Apples & Oranges - User Comparisons

Open Mike Night #28 - The Coming Change

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:09:01 -0500

Professional photographer Michael Escalera recounts his journey from film to digital and back to film again in his recent article, The Coming Change:

I have been photographing weddings for 11 years and love what I do for a living. When I first began, I used film....In 2005 I transitioned to a digital workflow....In my experience, the digital images were not as rich as the film images. Sure, they were sharper and in some cases more vibrant, but they didn't fully match what I had hoped they would be.

Continue reading "Open Mike Night #28 - The Coming Change"

Kirk Tuck's Return to Film

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:23:16 -0500

Kirk Tuck

In June 2001, professional photographer Kirk Tuck achieved some small notoriety and elicited dozens of reader responses when he published his very compelling A Pro Photographer's review of the Leica M6 and lenses for it:

Everyone seems to have an opinion about the Leica M series rangefinder cameras, yet so few people have actually picked one up and used it for enough time to understand the unique features and benefits that make it one of the finest tools for certain kinds of photography.

Then on September 01, 2002, Kirk abruptly "went digital:"
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My Year With Digital Cameras

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:57:00 -0600

Commercial photographer David Beckerman recounts the experiences that led him away from film and then finally back to it:

It began on July 4th, 2004. I was by the East River photographing fireworks with my Elan 3, and nearby was a fellow with a big Canon digital SLR that he had just bought for $4500. Sure it was a lot of money he said, but it paid for itself with a couple of photography assignment[s].

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The Writing on the Wall, Part One

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Wed, 17 May 2006 13:00:00 -0500

Last August, Bob Atkins published an article entitled The Writing on the Wall on photo.net. The article was rather inflammatory and generated numerous Reader's Comments, many of which were informative, insightful, and even humorous.

Unfortunately, when an article goes off photo.net's front page all reader comments are currently being dropped (see the current copy of Bob's article).

Fortunately, the wonders of html caching have preserved the entire article intact with reader comments. I've republished it below, unchanged except for minor formatting corrections. Read on for more..
Continue reading "The Writing on the Wall, Part One"

The Writing on the Wall, Part Two

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Wed, 17 May 2006 12:59:00 -0500

This is a continuation of Part One.
Continue reading "The Writing on the Wall, Part Two"

What to think of pocket digicams

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:56:05 -0600

Brief observation by author Fazal Majid :

Once you have used a digital SLR (DSLR) with a nice, clean, large, low-noise sensor, the poor image quality of most compact digicams becomes hard to tolerate. This is in contrast with film, where a $70 Olympus Stylus Epic can compete in image quality with thousand-dollar cameras.

Then it hit me: don't consider a pocket digicam as a camera, think of it as a pocket photocopier/scanner instead, like HP's ill-fated CapShare. I use my pocket digicam mostly to record specials in stores, flyers, magazine articles, diagrams on a whiteboard and the like. Japanese otaku teenagers are way ahead of me, as many bookstores in Tokyo now ban cameraphones because the kids would just snap photos of manga comic books and not pay.

Regressing: Why I Went Back to Film

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 12:40:42 -0500

Ian Kennedy jumped in to the digital revolution with both feet, one of the first to purchase an expensive Nikon D100 digital SLR. Now he has traded it for "an all-manual 35mm rangefinder with a 50mm prime lens." In this web page he explains why:

After a year and thousands of pictures, I decided that a DSLR, with all of its wonders, had an insidiously negative impact on the way I take photos. Because I was no longer worried about the amount of film that I was using, I frequently took three or more shots of the same subject and, to my shame, occasionally "chimped" those images as I took them.

Now, don't misunderstand me, digital photography is great for commercial work. I shot four weddings and a couple of piecemeal freelance gigs with the D100, and, honestly, if I was to shoot another wedding, especially one for just any client, I would want to do it digitally. Shooting digitally frees the photographer from the concern that the shot has been missed. But, with that said, it also discounts the thought and craft, even the happy accidents of photography. I realized I had been relying on digital for what it too easily becomes: a crutch.

Read the rest of Regressing: Why I Went Back to Film.

With a reasonable scanner, you can make 16mega pixel digital photo from high quality (or any quality) film camera.

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:13:31 -0500

In his review of the Leica CM at PhotographyReview.com, syuji writes,

Just when I thought about going totally digital, I realized that with a reasonable scanner, you can make 16mega pixel digital photo from high quality (or any quality) film camera.

Wife's Leica Mini pics sharper, more detailed than digital camera shots

nospam@example.com (Carson Wilson) — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 16:51:31 -0500

At PhotographyReview.com, jpg writes in his review of the Leica CM dated June 13, 2005,

I came upon the CM in a round about way. Previously I owned a Contax T2, which, unfortunately I traded for the new rage, a digital camera. After returning from a vacation trip, my wife and I compared photographs. We both noticed that that her little Leica Mini pics were much sharper and detailed then my digital camera shots. So I began wishing I hadn't sold my Contax T2 and Contax is out of production so the T2 was no longer available and the last T3 at the dealers was sold.