[Leica] digital transformation

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

> 
> So I guess what I am really wondering is, how many of us on the list are
> somewhat nostalgic for film, or have genuinely embraced the digital
> revolution?
> 
> Don
> dorysrus@mindspring.com
> 
> 
I think it may not be an issue of if but when.
Film cameras are not going away.
I shot film today. There may have been a period of a whole 6 months when no
film passed though my lips.
But I sure was not one of those who instantly had no use for film once I
successfully uploaded a capture;
Or spitted out an inkjet.
All things must pass or go full circle. You'd think Leica people would have
a nostalgic streak in thier bones somewhere.
I've been getting my XP2 back in 20 minutes before I'm have half done with
my Mocha across the street. I check them out on the light table of the
Shutterbug with a loupe then bring them home and scan the living daylights
of of them with my Nikon 5000 Coolscan.

Today I went out with a camera I'd not used for years.
My FE2. 
Set at "A" for anarchy; watch that needle on the left!
With a 55mm 3.5 macro I just landed for a song.
One honey of a hunk of glass.
Gets in all those hard to reach places.
A tiny air to glass surface protected like crazy with certainly no need of a
lens shade.

The shutter feels very much like the shutter on my Bessa L when it goes off.
Not quite as loud.
Not exactly Leica M like to put it mildly. But close enough in some senses
of the word.

I think most of the digital nuts on the list will come back to film sooner
or later. It's only a matter of time.

But those who really never got anything decent out of the darkroom all those
years to decades might have a bad taste in their mouth on film.
And therefore they may never go back. To them all those years of shooting
film were basically wasted. They were in a way living a lie. Real
photography began for them with their adventures with their souped up
digital point and shoots. Because they can upload their results to galleries
with effortless impunity. No sticky hypo fingernails.
With film they never really got results they could show to anybody.
Black and white darkroom work eludes a whole lot of people.
And in a way that is really a shame. Of course like HCB they could have
always gone to custom black and white printers.
But that's another chapter in another psychological study.
Lets face it sooner or later you can talk a good ballgame but they want to
see your results.
"Some day your Prints will come". (Snow White?)
Well that hard copy needs to see the light of day sooner or later or your
credibility as a photographic theorist starts fading like a poorly hypo'd
proof print.   
    ...left out in the rain with the cake.
        Leonard Coenen

Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/