My disclaimer: The great thing about opinions is that you don’t need credentials to have one. The bad thing is that they’re like * (refer to Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s Breakfast of Champions if you don’t know what I mean by the asterisk).So there you have it, I’m just an * with zero credentials and an opinion.
Recently I hit a slump photographically speaking. Nothing seemed interesting enough to shoot, process and print. When you’re doing all of the steps yourself you start to economize your photography. That was exactly what I didn’t want to be doing. A friend of mine joked that all I did was shoot test rolls. Feeling burned out and slightly disenfranchised I did what most gear heads do, I started looking at cameras for a muse. I took a serious look at vintage Leica’s, high quality fixed lens rangefinders, and even the new Diana Mini. And then fate intervened. My uncle, who was about to leave the country for 2 years to teach in India was also looking for a camera with all of those things, only for him it had to be digital. He didn’t have the resources or the desire to shoot film. He asked for my advice since I am a self professed photography nerd. I gave him a lot of advice and realized that I was contradicting the core of my own belief system! If you take film cameras out of the equation and accept digital cameras for what they are they’re pretty amazing tools. So while helping someone else find a camera that met their needs I had to seriously re-evaluate my own.
When I first set up my darkroom I swore off 35mm cameras, I was going to only shoot medium format film cameras for “artistic results”. If I wasn’t shooting a toy camera or something I intended to print huge then I would continue to use my dSLR. That didn’t last long. I already had everything I needed to shoot, process and print 35mm film.
I realized that while a digital camera that can do a lot of the things I want a camera to do I still cannot find a digital camera that captures my passion for photography. But I hadn’t considered them in a long time. A lot of technology has come along and the prices keep dropping. So I started thinking if I bought a new digital camera to replace my 6 year old consumer grade dSLR I could get back to doing “photography” and spend less time being a photography nerd that shoots comparison rolls of film for fun. I haven’t been doing a lot of expression photography on my quest to find my holy grail camera to take with me on my next deployment. In my mind that holy grail was going to be a film camera so I hadn’t considered digital cameras at all. What I am looking to do is take one camera with me that can do landscape, street, portrait and general snapshot photography. It’s really hard to find a digital that fits all of those bills in a compact package. It’s hard, but it’s not impossible. The Canon Powershot G series comes to mind, as well as the popular Lumix. And the D60 and the Rebel XTi are also fairly compact. I don’t know a lot about digital cameras, but I guess I know enough to be dangerous.
Just like having all of the tools to utilize the benefits of 35mm photography I also have the tools needed for digital. In some ways I feel like clinging to film for general purpose photography is a lot like shooting myself in the foot. I’m no purists and I am not interested in dogma. I took a real hard look at what is available and what you get dollar for dollar. Marketing for new cameras is really great. It had me convinced that I needed to go out and spend money. I was talking this over with my wife and I said “If I invest $1000 in a digital camera it will be obsolete in less then 10 years. If I invest $1000 dollars in a film camera in 10 years it will still be as good as it is today and as good as it was 50 years ago”. And that’s what sealed the deal for me. I am still not ready to re-invest in digital technology at this time. For me the return on investment just isn’t there. The good part about all of this agonizing decision making [kidding, I love critical thought exercises as a gear head and a compulsive shopper] is while re-evaluating what it is that I am looking for in a camera and what I hope to accomplish as an artist and photographer has recharged me and has got me excited about going out and shooting again, even if it’s just a test roll!
Comments
I definitely sympathize with you. When i was about to go on a trip recently, i was deciding what camera(s) to bring, and i was debating between my 35mm SLR or my dSLR for my main camera. I eventually realized that if i’m mostly going to be shooting vacation pictures, it might as well be on digital. Here’s my quick reference:
artistic = film
vacation/family = digital
Now, that’s not to say that i won’t take the Holga out to take some fun shots of my neice, but if everyone’s gathering for a family picture, i’m going to use my dSLR.
Also, is that a Canon SD1000 in the picture for this post? I have one just like it, and it’s a very nice little P&S
Many ideas here. On a side note, I always find it somewhat surprising to find someone on the web musing about similar things that are bouncing in my head.
I am similar in that I just don’t see the same or shoot the same with my dSLR as my SLR. I don’t know what it is, but it’s true.
As far as the dSLR goes though, I disagree a bit with you. When you buy a $1000 dSLR, you’re really investing in the lenses by your choice of manufacturer. After the body, 2 or 3 good lenses can easily set you back just as much. Plus, I think that my 40D will be taking just as good pictures on it’s 10th year as it does now.
While the noise performance isn’t the same as newer models, that’s a precarious game to play. There’s always a longer lens, wider lens, less noise body, etc to fool people (myself included) into thinking that it’ll make or break that one shot.
Thanks for the comment Jacob, I snuck the SD1000 in with all the vintage and retro cameras, it’s a great pocket camera, I normally have it with me at all times. It pulled double duty as a light meter for a long time.
You hit the nail on the head re:test rolls. I feel like I spend my life running test rolls and never fully exploring a camera. My flickr is littered with photos entitled ‘blah blah first/test roll’. I think I need to concentrate on a camera or two and use them. I found that Large Format helped with the camera problem too; I don’t have to fret about what camera to take out, and I can spend time composing at taking shots.
I finally broke down and got a DSLR because my fixed-lens ultra-zoom became obsolete. I love using the DSLR (a used Nikon D40 that I got in May) for family shots and for moments when it is imperative that I get a ‘great’ shot (that is, in focus and properly lit). When I do take the DSLR with me I bring along my favorite toy camera as well and try to get the same shot just for comparison. It can be a really useful tool. I don’t ‘see’ things the same way through the DSLR either, nor do things look the way I want them too when I shoot digital. Nick’s comment about lenses is right on and as long as you aren’t a gearhead (which it seems you aren’t) than forget about your DSLR being obsolete. If it works well you should still use it, just like old film cameras. Imagine the looks on people’s faces 10 years from now when you’re still using a DSLR purchased in 2009?
I don’t dare not bring my DSLR on a trip, or an event where I am the only or main photographer! The inability for instant review on a film camera and the versatility of a DSLR makes it a ‘no contest’ for me. To me a camera that allows for interchangeable lenses, gives a WYSIWYG preview (i.e. no parrallax error), allows in-camera change of ‘film type’, instant preview, has quick auto-focus, allows manual and auto exposure settings, is the epitome of camera development.
So for me:
cannot fail = digital
artistic = film
Not that digital cannot be artistic, but film does make me think more before I shoot, and I shoot film to express rather than to record.