lifeandmylens wrote:
A hotel restaurant. Contax 645 + 45mm + Portra 400. My least favorite thing about the Contax 645 is the inability to turn off the data imprinting. But then again it's also nice to be able to look back and see how I shot the scene and with what lens. For instance on these I can see I shot it at +1.7 stops.
My Hasselblad H1 (and Nikon F6!) does that too. I don't mind it as it is not in the frame. On the F6 I can turn it off, and I am pretty sure I can do that too on the H1.
BPsmith511 wrote:
The user condition one in B&S is tempting, but I'm not sure I want to dive back into film with a ~$3000 specialty camera
I had the Xpan and now the Xpan2/TX2
There is a fatal flaw w the Xpan that Fuji addressed with the Xpan2. The on/off switch will start to bind with extensive use, until it becomes stiffer and stiffer to use. The only repair is to replace the piece - which now is no longer available. I had two of them - Xpan and the TX1 - and the Xpan w more miles on it was definitely much stiffer/notchier to use.
It's why I sold both while they were still working and went with the Xpan2/TX2. The on/off switch is completely redesigned.
FYI it is only a specialty camera if you use it in pano format. If you flip the switch to 24x36 - it's just a regular 35mm RF camera!
brick33308 wrote:
I love all these images, and surely would enjoy the experience of shooting film images with Leica gear. But aside from cost of film and developing, I think I'd miss the immediate gratification I get from viewing digital images as soon as I want after shooting. Do the film shooters ever have those feelings, and do they also shoot digital?
The delayed gratification is part of the experience. When I was a kid we had a darkroom in the house but once I switched to Kodachrome I sent my film out to be developed at a lab and it could take a couple of weeks for the slides to come back in the mail. All that time I would imagine the photos I took and how they might look as slides. I was invariably disappointed in most of them but there was almost always at least one or two amazing images per roll that made it all worthwhile and added to the expectation next time.
It's similar now. I'm not developing my own film anymore and bring it to a lab downtown. They often send the scans at the end of the day when I'm out running errands or busy making supper and don't have time to download them (they send the scans via WeTransfer)...that can be frustrating as I'm really itching to see how they turned out. I have the email address of my film lab set up as a "VIP" on my phone so it makes a sound when I get an email from them and if I'm free I stop whatever i'm doing, go to my computer, and download. I'm still disappointed by most of my shots, but the keeper rate is improving.
The thing about digital is - bless it - I expect absolutely fabulous results every time. There are no surprises. My freakin phone takes incredible pictures with no effort. But for me that also is its downfall - that perfection has made it boring to me.
With film - you still never really know how it is going to turn out as there are so many places where things could get messed up - I mean where you accidentally create art. But when it turns out great, it's just so satisfying. The look and feel of it really is very different, and the mechanical process - well for me it's a delight.
For me shooting film is like listening to the needle drop on vinyl. The imperfection of that little hiss, that delicious crackle and then your visual music starts.
