TimeExposure

I have a funny feeling this has been asked 2.3 billion times, but I'm having no luck searching (or coming up with the right search terms). I'm rekindling my interest in photography. I even got nostalgic about film, but now that I have processed a few rolls recently, I have decided to stick to digital instead of film. I do have a couple inexpensive but fantastic cameras for 35mm (Kodak Retina IIIC (big C)) and medium format (Voigtlander Perkeo II 6x6 and Bessa II 6x9, though the Bessa wasn't inexpensive). With my old Rollei 35S that I've kept over the last 30 years, I'm sure these will quench any future thirst for the film experience. Now for digital...I have an iPhone 11 Pro that produces some quite acceptable images given the convenience of always being in my pocket. But I want to turn it up a few notches. I don't want a "system" camera like I did in the "old days" (a Nikon or Leica and a small variety of lenses). I do want the best quality I can get in a package that is small enough to carry with me without thinking twice about carrying a bulky camera bag. Two cameras that have piqued my interest are the Fujifilm X100V, and a Lumix (model escapes my memory). I shoot mostly candids (the 35mm film equivalent of a 35mm focal length was my favorite) and some portraits (where the 90mm lens in 35mm film format was my favorite). Would the X100V be "unflattering" as a portrait camera? Would a zoom lens (roughly 28 or 35 to 90mm focal length in the 35mm film format) on a Lumix provide better results? My true question is to know what you might recommend? The X100V and Lumix zoom are only a couple examples that come to mind. What would you suggest as a portable but highly capable digital camera that can produce flattering portraits as well as street-scenes or group photos? Or, if this question has indeed been asked too many times to interest you in answering, might you direct me to existing discussions, or offer some choice search terms? Thanks in advance!

When I was a child, the family camera was a Kodak Brownie Starmite 127-film model. I snapped my first photo with it when I was about 7 years old, and the picture is still in my mom’s photo album. Fast forward (through a 110-film insta-matic) to my 16th birthday in September 1982. I had developed an interest in “serious photography” and my parents bought me a kit from the local catalogue showroom. It was a Nikon FG with a Series E 50mm f:1.8 lens. I still have the first pictures I took, as well as the negatives which I recently scanned. I don’t have the camera any longer. In fact, I returned it when it failed twice under warranty. But I still stuck with Nikon for 12 years until my interest in photography was reduced to using a good point-and-shoot 35mm film camera (Rollei Prego 90 which I recently discovered in a storage box).

Hello! Not sure I’m in the right place, but thought I’d check things out. I got the bug shortly after my 16th birthday in 1982 (save the math, I’m 54 since September 2020). I took a photography class at the local junior college, and ended up getting some pleasant photos over the years. I lost interest in photography in the mid ’90’s and bought a point-and-shoot film camera. In 2003 I succumbed to the digital movement, which evolved over the years to relying solely on the smart phone as a camera. Then, last year around my birthday, I got nostalgic for film. I had considered getting back into familiar gear, but feared the cost. So I ended up scratching the itch with some old folding camera gems (35mm Kodak Retinas, medium format Voigtlander Perkeos, and a Bessa). Now I find myself wondering how much time and money I want to invest, and whether or not I really want to return to film now that digital is so good. Film is just... different. You get me, right?