> you can't do anything with an R-D1 that you couldn't do at least as well with the same lenses on a film RF camera.
You can...
... take a couple pictures inside at ISO 1600, go outside and take a couple at ISO 200, etc without wasting or unloading/loading film or carrying multiple bodies.
Right. Or you can plan ahead. Make sure you wear your bifocals so you can see the tiny ISO numbers when changing the setting on the R-D1.
... do a portrait sitting, review at any time to see if you've got the shot and stop, or alternately determine that you need to keep going, or even just to appease the art director.
Funny, I was just doing that the other day, standing up on a ladder to shoot a large group shot. When I turned the camera so the client could look at the LCD and see if she liked the effect, I bonked her in the forehead with the camera! Didn't appease her much. Incidentally, I still say you don't
really know if you got it until you get it home and see it on the computer monitor.
... not worry about whether you have daylight or tungsten balanced film in the camera, and indeed fine tune to daylight, cloudy, open-shade, tungsten, etc or even down to a specific K if you so desire. And you can change your mind later (if you're shooting raw)
Y'know, I shot film for about a quarter-century before I got my R-D 1, and I don't recall
ever worrying about that. Like I say, you can plan ahead.
... shoot in B+W... and then change it to color later if you want (again, if you're shooting RAW).
See above comment. This is mostly a limitation of my own: When I'm looking for pictures, I can either "see" b&w opportunities or color opportunities, not both at the same time. So, I make up my mind which one I'm looking for and load the camera accordingly. (It's cool that you can switch the R-D 1's raw b&ws back to color, but I can't say I've ever actually wanted to do it.)
... fit many many "rolls of film" in the space of one roll of real film. Of course by the same token you can lose an entire shoot with one misplaced card.
Both true. And don't forget that if you want to shoot more than one card's worth with the R-D 1 (no great trick in raw mode) you've either got to carry several expensive cards, or lug along a laptop computer, CD burner, hard disk transfer device, or whatever.
Well, I'm just listing things off the top of my head. I actually shoot both film and digital as the need arises, but there are definite advantages to the digital work flow. And there are definite reasons for me use film at times too, when digital just won't work. It's just a matter of knowing when to use what (for your own needs, of course)...
All very true. Much as I hate myself for it, I now shoot digital almost all the time, so I'm aware that there are advantages in HOW you use it. In terms of
results, though, I still say you can do just as well with film... maybe not as conveniently in some ways, but more conveniently in others.
Remember, my original reply was to someone who had liked one of my R-D 1 pictures and doesn't own an R-D 1. I just wanted to make him feel better (or put him on the spot, depending on how you look at it) by reminding him that the same result could have been achieved on film.
