Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/11/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ted wrote: >Well like I said, build the camera and lenses will come.... "if the >demand is large enough for prime lenses." And of course there's a >decent profit margin to be made. :-) If not? Well I suppose one has >a choice..... go back to film! :-) >ted There's another reason to go back to or stay with film. Digital cameras today are where computers were ten years ago. They're in a horsepower (MegaPixel, noise level)/Feature (e.g., LCD size) race. Buy one today and it's obsolete in a year or year and a half at most. My Digilux 2 was obsolete within months of purchase. Any of the newer DSLRs outshine it in speed of response and low noise performance. I was seriously thinking of getting a Canon 20D, but then the 5D (full-frame, 2.5" LCD screen) was announced, so I waited. I saw the same thing happen when the Pentax *istDS was replaced by the *istDL. The product cycle on both was about 15 months. So now I'm waiting until either the market settles down or a camera comes along that I know I'll be happy with for at least five years. I *really* don't want to put big bucks into a new camera only to see it superceded within a year. Once burned, twice shy probably applies here. In the meantime I'm shooting 2-3 rolls of Fuji 400 every week with my M7 (and sometimes with my Olympus Stylus Epic) and having the film scanned to 6MP JPG files when it's processed. My processor moans every time I go in about how no one orders prints anymore (I sure don't) but he seems to be surviving on his commercial business and making some prints from digital cameras. His scans are more than good enough for most of my purposes and I've bought a good film scanner for when they're not. I also have the best archival backups in existence, my negatives. None of the above applies to pros, of course. Digital has to be the hands down winner when you have to produce results NOW! and it doesn't matter if you have to replace your cameras every couple of years. -- Regards, Dick Boston MA