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Thread: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

  1. #51

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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    Dollars and cents rule in my case. I can buy 5 years' worth of film and chemicals for much less than the cost of a good digital SLR. By the time I've used that much film, a digital camera, should I have bought one, would be obsolete.

    My cameras, lenses, darkroom gear are all paid for. My only expense is film and processing chemicals. I scan and print digitally. My output of images is fairly small. The economics of the situation keep me in film. I do like my little Canon G12 as a pocket companion on LF shoots. It has the same aspect ratio as my whole-plate camera. 1:1 scans from the whole-plate camera blow me away. I'm 55 years old. I can buy and freeze enough film to last the rest of my life.

    I frankly find digital photography frustrating in the field. Too many menus to pick through, too many decisions to make. I like the simplicity of focus, shutter speed, aperture setting, expose.

    I rarely shoot 35mm any more, and my digital P&S camera fills what need I have for snapshots. It's amazingly versatile. I feel stupid putting it on a tripod, though. That's the place for a real camera.

    Peter Gomena

  2. #52
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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Gomena View Post
    I frankly find digital photography frustrating in the field. Too many menus to pick through, too many decisions to make. I like the simplicity of focus, shutter speed, aperture setting, expose.
    I agree in principle with your other observations, but I have to say that my Canon 5D can be used as simply as I want to use it. I can absolutely use it as a manual-focus, manual exposure camera. And I get to change film between individual shots.

    For those who like Tokyo-by-night user interfaces, it can satisfy that itch, too. But it is most assuredly usable in the simple, old-fashioned way.

    Rick "thinking a camera is obsolete only when the batteries are no longer available--which is indeed an issue" Denney

  3. #53
    All metric sizes to 24x30 Ole Tjugen's Avatar
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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    Maybe when there is a 300Mp, 5x7" sensor that doesn't requiter a LOT of power supply, and can be used in single exposures? Ah humm - there is: Film.

  4. #54
    ic-racer's Avatar
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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    Its like asking "when will you give up football and switch completely to baseball?" To me the question does not make any sense.

  5. #55
    8x20 8x10 John Jarosz's Avatar
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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    When I can no longer lift the camera onto the tripod.

  6. #56

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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    As many others have said, it's the process of using large format cameras that I like. I like composing on the big ground glass and working in the darkroom.
    For me, digital, compared to film, is just too complicated. Too much mind-numbing technology that's forever changing.
    I prefer the "vintage" process, because I feel as if I'm actually making something. I haven't turned everything over to a computer with a lens on it.
    I certainly hope sheet film will be around for a long, long time.

  7. #57
    Stefan
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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    I'll abandon 4x5 film when I believe it can match the quality and features that I get with a 4x5 camera, for less than 1500$.

    More specifically, that means:
    1. About 80-100 megapixels (no AA filter).
    2. Clean 5 minute exposures in hot weather.
    3. Full front movements, axis tilt/swing.
    4. A viewfinder that lets me confirm focus with tilts. I'd probably prefer a digital viewfinder, allowing me to zoom to check critical focus, while also avoiding all alignment issues between GG and film/sensor.

    I'm not holding my breath...

  8. #58

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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    Quote Originally Posted by grahamcase View Post
    For me it's only partially about quality. There is the whole process of shooting, and equally important, developing that I miss with digital, not to mention actually holding something!

    Filling film holders, focusing and loading the camera, standing in a dark room for far too long with somewhat dangerous chemicals, coming out with a large negative that I can show off to people, and then making real prints is far too much to give up simply because technology has sort of caught up to the quality.
    Oh come on now, spend way too much on a digital that is "almost" as good of quality and then go to one of these nice large print labs who don't use inkjet, I'm talking Chromira(just got done changing bleach and stabilizer in the one I run) and ask if you can hang for the day and do some printing. Then you get all the chemicals plus the high pitches of the computers, fans, rollers, elevators, beeps, pops, lights and the jams, the lovely jams. Now do all this after you've spent a few minutes or hours staring at the computer, because you want it to look like film, hopefully you shot RAW, because you want the QUALITY. Alot of money and in the end possibly more time just to create something that is "almost" as good as film. Shoot film, scan it Hi Resolution and send it to someone you trust to print it right, and keep doing it until they get it right. Of course if you have a dark room and it's set up, stay there, keep your soul, digital has very little soul, film is full of it.

  9. #59
    Resident Heretic Bruce Watson's Avatar
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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    "When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?"

    When the time is right.

    Bruce Watson

  10. #60
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

    When they pry the Ries tripod and Phillips 8x10 from my cold dead hands ....

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