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Thread: I hate digital

  1. #11
    Donald Qualls's Avatar
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    Oct 2004
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    North Carolina
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    I hate digital

    As long as I can get film to feed my large format cameras, I don't much care what those digital "photographers" think of me with my monorail and survey tripod and what not -- or with my 75+ year old plate cameras, for that matter.

    If my computer stopped working tomorrow, I might not bother to fix it -- it would eat up my film budget for months, and the only time I'd miss it would be for ordering film and posting scans (and I can borrow one for those applications). And if the digital camera quit, I for certain wouldn't replace it...
    If a contact print at arm's length is too small to see, you need a bigger camera. :D

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    Massachusetts USA
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    I hate digital

    Recently someone came jogging by, and advised me in mock compassion: "You don't have to do that any more: They have digital cameras now !".



    When I have used a wooden camera, I have attracted admirers and made friends. When I shot in the same locations with my Arcas Swiss Discovery, people left me conmpletely alone. Perhaps black metal cameras look very high-tech and serious.

  3. #13

    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Eugene, Oregon
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    127

    I hate digital

    Ken,

    I think you are right. When I used to go out and shoot with my Sinar F2 people almost always thought it was some high-end, oversized digital camera. The same is true for my Toyo 45AII - which looks sort of high-tech (especially with the built-in focusing hood unfolded). The only time I get condenscending looks is when I use my Tachihara. Several people have asked me if it was antique, or why I would waste such a great shot on a film camera. It's kind of ironic, because at the time I thought the guy with the digital camera was wasting the shot, not me.

  4. #14

    I hate digital

    I just tell them it's a 48MP camera. This impresses them....and makes me laugh that they're that easily fooled.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Eugene, Oregon
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    127

    I hate digital

    But I can get at last 270MP from a 4x5 scan

    I guess you're right though - if I say it's a 270MP camera, they won't believe me. 48MP sounds more believable.

  6. #16

    I hate digital

    I guess I'm lucky. I have both worlds going on at the same time, and those worlds are very different. I have to use Nikon D2hs at work and couldn't do the job without them. I have the 4x5 for ME and I couldn't make the same pictures with the digitals. Sometimes I even carry a Leica SLR with black and white loaded.

    Another thing I've noticed is people want to talk about both. I'm around hundreds of people a day with the digitals and most have interesting and intelligent questions about them. (Mostly the lenses, like the 300 2.8)

    No one has ever made a negative comment about the large format camera. In fact, it becomes a conversation starter and people seem surprised to find out they're still around; not just a thing of the past. It's odd how people on a trail will stop and wait until I'm finished with an exposure before asking anything.

    In October I was on top of Sandia Mountain above Albuquerque trying to make a picture in a gale and a couple stood there for a good half-hour, watching. HE didn't understand what I was trying to make a picture of and SHE just wanted to look through it. They both got to look and both were satisfied. THEY bought the coffee at the snack bar while they asked questions.

    Maybe I'm an optimist, but I think most people like hearing about these different kinds of photography and that each one has a unique purpose.

    It seems to me that those with little dinky digital cameras making negative comments about large format photographers just don't have a clue about photography. They're holding apples in their hands making snide remarks about oranges.
    "I meant what I said, not what you heard"--Jflavell

  7. #17
    tim atherton's Avatar
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    Jul 1998
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    3,697

    I hate digital

    Maybe it's just that we attract the enquirers and comments we deserve? Good/bad karma and all that....

    Sounds like it
    You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn

    www.photo-muse.blogspot.com blog

  8. #18

    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Orange, CA
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    I hate digital

    I've been shooting LF for five years now, and I only remember one or two incidents where someone obliquely implied that digital was a better way to go. Most folks are intrigued by my cameras (particularly the 8x10) and eager to talk about the camera in particular and photography in general. Aside from one incident with a suspicious local county park ranger who thought I was a commercial photographer (commercial photography is prohibited in our local parks without a permit), I can't recall a single unpleasant episode involving people and my LF cameras. I guess I'm lucky.

    Digital is a fabulous solution for certain applications, and I carry a D70 with me on my LF photo trips as a snapshot camera, so I have a foot in both worlds. But most folks will readily accept that fifty pounds worth of LF equipment will in the right circumstances produce stunning results, far beyond what a smaller format can produce. When I clarify that 8x10 inches are the dimensions of each sheet of film I use, rather than the size of the enlargements I make, that gets a lot of folks' attention!

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Posts
    833

    I hate digital

    >Rarely (IMHO) is that time and place in the world of art.

    ... and film will never produce real art... and watercolor will never produce real art.. acrylic paint? ha! real artists use oil. .and grind their own pigments

    come on. it's the eye. not the tool.

    world class art is coming out in digital... as well as film... and will continue to do so.. 30 years from now, when whatever replaces digital, will have the same people lamenting that the new technology can never be art.l

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Mar 2002
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    833

    I hate digital

    .. and i've seen as much technically perfect images produced from 4x5 film with no soul as i have with digital

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