pete_su

Digital cameras seem to have exposure latitude similar to slide film. It's true that the

tonal range you can capture with *negative* film is somewhat wider.

 

If your final plan is to make digital prints off of what you shoot, the general

convenience of digital capture is extremely compelling. It takes a few seconds to take

a file out of a digital camera. It takes minutes to scan a frame of film.

 

There are other reasons to shoot film, of course

 

- better overal archival properties

 

- you can make darkroom prints with film if you want

 

If neither of these concerns you that much, I see no reason to go to the trouble of

buying a scanner.

The Epson 1680 will scan whole printfile sheets. Well, at least the ones you can make

8x10 contact sheets from.

Keep the good ones.

 

I put the ones I can't decide about in a big ziplock. This encourages me to throw them

out later, because it's hard to edit slides that are in a ziplock.

For any modern AF camera, the following sorts of things can keep the shutter from

firing when you hit the button:

 

1. You have AF turned on and pressing the shutter button causes the camera to try

and refocus. If you get unlucky, there can be a delay here.

 

2. You are using the built in flash and the flash isn't charged.

 

3. For digital cameras, if you have shot several frames in a row, the memory buffer of

the camera might be full, so you can't take a shot until the camera makes more room.

 

That's about it. In general, if the camera is focussed, you have buffer room, and the

flash isn't an issue, the D100 will fire just as fast as any film camera.

Ilford HP5 is pretty similar to Tri-X, at least in 35mm and 120.

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IMHO you don't necessarily need to do your own processing, especially in 35mm, to

get "the most" out of B&W. What you do need is predictable processing that you can

calibrate to your overall working method. *If* you can find a reliable lab, then you can

do the same exposure test that you would do if you were processing yourself...

 

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Tri-X and D76 are about as fool proof as it gets. And, I've never had trouble scanning

35mm Tri-X negatives, even the somewhat grainier ones I get when I have the lab

process my film.

TiBooks are a bit faster than the iBook.

 

But the real difference is in the screens and keyboards.

 

The 15" tibooks have a better keyboard and a much nicer screen.

 

The 12" powerbooks have a MUCH better keyboard and sort of a nicer screen.

 

You trade off some other features for this. For me, the keyboards really are a step up.

I've thought about doing this kind of thing before as well, but I just figured that the big boys like Extensis and Cumulus probably have implemented nicer user interfaces than I have time to do on top of basically the same kind of infrastructure.

 

Of course, you have to pay them for the code, but it doesn't take much of my time to get up to the cost of an off the shelf program.

Having used Leicas, Hexar AF and Hexar RF cameras, the only thing that keeps the AF from being my favorite is the relative slow top shutter speed.

 

I find the handling on this camera to be the fastest of the three, and I don't think the lack of silent mode on the newer models is a big problem. This thing is practically silent right out of the box. You can stand 5 feet from someone and fire the shutter and they never hear it.

 

The long review of this body at photo.net is basically all you need to know.

In a pinch you can do this. It helps to get a warming filter for the flash though, otherwise, everyone will look blue. Also, if you are using on camera flash, try and bounce it off the ceiling or through a diffuser.

Shutter lag isn't too bad on an S30, but what is a problem is that it takes about 2-3 seconds for the camera to cycle and be ready to take another shot.

 

With a couple of exceptions, only the digital SLRs have fast cycle times.

It's something of a crime that there is no AF version of the 75-150E. A great lens. Nice size, great handling. The major downside of the new bodies is not being able to use this lens with them.

The only camera I ever owned that has survived multiple drops to concrete was... ...

 

An Olympus Stylus Epic point and shoot.

 

SLRs, for all the rhetoric, are fairly fragile and require a high degree of alignment. No model is going to like being dropped a lot.

One should note that program mode is less useful on an F4 because there is no command dial, and thus no way to shift the program.

 

This is not the case on the newer bodies, which makes program mode more useful, especially when you use it with expsosure compensation.

 

I still like A mode better.

No.

 

Read Galen Rowell's articles about color perception and it's relationship to film.

My only beef with the N80 is the viewfinder. It's sort of cramped and small. Still, it's usable.

 

But, compared to the FM3a or F100, it's distinctly not as nice to use.

 

For school, the N90s or FM3a might have the advantage that you can buy super cheap manual focus lenses used.

Shutter lag in an F100 or similar bodies is essentially nonexistent and if anything is better than in an F3

 

The camera takes the shot when you shoot it, and is ready for the next one before you can even think about hitting the button again.

The Nikon DX flash system uses ONLY the pre-flashes to determine flashe exposure.

 

The non digital Nikon D flash system used pre-flashes to figure out what part of the flash sensor to concentrate on, but actually metered the flash by measuring the light reflecting off the film.

 

For some reason, Nikon decided that it wasn't possible to meter flash off the CCD, even though Fuji somehow makes it work just fine in its Nikon compatible digital bodies.

 

The DX flashes are annoying because you have to buy a whole new flash just to get TTL with the digital bodies, and because the pre-flash system doesn't work so well with the wireless slave flash devices.

Macs are great. I write software for Macs and I think the platform has a lot going for it.

 

But, performance is not a reason to buy a Mac.

 

Altivec and such tricks aside, current generation PCs on average are just going to be faster at most jobs. It's the Intel commodity hardware juggernaught and you can't really do much about it.

 

But, performance isn't everything, and the Mac system is better integrated in some ways, and the Mac hardware, especially the laptops, is really nice in some ways.

 

There are no clear answers. You just have to pick.

last i checked the f100 had a custom function to set the increment on the dials to half stops, maybe even full.

i don't find shooting with a 35 on a Nikon to be all that much different than a 35 on my Hexar (either one). I don't think I take better shots either way.

 

FWIW, I think the AF on the F100, or even a Hexar AF is a lot quicker than focussing a Leica or Hexar RF. I just like to take the RF along because it's a lot smaller than the Nikon. :-)

Sometimes I carry my Hexar, with just the one lens.

 

Sometimes I carry my Hexar Rf with just the two lenses.

 

Sometimes I carry the Nikon with just the one lens.

 

Sometimes I carry the Nikon with just the two lenses.

 

There are no rules. The stuff you carry has more to do with what pictures you want to take than what camera you are taking along, except to the extent that RF cameras tend to have more limitd lens systems.

 

I"ll never own a 300mm lens for the SLR, I bet. I just don't shoot the stuff where that kind of thing is needed.

<img src="http://kvdpsu.org/img/ile-st-louis-night-01-2001.jpg">

 

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Ile St. Louis, night.

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Modern AF SLRs (EOS mostly, also newer nikons) will also let you take autofocus off the shutter button. so you can "prefocus" and then hit the button whenever you want. You don't have to sit there holding the shutter button down halfway until the shot happens. This is a really handy way to work. The AF generally hits focus faster than I can by hand, and yet leaves me in total control.

TTL flash is handy for some macro work. F4.