Re: [Leica] Digital

[George Lottermoser <imagist@concentric.net>]

dcardish@sympatico.ca (Dan Cardish)7/25/013:40 AM

> But how much would it have really cost you to shoot the
equivalent of 100
> rolls digitally?   I've been looking at the new Minolta Dimage
7; at its
> highest resolution setting, it can store only one image on the
16 meg
> memory card that comes with the camera (about 14 meg per
image).  If you
> used the $500 USD 1-gig micro drive, you could store roughly 70
images, or
> about the equivalent of two rolls of 35mm film.  What do you do
then, once
> it is filled up?
- -----------------------------

Thank you. The realities of the cost of capturing and storing a
scene on a frame of 35mm 100asa transparency film vs. the cost of
capturing the same scene (resolution et al) in a digital format I
believe incomparable. 

Then consider that with the digital record you have nothing to
look at without access to a computer. While with the transparency
you can examine the recorded scene with anything from a $5
magnifying glass to a $300 loupe.

That 35mm transparency holds one hell of a lot of information in
a very tiny amount of space at an extremely low price. It is very
accessable and very functional and efficient.

Also consider that the storage media constantly evolves, so you
MUST keep-up. I've got many, many hours of work ahead of me to
get my circa 90's digital files off of 230meg magneto opticals
(now obsolete) and onto CDs (soon to be obsolete) and I'm quite
sure this will not end. New drives, new media, many costs to
consider when moving seriously into digital imaging. Free =
illusion.

And also consider that all the digital gear that you purchase
will become absolutely worthless (compared to initial cost)
within a couple-a-few years. Every computer that I have purchased
(MacPlus, MacSE, MacQuadra 840 AV, Mac 9600, Mac 540c, Mac
PowerBook G3) has cost $2,500 - $3,500 and they're all worth nada
today. And the new Mac G4 currently getting installed will also
be worth squat in a couple years. Then there's the list of
obsolet scanners, monitors, external hard drives, printers, zips,
jazzes, cd burners - all junk in 3 years. Compare this to the
Durst Lab 184, with a color head, and 300mm Nikkor - sitting in
my darkroom - doing exactly what it was designed to do -
perfectly - 20 or more years after manufacture (I paid $125 at
auction for it). 

We certainly find ourselves in transitionary times. But I'm not
sure we're moving in the right direction as the land fills with
circuit boards, beige plastic and cathode ray tubes. Quite a
legacy. 

George