII didn't sell for 400 Euro in the last six month at a local camera shop, they've got plenty Nikon F3s and F4s and some Canon 1v and 1n which don't move.

If you want an investment buy gold or diamonds but not cameras!

 

[ywenz]

And have you seen the prices for medium format cameras lately? The Contax 645 Kit with prism, 120 back and 80mm sold used for some 2000 Euro last year can be had for less than 1000 today! A friend thought about selling his Rollei 6006 with standard lens and was offered 500 Euro for the kit. It's now in a showcase.

A Contax RTSIII didn't sell for 400 Euro in the last six month at a local camera shop, they've got plenty Nikon F3s and F4s and some Canon 1v and 1n which don't move.

If you want an investment buy gold or diamonds but not cameras!

At least Leica still has that name prestige going for it... Contax!? Canon!? pfftt, they're dime a dozen..

 

[sf]

Did you see what this F went for?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7612180365

R.J.

There, good price on a film camera. No way you'd see that on a 10 year old digicam. Heck, you wouldn't even see a two year old DSLR going for 1/2 of its original price.

D70 kit went from $1600+ to $600 or so.

And by "Decent", I meant "high". Really, just that they retain value well - film cameras - unlike digicams which are like computers.

 

[RJBender]

And have you seen the prices for medium format cameras lately? The Contax 645 Kit with prism, 120 back and 80mm sold used for some 2000 Euro last year can be had for less than 1000 today! A friend thought about selling his Rollei 6006 with standard lens and was offered 500 Euro for the kit. It's now in a showcase.
A Contax RTSIII didn't sell for 400 Euro in the last six month at a local camera shop, they've got plenty Nikon F3s and F4s and some Canon 1v and 1n which don't move.

If you want an investment buy gold or diamonds but not cameras!

Your friend is lucky that he didn't get the Rollei digital back 8-10 years ago.
$17,000 MSRP
2048x2048 pixels

R.J.

 

[Krasnaya_Zvezda]

I love film. I love the look of it, the images from it. I love the gestalt of it, even the little boxes of it. When you lay your money down for 36 slices of infinity, you know that each one is not to be wasted.
One of my favorite times: Maybe it's a Saturday afternoon, maybe it's late on a Friday evening; hopefully it's raining. The family is either gone, or asleep. I've got a bottle of potato vodka, or some ice freaking cold beer, I'm mixing Rodinal 1+25, and ready for trouble... New Age channel on the digital music, those bw negs come forth beautiful and true, verifiying my memory of what I thought I was seeing at the moment of capture....yes, better than I thought!....
The digital age is here. My arsenal of beautiful classic perfect machines stand mute and silent, their silver and black visages proudly waiting for some real action, but no... only from nostalgia, from appreciation for the machine itself do they become unlimbered and thrown into use.
If I want to be sure of getting the shot, it's a digital that I reach for, whether the D50, the Digilux 2, or the C5050 Zoom...
None may be worth half of what I paid for them, but that is irrelevant. I still get the great image I got when the camera was new, and that's why I bought it.
I have a freezer full of film; my wife doesn't complain; she's reconciled. What's odd to her is that the inventory is static. There's a ton of APX 100 and Kodak UC 400, slide films that say VS and SW and more arcane acronyms. I don't shoot any of that color stuff anymore, AND NEVER WILL. I'll keep on with the other BW, for the love of it, but I can't seem to load up the APX, got to hang on to it.
Time to cut the nut: the digital age is here, it's not only the future, it is the present, and we can hold onto whatever we like for nostalgia's sake, but it's like, hell I don't know what it's like, but Heaven and Earth have changed places, if you know what I mean. There is nothing I can do with a pure film image that I can't do with a digital one, and even my film stuff becomes digitized in the process of becoming in the present medium.
It's sad. But what can you do? TIME MARCHES ON.

 

[XAos]

And have you seen the prices for medium format cameras lately? The Contax 645 Kit with prism, 120 back and 80mm sold used for some 2000 Euro last year can be had for less than 1000 today!

Right this very instant you can buy a new RB67 Pro SD w/ 180mm lens and a back from B&H for $3607. (Actually not this very instant because they're computers don't do work on the sabbath either. ) At KEH you can get the same in exc condition for $973. (And that is a KL lens in LN cond). If you're willing to take a Bargain graded Pro-S you can be in for $250-300 - depending on your choice of lenses.

 

[lushd]

Jorge has got what was described in last week's Amateur Photographer as a "digital divorce" (although in his case it sounds like a trial separation). According to the news item this is becoming a noticeable feature in Japanese camera dealers - people dumping their digital gear and buying back into film gear, enough to make it worth having second hand stock. In the UK, Jessops Classics is closing and Jessops are ditching second hand sales altogether.

 

[Socke]

Your friend is lucky that he didn't get the Rollei digital back 8-10 years ago.
$17,000 MSRP
2048x2048 pixels

R.J.

No, he bought a "cheap" Canon d30 for 3300 Euro when it came out which he sold for 450 last year.

And there's the difference, he keeps his Rollei although he won't use it anymore, 6x6 material and processing is very expensive here, but sells the d30 with which he earned most of his income in the last 5 years.

People just don't care about their tools anymore 🙂

 

[Taipei-metro]

Bill, how the heck do you pronounce "*ist DS"? I was in a discussion with someone regarding DSLRs and found myself at "... and Pentax has the... well, I don't know how you say it, but they have one."
I would appreciate it if you would enlighten me. About that, I mean.

According to Pentax,
For Japanese, it prononced I-Su-Do
For Westerners, it prononced just like 'East'.

Is there a picture or specs of the digital M?