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I recently began scanning my old 2-1/4" negatives and the scans quality is superb with detail levels not abtainable on digital format. I just can't waite to start doing my 4X5 neg. As a result of this I come to question the value of a big (20+ megapixel) digital camera. I can take pictures on my Rollei or my ETRS develop the film myself and create incredible enlargements with superb quality. Quality that can't be match by digital cameras or may I say the mood and feeling of film. It is the best of both worlds. just like in cinemathography they expose film and produce a digital product.

We can go back to film using medium format cameras. Buy a double Developing film tank and two film reels a few chemical like HC-110 Developer, Stop Bath, Fixer, Photoflow and bingo we will be producing images of superb quality not in a Darkroom but in our studios, bedrooms, livingrooms, etc. in the company of our families. WAO!

Today you can get a medium format camera for a fraction of what it used to sell a few years back. You can get more, much more for less both in equipment and image. I'am going back to film. :D
Shalom,
Don
A well conseived image is a poem written with light.
PSE6 - Lightroom - CS3 - Win-Vista -Epson 7800
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Interesting thoughts, Don,
I suspect most would pass because of the instant gratification of digital. You mean I have to wait several hours after the full roll has been exposed to develop/stop/fix and let the negative strip dry?

Of course, you don't even have to buy a medium format camera ... you can make one yourself (5x7 size)
http://users.rcn.com/stewoody/

Ruaty
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness" - Dave Barry

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. - Robert Capa

www.prestophoto.com/photos/gallery/19932
Don, what you don't get with film is the instant feedback on whether your picture was successfully composed and exposed. That was such a breakthrough for me that it brought me back to photography after I had all but given up on film. I'm afraid that if I had to go back to film, I would just quit taking photos and spend the time watching reruns on TV..... :bigwink:
Chuck
LR2/CS3/PSE6/Canon 450D, G10/Panasonic LX3
All those chemicals....the mess.....the smell.......storing them......DW complaining about it all since we have nowhere but the LR or Kitchen to do this! While I admire your quest for top quality, I think me and my house will stay digital. :thumbsup:

But then, I just have to ask, why would you want to go back to dealing with all that? (I have a sneaking suspicion our legs are being pulled here a bit :bigwink: )
GeneVH

My SmugMug
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Don Diego...
I understand your point. No doubt this gives you a lot of opportunities for high quality results! On the other hand, the opportunity to buy medium format cameras at an affordable price may be tempting.
The two worlds I tend to see now are not film vs digital. It is Pro vs Amateur. Let's be realistic : I do not regret the darkroom times (I started in 1958 with my father; I even knew the components to prepare D76...) Yes, it was a great pleasure to make one's own black and white enlargements. But with color, positive or negative, I felt totally dependent of film makers and general public labs. The cost of professional labs was really to much.
Now, what I can do with digital is superior in every respect to what I could do before, even with black and white! I could print poster size, but I would not know where to place them. The kind of family shots and reportage I am doing does not require medium format quality.
My problem with scanning is that I have so many slides and negatives (not including those of my father...) that I can't set myself to begin such a huge job (10 000 at least...)
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
Every once in a while I look at one of my old photos taken with film and I have to admit there is something about it that I can't seem to duplicate in digtal. Generally speaking though I feel that my overall results are better with digital. I have to dispute you on two issues. The new full frame digital cameras that are out of most hobbyists price range are capable of doing everything film did and then some and they have such high quality that they have just about eliminated the larger format film cameras in professional work. While they are very expensive and not likely to come down to the hobbyists price range, this is a reality. In the old film days a person could buy a good medium priced camera and duplicate the quality of the best cameras in that film format size. This is not true with digital as the crop sensor cameras are very good but just don't produce the detail that the full frame units have.
Secondly as an old darkroom rat I can tell you that setting up a darkroom in a living room or bathroom and expecting good results is a fantasy. You will be plagued by dust, not to mention the toxic chemicals that smell and are harmful to both you and the environment.
Lastly, if film is the medium in which you feel comfortable by all means go ahead with it. Allot of people are still doing that. You might get grief about it in this forum but that is only because most of us have gone digital and most likely will stay that way.
I'm another former wet-darkroom guy. I don't miss it even a little bit. Rusty, Chuck Gene, Michel, and especially Lowbone, effectively summarize my feelings on this subject.

Don, I hope you'll have a great creative time using film and darkroom techniques that you mastered years ago. It will probably be like a homecoming for you.

(If I tried to process film in the living room, it would last until DW caught a whiff of stop bath. As Robert Duvall said in "Get That Mess Out Of My House!", "I love the smell of acetic acid in the morning!")

Have fun,
Steve
My Gallery: Mostly In Focus
The Owl of Minerva takes wing only at dusk
I actually had a dedicated dark room(built for me by DH) at one point in time. I, too do not miss the toxic chemicals.
I was nearly tempted to buy a used Bronica ETRS when I saw one for sale at a good price last year. But the fuss and mess of chemicals, organising temperatures - and then enlarging - would be difficult for me now.
On the other hand, the idea of using a good medium-format camera and having the film developed in a lab, perhaps with a contact sheet, and then scanning and turning it digital is quite appealing.

Most people above have pointed out the immediacy of digital - the ability to keep trying to get a perfect shot without having to return another day is something that's finally been realised, and there's certainly no shortage of quality digital cameras around, so the old criticism of digital ("Oh, it's nowhere near the quality of film") have disappeared now.

And yet..... there is something about film. Odd, really..... it can't be the grain (or the lack of it), because we could digitally add grain or completely remove digital noise. And when I used film it was very often slow Kodachrome or Ektachrome. Nothing ever beat Kodachrome 25 for colours, and when you got it back from the developer it was perfect. (I used to develop Ektachrome, and other slide film, myself - not that difficult once you got control of temperatures). With digital there are considerations about the monitor calibration, how it appears online or on a digital projector and how it would render on a printer.
PSE6 on WinXP, Pentax K10d...... and now a Canon G10.

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Don Diego,
Do you think you can get the ladies here interested in film medium format ? :rotfl: Yes I am a bit sad about my old film cameras staying in my home photo museum with my father's... :crying:
Michel B
PSE6, 11,12,13.1 - LR 5.7 Windows 7 64 - OneOne Photo Perfect Suite - Canon 20D, Pana TZ6 - Fuji X100S
Most used add-ons: Elements+


Mes Galeries
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