Hey Guys,
I had to cancel my subscription to the list due to the demands of my job,
but I quit, SO NOW I'M BACK.
I'm pretty sure that everyone has had this conversation numerous times
before, but with the constantly changing landscape in digital cameras, I
feel like it won't be a complete rehash. I've got some general questions
about switching to digital, mainly about quality, output, storage and
models.
To begin, I've been shooting with an OM-1n and a 4T, using nothing but my
trusty 28/f2.8, 50/f1.4, 100/f2 and the 50mm/f3.5 macro. I've got a
bazillion negatives and have using nothing but Olympus from day one, so
there is a lot of positive brand equity there. For Christmas, I got a Cannon
SD450 as a gift (the tiny 5mp shooter) and I've been carrying it around in
my pocket. Unfortunately, I like the digital experience, and it's making me
force my hand into digital.
Quality:
My first question is, how "big" can you blow up these digital pictures
without looking like a mosaic. Or, how many MPs do I need before I can do a
20x28, at least as well as a frame of Tri-X. I've searched on the internet
but I've gotten no definitive answer to this question, and my local Wolf
Camera said a 6mp can do 16x20, which I find hard to believe. One of my big
contentions is that if I take pictures with digital, I'm locked into the
size until the "next-gen" body comes out. I guess that this is the same with
35mm, but the format is so versatile that I never felt limited.
N-O-I-S-E, talk to me. The SD450, even at ISO400, is very noisy. Noisy like
a train station. Noisy like a football game. Noisy like Jim Kramer. With the
4/3 system, and its smaller sensor size, how does it compare to the APS
sensor sizes and even the full-frames in some of the other models. In
everyone's experience, has this really been a problem, or can you use
software to pull it out?
xD picture cards... why? It seems that most people are going with SD.
Output:
"They shore got some fancy printers out there now!!" My questions about
those are mainly in regards to quality. How well can those things output a
5x7, 8x10, 16x20, 20x28 (?) How much does the paper cost? Can they print
edge-to-edge, can you hang them on a wall next to a 35mm print without
noticing (especially my OCD-ness). If I was going to print out some sort of
project for work, can I print photo-quality front-and-back?
Storage:
My negatives are in a variety of archival-quality Clearfiles in three 4"
binders in a fireproof box in the closet. I'm not worried about anything
happening to them, short of a serious SERIOUS disaster. Last year, the hard
drvie storing my 25GB MP3 collection "shat-the-bed," digitally speaking, and
I had to re-burn all my CDs again. This was... absolutely not fun.
How do you guys insure the integrity of your digital shots? I thought that
you could burn them to DVDs as a backup, but now I'm hearing rumblings that
writable optical media only has a ~10 year shelf-life. The thought of a
drive going and losing my catalog is very scary to me.
What is RAW and why do I need to be shooting it? For archive purposes, is it
possible to compress raw with a lossless algorithm? (Zip, RAR, whatever)
Does RAW automatically record all the metrics of the shot (Aperture, Shutter
speed, lens, focal length, etc)
Models:
So, I'm looking at all the E goodness available to me. The E-330 sure sounds
cool, but the selection of lenses available makes me a bit nervous. Seeing
as how the bodies are (essentially) outdated in a year, I'd like to at least
be able to point at a really nice lens and say, "I'll drop twelve hond-o in
this lens and be able to use it forever", but it seems like there aren't any
real top-tier lenses out there for the E system. What are some of your
thoughts on the current crop, why is there no fast, fixed aperture
offerings, etc.
Do the Olys out there now have a dedicated DOF Preview button? Where is it?
With the 4 I shoot in aperture-priority mode almost exclusively, do the new
boys have this? How hard was it for you to adapt to the new digital bodies.
Any chance they've got an OM-5 in the wings? I keep hearing about how the
4/3 system is supposed to allow the bodies to be much smaller, but I'm not
seeing it; although, that new Leica/Panasonic thing is quite handsome.
And finally, what about these prosumer fixed lens shooters, like the Sony
DSC-R1 and the Olympus 8080. Can anyone speak to the quality of the lens,
control layout, picture output, noise, etc. My thinking is that if I'm only
shooting 28mm - 100mm, and that these bodies offer that focal length in a
single, less expensive, smaller package, why not look that way?
Thanks for making it down this far. I'm really looking forward to hearing
everyone's opinion on these topics.
Evan Ruff
Atlanta, GA
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