[EnglishBob]

Well... for once technology has sparked a regressin in my equipment! I have gotten so hooked on the camera club competitions that I want to enter the slide competitions too..... so I ended up buying a used Canon Rebel 2000 35mm SLR.

Got it real cheap and it is compatable with all but the kit lense that came with my Digital Rebel.

[shuttertalk]

I've still got my EOS300 / Rebel 2000. It's a great SLR camera - it good me hooked on photography in the first place.

Lol... photography is photography I guess - some people have the itch to experiment.

[mez]

So seeing as you have done both...which do you prefer?? Which do you find more fulfilling??

I've got an EOS3 (cheap and nasty lenses with it) which I absolutely love, and my time in the darkroom is precious to me, but I'm jealous of the quick and easy short turn around that the digital cameras have.

looking for unbiased opinions...if such things actually exist...but just thought I'd ask here seeing as you've commented on changing back...

[EnglishBob]

To be honest... digital, it's more forgiving and I like instant feedback.... not to mention the price. The Difference in camera price will be recovered after 1680 developed slides, I've already taken over 2200 with the Diigital Rebel.

As for the dark room... I'll be using a commercial lab, no interest in filling my house with chemicals!

[Don Schaeffer]

I lost my Miranda Sensorex, the camera love of my life soon after moving to Manitoba 30 years ago. If I still had my Miranda I probably would never have gone into digital cameras.

[shuttertalk]

Hm... good question mez.

For me, film was very fulfilling as I could choose different film, filters, print medium to produce different effects, and things usually turned out great straight out of the camera. It was an awesome feeling when you produced a great looking shot, and you knew that there was no photoshopping, tweaking or what nots involved.

Digital for me has allowed me to experiment and learn immensely - you can take 20 photos, erase them and start again - without having to consider the cost. And as EnglishBob pointed out, the instant feedback allows you to correct and learn immediately. I'm feeling the limitations of my cam though in terms of image quality.. time to get a Rebel XT (350D)


My first digital cam was a Nikon compact and auto everything, so I pretty much shot film primarily and used digital when I couldn't be bothered carrying a SLR around (parties, etc.). That being said, I haven't touched my film camera since getting my current Fuji digital cam...

[guerito]

I used to shoot on film some 20 years ago. I also had a darkroom, I made prints from slides. I spent hours in the darkroom just to get one print right, but I did already things I'm doing now in photoshop, I under- or overexposed parts of the pictures sometimes, with quite amazing results. Yeah, those were the days!

Then it somehow faded... First thing was, that the time to get one print right was so immense, sometimes it was really days. Then there were costs, the materials didn't come for free, and when I went shooting I didn't take 10 or 20 pictures, I took 100 to 200 or more. I didn't do the development of the slides myself because I was too afraid to lose my pictures, so I had them developed in a lab. I was burning money. At some point I dropped photography altogether.

Then the digital age arrived, and taking pictures suddenly was cheap. As I had a computer already, all I needed was a camera to get started. It didn't matter how many pictures I took, I could have a look at all of them and just discard the ones I didn't like. There was utter freedom to manipulate pictures and to achieve in minutes what I had done in the darkroom in days. There was immediate feedback, the ability to go to the garden and take a shoot, have a look at it and see the mistakes I made, and to go out and do it again. I think this is the most rewarding aspect of digital - immediate feedback. Another thing is, I don't need filters anymore. Yes a polarizer is nice, and maybe a ND, but it's not a necessity and you can do most of it in PS. I can take a picture and have it in color or B&W; no more carrying two cameras just because I wanted to be able to take some shots B&W.

Today I wouldn't touch film unless I had an assignment, for example, for a photo wallpaper. Everything else I can cover digitally.