The camera thread.

i have an old manual nikkomat too, which is pretty sweet.

Digital, although my canon A20 is a very good camera (i think the current one is an A40) I recommend again one of the nikon coolpix cameras. They seem to have the best image quality going. For a really compact one then some of the sony and the canon digital ixus are great.

i also have a k1000 which has been disappointing actually - the only electronic part in the camera (the light meter) stops working at inopportune moments, and comes to life long after i've given up on enjoying taking photographs. the annoying part is that whenever i take it to get fixed it starts working as soon as the tech. opens the body, and its tempermental behaviour is apparently unfixable by even the greatest eastern european post-cold war camera experts.

The A40 is a bit bulky, but I've been really happy with it. Now that I've sampled the delights of the digital camera, I am *never* going back.

I have a gold 1981 Konica C35 EF3, which is v.v. nice except the battery cover's come off. My brother bought it for me secondhand for £8, which was very random of him.

He has a Yashica T5 which is the greatest thing ever with auto everything and it's waterproof.

I need to get a proper digital camera soon.

On the other hand, no one's ever going to confuse a picture taken by it with a 35mm negative scan, and I wouldn't use it at all if you wanted to get nice prints. It's so small & fast, though, that's it a great pocket camera to keep in your bag to use in addition to a manual SLR.

it's a cute camera:

http://user.itl.net/~kypfer/620/bflsh-2.jpg

w.out the ugly flash gun, ew.

i'm missing my medium format right now, but it was too fragile to lug over here and too big besides

The other way is to re-spool 120 film onto 620 spindles.

Lomo

I just put $600 on my credit card for a Nikon Coolscan V, I'm so excited to finally get some of my images in Photoshop and on the web. I don't need more debt, but it's a great price for a 4000dpi film scanner.

As for point-and-shoot, I've always had good results with my old Olympus XA-2, which should be available secondhand for under $100. It replaced a much fancier late-80s AF-10, which is even easier to use.

This year might be the time I go digital too - I've been sorting out boxes of negatives this afternoon; 66 rolls of film have run through Pam's Canon FTb SLR in the last three years and a good 30-40% of the shots are inevitably just dross - that's £150 on developing prints that will never been shown to anyone. Our Kodak MC3's just a toy really and since her Ixus died we could do with a cheap, light p&s ourselves. So, yeah, 2004 recommendations plz.

As for my 30-40% figure - well, it's not like the rest are publishable or anything, they're just interesting enough to go in the albums. The 30-40% are underexposed, out-of-focus, compositionally dull, inferior near-duplicates, people looking their worst, badly framed, etc, etc. We don't snap-snap-snap away, we can't afford to.

(the main reason I want a Nikon is that eventually I want to get one of their digital SLR bodies too, and then use the same lenses for digital and film shooting. I also have a late-70s Pentax ME)

Does anyone else put all of their photos thru Auto-Contrast in Photoshop (or similar) before uploading? It's no real use on poorly lit shots tho - not from an Ixus 55 at least. I'd say it improves two thirds of the photos I take though.

I got a first gen X100 for a great price last year and love it. As much as I’d like to take my DSLR out hillwalking it’d be too heavy to carry all day, the X100 has been a very capable stand-in.

Just got a Sony rx1, shooting some raw 2night

Got a used Leica d lux 109 and took it out last night for some test shots. I guess I was expecting more from the low megapixel count and 3/4 sensor, I was not impressed with the detail or overall quality in low light. Though I have to say that there was a nice bloom in the whites and even some of those nice spectral effects where the light turns into a many pointed star. Nice to see it shooting at 1.8 even in dim light, the glass is a highlight. Also, 72 mm zoom is a nice option. I found myself composing and framing the shots more often that not with that while using the EVF.

That's a Leica-fied LX100, right? I like the overall package but wouldn't expect miracles in low light. Image circle limitations of the (admittedly neat) lens design and multi-aspect ratio cropping ability mean that it never uses the full area of the 4/3 sensor. Wish they iterated the design a couple models more, because it came so close to being perfect.

Film forever!

One of these days Austin will have highs that dip into the sub-90s, I hope. Then it's home darkroom time for gelatin silver prints.

Nikon F2AS, usually with a 28/2.8 AiS, sometimes an 85/1.4 AiS. I used to play with a MF Rollei 6006 and an ancient 4x5, but I really prefer the F2 for my style of picture-taking.

My wife and I share 3 Ricoh GRs of various editions, and I have a Sigma Merrill and she has a Canon 6D, so the digital side is covered. But I prefer the magic of wet prints. . . .

It's past argument that the fine-grained emulsions on film and photographic paper can deliver results that aren't within reach of digital sensors. But you can make truly excellent photos with digital cameras, just like you can with a crude pinhole box camera. Just choose your tools and make images.

Past what argument? Full-frame digital (and even APS-C or 4/3 really) surpassed even 50ISO 35mm film in everything but theoretical dynamic range and magic feeling a long time ago.

Anyone interested in the new Sony a7c? Looks pretty sweet

Analog/digital discussions often focus on the technical limitations of the formats and, as with audio, that's never really the issue. I think it's more about how it informs the creative practice and shapes the user experience.

Any idiot (i.e., me) can comp a decent lead vocal from 30 takes with a DAW, but it takes tremendous skill and patience to do the same with tape, so probably better to create the conditions for just a good single performance out of a few efforts. Similarly, any fool (also me) can spray-and-pray at an event and come away with a few moments-(in)décisif, but with 36exp in yr camera that takes great anticipation, prep, sensitivity, etc. The balance of effort is maybe more in the moment (or pre) than in the post with analog capture.

That said, I can generally tell immediately what is film and what is merely digital processed to be filmic, even on IG. But I bet that's down to the subject matter giving clues to the photographer, and hence the medium I know they favour.

Meanwhile, I have a drawer full of expired/exposed 120/35mm rolls that I never get around to sending off to a lab, but I poke around in Lightroom every night (to mediocre effect).

Develop your own film--it's easy. Arguments about the relative merits of digital vs. analog or sensor sizes, etc., bore me. All that matters is the art you can make. I also paint with goache, water colors and acrylics, so it's all . . . a wash?

I happen to use an old 35mm film camera because I find it harmonious with the way I like to take pictures/make images/look dorky.

But what I put on the wall or put in a box is why I do it in the first place.

I should acknowledge that, like 99% of the population, my phone is what I use most often, purely for snapshots (documentation).

Past what argument? Full-frame digital (and even APS-C or 4/3 really) surpassed even 50ISO 35mm film

Who specified 35mm?

Oh, you were talking about 8x10 contact prints, 'kay.

I enjoy shooting film and was quite serious about the 'magic' reference above - seeing a print come up in Dektol is a different world from Lightroom. There are, as always, process-oriented reasons to do whatever you like but in terms of 'results' those reasons are lacking (or maybe you're paying $250 per frame for drum scans of 120, who knows?).

Revive!
Just ordered a Fujifilm x100V. Have always wanted a second camera with a short fixed lens, something I'll take with me everywhere and also supplement my Nikon. Anyone here own one? What are your thoughts?

I have an F and i still love it

yeah i carry the F with me basically wherever i go. it was a big purchase but it's really the center of my photographic hobby at this point. had it out for repairs earlier this month and constantly felt like something was missing.

I have an x70 and love it, great color and detail. Only problem I have with it is lack of stablilization. Night exposures become a bit tricky…
Not sure if the latest 100s have integrated anything like that yet.

I have the T and still love, it, though I could use the extra pixels. I bought the "telephoto" adapter and never use it.

i don't believe there's any proper IS in the 100s, but they perform so well at high ISOs that i've been very satisfied shooting my night photos at my usual shutter-speed "floor" of 1/30 sec. not sure if they'd survive being blown up to REAL big prints, but i've got a lot of night shots i'm really happy with.

I, too, have a X100v. It is nice.

I bought a used Fuji X10 for $200 a few years back and it's been a lot of fun.. basically a point & shoot but the pics can be astounding if I pay attention to what I'm doing. I originally wanted a X100 but the zoom lens has come in really handy at times.

Im using an a9ii for my primary but i think fuji stuff replicates the structure of film grain better as the gain goes up

Fujis make great jpgs in camera. I've never been able to get comfortable using those instead of raw+editing but the X series film profiles are great.

yeah i shoot raw with mine, and flip around between the profiles in lightroom at the start of editing. then typically i either increase contrast/vibrance, or ease it back, and go from there.

still love my OG X100 but I hear the Vs are wonderful

by the way, for anyone mystified by the letter designations, it's
X100
X100S econd
X100T hird
X100F ourth
X100V (fifth but F was taken)

Also using an OG X100, mostly when I’m out hillwalking, and think it’s great.

omg i finally understand the naming

Good luck with naming the sixth model, Fuji.

Agreed on Fuji profiles and JPGs. But I trust the metering on my Canons a bit more; the evaluative mode there is a bit better than Fuji’s centre-weighted average so I still err on the side of raw for post.

Well I said I ordered it, but I ended up canceling after realizing it was a gray market model. It seems to be out of stock everywhere, but still intend to buy one once they come in.

I just went through the same thing with the X100V (love it) and struck out on the usual/larger online retailers but found that if you looked for regional/local camera stores w/online presence (seemed mostly in NE for whatever reason) there were a few who had 'em stocked, YMMV

How long til phones get to full frame
Never?

Yeah physics, we know

The camera bump would be quite the thing

I’m just going to tape my phone to my x70

just imagine the entire back of your phone is the sensor

just an entire plane for finger smudges

https://3.img-dpreview.com/files/p/E~TS590x0~articles/8974175294/ProductShots/Fujifilm_GFX_50R_X-E3_side-by-side.jpeg

Just watched a video on the rangefinder style medium format Fuji, looks so fun (if you've got $4500+lens laying around). Also has a crop mode to match the Hasselblad XPan I would have died for 20 years ago.

oooooh

I dream of medium format

Hired the Fuji GFX50S a few years ago for a (grey, wet) Easter weekend, with the 110/2.0 prime. It was pretty great, but a bit of a chunky beast. They seem to have streamlined the medium-format bodies.

My Bronica is still in the same place it's been for a couple of years, on a shelf. I really need to get back into it, with a drawer full of (expired) 120 film, but I say that every spring and... suddenly it's October.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_t_9LXcjBE

Looks even bigger in his hand than that still photo lol

Lovely stuff. Maybe I'll shoot at 24mm FF and crop everything to 2.71:1 for a while :)

The GFX was my first ever experience with an EVF, and it kind of spoils you for other lesser models. Wandering around looking at the world with an Acros filter was nice.

Here's the (then) 13yo toting the big bugger around Fitzrovia...

https://live.staticflickr.com/881/39491176020_4fa94fc5a1_b.jpg

And the (then) 11yo working the other Fuji, as shot with the GFX...

https://live.staticflickr.com/796/41237312082_16d9e812da_b.jpg

beast mode

fantastic!

https://i.tformers.com/g/generated/46865/Takara%20TOMY%20Canon%20EOS%20R5%20x%20TRANSFORMERS%20Optimus%20Prime%20Official%20Image%20(14)__scaled_800.jpg

(from https://tformers.com/takara-tomy-canon-eos-x-transformers-optimus-prime-r5-crossover-official-images/46865/news.html )

:)

Even has the tantalising dream of a L-grade pancake (optimus) prime on there.

Hilarious !

The light was fantastic today in London when the sun was out: everything crisp and clear, and trees and foliage drenched with light as if illuminated specifically for photographers. I took my EOS 5D out for the first time in quite a while, and the colours were fantastic. I particular like the way bright colours - such as red and orange - seem to almost pop out of photographs. For example a red and white polka dot blouse against a background of green foliage and a bright orange Vespa against grey brickwork. What a camera!

Let’s see some shots!