That's it I'm done chasing technolgy...

[JimDE]

I'm back with my G2 and film. I am so tired of chasing mega pixels only to end up with back focus, front focus, black frames, and a hunk of metal not worth 1/10 what it cost new. They can have the dSLR's and all the headaches and financial loss. In reality buying digital is always being a step or two behind current technology and the camera companies know this and play our wallets empty chasing the latest and greatest for the right to see your shot instantly.

I'll keep a waterproof point and shoot digital for those quick shots but no more dSLR chasing for me. I have enough confidence in my ability to capture an image that I can wait to see my image as i did from the mid sixties through this digital age. Heck what i have spent and lost in digital SLR's I could of had a heck of a Leica system in my bags.

Anybody else tired of the digital merry go round?

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Well said. One digital is enough.

 

[KoNickon]

I haven't really hopped on! We have one 4 meg. Kodak that my wife uses, mainly. But as for me, I'm not very computer savvy for one, and in addition the ridiculously short product life span tells me that the minute I do jump in with both feet something better will come along, and I'll be left with a hugely depreciated item. I guess a full-size sensor still strikes me as pretty important, but I'm not shelling out the high prices for the cameras that have this feature.

 

[chris000]

Anybody else tired of the digital merry go round?

To be honest Jim I never really stepped on to the merry go round. I own a DSLR, a Canon EOS 20D, but I've never felt the need to upgrade it because it still does what I need it to - and will for some time to come.

 

[simplethings]

I am! I'm in the middle of this "merry-go-round" myself... Let's all go on a digital detox. Time for me to get some film for my Olympus XA and stop looking for "newer and better" gear to replace my P&S and soon-to-be obsolete 10D. Anyone wanna trade a Canon 5D for a Leica? Haha... (half kidding)!

 

[magnus67]

... In reality buying digital is always being a step or two behind current technology ...

I prefer being ten or twenty steps behind. That way I don't need to chase all novelties. (I do have a simple P&S digital for convenience, but I guess it feels forgotten lying on its shelf.)

 

[moonwrack]

......which is also why I got myself an M6 recently. Well, two, actually. I do have an DSLR - a D50 - which has its uses, I suppose. apparently the manual for the D300 is 420 pages long. The manual for the M6 is about 24 pages. I rest my case......

 

[M. Valdemar]

I like using everything that's available.

I never have blank frame problems, back focusing, nor am I ever baffled by technology.

I can use computers like I was born with one in my hands. I don't lose money because I buy and sell judiciously, usually I come out way ahead. Thanks eBay.

More digital for me, keep 'em coming! I hope more of you get disgruntled and sell your expensive experiments with digital at a big loss.

 

[literiter]

I'm back with my G2 and film. I am so tired of chasing mega pixels only to end up with back focus, front focus, black frames, and a hunk of metal not worth 1/10 what it cost new. They can have the dSLR's and all the headaches and financial loss. In reality buying digital is always being a step or two behind current technology and the camera companies know this and play our wallets empty chasing the latest and greatest for the right to see your shot instantly.

There you go Lad. Well said!

Three years ago I had my American Express card in my hand, and in the other, one of the upper end DSLRs. I don't know what came over me but I put everything back.
Today that camera is worth very little. I think I could get as much for my old Nikon F2.

The digital stuff is really seductive, it's product can be remarkable. It seems as though everyone is on the digital bandwagon. One wedding photographer I know is on his fifth pro body and is going to get another. Much of his income goes to upgrading. He awaits his new D3.
The competition is grim, he is not doing too well.

Another photographer encourages his clients to have their wedding done, at least partially in film. He charges high rates and is booked completely for the summer.

Technology cannot compete with talent! Never could...never will.

 

[Sjixxxy]

Anybody else tired of the digital merry go round?

Something about aqcuiring a 46 year old M3 that appears to have seen thousand's of rolls of film, sinking $100 into it to get tuned up, and it is again in perfect mechanical order and cranking out images that are still as good, if not better then the latest digital camera. Considering this, knowingly purchasing a body that I know will be old tech, obsolete, possibly not even functioning two years down the road makes my stomach turn. And I never stepped on the merry-go-round.

Then I consider the what-if's of a free upgrade. Say, for example, five years from now, some hot-shot new prodigy joins the Ilford R&D team, and invents an emultion unlike anything we have today. Something crazy with the speed of 1600iso, yet resolves the same as modern 100iso film in 120 format. Instand upgrade, with no additional investment needed to upgrade my equipment to get much higher resolution results.

 

[literiter]

I hope more of you get disgruntled and sell your expensive experiments with digital at a big loss.

Trust me...They will!

 

[arbib]

Funny...I sorta jumped on for a short ride....I have gone from a Fuji 2800 2mp to a Oly C5050 5mp. to a Canon D60 6mp. to my last stop a Canon XTi (400D)..which does fine for what I want in a DSLR

...As far as film...I am slowly going through RF and SLRs to find what I want.... I just got a Ricoh XR7 with a 28 and 50 prime., and I am going for a Promaster 2500 K also...the Ricoh has AV and Manual..The Promaster is straight manual...As far as a RF...Well, I've had a few....I liked the Bessa R2 I had. May get another one but this time..The R4a with a 28mm to start.

So I am on the Film Camera train for the time being as far as any more additions to my user cameras.

Your are on one train or the other at any one moment.....

 

[FrankS]

What if, in five years, there is no film to shoot? Technology cuts both ways.

In that case, dedicated "analogue" ( - yes I know it's not analogue, but I mean non-digital) photographers will go back to coating glass plates.

 

[Gray Fox]

I have a semi-disabled Nikon D70 (slipped on a moss covered rock in the redwoods and broke the pop up flash and cracked the poro prism), a D50 because of better high ISO shots I needed for a high school sports photo job, and a D80 which I bought from Cameta as a refurb. The latter does all I need it to do. But, I just bought a light weight kit lens recommended by Ken Rockwell to make my N80 Nikon easier to tote and hopefully use it more often. I also have a G2 with 28, 35, 45, 90 and 35-70 lenses that I really need to use a lot more than I do.

I've been going back through some negs lately to begin working on during the coming long winter evenings, and compared to digital, I guess I'm just impressed with the relative permanence of properly stored negatives. I'm not the greatest at scanning, but I just worked with some B&W negs that I took and processed in my bathroom over 30 years ago while in the Army in Munich. I have gotten much better results than I did with my novice level darkroom skills when they were taken. Not to mention the fact that I had no way to work with color printing in those days like I can via scanning now.

What will be doable with today's digital images 30 years hence? Heck, I've got CDs of images from two computers ago that I can't even open on my current machine. That doesn't even speak to the issues of corruption of digital images stored on CDs or DVDs. I think I'm going to work a lot more with film in the coming year and see if I can produce some better film images than I've ever done before. Got to come up with some project themes and then set some not-quite-reachable goals for myself.

 

[M. Valdemar]

Seriously, I buy Macs and digital cameras according to a certain method.

I never buy the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out. I buy the trailing edge. I can always wait a year or two.

I'll get a refurb Epson R-D1, a Kodak full frame DCS 14nx for $900 ($5000 new), a used Canon 5D for much less than full retail. The Nikon/Canon/Leica compatible lenses hold their value or increase.

I use them, enjoy them, learn about them, them get rid of them before the value goes bust, keep the lenses. I almost never lose money, often a bidding frenzy on eBay brings a higher price than I paid.

I keep my eye out for rare collectibles and flip them for a big profit. I'll buy a Leica M3 with a lens I want, keep the lens, sell the camera. I keep real rarities for myself and sell the rest.

I collect AND use. I shoot with my Nikon S2, Hasselblads (a buyer's paradise for the 500cm series and lenses today).

OK, not everyone has the temperament or knowledge to do this, but I enjoy it.

I like all kinds of photographic gear, I don't see it as an all or nothing choice.

Off and on I made a living shooting pictures, but not these days. But I still like all aspects of the technology. I guess that makes me a gearhead.

 

[kevin m]

I never buy the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out. I buy the trailing edge. I can always wait a year or two.

I'm with you. I'm waiting for the Canon '5D Mk II' to come out so I can snap up the current camera used for about a grand. 😀

 

[mfunnell]

You don't have to bandwagon with technology. I experimented with digital via an inexpensive digicam. When I bought a dSLR it was at the very back end of Canon's run with 300D: I prefered to spend more on lenses and less on the body. I still have (and use) that 300D but also bought a 30D, because by then certain aspects of the 300D were holding me back. My needs drove the camera choice, not vice versa.

Canon has just released the 40D, which is a better camera than my 30D. So what? The 30D does what I want, and the 40D doesn't do enough more that its worth it, to me, to upgrade. In time, there'll no doubt be a new model out. I'll skip that, too, if it does nothing that's worth the money to me and my existing camera does the job I want.

I suspect that many people aren't chasing technology, per se. Rather, they're assuaging their insecurities by making sure they have the "latest and greatest" gear. I have no problem with the latest stuff. I'm sure some people can and will make real use of all the biggest and best features. But I don't need to, and am quite happy if others have "better" cameras than me. Hell, they may well have better photos than me. But that's them, not their camera.

About half the time I'm shooting with an M3 or a Hexar RF anyway and I don't care how outdated either one of those is.

...Mike

 

[ruben]

What if, in five years, there is no film to shoot? Technology cuts both ways.

Nothing dramatic for the non-pro among us, or for me at least. We will just have to use the available, and adapt ourselves to its good and bad sides.

After all, how many cameras are we using now among all we have in our closets ?

But 5 years in our current technological developing world is a lot of time. It can be the case that those invested today in digital will loose then much more than we using film today. Who knows ?

Nothing last forever, but good things last longer.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[photogdave]

I just bought a light weight kit lens recommended by Ken Rockwell to make my N80 Nikon easier to tote and hopefully use it more often.

Oh no! Rockwell is such a strange cat, I don't know if I would ever follow his lens recommendations.
He is bang on when it comes to computers, monitors, calibration etc., but then he turns around and says shooting RAW is a waste of time and you should only shoot JPG! 😱
Then he will go on and on about how great Velvia is and how much smarter it is to buy old film cameras than current digital but then try and tell you that Canon or Nikon's cheapest kit lens out performs the best Sigma or Tamron!
Oh well, he's good for a laugh at least! 😀