Why no digital Street-Shootin' Iron?

[GeneW]

I've used my Canon S45 as a street camera, despite it having all the drawbacks already noted about small-sensor digitals. If I use it in Manual focus mode (set to about 10 ft), the lag is significantly reduced -- much of the lag time is waiting for AF to hone in on something. The large DOF is useful for this purpose -- it almost never needs focusing. Not quite the same as a true RF but it's a small package to carry.

I'd love a digital RF but I think I'll wait until there's an Epson R-D1 equivalent with a FF sensor. If a smallish form factor could be preserved around a FF sensor, it would be a treat.

The new Canon 5D is going to up the ante for digital. A 5D with a 24-105L zoom makes an intriguing package -- everything except the size.

In the meantime, it's Zorki and Bessa 😀

Gene

 

[aizan]

the canon 5d is an awesome replacement for pentax 67, in every way i can think of. a similar quantum leap for rangefinders can't be that far off. cross your fingers!

 

[Rico]

...
ps. OT, amongst tech heads here, I know yourself, socke & myself are Linux users.. anyone else?

I started programming under UNIX version 6 on a DEC PDP-11/70 in 1977 (Linus was 8 years old). Worked for Commodore Amiga in the '80s, including the first port of UNIX to the Amiga (A1000 no less). I now use Linux, and it's... ok.

Back on topic, my ideal digicam for the street would closely follow the attributes of my current film fav, the Contax T: small size, zero shutter lag, dead quiet, lens of 35mm or so. I also believe that small and cute are useful camera qualities: natives remain friendly, or ignore you entirely. For interchangeable lenses, I bring out the M4 or Aria, but then lose on size.

 

[satbunny]

Brett is right, the RD-1 is a splendid camera but at the end of the day it is not a Leica.

Is it full frame or does it have the same effect on your lenses that an APS-C SLR has?
(e.g. 1.6 times focal length on my Canon EOS 300D)

Ok, now I have googled and see it does: 1.53..

Well that might be a good answer to me, I don't want my 35mm lens to become a 50mm when I put it on a RD-1, and I think a great deal of street shooting is best done with a wide lens.

 

[einolu]

What about this?

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Contax/contax_tvsdigital.asp

 

[aizan]

Well that might be a good answer to me, I don't want my 35mm lens to become a 50mm when I put it on a RD-1, and I think a great deal of street shooting is best done with a wide lens.

You can just buy a new lens or trade it for another! Or you can take the opportunity to shoot an effective 50mm, just like HCB, Frank, Friedlander, etc...

 

[satbunny]

You can just buy a new lens or trade it for another! Or you can take the opportunity to shoot an effective 50mm, just like HCB, Frank, Friedlander, etc...

You are very right, but I do not get on with 50mm lenses. I am obviously not destined for greatness.

I shall dream of a full frame RFF body, problem is if it's Leica I'll never afford it..

Come on Kobiyashi!

 

[aizan]

well, you don't need to be destined for greatness, but you can think of it as a challenge! that's the most optimistic way of looking at using a focal length you don't like. the practical way is to get a new lens. feelin' GASsy? 😀

 

[tedwhite]

I don't "get on" with 50mm lenses, either. Most always use either wider lenses or medium teles.

However, if you want to get good with one, take ALL your other lenses over to a friend's house who lives at least 25 miles away and tell him to hide them. Then spend a month or two with a 50.

Or, be poor. When I was so inclined, a nearly starving grad student in San Francisco, I had a beat up Pentax Spotmatic H3V (no meter) and a 50mm f:1.4 Super Takumar lens. I even taped the camera with black electrician's tape so I'd look as if I were a pro. Black cameras were quite a rarity in those days, only photojournalists seemed to have them. (Ah, vanity!).

I thought I had a great camera and lens (turned out I did) and some of the portraits and other shots I did with that lens are still hanging in people's homes. I didn't know any better, loved my 50, and was happy as a clam.

Ted