Ever stop to think how cool digital is?

So yesterday I had the day off work. I was playing around with my kids and took some impromptu portraits. A couple of them turned out pretty nice. So I printed them, framed them and hung them on the wall. So what, right?

I did all of this without leaving the house in about an hour total, and it was easy. Now I know a lot of you can also do this, but ever think how cool and spoiled we are? Think even 10 years ago when 97% of us still shot film for anything important, and almost nobody had good photo printers at home. If you were like most people, you would have to take your negatives to the lab and wait for processing, not even sure if you had any good shots. If you had a home darkroom, it was a messy and somewhat complicated procedure that required a small dedicated room in your house. Even 4-5 years ago when I starting shooting digital, home printing was not quite there yet so I would have to wait a day or 2 for prints. Now all you need is a small desk with a computer and printer. And the computers and printers are practically free. My $100 Canon printer can produce prints rivaling our local photo lab if I use good paper.

Maybe it is just me, but I sometimes I am just amazed how fun photography has become. Less work, and instant results - for relatively low costs.

Yup!

If it were not for DSLR I would just be taking snapshots with a P&S occationally, or possibly using my Minolta SLR with kit lens once in a while for kicks, but I do not think I would be anywhere near as interested in photography as I am today.

Ansel Adams used to have to take a big tripod camera and glass film plates up the mountains.

We are lucky to be digital.

definitely agreed.
I took some photo class in college, and spent way too much time messing up in the darkroom and wasting expensive film to really enjoy it. circa 2001, and I remember my professor when someone asked why we can't shoot digital, he said with a smug chuckle, "digital will never match the quality of 35mm film."

Years later, when i got my first digital point & shoot, I was thrilled to be taking pictures and experimenting for relatively little cost. Took it up a notch in 2006 with a rebel series, it's been fun and instantly gratifying ever since!

It first struck me a few years ago. We were out on the Nescopeck Creek, fishing and taking pictures. My brother in law had his laptop with a cellular modem (this was several years ago when they were not common). I took a shot of my daughter catching a fish, and we emailed it to my sisters. Right there from the creek.

That was when I knew the times were a changin'.

Great post tkbslk, I think it's important to look at the big picture sometimes and appreciate all the great stuff we got!

Too easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind. Thanks for bringing this up!

doubledragon wrote in post #9620864
definitely agreed.
I took some photo class in college, and spent way too much time messing up in the darkroom and wasting expensive film to really enjoy it. circa 2001, and I remember my professor when someone asked why we can't shoot digital, he said with a smug chuckle, "digital will never match the quality of 35mm film."

Years later, when i got my first digital point & shoot, I was thrilled to be taking pictures and experimenting for relatively little cost. Took it up a notch in 2006 with a rebel series, it's been fun and instantly gratifying ever since!

You should email that professor and see if he's eating his words at the moment.

I do appreciate it, but I also am amazed at what I can get from film as well. It had been so long since I'd shot color film that when for an assignment for my first digital photography and PS class required us to shoot a roll of color film so we could scan the negatives and the prints to see what we could do with them in PS I was blown away by the results of my film exposures. I had been shooting digital exclusively for so long that I only remembered the really crappy blurry family snapshots of my childhood and because of that I had it in my mind that color film sucked. I didn't put two and two together to realize that it wasn't the medium but the camera operator who made the photos look terrible.

Anyhow I do love digital and am mesmerized by what I can so easily do with it and so quickly. I don't understand the science behind it, and I don't think I have the capacity to understand it without my head exploding either - lol - but I appreciate it nonetheless.

I do!

But I often wonder if anyone will make one that gives me back all the manual controls EXCEPT with a digital sensor so I dont have to process the film. I know it is a step backward but I think I'd buy it in a heart beat.

Sorry, I don't follow. What manual controls don't you have on the 450D and 7D that they had on film cameras?

No question that digital has been extremely satisfying for me. It's enabled me to experiment in a manner that was cost prohibitive when I used film. BUT....... the COOLEST THING was the very first time I saw an image "magically appear" before my eyes in a tray of developer. That left a lasting impression.....

tkbslc wrote in post #9621641
Sorry, I don't follow. What manual controls don't you have on the 450D and 7D that they had on film cameras?

I guess it didn't come out right. I basically want it completely mechanical. I want to feel turning the ring for aperture. a prism on the focusing screen. no computer assist me in anyway. closet thing I can think of is Just something I considered to get say a m4/3 (example, GF1 or Oly e p1) + some old lens but those don't have a view finder or they have the evf (which I dont think its ready yet). I doubt many people wants the same thing... But basically I want to take my dad's old minolta from the 70's and use it but replace film with digital sensor but nothing else. Not sure if that make any sense

Maybe I need to get a beer and take my camera out and shoot instead of sitting here coming up with crazy thoughts.

digital is so cool! instant result and no need to pay for film and go to darkroom!

but back in the day everyone with a slr knows what they are doing, not anymore. but honestly that's okay.

I think that if there was no digital, I would not be shooting. It would be to expensive for me to pay all the films, processing, and not knowing if a picture would come out nice.

Hell I love digital for that matter .