RE: [Leica] digit stuff

[leica@davidmorton.org]

Guy Bennett wrote:

"I'm not a pro, and am not subject to pro constraints - I don't have to
worry about which way the market is going, what newspapers and mags will no
longer accept, what photo editors require, etc. I'm an amateur doing this
for my own pleasure, and that for me means: manual camera, prime lenses,
black and white film, liquid chemicals, wet darkroom, actual photographic
paper, etc. The whole digital everything is totally uninteresting to me,
since one of my motivations for making pictures in the first place is my
desire to learn and work with traditional processes. I'm not against
digital photography, realize it is quote the way of the future endquote,
but like many of us on this list, I spend a major portion of my day working
on a computer, and I appreciate turning off the machine and doing things
that are *not* dependant on digital technology.

Does this mean I will never go digital?
Not necessarily. At some point, my photographic interests may go that way.

What will I do if manufacturers stop producing analogue anything, to the
point that we're wiping our butts ... I mean our rear elements ... with
digital toilet paper?
I'll deal with that when it happens.

For now, I'll just follow the debate. As long as film, chemicals, paper,
etc., are still being made (and I personally do not believe that they'll
ever disappear completely, they'll just become less readily available and
perhaps more expensive), I'll continue to use them. If and when that ever
becomes impossible, well, I'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Well put. I think it's important to take everyone's contribution to this
debate as their personal opinion, and not something they're trying to impose
on the whole list membership. Some eschew digital in all its forms, and they
have their own - entirely valid - reasons. Others - and I'm one of them -
use digital cameras when appropriate, scan film when that's appropriate, and
even print an image in the darkroom when that's appropriate. It's actually
no big deal, you use the right tool for the job. Sometimes film's the right
medium, in other situations digital is the only possible choice (the UK
national press, for example, will no longer deal with film unless it's a
*major* story).

Whatever the limitations of the current digital SLRs, they are useful tools.
Yes there are problems, but all tools have strengths and weaknesses, that's
a major part of the *skill* of photography; knowing the right tool for the
job.

- -- 
David Morton
dmorton@journalist.co.uk

"The more opinions you have, the less you see." -- Wim Wenders.
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