Move to Digital?

[JayC]

I always suffer from GAS. Currently I have"

• Canonet GIII QL17
• Leica M6 w/ 50 cron and 35 ultron
• Mamiya 7II with 3 lenses
• EOS 10D and 20D with many lenses, flash, ext rubes, etc
• Contax G2 and G1 with 4 lenses

I also have a Nikon Coolscan IV and a Epeson 2450 scanner. Paired with an Epson 1270 printer. I have dificulty printing though, so don't do as much as I should (workflow and calibration issues).

My wife just looked thru some prints I had done at the lab that came from my GIII and M6. Her quote was

]"why did yu take those pictures?. Why take a picture of a newspaper on the ground or some blurry shot of our dog, or someone sitting on a park bench? Wouldn't all that be better on digital? Why waste chemicals and paper and all that when you can sell all your film cameras and get a really nice digital camera?[/INDENT

I always struggle with his issue. She also said to just use a film camera for important things like holidays and things that are really important. uUse a digial for everything else.

I had the Contax gear on consignment to sell, then pulled it because I thought I should keep that instead of the M6 that was it's replacement. The M6 was because when in some exotic overseas country, I wouldn't want my camera battery to die. I bought the Mamiya for "really" special landscape shots (I haven't taken any yet). I bought the 20D to replace the 10D, so the 10D isn't an issue.

My shooting style is all over the board - my kids and their soccer games, my kids in the living room, trying to get street shots of strangers, going to the zoo for animal portraits, macro, and the quest for beautiful landscapes. With 3 kids (20 months up to 10 years, the overseas travelling and beautiful landscapes seem to be not happening right now.

Now to my question if you haven't guessed. Sell it all and get the latest and greates digital body from Canon? maybe even sell some Canon lenses to re-vamp my line up? I have 50/1.8, 17-40, 85/1.8, 70-200/4, 300/4. Replace it all with a 5D, 24-105, and.......maybe keep the Canonet just for kicks. Somewwhere in my mind, this makes more sense than multipl expensive film set-ups and upper/middle of the line digital gear. Why not just go into pro digital gear? I will post this to a digital group to get a balanced response 😉

Thanks for your help​

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Go ahead. If it makes your wife happy, you would be happier and so would your kids. Besides, and speaking from experience, the abundance of gear of different kinds is no warranty of success.

I'd keep the Leica system, though. You may go on trips to exotic places like Chicago, where you may need a reliable camera with nice glass for pics of the natives and their habitat.

I am going to sell all my medium format stuff and one of my 35mm SLRs because they get no use. I recall having bought my Mamiya C220 precisely for landscape work... even though I just don't like landscapes! 😱 Guess what: it gets very little use. Hence, I'll sell it.

So, go ahead and sell yours. Go digital! 🙂 Keep the Leica...

 

[Duncan Ross]

A collegue sold some serious cameras and lenses a little over five years ago and was the proud owner of a 2.7Mp Nikon D1. Kicks himself more and more with each passing year.

 

[jlw]

You've already got a good digital camera in the EOS 20D, and the 10D is probably still fine as a backup. For what you shoot, I don't see that you'd get noticeably better results switching to a 5D. In fact, since the 5D has a larger sensor, you'd need longer lenses to get the same image in your pictures of soccer games, animals at the zoo, etc.

The rest of your equipment would seem to cover a wide range of potential needs, and then some. My off-the-top reaction would be that if you like the Mamiya stuff you should keep it, and keep looking for those really special landscapes. Nothing else in your current inventory will really match the image quality of the medium-format gear, so if you enjoy it you should hang onto it.

Same goes for the GIII -- it's really the only casual, go-anywhere camera you've got.

Your biggest area of potential overlap is with your Contax and Leica equipment. They are somewhat different: The Contax is compact and has lots of automation features, but its range of lenses is more limited; the Leica can take a wider array of lenses, but it's all manual and slower to operate.

You said you bought the Leica to avoid battery dependence if you should travel to distant lands... but do you really travel to distant lands, and if so, are they so distant that you couldn't carry a few extra batteries along? I suspect that's not really an issue. The real issue should be: do both these systems fill a need for you? If they do, or if you simply like both of them, you might as well keep them if you don't actually NEED to get rid of one of them. If you do want or need to shed one or the other, from a picture-taking perspective it doesn't matter which one you keep -- they'll both do a good job. So, just get rid of whichever you like less.

Now, what should you own instead? Well, one area where you do seem to have a void is a more compact or casual digital camera, for occasions when you don't want to lug all that Canon stuff but still want to make digital pictures. One of the higher-quality digital compacts from, e.g., Canon or Panasonic or even Leica might be right up your alley. Or, if you're keeping the M6, maybe you should try haunting the Epson store to see if any more refurbished R-D 1s turn up.

 

[GeneW]

Do you have a preference? By instinct, what camera do you usually grab to shoot with? If you often reach for a film cam, I'd hang on to them. If you normally reach for a digital, keep the Canonet (which can also be used without battery) and sell the rest. If you ever change your mind, you can buy some back.

Gene

 

[JayC]

I reach for different ones based on "jeez, I should shoot with this or sell it". All of may cameras hear that from me at different times. Part of me is leaning towards selling everything except the M6 w/50mm and the Canon lenses, then get a 5D or 1D Mark II body.....But the day is still early, and I want more input.

 

[shadowfox]

My experience taught me, the longer you collect classic film cameras, the more you cherish them. But the moment you start with digital, you end up with a collection of "junk".

To illustrate my point, here's my digital gears:

- 3 Kodak P&S (2.1, 3.2, 4 Megapixels), all no longer in use, one has a dirty lens, but I couldn't be bothered to fix it because ... why? just get another one the next year with more features, and cheaper.
- 1 Pentax Optio, this one is more of a video cam than a still camera, it's being used a lot, but won't be considered a "classic".
- 1 Olympus E-300 DSLR, this one is useful because I use OM Zuiko lenses on it. Good for product/still shots, instant turnaround. Again, it's a user camera, not a collectible.

On with my film cameras, I have:

- 3 Pen FT bodies (4 lenses). This Pen FT produces the most amazing closeup street-photography pictures I've ever seen. period!
- A few OM-1 bodies (still thinking which ones to let go), this one will operate without batteries, has the mechanical parts that operate buttery-silky-smooth!
- A few OM-4 bodies (my wife and I claim one each as our workhorse), I don't think I need to elaborate on how "cool" this one is even after 25+ years
- 10+ OM Zuiko lenses, all being used regularly.
- Olympus XA, XA-2, 35 SPn. All produces images that bellies their age.

All of these cameras are my prized-collection. All film. Catch my drift?

 

[kshapero]

My experience taught me, the longer you collect classic film cameras, the more you cherish them. But the moment you start with digital, you end up with a collection of "junk".

To illustrate my point, here's my digital gears:

- 3 Kodak P&S (2.1, 3.2, 4 Megapixels), all no longer in use, one has a dirty lens, but I couldn't be bothered to fix it because ... why? just get another one the next year with more features, and cheaper.
- 1 Pentax Optio, this one is more of a video cam than a still camera, it's being used a lot, but won't be considered a "classic".
- 1 Olympus E-300 DSLR, this one is useful because I use OM Zuiko lenses on it. Good for product/still shots, instant turnaround. Again, it's a user camera, not a collectible.

On with my film cameras, I have:

- 3 Pen FT bodies (4 lenses). This Pen FT produces the most amazing closeup street-photography pictures I've ever seen. period!
- A few OM-1 bodies (still thinking which ones to let go), this one will operate without batteries, has the mechanical parts that operate buttery-silky-smooth!
- A few OM-4 bodies (my wife and I claim one each as our workhorse), I don't think I need to elaborate on how "cool" this one is even after 25+ years
- 10+ OM Zuiko lenses, all being used regularly.
- Olympus XA, XA-2, 35 SPn. All produces images that bellies their age.

All of these cameras are my prized-collection. All film. Catch my drift?

Any of those Om-4's feeling lonely, please let me know.

 

[Oh Two]

'My wife just looked thru some prints I had done at the lab that came from my GIII and M6. Her quote was

]"why did yu take those pictures?. Why take a picture of a newspaper on the ground or some blurry shot of our dog, or someone sitting on a park bench? Wouldn't all that be better on digital? Why waste chemicals and paper and all that when you can sell all your film cameras and get a really nice digital camera?'

Sounds like your wife should start teaching you photography. If you're not getting any now what's the difference? Otherwise, there may be value in positive reinforcement.​

 

[Kin Lau]

Lesson #1. Don't show all your prints to your wife.

#2. A DSLR is a tool, and very good for many purposes. Your 20D should be more than adequate with the lenses you've listed.

#3.. we all dream big. I'm still looking for those "4x5 worthy" landscapes, but my dslr is used for 95% of all my shots.

The Sigma 17-70 or Canon 17-85 might do for the 99% of the stuff you want to do, perhaps with a Canon 35/2 or Sigma 30/1.4 for lowlight.

Enjoy your film cameras... just remember that there's no magic bullet.

 

[Keith]

Sell it all ... buy an M8 ... and experience real dissatisfaction!

😀 😀