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03-12-2009, 01:24 AM   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by Damn Brit Quote
It wouldn't surprise me if there were many older people still shooting Pentax but don't have a computer.
Or they don't speak (read, write) english well enough to participate in a forum like this. Both my parents still shoot both film and digital Pentax and while they have learned to work with digital images on the computer, their english is just not good enough to participate in an English language forum. Today every kid here learns English quite well thanks to school and thanks to the large amount of English in media. When my parents went to school, English was far from so prominent in media and music, and the English teaching in school was just crap because few teachers know it well enough (German was the obvious 2nd language here previously), besides that they spent much less years in school than I have done. This for sure applies to many other people in their generation in many other countries as well. So their generation is underrepresented here even if they do have a computer.

03-12-2009, 03:28 AM   #17
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Douglas, I bet your parents speak English better than half of the people in the U.S.!

I mean, have you ever been to BROOKLYN!?

And no flames, please--I'm originally from there, so I'm allowed to make fun of it.
03-12-2009, 05:12 AM   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
Last weekend I was at a snowbound lodge in the mountains and did not even take a digicam with me.
While I always have the K20D with me at work in my truck for daily shooting, together with a bag full of lenses, on my days off it is more typical of me to go out with either the ESII or SV and just one or two primes. Or perhaps one of my rangefinders, TLRs, or folders with fixed lenses.

When I want to go low weight, the digital most definitely stays home and I take either the SV and a single lens or my old Ricoh 35 DeLuxe rangefinder (neither of which have a meter, or anything at all displayed in the viewfinder...the Ricoh having only a rangefinder patch and lacking even framing marks).

I think some of us may just want a break from constantly chasing the figurative technological rabbit around the photographic greyhound track.

Last edited by Mike Cash; 03-12-2009 at 05:43 AM.
03-12-2009, 05:19 AM   #19
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mike Cash Quote
I think some of us may just want a break from constantly chasing the figurative technological rabbit around the photographic greyhound track.
Felicitously phrased. Although I would add that the elegantly unobtrusive technology of the LX gives one a warm, secure feeling.

03-12-2009, 05:34 AM   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by artobest Quote
Felicitously phrased. Although I would add that the elegantly unobtrusive technology of the LX gives one a warm, secure feeling.
And the freedom of knowing that you don't have to be on pins and needles wondering what further technological "improvements" are going to be offered on the next Pentax 35mm film body which will be announced just any day now. The poor greyhounds never actually catch the rabbit at the racetrack, you know. With the LX....you've caught it.

When we use our film cameras, we make an active choice to go back to some point along the technological gimcracks timeline and pick a camera which fits our needs or whims, knowing full well that we are "missing out" on all the neato stuff that came along with the digital revolution. Since we're making an active choice to at least temporarily turn our backs on some or all of it, we don't mind not having it. Sometimes we do it because we find it challenging. Sometimes because we find it liberating.

If I weren't so busy enjoying my old, obsolete gear I would probably find time to feel a twinge of pity for those who constantly have their eyes on the next new-n-improved digital body or agonize over when some new lens will be released.

Last edited by Mike Cash; 03-12-2009 at 05:42 AM.
03-12-2009, 06:08 AM   #21
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mike Cash Quote
And the freedom of knowing that you don't have to be on pins and needles wondering what further technological "improvements" are going to be offered on the next Pentax 35mm film body which will be announced just any day now. The poor greyhounds never actually catch the rabbit at the racetrack, you know. With the LX....you've caught it.

When we use our film cameras, we make an active choice to go back to some point along the technological gimcracks timeline and pick a camera which fits our needs or whims, knowing full well that we are "missing out" on all the neato stuff that came along with the digital revolution. Since we're making an active choice to at least temporarily turn our backs on some or all of it, we don't mind not having it. Sometimes we do it because we find it challenging. Sometimes because we find it liberating.

If I weren't so busy enjoying my old, obsolete gear I would probably find time to feel a twinge of pity for those who constantly have their eyes on the next new-n-improved digital body or agonize over when some new lens will be released.
truer words have not been spoken... shit man, that lays out everything I would have said,and exactly how I feel. well said, good sir. well said.
03-12-2009, 09:18 AM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mike Cash Quote

...When we use our film cameras, we make an active choice to go back to some point along the technological gimcracks timeline and pick a camera which fits our needs or whims, knowing full well that we are "missing out" on all the neato stuff that came along with the digital revolution. Since we're making an active choice to at least temporarily turn our backs on some or all of it, we don't mind not having it. Sometimes we do it because we find it challenging. Sometimes because we find it liberating....
Wow! You said it. I had never stopped to consider my film rational, but your few sentences say it all. My choices of film cameras DO mark a point on the technology timeline where the tools fit my tasks.

Steve

03-12-2009, 10:05 AM   #23
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I'm getting an old Pentax 6x7. Weights a ton! Also getting a scanner. I'm shopping around.
03-12-2009, 11:41 AM   #24
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lucky. I've always wanted to do medium format. But with the way that prices are falling, I think there will be a 645 kit (at least!) in the future...
03-12-2009, 12:11 PM   #25
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QuoteQuote:
When we use our film cameras, we make an active choice to go back to some point along the technological gimcracks timeline and pick a camera which fits our needs or whims,
Amen!

I admit it... I can't always make up my mind either. That's why I keep, and actively shoot with, cameras from different eras.

For Pentax, that means
  • Spotmatic F (which I only "upgraded" to open aperture metering with a proper SMC lens recently...)
  • Program Plus for that funky 70's metal body-meets-electronics feel
  • MZ-7 for a taste of fully modern film SLR

This includes other camera makes and models too. It's amazing what steps the photographer used to have to take to make a photograph, that were eventually made completely automatic and transparent.

Do I want to experience an SLR without an automatic return mirror? And with a fixed (45mm) Zeiss lens? Then I take out the Contaflex for a spin.

Perhaps I feel like experiencing point-and-shoot photography from the 1940's, without the benefit of ANY focussing aids or meters. Then I load up the AGFA Isolette (120 film) or the Ikonta 35 (35mm). (By the way, I usually prefer the Ikonta 35, because one of the "luxuries" that I need is double-exposure prevention. I always forget to advance the film on the AGFA before I cock and fire the shutter!

Sometimes you pick a camera because of the way it makes you take pictures.... the waist level finder on my Yashica TLR helps me slow down and control every aspect of the composition. The big metal-frame finder on my Graflex Crown Graphic inspires me to shoot spontaneously... once the camera has been set up, you can quickly compose handlheld and fire without other distractions. It makes a good "decisive moment" camera, and you quickly appreciate the dictum of "f/8 and be there".

I love the feeling of picking a camera from any point on the line of development of cameras. Every different camera inspires me to make different kinds of pictures.
03-12-2009, 12:34 PM   #26
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i dont know about you guys, i'm not going back anywhere.


my experience with film so far has been positive

1. lots of dynamic range
2. accurate exposures (either due to the high latitude of film or just the camera is good at metering! MZ-S), and when i say accurate, i mean 95% well exposed shots.
3. shallow depth of field given large field of view
4. no more noise! Uniform grain is much more pleasing than patterned noise.

the only two things that are a hinderance is the time it takes to process my images (althought that would be sped up if i had my own lab, or one of those noritsu machines)

and the obvious fact that you dont know what you shot until you scan it, however this is less of a concern given points 1 and 2.
03-12-2009, 03:08 PM   #27
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Wow. This has turned out to be a really inspiring thread. I admit it, I'm motivated primarily by nostalgia. Nostalgia informs my choice of camera, my choice of photographic process, and my aesthetic sensibility. I'm just old enough to remember the days when valiant photographers ventured heroically into the wilds armed with small, beautifully machined metal tools to capture reflected light on long, temperamental strips of chemical emulsion.

And, of course, there's the nostalgic quality of the slides and black and white images they produce. Despite the superb clarity of modern digital imagery, I still vastly prefer the look of film even for those areas where digital excels, such as wildlife photography.

Today, Pentax - despite itself, still one of the world's great optics manufacturers - is bogged down amongst the also-rans of the consumer electronics market. What a pity. Where's the glamour?
03-12-2009, 04:23 PM   #28
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QuoteOriginally posted by Gooshin Quote
i dont know about you guys, i'm not going back anywhere.


my experience with film so far has been positive

1. lots of dynamic range
2. accurate exposures (either due to the high latitude of film or just the camera is good at metering! MZ-S), and when i say accurate, i mean 95% well exposed shots.
3. shallow depth of field given large field of view
4. no more noise! Uniform grain is much more pleasing than patterned noise.

the only two things that are a hinderance is the time it takes to process my images (althought that would be sped up if i had my own lab, or one of those noritsu machines)

and the obvious fact that you dont know what you shot until you scan it, however this is less of a concern given points 1 and 2.
Amen!!!
03-12-2009, 06:06 PM   #29
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QuoteOriginally posted by Damn Brit Quote
It wouldn't surprise me if there were many older people still shooting Pentax but don't have a computer.
I'm 70 and I've been shooting film for 60 some years and will continue to do so, but I also have 3 Linux Computers and 2 Apple Laptops.
03-12-2009, 06:41 PM   #30
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Well, you've obviously learned nothing through all of those years by owning those Linux things.

Big Apple fan here, so please forgive the joke.
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