Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/27

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Subject: Re: Vs: [Leica] Digital vs Film
From: Tina Manley <images@InfoAve.Net>
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 12:58:49 -0400
References: <200204261727.NAA03904@cliff.concentric.net> <018701c1ed4e$415e0fc0$167053d4@default>

At 09:15 AM 4/27/02 -0700, you wrote:
George,

>Now that's a lot of Leicas. And all replaced by a single digital camera? I 
>bought a Canon G2 last fall. And while it has it's place I'm not ready to 
>sell my Leicas (though I considered it for a time). After a sustantial 
>fling the G2 has sat idle. I'm back to film. For me digital replaces 35mm 
>color neg film only and focal lengths of 35 and wider. Everyone is going 
>digital. But, compared to Leicas and conventional cameras, digital shutter 
>lag is unbearable. Depends on the subject matter, I suppose.
>
>DaveR


Dave -

Wait till you try the Leica Digilux 1 before you give up on 
digital  ;-)   I have the Panasonic version and there is no shutter 
lag.  I'm using it for assignments right now and have been very pleased 
with the results.  Here is what someone on the NPPA list said about 
switching to digital (quoted with his permission) - sorry for the length 
but it expresses perfectly how I've been feeling lately!

Film? How retro! Next thing you know you'll be wearing love beads and bell
bottoms to work. :)
After shooting digital exclusively for 1 year now, that analogy almost
works for me. I bought a Canon 15mm fisheye in December and, over a 6-week
period managed to finish off a roll of film just for kicks (in many cases
when using the fisheye on my D30 the distortion is barely noticeable and I
wanted to see what it looked like on film). I finally got around to
processing the film 2 weeks later and finally scanned it 3 weeks after that
(only because I was tired of staring at the negatives).
It seemed like such a major chore to cut & sleeve that roll (and find a
marker and label that sleeve). Then I had to actually dig out my light box,
find a place to plug it in (tough to do when you have 20 plugs fighting for
18 sockets as it is), locate my grease pencil (I finally found it next to
Jimmy Hoffa's remains in the attic), dig out that large chunk of glass that
looks like Colonel Klink's monocle on steroids, risk blindness by sticking
it in my eye, risk a severe back spasm by bending over, and then, after all
that, either make educated guesses as to which version of the NY City
skyline might have more interesting minute detail or just give up and scan
them all. Then, after all that, I still had to preview, make fine
adjustments, prescan and scan just to end up with an image I had to crop
and dust so it equals a D30 image right out of the camera and I could edit it.
Wow!
I was ready for a nap after all that exhausting work.
All kidding aside, I have grown to dread film as much as doing my taxes
(when is the tax deadline this year? I hate that it changes every year.
Wait a minute, isn't Easter the date that moves every year? That means
taxes were due... oooops!) Not the quality of film of course. Just all the
extras I have to deal with. In other words: Time & Money!
I bought my D30 one year ago last week and, according to the camera's
counter, I shot 137,437 pictures in one year (I'm nothing if not prolific -
maybe I should start a stock agency). That's 3818 rolls of 36-exposure
film. At an avg. of $6.27 a roll for film & processing I would have spent
$23, 939. (And I actually agonized for weeks over whether or not to spend
$3,000 for a D30! Hey, I never claimed to be particularly bright!) That
doesn't take into account any expenses for negative sleeves, binders (and,
at that rate of shooting, a warehouse to hold the negs), gas to get the
film processed, negative scanner wear & tear (anyone need a Nikon
LS-2000?), etc.
But, much more important than money is the immense amount of precious time
digital has saved me. That's time I can share with my child and my wife
(who would think a digital camera could save a marriage. Thank goodness it
can because, at my wife's suggestion, I tried putting a wedding gown on my
21" monitor and it did nothing for me - the white lace lingerie was another
story all together...)
I often spent 50 hours or more a week cutting, sleeving, scanning pictures
so I could print contact sheets for clients and then dodging, burning,
color correcting and cleaning dust spots & scratches on the pictures they
bought. I wish I could say this was a bit of an exaggeration but 50 hours
was frequently a gross understatement. That's why I dread even picking up a
roll of film. I had gone from being a photographer to being a factory. I
was a one-man production line who got to shoot pictures once in a while.
Digital is the greatest thing that ever happened to me (photography-wise)
in a time/money sense but it has many, many other advantages. The biggest
might be not having that nagging "I can't afford the film cost" always
hanging over your head. Digital has killed that oppressive restriction on
my creativity. I can try anything now. If I want to fling the camera in the
air and remotely trigger the shutter just to see what happens, there's no
reason not to (other than dropping the camera). I haven't done that (I just
thought of it now) but you get the gist. You can try anything that you once
wouldn't have "wasted film on." You can get some great stuff on occasion
but mostly it is an amazing learning tool (with instant feedback). I've
learned more in one year of shooting digital than all my prior years of
shooting combined.
All that having been said, there's still a lot to love about film. I guess
we are just going through a trial separation.:)





Tina Manley, ASMP
http://www.tinamanley.com
images available from:
http://www.pdiphotos.com
http://www.mira.com
http://www.agpix.com
http://www.newscom.com




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Replies: Reply from Tina Manley <images@InfoAve.Net> (Re: Vs: [Leica] Digital vs Film)
In reply to: Message from George Lottermoser <imagist@concentric.net> (Re: Vs: [Leica] Ansel Jnr ;-))
Message from "Raimo Korhonen" <raimo.m.korhonen@uusikaupunki.fi> (Vs: [Leica] Ansel Jnr ;-))