Ever stop to think how cool digital is?

rogazilla wrote in post #9621720
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.

Go get a Pentax DSLR and some old K-mount lenses. Put the camera in M mode and have fun. You'll have to change the aperture on the lens, focus by hand, and set exposure by hand in M mode. You can even turn of the LCD review if you don't want to see it.

I guess you can do that with your Canon, too, with the right adapters.

rogazilla wrote in post #9621720
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.

Sounds like it's time to take an old digital camera and your favorite old mechanical body, hack it up, and have some fun with a DIY project!

Thalagyrt wrote in post #9621771
Sounds like it's time to take an old digital camera and your favorite old mechanical body, hack it up, and have some fun with a DIY project!

It would need to be FF though, so pretty expensive hacking project!

I keep wondering why nobody ever made a digital "film" insert that could be placed in any film camera. It would be expensive due to FF sensor, but I think it would sell well. Imagine a Digital EOS 3 or Canonet qL17, or Leica m3, etc, etc,

At the very least a digital back for some of the more popular models.

yes - yes - YES!

I think about how cool digital is every time I shoot and don't have to worry about how much the film and or processing will cost. It is guilt free shooting and I can shoot as many variations of an image that I want without financial repercussions.

I think about how cool digital is every time I can view an image as soon as I shoot it. No more worrying, did I get it right? No more having either to process the images myself or wait for a commercial processor to accomplish its mission.

I think about how cool digital is every time I am able to open an image and to post process it in myriad ways and then save the image only to be able to reopen it any time I feel like doing so.

I think about how cool digital is every time I access a digital photo web site like this one. I can upload images for critique and I can critique other photographer's work.

DIGITAL IS WONDERFUL - I have not shot a frame of film since I purchased my first DSLR.

For TKBSLP: There are digital backs available for selected medium format and view cameras. However the price of the package, including both the back and either a medium format DSLR or view camera makes me shudder. But, if I was still shooting professionally with Hassleblad gear I might have been tempted to at least look into a digital back back. However the extremely high price tags would probably have scared me off. I don't expect that the backs would depreciate like DSLR cameras made by Canon and Nikon; so buying used might not be much of an option. I don't think that the manufacturers are changing these models with the regularity of Canon and Nikon.

Took 300 pictures at my sons basketball tournament this weekend at 6400 iso. Deleted about 200, cropped and straightened the rest and posted them on flickr for the other families - took about 3 hours while watching the Olympics. That was fun for me. While learning (still doing that) to shoot in manual i can take 30 or 40 pictures getting feedback from the histogram and image and it doesn't cost anything. I will say that as a child I would watch my father set up his tripod and put a lot of thought into a picture, probably because it was costing money and a lot of time to develop. I guess with no histogram and viewfinder to look at the image you had to get it right the first time. Plus we have these forums now to get advice...

everything is cheaper but photography as an art and as a business have devalued as well... now i think how cool it was to be a photographer.

I remember being in college (1988 ) and attending a photojournalism workshop. The photojournalist teaching the seminar showed us a photo that had been taken the night before in Japan uploaded from the camera and sent via payphone to the states 10 minutes after the end of a race just in time to beat a hard deadline. We all laughed because the image was horribly pixelated and honestly not fit for publication but that paper had scooped the rest of the US by a full day because of the technology. The guy went on to explain that our trusty 35mm's had 30 million pixels and digital simply never would match that. So yeah, I stop to think just how far we have come, and marvel at where we are going with digital.

It's certainly cheaper from the standpoint of no proofing, no chemistry, no enlargements for the vast majority of folks..... but the time investment has gone way up. That's because YOU are now the lab. If you don't care about the worth of your time, that's ok. But for people running a business it's a different story.

And I TOTALLY agree with your statement regarding how it's been devalued. Too many people assume that owning a camera makes them a photographer ....... it just makes them owner of a camera.

sneakerpimp wrote in post #9622221
everything is cheaper but photography as an art and as a business have devalued as well... now i think how cool it was to be a photographer.

tkbslc,
Yes I think of it often, as its a lot easier and quicker with as good/better results.

I don't miss film, don't miss slide projectors, don't miss expensive 8x10's, don't miss scanning negatives/prints, don't miss buying film all the time (sorry Kodak).

I do love instant previews, quick fast prints, excellent quality with sizes larger then I did when using film, love on TV/monitor slide shows, and the list goes on

tkbslc wrote in post #9621822
At the very least a digital back for some of the more popular models.

I would love to have a digital back on my old F1N

sapearl wrote in post #9622273
It's certainly cheaper from the standpoint of no proofing, no chemistry, no enlargements for the vast majority of folks..... but the time investment has gone way up. That's because YOU are now the lab. If you don't care about the worth of your time, that's ok. But for people running a business it's a different story.

I was just thinking the exact same thing. It actually was kind of convenient to drop it off and let someone else do the work. Now I'm my own worst enemy at a computer!

And I TOTALLY agree with your statement regarding how it's been devalued. Too many people assume that owning a camera makes them a photographer ....... it just makes them owner of a camera.

Yup...

And, I've still yet to see any image from digital either on a monitor or in print that rivals a well-exposed and properly projected transparency. Becuase film actually has physical depth, a well done slide does as well. Digital still ain't quite there yet.

sneakerpimp wrote in post #9622221
everything is cheaper but photography as an art and as a business have devalued as well... now i think how cool it was to be a photographer.

I don't know if photography was ever really a prestigious or terribly lucrative career save for the few with celebrity status.

gonzogolf wrote in post #9622351
I would love to have a digital back on my old F1N

i remember several years ago, maybe a decade now, that someone was developing a back that would fit any 35mm SLR. i don't recall what happened to it, nor the name of the product or its 'inventor'.

Digital got me into photography and served as an excellent training ground before I switched to film. I still rely on digital to scan and post process my negatives.

sneakerpimp,
Yea back in my film days I hoped the Imagek film insert would be available but it seems it never was. Here is a page on dpreview Imagek becomes SiliconFilm that has a pic of it and its specs (not too good at current standards)