Switching To Digital: Stories Whats your story?

[chiiyo 0]

I know some of us were digital photographers from the start, but there are others who were once film lovers, and switched to digital as time goes by. And then there are the obstinate ones (like me! heh heh) who refuse to budge, cradling their rolls of film. Much like one of those Apple Switchers story websites, share your story about switching to digital here! Because love it or hate it, digital is here to stay!For me, I really have no story to tell, because I'm still sticking to film, but a good friend of mine just went through the heart-wrenching process of deciding whether to switch or not. Just today. He's a fellow film lover like me, only he has even more reason to stay with him: slides. He shoots slides often, but slide processing and scanning costs a bomb, so he was actually putting aside a sum of money to get a good high-end dedicated film scanner, and continue into the digital age armed with his Nikon F90, Minolta XG7, and a film scanner.Today he just went for a job interview (he has one year till he goes to university), and successfully procured a job as a wedding photographer for a company. Problem is, he has to shoot in digital for this job. Borrowing was out of the question, since the job meant he had to pick up the camera and run to the wedding at short notice. So he thought he might want to get a digital camera after all. Now for Nikon, you currently have the D70, the D100, the D2H and the D2X to decide between. He wants Nikon because he already has quite a few Nikon lenses. Or he could get the S2 or the S3pro from Fuji. Problem is, his budget would only allow the D70 or the D100, and both are due to be updated soon, and he makes a good argument against them: he's buying this DSLR to keep, and will probably sell off his F90 body, what's the point of getting these two models, soon to be updated, and lower in quality than his current camera? So that leaves the S3Pro, which is a lot out of his budget. Say $1000. At this point, he still wants to get the film scanner, but a cheaper one, because he still needs to digitise his slides, and he will probably continue to take slides, because digital simply does not offer him the colour tonality and vibrancy that slides have.So comes the mulling as we leave the photography shop and hang out at the MacShop (I'm buying the Radtech ScreensavR for my powerbook), and I was like, obviously, the way you put it, you have to get the S3Pro, it's a good camera, got rave reviews. But he's like, it's expensive. Sure it's expensive. The high-end scanner he was saving up for was around $2000, and the S3Pro was $3300. The point, he said, is that the job was supposed to bring in extra income, not make him spend even more. At this point I even contested him on whether he wanted the job at all? It was going to be a source of good experience for him, but the rate he's mulling over to switch or not, it was more undesirable than he thought it would be.In the end, it was settled that he would try to shoot using the boss's Canon DSLR, although he quite dislikes having to use another system altogether (we're both not big Canon fans, more of Nikon traditionalists here), but the whole chain of events today, if anything, has solidified both our convictions to stick with film. He's going ahead with the scanner, possibly the high-end one still, but I told him, finish the job, get the experience, get the money, and save up for your S3Pro. Who knows, by then maybe the D70 or the D100 replacement/update would be out.Not a successful switch story, but I think, it really reflects my own feelings towards switching too. A more of "cannot-help-it-the-boss-needs-it" rather than a "wow-digital-cool" type of feeling, because in the end, I'm really too much in love with film.

[madcrow 0]

I've never really used high-end photo equipment in either the digital or the film world. I was one of those people who always used those dumb disposable camera to take pictures with. Then I got a cheap little didgital camera and it was really quite nice. I was able to take pictures, zap them into my computer, do editing, take small video clips, etc and i never had to buy one of those dumb disposables... until after a few years my didgicam broke. I had to wait a few months then i got a camera that would have been top of the line when i got my first camera, but got it for $50. so now i'm happy again.

[musichere 0]

The price of Digital Cameras has fallen so dramatically that everyone should be using them these days.They used to be about £300 for a 3 megapixels camera but now they go for around £50 with 3x optical zoom!I'm no photo expert but when I go on holiday I like to be able to take photos with a digital camera, transfer and view them on a computer and send them to friends. It's just much more convenient for the modern computer-orientated world.

[Maybe Skate Team 0]

I love photography but with the cost of film for me at the time it was an expensive pleasure. Then I gathered enough money and bought myself a 5 megapixel Sony DSC-P92 from ebay for a reasonable price. Eversince I have been enjoying my photography cravings with digital sensation! It is so easy to use and then after your done downloading the pictures into your computer was an ease. Currently I still use this camera but now since I am a photo man for a skate team, I need a DSLR camera which has better shutter speed to capture those motion shots.All in all once you switch to a decent digital camera you really wont have a need to go back to film.

[Soleq 0]

Your story of your friend hit a lot of personal notes with me. So, I'll post both my experience and advice.First, I was a film user for about 5 years before I switched to digital. I was a staunchy traditionalist too. An old Nikon manual camera, a 50mm lens, and barely anything else. I started with the Kodak Portra films, but soon discovered the wonders of slides. After that, it was E100V all the way, that is, until I discovered Fujifilm. Long story short, I began to develop my own b+w films in the college lab, and was sure that I'd never switch over. Ha, it's funny looking back at life sometimes.I decided that it was in my best interest to look at the future instead of the present. Sure, spending about $8/roll in cost and developing isn't that much at any single time, but over time, it really adds up. Seeing as I also bought a film scanner, that's another chunk of change that I can't recoup. Anyway, I needed something that would last me, but I never thought digital could. That is, until I looked at my situation this way: my current camera gives me slides. These slides never change in resolution, can't be upgraded, or anything fance associated with digital. However, what they do give me is a beautiful image, and that's what's important. A digital camera can give me the same image, and after I take the shot, it also can't change in resolution or be "upgraded," but I can fiddle around with the file in Photoshop. Sure, digital costs more, but even now as my camera is already "outdated," I'm still producing images that I love and were "state of the art" until only recently. I'm still satisfied.So, I bought a 10D with my graduation gifts. I plopped down my change for the body alone, and then added in the following months a nice 70-200mm F/4L and 50mm F/1.8. Also, I bought memory cards, a FW card reader, a backpack, a tripod, and filters. All in all, I've spent around $3000 on my setup, and I'm still not done. I've been extremely happy with this so far, and I haven't once said "damnit, I need more megapixels!" 6 is fine with me.So that's my "experience" I guess. Onward to my recommendations.Your friend is in a dicey situation. First off, he's a wedding photographer, which I personally swore I'd never do. Personal feelings aside, he should be looking towards getting the highest resolution possible for the price. Wedding portaits are extremely unforgiving, and if your client wants a 30"x40" wallpiece, and you're shooting with 6MP, you'll see the ill-effects of interpolation. Bar none. I know that you're Nikon traditionalists (and trust me, I was once too), but you have to get over it. Unless your friend owns high end AFS lenses, Nikon isn't worth it. Heck, look at what Nikon released for the "upgrades" to the D70: a D70s that is basically the same camera, and a stripped down D70 called the D50. Lame in my opinion. Canon released a D70 killer called the 350D or Digital Rebel XT, and they cost about the same. Trust me, in most cases those extra 2MP wouldn't matter, but for weddings, they do. There's a reason why wedding photographers pick up MF cameras instead of 35mm.So, even though you may not like Canon, they're you're best bet. You're in the game for profits (especially in wedding photography), so don't blow it by saying you favor one side over the other. If it really matters that much, go get a personal loan to cover the cost of the S3Pro or D2X. In a year or so, you'll be able to pay it back.I wish the best of luck to your friend. Oh, and if he has to do the post-processing, you'll have to add the cost of either Photoshop and/or CaptureOne to the mark.

[earlymorningmist 0]

I've always loved taking photographs - when I was five years old one of my birthday presents was a film camera. It was the simplest of simple cameras - one button - to take the picture. You had the wind the film on manually, you could turn the flash on and off, and that was about it. I used to run around with the lanyard around my wrist taking pictures - I'd line my dolls and bears up on my bed and photograph them, one by one and then all together. I still have that camera - and the pictures.

 

However, as I got older, digital cameras became more popular. I was around ten years old when my dad bought his, and it was fairly expensive - three or four hundred pounds. He wouldn't let me touch it - and I didn't want to half the time, I was terrified of breaking it. In the end I took a few pictures with it and was amazed - you could actually see the picture you'd just taken and get rid of it if it'd come out wrong!

 

Last year - 2004 - I decided I wanted a digital camera. I go out on trips around the country to visit friends fairly often and hate having to take a film camera and waiting for ages for my dad to send loads of films off in bulk to get them developed cheaper before I could see them. Film is expensive, as is the developing - and I just wanted my pictures, so I saved up, and after some research, found a simple but decent camera, and as I was very ill then, I sent my dad out to buy it when he went out. He came home, I sat and read the instruction book and pressed buttons... and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

The tree - the full picture. I wanted to capture the pink in the sky but caught the tree too, and I quite like the result. Yes I know I'm not the best photographer in the world... [excuse the telephone wires, they got in my way.

[kitty0259 0]

I've always used digital. I only got into photography a few years ago.

[mimi_m 0]

I use to have this camera that i LOVED. It took great shots that always came out great. But it was old, and sometimes the batteries would begin to die and the photos it would take were slurred. It was also a huge hassel switching film when the first would run out, and if I was on an outting or traveling with friends, you realize pretty quick you dont want to waste so much time rewinding and switching film. For someone who isnt a full-fledged professional photographer, digital rocks. I decided last year to get a digital camera (where I live they have only been around for a few years), and I couldnt be happier. TONS of pics can be stored on one card, which is probably one of the best features, as well as being able to easily save them on your own comp (or just as easily get them professionally printed), but aside from that, what has to be the one thing that totally converted me is the lcd screen on a digital. It saves so much space and heart-breaking by being able to see how good the pics you take are BEFORE getting them printed, and deciding whether you want to keep it or re-take it. It's an awesome feature, and now I dont know how I could live without it.I was abe to take THE BEST shots when I went on a holiday with friends, because I could tell straight away whether the shot worked or not. PLUS, it's alot easier if I want to do my own graphics for a website or whatever, and I can just take my own photos and transfere them to my computer with total simplicity. You could even go as far to say digital changed my life...well, it DID in some ways... lol.I have an olypus camedia, 8x optical zoom. Pretty good stuff... took me ages to save for it, though.

[shadowatasta 0]

As a kid, I was into photography and my first camera was a Kodak 35mm film camera that held disposable flash bulbs and since then, I used a few other cameras. Then, I bought my first SLR camera (Canon EOS) and used this camera for a number of years. I even replaced it with the same make and model when the inner lens (or mirror) broke while I was studying in Australia for my degree.I only bought a digital camera in 2003, a Sony-P72. Unfortunately, there are limitations such as poor performance in low lighting and the pictures become grainy. And SLR digital cameras are still expensive. I still have my Canon SLR camera.