Do you find shooting digital a lot like dry firing a gun?

<p>Not Trying to cause any problems with digital users, this is for film /digital users. Do you get the same satisfaction /enjoyment shooting digital that you do exposing film.<br>

When I shoot my 45s , its kinda exciting seeing/feeling a chunk of 230grain lead flying down the range, I enjoy the recoil and power. I don`t mind waiting to go check the target to see how I did, and what corrections I need to make on my end. But I practice trigger control sometime by just dry firing, shooting without bullets.<br>

Well what I`m asking, do you get the same enjoyment shooting digital, seeing the outcome on a little screen, erasing images you don`t like (kinda like it never happened) or getting on your computer and changing and correcting everything you did wrong latter.<br>

Or checking lighting with a hand held meter, picking the f-stop and shutter speeds, maybe changing to a different asa film. Exposing the image, developing the film, printing the image, making corrections. Or sending the film it out to a custom lab with printing instructions.<br>

Is it the same to you, or do you just kinda settle?<br>

I know what I think, but what do you guys think.......?</p>

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<p>Hey if knowing that you have film in your camera when you push the shutter makes your day then go for it.<br>

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Me I am plenty happy shooting digital, and I do pick my f-stop and shutter speed and change my iso (asa is not used anymore).<br>

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I shot film for many years and started out using BW film and doing my own darkroom work, sorry I have done too much of that or there to be any romance in it for me.<br>

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I also did the hybrid thing for a while, shoot film and scan it, go much better results this way then just dropping it off at a lab, but boy was the scanning a pain in the rear.<br>

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In the end I am after the image, it is not bother me one bit that I am not using film as part of this, as long as the image I end up with is what I want.</p>

<p>But to each their own.</p>

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<p>I think about the image, I look at it in my mind. The technical stuff is just what I have to do to get there. If I spent all my time salivating over setting things on the camera, regardless of medium, the image wouldn't happen. If you're a photographer, you learn to do all this without making it an obsession.</p>

<p>1. If firing my film cameras felt anything like firing a 45, I would assume they had a serious malfunction. No, I don't feel/think the same way you're describing.</p>

<p>2. However, a friend who knows how to shoot (rifles) is getting some blurry photographs, and I was just thinking about how to help her transfer the technique she uses with firearms to photography.</p>

<p> I shot film for years and would come back with disappointing results. I can also experiment more with digital and like Scott and Jeff it is the result (print) that I enjoy.</p>

<p>My worry is that in the future (I will probably be long gone by then) the print will be gone and every thing would be judged on a monitor. It has started to happen in my lifetime and I know several Photographers that have stopped printing except for a rare event.</p>

<p>I am sooooo tired of these pointless film vs. digital threads. Someone just shut it down, please?</p>

<p>My (35mm) film shooting improved directly BECAUSE of so many DSLR shots.</p>

<p>I am a poor (lead) shot with a 9mm. </p><div></div>

<p>Russ,<br>

Film camera .................Muzzle loader.<br>

Digital......................AK47.<br>

Which would you choose when it really matters?and not because it feels better.{:~)</p>

<p>Hector shooting rifles long range has a lot of the same, if not more control needed to hold a camera still during the exposure. I have a friend that shoots at Camp Perry every year, 1000 yards with iron sights (no optics) and is impressive. That takes a lot of self control on every level....don`t make her angry, it could take a while before you even hear the shot.<br>

A lot of long range shooters ,(1000 yards or more) say they can make their heart pause for the shot? I dont know for sure, but they say they can.....</p>

<p>who said film is a muzzle loader?</p>

<p>Just like a handgun, maybe you should be licensed to carry one -- at least "professionally". Or, maybe not -- camera sales might go way down. ;-)</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Do you find shooting digital a lot like dry firing a gun?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Only when I forget to put the memory card in. But the same could be said for forgetting to put the film in as well.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Do you find shooting digital a lot like dry firing a gun?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I don't know. I've never fired a gun dry.... or in the rain.</p>

<p>"I don`t mind waiting to go check the target to see how I did, and what corrections I need to make on my end."</p>

<p>So when you are sighting in a gun at the range, you would shoot a whole box of ammo before examining at the target?</p>

<p>"Is it the same to you, or do you just kinda settle?"</p>

<p>I don't want the same. I want to use all my experience whatever I shoot. I will gladly settle for the prints I kinda make.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Kind of one of those "got an axe to grind" sort of theads maybe!?!</p>

<p>I love film, better than digital IMO, but shoot mostly digital these days. Love it for what it does.</p>

<p>How you shoot it is maybe like a gun, but the choice isn't forced on you like choosing a specific gun. You can shoot digital like you would an old flintlock, take your time, tune things up and take the shot when it is perfect. You can shoot it like a shotgun, just point it at something and figure eventually, you will hit something. You can shoot it like a machine gun, setting it on rapid fire and pulling the trigger and figuring, again, that you will eventually hit the target, at least once.</p>

<p>I prefer the flintlock myself--for film or digital actually--and maybe at times like a six shooter when doing people.</p>

<p>I shoot handguns a lot. Other than the trigger/shutter release procedure, there exists no connection whatever...Robert</p>

<p>I for one do not miss the smell of fixer.<br>

I do not miss giving exposure and color control to the lab.<br>

I do not miss paying an artist to paint out blemishes.<br>

I do not miss wondering if the lab will lose my film or ruin it.<br>

I do not miss sleeving negatives for archival.</p>

<p>Naaaa..I prefer the full auto with the ability to select targets quickly; make the kill and verify the kill. </p>

 

<p>No.</p>

<p>I shoot digital and I don't consider that I'm "dry firing." I do take my time before ever taking a shot though, I don't just fire until something good shows up on the LCD. Also, the rate of progression is much higher with digital; everyone wants to get better as fast as possible, and digital allows you to do this. If you shoot film for one reason or another, then that's great, but if you shoot it solely because you don't want to jump on the digital bandwagon, then you're only holding yourself back. I agree that it's exciting to wait for film to develop and see what you get, but for me its much more exciting to get a better photo the first time (and in most situations the only time) and to learn at a faster pace. If its a once in a lifetime shot and you screw it up b/c you had to wait on the film for a week just to learn you didn't get what you wanted, then you would've wished you had a digital.</p>

<p>With the Acme dlsr here I just load up the MP3 ring/shoot tone for each gig/rig; like Nikon F; Leica M3; B17 50 cal Ammo discharging.:); muzzleloader. Some cellphones had this feature 6 years ago.</p>

<p> I own several guns of different types, and no, it's not like dry firing for me. Nothing like using a gun except for the steadying part.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Maybe you didn't hear, happiness is a warm digital camera.</p>

<p>BTW, a spotting scope could save you some steps on the firing range.</p>

<p>Back in 69 at Camp Pendleton we didn't have no damn spotting scopes when we were trying to hit a little bitty target at 500 yards with open sigthts with a piece of junk M14. I wish I would have had the AF of my D300 then, would have made all the difference.</p>

I haven't dry fired a gun since I was a kid with cap guns. It is a bad habit to get into. In a moment of inattention one may noticed the hammer is cocked and pull the trigger to lower it even though the gun is loaded. <P>

 

Going on with the gun analogy: <P>

<center><img src="http://jdainis.com/colts1.jpg"></center><P>

 

The top Colt Dragoon .44 cap and ball pistol is like a film camera, the bottom Colt .45 cartridge revolver is like a digital camera. Both do the same job and look similar but the .45 is a lot more convenient. Slip a media card into a digital camera or a cartridge into the .45 and you are ready to go. Loading the Dragoon involves measuring the powder into the chamber, placing the ball and ramming it home with the rammer, coating with grease (to prevent the flash of a fired round from setting off all the other chambers) and placing the cap on the nipple. There is a bit more work with film, from buying, storing, loading, and developing. Not to mention large format film holders.<P>

 

If one has to shoot a rattlesnake it is easier and faster to load the .45 than the Dragoon. The same goes for digital. I needed a photo of my slide rule for a discussion on another web site. I laid the slide rule on a black cloth, took the picture with a digital camera and displayed it on the web site in about 15 minutes. With film, I would have used a 36 exposure roll for that one photo, had to wait for it to be developed and then scan and post it.<P>

 

But, there is more intimacy with loading and using a cap and ball pistol as there is with loading and using film cameras or holders. One is more in tune with the history or tradition and takes one's time.