Micheal, what you say sounds good, and makes perfect sense. I agree with everything you say, but what I would have wished for and I hope anyone who is considering going digital would in fact talk to, is a guide or mentor that can steer you away from the hype, misinformation, lies, deceptive ads, companies that throw hardware and software out there without adequate support and towards the stuff that works supported by people who are willing to fix their stuff when it goes wrong with no hassles.
Digital is GREAT, WHEN it workS right! But for digital to work, everything HAS to work TOGETHER! The perception which the makers of digital hardware and software make no effort to change, is that if you're considering digital, all you have to do is buy this or that and hook it up, and you are running. The CD burner that I now swear by originally gave me serious problems. I called several times and when they realized that I was going to be a pain in the ass until they solved my problems they told me that their software didn't really work and recommended another companies software! I bought that software and didn't have another problem! You know I would have loved to have known this about this CD burner before I bought it.
Your whole system is made up of several pieces of hardware and countless software programs that have to get along with each other and when don't talk to each other you can spend days or weeks trying to fix your system, which is time you could've been spending on manipulating your images.
I don't really disagree with your thoughts about digital but I do hold the manufacturers of digital hardware and software accountable for putting out products that are not ready for the market. Whether it works or not, they shove it on the market and figure that we'll pay for the fixes(upgrades), that should have been in the original product.
You would think when it came to digital and electronics, that there would be a quest for excellence, a long term loyalty toward the product, and a commitment toward courtesy when dealing with the people who bought your product, but I find this attitude scarce in the digital world. Anybody who has anything to do with this forum who say for the sake of argument, had a camera that would quit working three to four times during the exposure of a single roll of film and the camera did this on a regular basis simply wouldn't tolerate it or an indifferent attitude from the manufacturer or dealer who sold you that piece of equipment. You'd put them straight and quick! Too many People who produce digital hardware and software don't feel the same way.
The point I'm trying to make is that digital is useful, but that are are lot of hassles and I don't believe digital is easier or faster than traditional photography when you consider the downtime involved when your scanner, or computer, or printer is on the blink.
I had to ship my system back to the manufacturer twice and for those two individual problems it took six weeks. You know what I did for those six weeks? I went out and shot with my cameras. My cameras and strobes and meters and so on, almost always work. One of my fathers cameras that I have works, and has worked for 25yrs without skipping a beat. There is NO REASON on earth that digital can't be like this!
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