Upgrading to Digital from SLR

Yes I'd forgotten I'd still need to get the photos developed, unless I buy one of those home developing machines. I will be collecting the camera tomorrow, getting quite excited about it now, might just have to keep it for myself and buy him something else!

At least I'll have a couple of days to play with it before I have to wrap it up.

Cheers

Stargazer,

I've had it wrong all along.

Instead of shopping for a digital Pentax, I should have been shopping for a wife like you!

Tell him he's one lucky bloke!

Cheers!

Thank you very much, I will! He's a good guy and works hard, so deserves a treat, something I will enjoy too, though I will probably be asking questions on here all the time.

Oh really? Depends on what you call "many", but if it's more than .1 of 1% of DSLR buyers I would be amazed, and even then they would be people with serious computer-phobia or an ingrained inability to cope with change of any sort.

Hands up all readers of this list who have given a Pentax DSLR a serious try and then reverted to film.

G

I'll not be using film much any more. The biggest benefit to me of a DSLR is that mistakes/experiments cost nothing.

Although we continue to use film, this is only specifically to provide pictures for competitions and inter-club "battles". I am of course talking about slide film.

If the results from Cavendish are good (we've just sent off a CD to be written to slide film) then even this may be in doubt and digital may completely take over.

Unless, of course, there is a specific job to do that requires film for some reason.

Hiya,

G says: " even then they would be people with serious computer-phobia or an ingrained inability to cope with change of any sort"

That really is a very outrageously narrow minded and sweeping statement and just plain silly thing to say.

..a little story (true, not invention)..a large further education college in England which has media studies courses, which include photography being taught to a high level by former professional photographers closed it's darkrooms about 3 years ago. The student intake has increased and after so many students requested darkroom facilities they have had to be re-inststated. Many students are having so much fun with this 'dead medium' and getting such good results several of the students have ditched digital because they prefer the results from film.

The students are aged from about 18 up to 27...they certainly are not computer phobic nor are they resisitant to change...they simply prefer the results they now get...why G cannot understand the possibility of this happening I fail to see.

I use both film and digital, they both have their place, the debate is not helped by narrow mindedness or dogma on EITHER side of the fence.

rant over,

Cheers Steve.

I wonder how much longer film will be available? There seems to be a stampede to get out of the market.

Film is now belly up. Personally I can only think of a couple of specialised instances where I might still use it. Film disappeared from general television production 15 years ago, it was still used for major dramas but now HDTV has largely put paid to that. It is inevitable that still photography will follow that model. There are of course still people around use wet collodian and gum bichromate and good luck to them but digital is King until something else comes along.

half the recommended supllies on my college list were no longer made...tri-x, certian papers spotting materials, etc.

It seems I've started something by using the word 'upgrade'!

But you can run out of batteries.

Well what we need then is Trevor Bayliss to slap one of his wind-up thingies to a battery grip.

http://windupradio.com/FPFreeCharge.htm

Truth is, no matter how sentimental you might be about film, anybody starting photography right now, either as a hobby or with professional aspirations, is well advised to choose digital over film. Reason . . . the learning curve is sooooooo steep thanks to the near instant review of captured images that students can be producing fine work in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost (disgregarding the intialoutlay for equipment). That said, the same student may not know his f-stop from his hyperfocal distance, but that does not prevent some high class images being produced in a very short space of time. If forced to use film, many would give up very early on.

Woman, watching some photographers marching along: "they was all out of step except our Steve".

Steve, old lad (I'm fairly sure you're not young), don't think by calling me narrow-minded and stupid that you can magically turn the clock back.

The reason photography courses are still teaching film is that digital has caused a huge resurgence of interest in photography. Look at the number of photo mags (I use the term loosely) on sale now compared with ten years ago.

Many budding photographers feel that they would like to experience how it used to be done, as well as how it is done now, and to try out as many as possible of the different methods and techniques for themselves. And many tutors are happy to oblige.

I know three students who have recently taken photography courses. They all enjoyed the film component, but they all have digital cameras and open minds and they certainly won't be using film in the future.

Nor, I dare say, will you. If you doubt me, look back at some of the comments on this forum made by John Riley and others three years ago.

There has been a Damascene conversion.

And by the way, I can't count any hands.

G