Digital Capture vs. Film Capture...the PRINTS...

[JonathanPerkins]

Welcome Emo!

I'd rather spring for a 4x5 (or 5x7?) field camera and pick up a point and shoot 10-ish megapixel to keep in the shirt pocket

Yup, thats what I've done - as you say if you don't need the specific advantages of a DSLR this is a good compromise.

Won’t the price of digital backs behave like computer chips? We’ll abandon 35mm for 6x7

I'm skeptical about this. Most of the advances in integrated circuits have been due to reducing geometries - the actual chip sizes have not increased that much. There's a fundamental problem with cost reducing large sensors in that you don't get many per wafer. Unless someone finds a radical new way of producing wafers much cheaper whilst retaining the yield, the thought of a low cost MF or LF sensor is pie in the sky IMHO. I'm not sure who's going to do that research (especially in the current climate), the volumes are in smaller geometries and smaller chips for lower power phones/netbooks/laptops etc. large sensors is too much of a niche market?

[Findingmyway4ever]

Well I do know that the Minolta Rokkor is revered and coveted by some but I would hardly call it the sharpest lens ever produced for an SLR. Do you have some resolution tests you can share when it is being used on a DSLR?

I'm not sure if I understand the second question but if you are asking what $300 lens would I suggest as an alternative to the Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.2, then I would suggest a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.4 since you mentioned the Canon 50D. There really isn't much difference speed wise between f/1.2 and f/1.4 (roughly 1/3 of a stop). It would be my guess that the Canon niffty fifties (f/1.8 & f/1.4 50mms) are just as sharp as the Rokkor 58. If money isn't a consideration then I know that the Canon 50mm EF f/1.2 will out perform the Rokkor wide open; the Canon f/1.2 is a pretty high class lens. Whether or not the bokeh of the Rokkor is "better" than other lenses in it's class is just a matter of opinion. I know from viewing the results of the testing of several Leica ASPH 50mm lenses by a friend of mine locally during the past year, the bokeh from these lenses are really hard to beat. And perhaps equally so with the Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, what a beauty!


But this discussion is getting far afield from my original comment about using older vintage MF lenses on digital bodies. In short a vintage lens may not perform quite as good on a digital body as it did on a film body. I suspect this may be due several reasons such as flare, the critical angle need by the photo-diode sites to capture light, and the reflectivity of the sensor. These vintage lenses have to evaluated on a case by case basis. In the case of the Canon DSLRs with an APS-C sensor such as the 40D I've found Olympus Zuiko prime focal length lenses perform much better than some of the finer Nikon primes, but I wouldn't generalize and say that is true in every case with either brand of MF lenses.




Working with MF lenses is in some ways preferable to me since the control of the aperture and focus ring is right there where I like having it. Unfortunately that comes with the disadvantage that those lenses no longer have automatic apertures causing the focusing screen to darken severely which does slow there use down which can be important in certain shooting situations, especially low light conditions or fast action. On the whole I've tended to migrate away from MF lenses except in the case of very long focal length lenses which I use for back yard bird photography when I'm in the mood.



It doesn't seem that you care for any digital bodies of moderate price, that being the case I would recommend that you just stick with film since you don't want to pay the price for the upper echelon bodies. And since you seem to also favor the Contax G2, I thought I would mention that some of the lenses made for the G series are now being converted for use on the Leica M8, another body that you don't want to buy.




Did you stop to think what this really means in terms of that camera? The sensor resolution is so high that only the best optics are going to be able to create the best IQ.



I'm glad you rate the 40D over the 50D. I don't own a 50D myself, I'm very happy with my 40D and if you think the Canon 5D is such a great camera, which it is for the most part, why don't you buy one, shoot digital exposures, take some high end workshops for digital printing from guys like Tyler Boley or George DeWolfe and learn the craft?

Then you can make a competent decision for yourself whether digital printing is for you which was the original premise of this thread.

Don

Sorry for leaving in all this context, but I wanted to thank you for your points and comments, and yes, that Contax lens with that aperture sounds absolutely wicked. I'll be doing some Flickring to see some photos taken with this lens. I know many on the Sony FF threads have spoken highly about another Zeiss lens that is supposedly exceptional, but costs something like $3000?

You are right about the Leica M8 or even the Epson RD1. I love these types of cameras due to the street style and lack of intrusion. Then again, a small DSLR with pancake lenses is another option.

I actually just took some shots with a point and shoot Kodak P880. It has a slightly larger sensor, but sadly, in spite the Sony R1 had already made breaking news, Kodak still had to resort to sticking a puny sized sensor into the P880. Exposure, just automated, is absolutely excellent when framing correctly so the sky isn't blown out. One thing that puzzles me is how this camera and tons of others always got the "digital blows out skies" issue when you simply have to underexpose a little in order to retain the sky. I haven't compared these files with other digital cameras, but the scene that I typically shoot outside my house looked very SLR like. It's horrid for indoor shooting where a DSLR is obviously going to be far better, but for day shooting, it's plenty fast and again, has excellent exposures with a look that isn't tactile like a lot of the smallest sensored point/shoot cams and more resembling of a DSLR.

Just rambling, but I'm still investigating the digital market since I just got a little extra money from selling a few things and will try out some new methods since the computer world is progressively changing which results in more potential for digital capture.