Re: [Leica] Is digital photography necrophilia?

["Jim Laurel" <jplaurel@nwlink.com>]

Dante Stella wrote:
> 1. The true nature of the paradigm shift
>
> In the old days, your PJ could wander around with his Leicas and
> whatnot.  A couple of years ago, American Photo did a layout of the
> absolutely massive amount of equipment people were taking to Iraq - it
> was something like two D1xs, battery chargers, inverters, microdrives,
> laptop computers, and full chemical gear.  That makes an F3 with MD-4

It's actually much worse than that, Dante.  I've learned from experience on
digital assignments that the technology is never to be trusted.  A simple
damaged cable can be a showstopper.  So, make that TWO battery chargers, TWO
12v-120v inverters, TWO 220v to 120v inverters, TWO of every possible cable
and adapter you might need, TWO laptops along with extra batteries, and TWO
of every cable they might require.  Also, you will need installation CDs for
ALL the OS and application software you use, along with any serial numbers
or installation keys required.  Don't forget TWO of every electrical adapter
you will need, as well as 220V compatible powerstrips to plug everything in.
If you're depending on a Mini M or Iridium satellite phone to upload your
images, you need TWO units, and TWO of all the associated cables and
chargers.  If you're away for a long period of time and you need external
firewire hard drives, you need TWO and TWO cables for them.  If you've ever
been in a situation where you're frantically trying to salvage gigabytes of
irreplaceable images from a squealing hard drive, damaged by shock and
vibration and ready to fail completely, you may not think digital
photography is so wonderful or convenient.  Back them up to DVD, you say?
Great idea.  If you shoot around 4gb of stuff per day, then you are burning
a DVD per night, which takes an hour on a Ti Powerbook.  And of course, they
are easily damaged, so you need to burn TWO.  That's two hours.  And that's
after you've spent 3 hours downloading images them from the CF cards,
editing, resizing, cropping, correcting, etc., for submission.  And all that
after waking up at 6am to start the day and shooting through 7 or 8pm.
Lovely, huh?  Oh, and by the way, be sure to bring 50% more DVDs as you
think you'll need.  You always end up using more than you expect.  So, if
you are shooting for 30 days, that's 30 DVDs, plus another 30 for backup,
plus at least another 30 for good measure.  That's 90 altogether.

You need alternate ways of doing things in the field.  For example, if you
are working as a part of a team, it's not enough to say that you are going
to transfer image files via wireless on your Powerbooks.  You need backup
methods, such as firewire cables to do target firewire mode for file
transfers, null modem ethernet cables to accomodate co-workers who are using
Windows notebooks, and CF PCMCIA adapters as a last resort.  And of course,
you'd better have TWO of each.  All this little stuff adds up.  You'd be
surpised.  I have been in situations where I was forced to use my "Plan C"
plan for doing a particular thing in the field, then find out that one of
the cables was damaged due to being crimped by a Pelican or Porter Case or a
PCMCIA CF adapter got bent.  Now you're down to Plan C with the backup cable
or adapter.  Not a good feeling.

Digital photography makes some assignment work possible that was difficult
or simply not possible at all before.  For guys traveling through the
desert, embedded with a military task force, it's the only alternative to
get images out daily.  And it's great for shooting around home, where you
are close to power, your computer, and plenty of resources.  In every other
way, it is a great big PITA.

- --Jim

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