New Camera

[DTD]

Despite me putting my old Olympus OM1 system up for sale, film's not quite dead for me yet.

I've just bought a Leica M6 and 50mm lens for a good price (I think people are having a clear out to fund buying an M. It's a camera I've always fancied and I thought if I didn't get one now I never would. Indeed if Olympus had released the E-1 replacement at Photokina, I would have got that instead.

My other film camera is a Ricoh GR1s compact which I've vowed to start carrying about with me. I've always loved black and white, always disliked darkrooms, still don't like scanning, but do love working on the computer, so that leaves me firmly sat on the fence in the digital/film debate.

I realise it's called 'DP Now', but do other forum members still have a film camera they use?

[Danny Chau]

[Patrick]

Re: New Camera

[Danny Chau]

Re: New Camera

Hi Patrick, you're right, it's the 5D, I use Canon, Sigma and Tamron lenses, and vignette is not something that bothers me, becasue in most instances I would automatically darken the edges slightly just to bring the concentration to the centre of the image (or where the importance should be), in fact, for me one of the reason for me to love the RD1 so much is the vignette Epson introduces to the firmware, but they also allow you to dial it out in the processing software (incidentally they have done just that in the 's' model). I choose the lenses for their optical abilities, not 'brand' or price driven.

I used to have a 16-35 Canon L lens, and was given a Sigma 12-24 zoom to try, immediately afterwards I sold my Canon 16-35 and kept the 12-24 ever since. Worth noting also is the Tokina 12-24 digital DX zoom, it is miles better than the Nikon equivalent, the Tokina was sharper both centre and edge at f4 than the Nikon at f8, I have picked the best out of a batch of 3 Nikons, unbelieveable but true.

So in my collection of lenses for my cameras, these include Voiglander lenses for my RD1 (tested against Leica lenses, only find the difference was in the image colour), so Tamron and Sigma and Tokina, all got choosen for their optical design and quality.

Danny

[Patrick]

Re: New Camera

Hi Patrick, you're right, it's the 5D, I use Canon, Sigma and Tamron lenses, and vignette is not something that bothers me, becasue in most instances I would automatically darken the edges slightly just to bring the concentration to the centre of the image (or where the importance should be), in fact, for me one of the reason for me to love the RD1 so much is the vignette Epson introduces to the firmware, but they also allow you to dial it out in the processing software (incidentally they have done just that in the 's' model). I choose the lenses for their optical abilities, not 'brand' or price driven.

I used to have a 16-35 Canon L lens, and was given a Sigma 12-24 zoom to try, immediately afterwards I sold my Canon 16-35 and kept the 12-24 ever since. Worth noting also is the Tokina 12-24 digital DX zoom, it is miles better than the Nikon equivalent, the Tokina was sharper both centre and edge at f4 than the Nikon at f8, I have picked the best out of a batch of 3 Nikons, unbelieveable but true.

So in my collection of lenses for my cameras, these include Voiglander lenses for my RD1 (tested against Leica lenses, only find the difference was in the image colour), so Tamron and Sigma and Tokina, all got choosen for their optical design and quality.

Danny

[Tinka]

Re: New Camera

Hi DTD,
Yes I still have a Minolta 7000i with Tamron lenses, have not used it in months, but am loath to part with it as I have had it for years, I know it is a dinasaur now but it has never let me down even though I baught it second hand.

[Danny Chau]

Re: New Camera

I would for the time being settle with the 5D and not the 1Ds MKII, reason being there is not that much different in terms of quality to the 5D, I have a 60" X 40" in my work that most people think it's done on a 5X4. Canon and lense manufacturer have to work much harder to bring higher resolution lenses in order to cope with the next generation of imaging chips. As they are now out solve by the chip, that is why most of the lenses designed for film is now simply not good enough for digital backs.

I believe Sigma is already bringing out lenses with stablisers at Photokina, so hope it shouldn't be long before they'll apply it to the whole range.

Danny

[Danny Chau]

Re: New Camera

Hi DTD,
Yes I still have a Minolta 7000i with Tamron lenses, have not used it in months, but am loath to part with it as I have had it for years, I know it is a dinasaur now but it has never let me down even though I baught it second hand.

Hi Tinka, I still have a few film cameras which I will not part with, call me old fashioned, they have become a part of my history.

Danny

[StuartR]

Re: New Camera

After 40 years using film and, for some of that time at least, having my own dark-room, I wouldn't go back to film if you paid me (well, depends how much you'd pay I guess ). I bought one of the early Kodak digital cameras (1 MP) a few years back and haven't touched film since.

In the early digital days, when film was obviously better than digital from the image quality POV, I did wonder if I'd made a mistake especially as the early digital kit wasn't exactly cheap, but I'm now taking shots with digital that I don't think I would have got with film.

But.....I can't throw away my old film cameras, mainly Canon SLR kit, a lovely little Olympus XA coupled range-finder and a Canon compact range-finder (can't recall the model). I rue the day I sold my Olympus OM1 and I'm now thinking about buying one just to put in a display cabinet to take out to fondle every now and then . When I was young and poor I always wanted a Russian range-finder - a Zorki or Kiev so I might even look for those on eBay and start collecting. Mmmm what about a Kiev 66 medium format I really wanted one of those, or a Mamiya C330 TLR. I also loved my old Yashicamat TLR - another one sold because I probably didn't have money for fags (don't smoke now!).

Then there was my Canon FTb with a razor-sharp 50mm f/1.4...IIRC I gave it away

Enough already....next stop eBay!

[bigbob]

Re: New Camera

Despite me putting my old Olympus OM1 system up for sale, film's not quite dead for me yet.

I've just bought a Leica M6 and 50mm lens for a good price (I think people are having a clear out to fund buying an M. It's a camera I've always fancied and I thought if I didn't get one now I never would. Indeed if Olympus had released the E-1 replacement at Photokina, I would have got that instead.

My other film camera is a Ricoh GR1s compact which I've vowed to start carrying about with me. I've always loved black and white, always disliked darkrooms, still don't like scanning, but do love working on the computer, so that leaves me firmly sat on the fence in the digital/film debate.

I realise it's called 'DP Now', but do other forum members still have a film camera they use?

I've still got my old Nikon F4 & F5 i still use the 5 occasionally when shooting weddings (some clients still require negs ) but mostly now i use the D2X or Fuji S3 (can't beat it for skin tones and high ISO's).
I miss the quality that slides used to give (old shooters will know what i mean) but i don't miss the smell of fixers or being locked away from the family from hours on end .
With the new generation of printers , papers and inks , home printing is easy and relativly cheap today .
I just need more wall space at times

B..

[Stephen]

Re: New Camera

I've never really felt that close to a camera enough to want to keep it as a trophy, or a collectors item, or indeed so I can take it off the shelf and fondle it from time to time. I have generally sold old cameras to help fund new ones.

I'm now on my fourth dSLR, and my current model a Canon 1D MK2N is undoubtedly the finest of those, yet I don't strictly speaking own it. I decided to lease this one, it simply made financial sense for me.

All the old film camera have gone, the last being a Nikon F5 and Bronica SQA. Whilst great cameras, they were tools only and it has to be said beasts at that. The Canon 1D is a beast, but I love it more than any other, when it comes to it though it will no doubt go the way of all the others and some other gem will replace it, perhaps not

For Patrick, I could I suppose have easily gone for a 5D, but I'm happy that I didn't the 1.3 crop of the 1D gives me a little extra at the long end and the 17-40 is wide enough still for me. I don't feel I need the extra pixels, my pics have the quality I need and the camera gives me a performance unsurpassed by the majority of dSLR's

[Ian]

Re: New Camera

I've still got my old Nikon F4 & F5 i still use the 5 occasionally when shooting weddings (some clients still require negs ) but mostly now i use the D2X or Fuji S3 (can't beat it for skin tones and high ISO's).
I miss the quality that slides used to give (old shooters will know what i mean) but i don't miss the smell of fixers or being locked away from the family from hours on end .
With the new generation of printers , papers and inks , home printing is easy and relativly cheap today .
I just need more wall space at times

B..

I'm interested that you have both the D2X and a Fujifilm S3 Pro - can you summarise the differences in image quality? I take it for granted that the D2X is faster to use and, from my experience, has the better user interface, but I'm particularly interested in the image quality aspects that others value.

Ian

[DTD]

Re: New Camera

I love my Olympus E-1 – it's eno of the best designed things I've ever used. But I'm not at all attached to it.

It took a lot of umming and ahhing to put my OM1n kit up for sale, but I can't get 'attached' to any digital camera. I know what StuartR means, it could be quite tempting to buy all those cameras I couldn't afford when I was younger. In my case I think the mechanical SLR systems of the 1970s were the bees knees.

Despite all this, I'm quite a puritan and cameras have to be for photography.

[Patrick]

Re: New Camera

I've never really felt that close to a camera enough to want to keep it as a trophy, or a collectors item, or indeed so I can take it off the shelf and fondle it from time to time. I have generally sold old cameras to help fund new ones.

I'm now on my fourth dSLR, and my current model a Canon 1D MK2N is undoubtedly the finest of those, yet I don't strictly speaking own it. I decided to lease this one, it simply made financial sense for me.

All the old film camera have gone, the last being a Nikon F5 and Bronica SQA. Whilst great cameras, they were tools only and it has to be said beasts at that. The Canon 1D is a beast, but I love it more than any other, when it comes to it though it will no doubt go the way of all the others and some other gem will replace it, perhaps not

For Patrick, I could I suppose have easily gone for a 5D, but I'm happy that I didn't the 1.3 crop of the 1D gives me a little extra at the long end and the 17-40 is wide enough still for me. I don't feel I need the extra pixels, my pics have the quality I need and the camera gives me a performance unsurpassed by the majority of dSLR's

[Ian]

Re: New Camera

Despite me putting my old Olympus OM1 system up for sale, film's not quite dead for me yet.

Don't forget we have sale/wanted board here too

Ian