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Michel Hardy-Vallée
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Ctein, you depict well the behaviour of film users, but it strikes me that I never heard of a particular DSLR that is so beloved that nobody would want upgrading it. I know Mike Johnston fell in love with his Minolta 7D, but Mike is a little weird, don't we know? ;)
There are some people who exploit the particular features of certain cameras (those playing with the noise of the Ricoh GRD), but I can't see the same devotion to a CCD sensor that film users have for their products (only exception I can think of is the Kodak digital monochrome camera). DSLR are rated in terms of performance and ergonomics. Films are rated for their beauty.
My theory is that a particular film is in fact a whole precise set of assumptions and decisions, whereas a DSLR is a vague, wide collection of semi-realized decisions that one has to complete in post-processing. So in fact, there's not much to love in a DSLR, since you are responsible for making it beautiful.
We film users are so lazy!
Film for a Lifetime
By Ctein My last column produced several comments to the effect that buying a digital camera is not like buying a film camera, because buying the camera also means buying the "film." This is a point that many have raised before, the implication being that it makes sense to frequently upgrade one...
I never thought of editing in positive/negative terms, but now that I read this, it suddenly makes sense of my way of working with film.
With film, you expose a set number of pictures, and make a contact proof sheet. After that, you decide only which ones you WANT to print. You don't have to delete the ones you do not want; just pick the best of the bunch.
If you needed yet one more reason to use film, it would be that it forces you to edit your pictures in a more disciplined, positive manner. Great training for your eye.
Zen Slap
By Carl Weese Some of the comments to my recent post about editing made me realize that I was writing from an underlying assumption about the nature of editing that is not necessarily obvious to the reader. The comments recommending various ways to edit out mistakes remind me of something import...
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