While I really think digital is great, I have to say posts like this read like someone who just sobered up and found a new addiction be it religion or AA, or a new drug. Once he finishes spending the $30K -60,000 K (which next year will be worth 1/3rd to maybe half of what he spent this year) on a set up similar to his friends toreplace maybe $8K forth of cameras he should write back.
Like I said I think digital is great.
And yes I have worked with that Kodak back.
> I said, "They're very nice, but they look REALLY digital to me."
yep, really digital. where's the grain? where's the scratches? where's the fingerprints? where's the uneven processing? where's the film-flatness artifacts? well .. you get the point. there's room for both analogue and digital. I know that you can synthesize a very good cello tone electronically these days. but still, I get up in the morning and draw a bow across gut strings and play Bach. my fingers connect bow through strings through wood, to feel each note in my chest as I play. it's organic. I won't have a problem making my first digital CD.
Well I have my 8x10 and my 12x20 negative right here I dont see any scratches, fingerprints, uneven development and/or did not need any kind of film flatness gizmo....Darn I must have had a digital back all these years and did not know it!! :-)))
Those attributes are not solely the charachteristics of a digital back, like I said in a previous post, I have not had to spot a print in many years. Sure my technique for loading film holders is anal retentive and takes a long time...but no dust, etc. So sorry, your argument does not convice me Daniel.
I spend about 50-60 hours a week in front of my computer, so why in the hell would I want to spend more 'processing' photographs?
I've been doing LF for just over a year, and I'll do it until I die. With film.
Keep your digital camera, and sell your analog cameras. While it may work for you, it doesn't work for most of us.
BTW, if film is dead, you might as well give your equipment away. You probably won't get very much money for it, since, as you put it, 'film is dead'.
Hell, you can give your equipment to me if you wish. Save you the trouble of trying to sell your old, outdated equipment. :-)
-klm.
> So sorry, your argument does not convice me Daniel.
uh ... don't drop that negative Jorge. I wasn't arguing either way. I could care less about these silly comparisons. and like I said, there's room for both. the main point is to enjoy your photography. the process and results.
there's no arguing that using equipment of this calibre will yield grand results. however, how much is invested in a digital back for my Hasselblads and an Epson 10000? I had a wonderful time today, walking through downtown Portland in the rain with just my Rolleicord and Holga.
In a recent photo magazine article, one of the proponents of B&W digital (maybe Chip Forelli or Huntington Witherall) was reviewing the latest and best (for that moment) Epson printer and how they had a closet full of printers they had previously tried. All I can say is the last time I looked I did not have a closet full of Omega D-2 enlargers. Yes digital is wonderful, but to get the quality equal to a fine print from LF negs is still a rich man's game.
Digital, way to expensive with a very short life span. LF, cheap, the cheapest format I own, and lasts a life time.
Film is alive and well. A mature business making money. Digital is still climbing that steep upward slope of its product life cycle. When it gets to the top, if it gets to the top, I don't think it will be a "King of the hill" type contest.
By the way, I don't think any two people have seen that hill from quite the same angle, or in quite the same light. Even if they are standing side by side.
I have a friend who owns a photo lab. He does both digital and wet film processing. He uses digital for all his commercial work and wet film for all his fine art work. Digital allows him to easily recover from screw ups and create images that would be expensive to do with sets and wet film. For fine art work his emphasis is on clarity. He does big crystal clear images and he says you cannot get that with digital. Wet film is his preferred solution for landscapes.
Of course, cost is not a consideration because he has access to extensive equipment for either type. His preferences are based soley on functionality.
For me cost is a consideration. Digital is extremely expensive and not cost effective. Advertizing commands big dollars. Fine art does not. What I can do with five dollars of wet film is amazing.
Custom Aspen snowboard, $750 Granny-killing SUV with chains, $40,000 16MB Kodak Digital Back for Hassie $40,001
The feeling you get pulling soggy fibre print from final wash - Priceless! (Some things in life ARE priceless... and for everything else, there's Mastercard)
"What is art?" Many years back when photographers used to drag tents with them to do their wet plate processing it was a struggle to produce good results, yet they did and few among us(certainly not myself) can reproduce what they did.
Ever stood in a museum and looked at marble statue and thought: "How the hell did they do it??!!". Move that hammer perhaps just a fraction to quickly...? Unforgiving? But hey, today we have it easy. I can have my heavy 5x7 unpacked and set up in a few minutes. And can develop/print a few good negs in no more than a day's work, with minimal exposure to toxic chemicals/fumes.
10%. That's about how much of our brain we use - when we try really hard. So how did they do it?? They used a few % more. They excelled in what they did. A constant struggle with life - utterly unforgiving. Becoming one with your environment - senses enhanced to a point where a split second before that hammer strikes he already knew with 100% certainty that the marble would shatter. We call them Masters. And when you have mastered what you do(or strive to) and your path there has challenged your boundaries and scarred you along the way and when what you do in some way communicates to people, then - and only then - is it art.
Film might be dying, but when it goes I will in some other more unforgiving medium continue to strive for that 'oneness'. As for this specific tread... I suggest that 'this dude' take his digital camera... and become one with it.
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