This "debate" is getting oh so tiresome!!!

[css9450]

Couldn't have said it better myself. I run into these guys ALL the time.

 

[OurManInTangier]

Film vs. digital...a non starter, both have benefits and drawbacks when compared. Though camera shop staff and owners have their own vested interests and may pursue them accordingly. I needed some Delta 100, having only 400, and had to pop into a local Jessops. When I made my request the guy looked at me, then at my M6, back up to me, huffed and shoved the films across the counter muttering the price at me whilst shaking his head slightly...I can only assume my nineteen year old M6 had caused offense to him as some kind of puritan digi convert?!

One, of the many, reasons I enjoy using film is that I can pick up any of my dilapidated old film cameras and get a decent picture. Whereas twelve months down the line all my Nikon DX2s kit will have been superceded and editors and designers will be moaning at me to get the latest higher res, improved ccd and tea making version.

I would still dare to dabble in an M8 though should anyone be about to bin one.............😀

 

[pachuco]

I am almost always made fun of by my buddies that use DSLR's. They ask if I will next go to using glass plates and old time equipment. I just laugh and smile, especially when as soon as they are done they ask "so, can I try out your Leica?".

 

[fishtek]

Too bad that some feel compelled to choose sides.

I have a Canon DSLR, a Canon SLR, a Bessa R, a Vivitar 35ES, and a Kodak Signet 40. I've owned a Yashicamat G, an Olympus "Digi-Cam", A Pentax Spotmatic, a Kodak APS, a Kalimar SLR, and am sure to have forgotten something.

All my cameras get used, and each has points of interest that make it enjoyable. Quit shouting and start shooting, y'all. Enjoy your own particular bias, and keep your blood pressure down. We CAN all get along...

Regards!
Don

 

[NickTrop]

So why do so many people feel the constant need to prophesy the demise of film-based photography? According to the store clerk with whom I conversed today, there remains no doubt. Film will be dead within five years. (At this, I asked why he didn't just give me the FM2 he had under the counter. Afterall, it is essentially just a paperweight now, right?

So why are photographers turning on one another? Why are we not all supporting the continued development of products for both traditional film-based photography and digital imaging? What do any of us possibly have to gain from the demise of one facet of this pursuit that we all love so dearly? In other words, what is there to debate?

1. People want to justify their purchasing decision. Purchasing decisions, sadly to many, are equated to the "who the person is..." their sense of identity. Insecure people will do this by degrading that which someone else has. Digital cameras say, "I'm on the cutting edge, with it, current..." They will "look down their nose" at someone using an old "obsolete" film camera to make them feel better about themselves.

2. Cameras are also a fashion accessory, donchya know. You're still wearing that old out of style dress? Get with the fashion.

3. Sadly, people believe the marketing hype that digital is "better" and "more convenient" than film. I find this to be far from the truth, especially as far as digital point-n-shooters are concerned. They've been brainwashed.

 

[bmattock]

3. Sadly, people believe the marketing hype that digital is "better" and "more convenient" than film. I find this to be far from the truth, especially as far as digital point-n-shooters are concerned. They've been brainwashed.

I love this. Both sides do it, and it's always funny.

Step One: Exclaim sadly that it's a real shame people on both sides can't just enjoy what they enjoy and not pick apart the 'other side'.

Step Two: Proclaim that both sides have their strengths and weaknesses, and we should all just do what we feel is right. Love is the key, and understanding. Group hug, anyone?

Step Three: And by the way, the other side are all idiots.

Keep it up, guys. Loving it!

 

[navilluspm]

Everything has its place

Everything has its place

I have three cameras all of which I enjoy.

1) An Electro 35 G - my only rangefinder that I have a love/hate relationship with, but that I use more often than I'd like to admit.

2) A Contax SLR system which produces pictures of a much higher caliber than my composition.

3) A digital Panny FZ7 point and shoot. I love my Panny. It is my telephoto, macro, and emergency camera that has probably produced the most interesting shots i have ever taken. Why? Because of the huge zoom range and (for a digital) fast lens! Inevitably I have come across a situation that I was not prepared for, but if I have my Panny as my back up, the versitility of this camera helped me get the shots I would have otherwised missed. I love film, but I am very happy to carry my digital point and shot with me.


Quality wise, I still love my Contax best!

 

[RML]

In my experience, people are much more eager to point out the negative than the positive. On APUG you see people lament the demise of the "true" photographer because young people don't know the basics of photography, caused by their use of digital cameras and software. People fail to see that it's not just about the camera, or printing, or technical knowledge.

On LUC or the Leica forum people lament any user who doesn't use a Leica. Instead of focusing on this assumed misguidedness, people should focus on the results.

And the list goes on. Never anything is good. There's always something the lament or complain about. Never once people focus on the positive aspects of using digital, or film, or a P&S, or a Leica.

I think it's in👎ate.

 

[David Murphy]

If you are in a throng of moderately affluent tourists snapping photos anywhere in the world, not only is film "dead", but SLR's, TLR's, and rangefinders have been "dead" for at least 20 years now. The masses embraced point-and-shoot auto focus 35mm cameras a long time ago dumping earlier favorites like the Canon AE-1, the Minolta SRT's, Spotmatics, various Sears rebrands, Ricoh, etc. This was in large part due to Nikon's extremely successful early autofocus models, which seemed like miracles at the time, especially if you were inept at operating a manual camera (i.e. most consumers).

Forget digital, one could say our cameras were obsolete some time ago --- however clerks in camera stores are still not unhanding those FM2's (not even the old F's)!

 

[angeloks]

Let's keep buying films for our cameras. Let's feed them as much as we can. They'll be making some as long as we hunger for it and as we pay for it!

I love my IIf, F4s, FTb and SRT-101. They'll never be making anything close to these in the future. Thefore, I'll still be shooting film!

 

[Gid]

Film will last as long as there is a profit to be made from making and selling it. Its possible demise may have more to do with how new entrants to photography satisfy their need. How many of them will want to use film? If the proportion of these new entrants using film diminishes, then so will demand, especially as the "older" dyed in the wool film users expire. Progress is inevitable - its how most companies survive - design new product, market, sell, design new product, market, sell, make old product obsolete, then start again. In time there will be a band of die hard digital camera users bemoaning the next new technology and wondering how long digital is going to last.

Personally, I now shoot 99.9% digital mainly due to it providing me with a simpler work flow. It isn't the same as film, but the quality is good enough (for my purposes and those that I occasionally do work for) and that is all that matters.

 

[ruben]

I have to confess that I simply do not understand the need for so much attention to be focused on the film vs. digital debate....................................So why are photographers turning on one another? Why are we not all supporting the continued development of products for both traditional film-based photography and digital imaging? What do any of us possibly have to gain from the demise of one facet of this pursuit that we all love so dearly? In other words, what is there to debate?

You are right. I am a film camera user but I respect digital users. Why I don't go digital ? for a convenience reason and an emotional reason.

The convenience is that being my output too small and my investment in film gear too big, it will be absurd for me to sell so much in exchange of so few.

The emotional reason is that I love what I have. This applies for digital owners as well. End of discussion as far as I am concerned.

The paradox of the development of technology nowadays is that our world is not becoming single sided but multi-sided.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[paragon]

supply and demand

free choice

Demon(oc) racy

We can buy what we want, like what we want, say what we want, (do?) what we want

We have all got more money than sense, (compared with the past), and many have got vast amounts of money which probably does not match their commonsense at all

Isn't it great

keep it all going – we all seem to be doing fine?

 

[350D_user]

So why do so many people feel the constant need to prophesy the demise of film-based photography? According to the store clerk with whom I conversed today, there remains no doubt. Film will be dead within five years.

Weren't they also saying this a number of years ago...?

(At this, I asked why he didn't just give me the FM2 he had under the counter. Afterall, it is essentially just a paperweight now, right?)

Lemme guess... he said no. 🙂

 

[daaris]

I live in/near northern virginia. I have to say(having lived all over the U.S. and Virginia) in this area I have found some of the most materialistic, opinionated, and self centered people I have ever encountered. Many are defined by what that have and are sure to wear everything but the kitchen sink around their neck.

That being said, I am suprised that from D.C. to Richmond almost every Camera shop I have been in seems VERY happy to see a film camera/user walk in and purchase film, or the hidden gem sitting in the case over out of the way with "retired" gear on consignment. It seems as if I get better service when I bring in a film camera also, almost as if it is a piece of nostalga for others and conversation starts.