On 7/27/05, Simon Worby <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> What puts me off (in order of importance):
>
> 1. Obsolescence (& depreciation -- pretty much inexorably linked).
This can be an issue but I think it's much like the way the world
works with computers. Yes, it will be obsolete in a short period of
time. However, that doesn't mean that the equipment can't be used any
more or that the quality has decreased. If you were satisfied with the
quality of the shots (for the size prints/display you're using) then
you don't need to upgrade. Maybe down the road your needs will change
and you'll want a higher quality but that's different. Getting good at
identifying product cycles can help a lot with this. Personally, I
tend to lean towards buying higher end equipment on a less frequent
basis (when it comes to computers). Another strategy can be to wait
for the newest high-end gear to come out and snap up a previous
generation model for significantly lower price as older stock is sold
off.
> 3. Quality of photos.
I suppose this is a subjective thing but most of the recent digital
results I've seen match the quality of film. Yes, there is a different
"look" though.
> 4. Size of equipment.
For me, this is a big one. I had shot with a C*n*n film SLR for a few
years before switching over to OM. When I bought the C*n*n I didn't
mind the weight and size too much as it was one of the smaller and
lighter bodies available at the time. However, it's significantly
larger and heavier than my OM-1n's and I find taking pictures with the
OM much more enjoyable. I'm feeling more of a pull to digital but I'm
really concerned about what impact it might have on my enjoyment of
the shooting (which will directly translate into quantity).
> 5. Cost of lenses.
> 6. Investment in film cameras and lenses.
This is another biggy for me. What I'd really like would be to have a
single set of lenses that I could use for both film (B&W) and Digital.
Yes, I can get an adapter for my OM lenses to use on the E-system or a
C*n*n but that's not the same. At the moment, one of the more tempting
options is the Eps*n RD-1 combined with another RF body. But the Eps*n
is definitely expensive and the fact that it's not full-frame is more
of an issue with RF (need different viewfinders). If I could get
decent film and digital bodies that aren't too big/heavy and handled
nicely and behaved in a similar fashion and took the same lenses I'd
be happy but there doesn't seem to be an option that offers all of
that. The closest I could get would be with a C*n*n film SLR and one
of their full-frame DSLR's but that blows away the size/weight
criteria.
> 8. Data storage / backup / obsolescence concerns.
Honestly, I think too much of an issue has been made of this. Archival
issues are a whole other issue but the storage obsolescence is less of
one. A lot of people seem to make it sound as if a new format or
storage method will come out and suddenly there will be no way to read
your old stuff. 8" floppies have been obsolete for a long time but you
can still track down an old drive to read them. More importantly, it
was pretty clear that they were fading from existence for a long time
and there was plenty of time to move over essential files to something
newer. At some point something will likely replace CD/DVD but it's not
going to appear overnight and make all your CD's and DVD's unreadable,
it will be a gradual transition and there will be plenty of
opportunity to move old material over. More likely than not, the new
method will be more efficient so there'd be the advantage of moving x
number of CD's onto a single piece of the new media.
There could be issues with much longer-term storage but I'd be more
worried about simply going, "what are all these old CD's, I might as
well toss them" long before that happened.
> 9. Too many buttons for an old fart like me.
I'm only a young fart but I agree with you there. It's not even a
question of too many buttons but simply that so many of the controls
tend to be badly designed or require multiple steps to access. When I
bought the C*n*n it seemed to be during a really bad phase of SLR
design that was just starting to end. The N*k*n bodies that I looked
at in my price range were still in a design idea of having a mode
button and then selecting the mode then setting the value or similar,
there seemed to be a changing philosophy though to return to dials for
more things and my C*n*n represented that philosophy a little more
than any N*k*n I looked at at the time. I think if digital had been a
few more years off from really taking off then the return to dials
would have solidified a little more and DSLR design would be a lot
better. As it is, the return to dials hadn't quite stuck before DSLR's
really started gaining ground and the button philosophy took over a
little more again. Fortunately, I'm starting to see signs of the dials
coming back, the recent M*n*lt* 7d is a good example, still has a lot
of buttions but the layout of the dials for setting camera functions
look nice.
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