Thinking of digital..

The EF 50/1.4 has a poorly designed AF system and fails easily, the cheap EF 50/1.8 II is better and cheaper to replace if you break it. If you are worried about build quality, look for a used EF 50/1.8 I, it was a better built lens than either.

aaron.tam said:
I agree that the F series is better than the EOS film series. EOS digital, however, is much better than Nikon's D series IMHO. And get the 50mm f1.4!
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Yeah, it does. But it'd probably be better than what a Nikon D can do (IMHO). ;)
I shall bring a film camera there next time I'm there.
 
Al Kaplan said:
What do I think? I think that with a bit of care your 2009 B&W negatives and contact sheets will survive fifty years or more. Mine did. Some of those young nobodies I hung out with and photographed back then went on to bigger and better things in the arts, the world of business, politics, etc. I save it all. It's money in the bank! People looking through my old contacts often spot somebody I didn't even know I'd ever caught on film back in the sixties or seventies.

Imagine the value today of a series of bike trick shots of a twelve year old kid. Somebody is leafing through your contact sheets, grabs the magnifier, and shouts "Damn! That's Lance Armstrong!"
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Valid point Al, and I too have files full of negs and slides covering forty plus years, and I occasionally go through them on the light box, and make one or two prints - both 'wet' and 'dry'. To be realistic, when I go - those files will probably become land-fill PDQ!, but I won't be around to care!. Now I'm retired, most of my photography is just for my own pleasureable pastime, and I tend to take an easy, convenient route - which includes both digital and film, as the mood takes me.
Cheers, Dave.
 
MarkoKovacevic said:
I'm thinking of getting a Nikon D2H for high volume low importance stuff like hanging out with friends, shooting sports, and shooting bike tricks.
It would probably save some cash for the film I'm not using, since photos from this kind of stuff will just end up on facebook anyways and then I don't have to scan negs/prints.

What do you think? I'm currently shooting Tri-x in a Nikon F5, and got a 28,50 and SB600.
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digital is great but a nikon D2h is a big tank, made for professional news photographers. not your kind of shooting.
get a consummer camera: lighter, more advanced. a D40 comes to mind.
 
Al Kaplan said:
What do I think? I think that with a bit of care your 2009 B&W negatives and contact sheets will survive fifty years or more. Mine did. Some of those young nobodies I hung out with and photographed back then went on to bigger and better things in the arts, the world of business, politics, etc. I save it all. It's money in the bank! People looking through my old contacts often spot somebody I didn't even know I'd ever caught on film back in the sixties or seventies.

Imagine the value today of a series of bike trick shots of a twelve year old kid. Somebody is leafing through your contact sheets, grabs the magnifier, and shouts "Damn! That's Lance Armstrong!"
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Hard drives w/ all their back ups preserve images better than negatives in drawers.
 
Nikon hurts my hand. This is from my experience of holding the D200 for an entire day versus holding the 1D Mkii for the same amount of time.
 
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colker said:
digital is great but a nikon D2h is a big tank, made for professional news photographers. not your kind of shooting.
get a consummer camera: lighter, more advanced. a D40 comes to mind.
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I'm used to the weight and feel of the F5, which is pretty much the D2H in film. I carry it around all day, so I wouldn't mind the D2H, plus it has all the features i've come to expect from a Nikon.
 
Colker, I'm not about to devote the time to putting all that stuff on hard drives, if anybody will even know what a "hard drive" is in 50 years. Remember big reels of 3.5" tape? Punch cards? Fortran? A whole bunch of other "hi-tech" that faded into history? Will your great-grandchildren have a clue that those pretty little silvery discs have music or pictures coded on them? Or a way to read them? Pick up a negative with your fingers and you can SEE that there's a picture there. There'll always be a way to do something with an image that you can see.

My stuff isn't jammed into drawers. It's neatly filed, negatives sleeved, dated, and numbered to match the contact sheets stored with them in boxes, the boxes are dated and numbered, and there are notes as to who, what, where, when, and why. My son is aware that there are images of historical interest. He's also aware of the fact that you can't always know what might become "historical interest" in advance.

If I was starting out today I just might be backing up on a hard drive. I'm 66 and can think of more interesting things to do with my time than scanning half a century's worth of negatives to store on transient technology.
 
I give you that: file transfer is already a big issue. firewire HDs don't connect on new generation USB only units.
otoh, there is no fungus or color fade on my files.
i just found out some important color negs are fading away. a while ago i had lots of BW negs eaten away by termites. :bang:

Al Kaplan said:
Colker, I'm not about to devote the time to putting all that stuff on hard drives, if anybody will even know what a "hard drive" is in 50 years. Remember big reels of 3.5" tape? Punch cards? Fortran? A whole bunch of other "hi-tech" that faded into history? Will your great-grandchildren have a clue that those pretty little silvery discs have music or pictures coded on them? Or a way to read them? Pick up a negative with your fingers and you can SEE that there's a picture there. There'll always be a way to do something with an image that you can see.

My stuff isn't jammed into drawers. It's neatly filed, negatives sleeved, dated, and numbered to match the contact sheets stored with them in boxes, the boxes are dated and numbered, and there are notes as to who, what, where, when, and why. My son is aware that there are images of historical interest. He's also aware of the fact that you can't always know what might become "historical interest" in advance.

If I was starting out today I just might be backing up on a hard drive. I'm 66 and can think of more interesting things to do with my time than scanning half a century's worth of negatives to store on transient technology.
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Al Kaplan said:
If I was starting out today I just might be backing up on a hard drive. I'm 66 and can think of more interesting things to do with my time than scanning half a century's worth of negatives to store on transient technology.
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me too!, and as I don't suppose my forty five years worth of humble efforts will be of any significant historical value, and not being a believer in the 'here after', the possibility of my discs, hard drives, strips of celluloid etc. escaping the incinerator, does not concern me greatly!....as I recover from my recent heart attack, the fact that I can still go out and enjoy myself with a camera now, certainly does! :)
Dave.
 
a d2h is too big for just hanging out. for the sports and skateboarding stuff, i'd still get a d2h and a couple dx zooms. then i'd get a d40 with the kit zoom and the new 35/1.8 dx for hanging out.
 
just checked out the site sisyphus... smashing work my friend!
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Thanks for the kind compliments. My website is a work in progress and i will be adding more content over the year. So, please keep checking back. I added text at the beginning and end of the one portfolio that is online.

I just checked out the first link in your signature: Is that your work?

The stories are amazing.

I wish you luck with your projects; they are very worthwhile.

And to the original poster of this thread; sorry for hijacking the thread, but what ever you do; don't succumb to the dark side.

:s:
 
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