science

Learning your tools well enough so they are not a part of your thought process definitely helps. I have only been into photography for a couple of years and always had digital camera,first P&S and now DSLR. At first I was always thinking about how to get the settings I want. I know do these thinks without concious thought and work on composition, I feel this has helped my photography.

It’s what you’re used to, not how you’re using it. I did the same thing creatively with my music. Going from freeware based tracking in the 80’s… to professional studio products like Cubase SX, in the 00’s… and I still have to go back to freeware, or really cheap old tracking software to get some desired effects, because I am used to the old stuff, and I can get what I need done with them fast and easy. I could do it with the new stuff, but I don’t know how. And when I do make myself learn how, by the time I’m done, the creativity is gone, and the purpose I had to learn it in the first place is forgotten. The only thing you can do is evolve and be creative with a brand new tool, but you’ll always still love using the old gear.

Also… going all in with digital, at least in my experience, was bad. I bought more lenses, more battery grips, more batteries, piles of filters, then after I was done, trying to pick what I needed at any time was too much trouble than it was worth. I noticed that my photography was actually better before I bought a heap of accessories for it. I should have started out using the Kit lens, no filters, getting good at that, then buying a new lens about maybe 2 years later.

i dunno but i just discovered your photos and they’re pretty cool

I have a similar experience with the switch from digital compact to DSLR. I have a Canon Ixus50 and a Canon EOS 400D, and really had to get used to looking through a viewfinder, the size of the camera, and the fear of damaging/losing the camera or having it stolen.

I didnt take my EOS on holiday to Egypt with me for some of those reasons. I think I will use the EOS more for short day trips near my home when I really plan on making a trip purely for taking photos. The compact I have with me most of the time though.

Maybe for you you need to choose to either take the digital or the normal SLR. And when you choose to take the DSLR, choose to make it a time to learn or get used to the many functions/buttons. Make it a habit, automatic, until you no longer really have to think about the menus or options, and maybe like Jemima said above, you will get used to it and the creativity and ease of use will come to you for the digital camera aswell.

When I went back to an old SLR, and couldnt see what I had photographed immediately after, I felt blind in fact. I had no idea if the photo would have turned out right, and took several photos with slightly different settings, just to make sure I would get one that would be right. So to me the advantage of a DSLR vs SLR is a big one. I wouldnt ever want to go back to analog and real film… :)

that’s the beauty with the old film cameras, when I take my Holga out it will make most of the decisions and I just take the pictures it gives me.
With digital you have to make all the decisions yourself and there’s all the editing stuff as well. I’m used to it now and better at it then with the Holga, but there’s something nice about not worrying about it and letting the camera take over.
The other thing is that a digital RAW image is often somewhat devoid of mood and it needs some tweaking and strategies to get the expressive side into it, also at the point of taking the photo. Holgas, Lomos and mamiyas have tons of character and don’t need that nearly as much.

If only I wasn’t so shit at composing in camera, it gets so expensive with film.

Different people have different taste for different medium. I started out using a film SLR, learn a bit from it….used a compact digital. Got a digital SLR, used it heaps, learnt more but I yearn for medium format, got a bronica…...yearn for even bigger format….got a Mamiya 7….yearn for even BIGGER format…and I have not a 5×4 :(

Sometimes I like digital sometimes I like film. One is not better than the other….just what you are used to. Hardware as well needs getting used to. You have to understand your gear.

I only get 10 shots from my medium camera, but on my most prolific day, I hardly do more than 2 rolls.

I can understand your problem, knowing how medium format offers such fantastic detail, and how holga does not…..theres predictability and unpredictability all mixed up in there. I expect it will be a few years yet before digital matches medium format, but if you’re after the unpredictability you can buy hacked holga lenses to fit onto digital cameras, and you can buy a lensbaby lens,( for both digital and medium format), which adds an extra edge.

Not sure of the holga lenses url, but lensbabies are here

Golly, look at all those replies, all while I’ve been asleep :>

Mel: I have a spare holga which I am in the process of hacking up, for exactly this purpose! I think if I cut off the whole front of the camera I can just stick it to a K-mount lens adapter (I have a pentax DSLR), and still “focus” the lens etc. Will just have to rip out the shutter.

Barb: yes, but despite needing more fixing up, RAW images also seem to have less available dynamic range and more noise than I was expecting, in other words there are greater limits to what you can do before you run into colour channel clipping or you find out what that horrible digital noise is lurking in the shadows.

Anyway this is not a digital vs film debate.

I think I was just a bit surprised at the limits, perhaps naively thinking there were less limits with digital, for me anyway I have found more.

Lots of people have said you just have to learn the tool until it dissapears. I agree, I think I probably need to go out and take more pictures, get used to the format etc (that’s another thing, why on earth don’t they make a square format DSLR?? – surely it would make better use of precious sensor area?).

Thanks for all the comments, plenty to think about. I’ll put up some of my lacklusture DSLR shots soon :> Wooo.

I hear ya bro, I’ve owned a couple of very nice DSLRs over the last few years took a few good images with them, espeically commerical and wedding style stuff. But my own work, landscapes and travel stuff was suffereing, despite having lenses from 17 to 600mm I just wasn’t getting it ... So I got rid of it all and now I’m a happy man with an array of film cameras that just take good pictures. I really don’t shoot so many frames that the cost is a big problem, the travel and time costs alot more. Film is real !

I spose in the end, what is best for you is what your comfortable with, I think there is a place for all sorts of medium. Use what you want as long as you get the results you want. I have used the Canon 350D with kit lenses since August last year, I love the camera and results, however I am now wanting bigger and better, only so I can print bigger.

Another thing about digital…you get control over the entire process…capture -> development -> print

If you are using print film, the development and print process has been taken care of. For someone who has not done it before, they have to learn to do it. There is quite a lot involved IF you want the best result.

Break time over…back to work… :(

I must admit I love using my C330 over any other camera I have, but that’s to do with it being silent, stealth, and too unusual for people to even realise you are even taking a photo!

I don’t use any of my many film cameras any more, RZ, Leica R5, RE, R8, EOS1V’s, C330, Zorki 4, Sinar P and F (4×5), all gathering dust. Although I do hope to turn the Sinar into an 8×10 and shoot some ‘roids with it, as the finished print.

The Leica R8 is easilly the best 35mm camera you can lay your hands on, in my opinion. Amazing viewinder which lets you focus accurately every time. Excellent lenses and not as expensive as people seem to think.

Digital seems to be the most practical way forward however.

JJ

Science … here’s an idea, try just using manual mode … set your ISO and maybe only adjust that when you feel you would have needed faster or slower film … could be a goer …