Re: [Leica] Digital Capture - Full Circle Back To Film

["Gene" <sop@erols.com>]

Leonard and group:

Everyone wants to compare film to digital. Different tools. May or may not
ever be equal. When you want to take a picture of something to put on eBay,
I'm sure you will grab your Coolpix. When you are trying to procuce a cover
shot for Widget World magazine, I'm sure you will grab your film camera.
Even if you plan on converting the image to digital. Scanned film is still
superior to in camera digital. That may not be true of some of the medium
format digital backs used for still life shots, I don't really know that
much about them.

Price vs. performance is still an issue, but it is getting better all the
time. Digital cameras are like computers in terms of prices comming down and
performance going up. Remember it was not long ago that a camera with half
the resolution of your wife's $5k D1x, cost $30k. Nikon's new D100 with
greater resolution than the D1x will sell for $2k. It may not be the camera
that the D1x is, but it is a significant offering. I expect we'll be seeing
older D1's going used for $1500 by the end of the year. Face it, more
research dollars are going into digital than film cameras.

Gene
who has a photographic memory.
Now, where did I put that film? (or should I say flash memory card)

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Leonard J. Kapner" <ljkapner@cox.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 8:44 AM
Subject: [Leica] Digital Capture - Full Circle Back To Film


> For those contemplating the migration from film to digital capture, it
> may be helpful to learn of one long-time Leica owner's experience (me)
> descending into the digital capture domain. Forgive me in advance if I'm
> tredding old ground, but I've only been a LUG member for several months,
> and I haven't seen much written on this subject.
>
> Last year, I succumbed to the hype and purchased a Coolpix 995 for
> "casual" snapshot use. I used it seldom and found it to be "strange" to
> use compared to my Leica Ms and Rs. I didn't make many images with it
> and when the Coolpix 5K arrived, gave the 995 to son #2 and went to
> Yosemite with Coolpix 5K and Leica R for five days to do some a:b
> comparisons.
>
> My conclusion? After a serious interval in the field trying to use the
> 5K (and a few hours with my wife's D1x, a power-hungry brick of a
> camera... I'd rather haul a Hasselblad!) I am full-circle back to film
> capture, for the following four reasons:
>
> 1. Look-through viewfinders on the non-SLR digital cameras are uniformly
> terrible - where were the photographer-testers when camera designs were
> being thought through? Did the packaging engineers win?
> 2. LCD viewfinders are a joke - I'd rather use a Rollei TLR, it's
> brighter in daylight and much less granular. And they require far less
> battery power...  ;-)
> 3. Image acquisition average latency (elapsed time to AF "ready" light
> on) is excessive, in the range of 2-3 seconds, making the digital
> capture solution almost unworkable for anything other than landscape,
> posed portraiture or still life applications
> 4. Human interface to the onboard camera operating system software is
> cumbersome and non-intuitive - no way to conveniently work non-preset
> choices by "feel" alone; it's like buying a new "improved" computer
> keyboard and discovering that you're not able to touch-type on it!!
>
> BTW I had an opportunity to "handle" a Leica Digilux 1 production
> prototype about 4 weeks ago when the new rep in our area happened by the
> local dealer while I was picking up something. Impressions are that the
> camera is poorly finished, "bricky" feeling, LCD is bigger, brighter,
> perhaps better, human interface to the on-board OS is a bit easier than
> the Coolpix, but latency and look-through viewfinder is still woefully
> poor and cannot compare to the immediacy and quality of M and R film
> alternatives.
>
> My takeaway? Unless one is willing to spend well north of US$5K for
> premium-level non-Leica digital SLR rig, this technology is not ready
> for prime time just yet. That's why I've come full-circle back to film
> capture with my Leicas, for virtually every photographic application
> that interests me.
>
> Anyone out there have a different set of experiences from which we all
> might learn? Does anyone think that these technology shortcomings are
> likely to change in the near future?
>
> /Len/
> Leonard J. Kapner
> Tel: (310) 377-5060
> E-mail: ljkapner@cox.net
>
>
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