Plan B Forum

I'm in the market for a new camera, so I've been searching online. The best deal I can get from a local/national camera store is beaten by over a grand by an import from Hong Kong.

Is it any wonder high street retailers are going bust?

(I may still wait until our next trip to the UK/Ireland, and get one duty free though.)

Out of curiosity, what are your specifications?

I just bought what I thought was a pretty outstanding Canon SLR with video for less than US$500.

You must be considering something pretty special to be looking at that kind of differential.

Minolta X700, 35mm SLR. 100 speed film. Telephoto and wide angle lenses. Send the film (YES FILM) to Clarke Labs.
Stop the madness

Film is the best.

Intercourse digital photography!

A digital camera under $1000 do not have full frame digital sensors, which impact the focal length, crop size, and other aspects of a photograph. I'm still learning about the differences, but you do get a better quality picture with the full frame sensor (especially if you like landscape shots like Gob) -- and they are quite expensive.

As for the luddites preferring film -- the processing process for digital images is amazing and the things you can do with the photgraphs is virtually unlimited. I think it makes better art, in the end. And believe me, the "raw" film photos you see are heavily edited, its just that the editing is more seamless in the digital world.

As for the luddites preferring film

Guilty as charged
and I am an electrical engineer who for 24 years, 11 months and 2 1/2 weeks designed graphics computers and character generators for the broadcast/cable TV industry.
I design technology, even if I may not embrace it.

An NTSC Luddite?

I LOVE it.

Dave, I currently shoot on a Canon 450D (known as a "digital rebel" in the USA I believe.) I am going to be buying a Canon 5D mkIII.


https://www.canon.com.au/For-You/EOS-Di ... D-Mark-III

dales wrote:An NTSC Luddite?

I LOVE it.

Gotta love NTSC. Takes a black and white signal and not changing anything to do with the bandwidth and channels and puts color into it. Quite a feat. Of course the damn color burst signal took a bit to get right, but it worked for many a year. And PAL was twice as screwed up, but that also worked for many a year. (I think they still braodcast in PAL over there as they have not embraced the HDTV digital signal).

Never Twice the Same Colour

Some European Countries Are Mental

Perfect And Logical


So there!

Taken this morning.

Sean wrote:Never Twice the Same Colour

Some European Countries Are Mental

Perfect And Logical


So there!

And you guys overseas are still stuck in the 20th century with analog television.

Actually Dales, the final analog switch-off in Australia will be in Dec 2013 whereas the US will have it's final switch off in Sept 2015.

oldr--I love film as well; I have an old Nikkon F3, and it can take better photos than any digital camera I have yet seen (I also have a large format camera from Hasselblad (I didn't pull it out, so forgive the sppelling) that I bought used from a professional photographer who was upgrading) which takes great portraits. However, film is harder and harder to find, as is processing (and while I do work in the darkroom with prints, I really don't want to go tto the bother of developing film). I used to love Fuji film at 100 or slower speeds, and Kodak 400, and have many great photos. But I am getting to the point where I might just give up and acquire a digital camera with similar optics to my F3.

guin--no doubt it's far easier to process digital images, and even rudmentary photoshop programs can do things in seconds that would take me hours in the darkroom, but I still don't think the image quality is there (although it's getting there). In most cases I don't think this makes a difference, but sometimes it does. Besides, working in a darkroom with chemicals is, IMHO, a lot more fun than sitting at a keyboard--something I do a lot of every day. Luddite? I don't think so; we have a few digital cameras in the house for the run of the mill snapshots. More like an enthusiast--like the guy who would buy a 67 corvette stingray over the current one, even though some engine technology has progressed greatly in 40+ years.

OK BigRR, I'll retract luddite and accept your substitution of enthusiast.

Until I took a proper digital photography class, and then a processing class, last year, I had no idea how enjoyable the processing could be. And no, it doesn't happen in minutes. But yes, it is on your computer, but for me, I don't even think of it that way --- time stops and you're somewhere else --- very much like being in a dark room without the hazarous chemicals or the requirement for extra space.

Point taken guin; art can be created in many media and many ways. I do know my wife enjoys putting together composites and ablums (sometimes for printing) of digital images, and much of what she creates is quite good. It just depnds on what you like to do--I guess I'm just a chemist at heart, although I don't get into the laboratory very much. The darkroom is my escape.

Sean wrote:Actually Dales, the final analog switch-off in Australia will be in Dec 2013 whereas the US will have it's final switch off in Sept 2015.

As far as I know, there is NO broadcast analog television in the states.

OOOPS I sit corected:


From wiki:

In the United States, high-power over-the-air broadcasts are solely in the ATSC digital format since 12 June 2009, the date that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set for the end of all high-power analog television transmissions. As a result, almost two million households could no longer watch television because they were not prepared for the transition. The switchover was originally scheduled for 17 February 2009, until the U.S. Congress passed the DTV Delay Act.[9] By special dispensation, some analog television signals ceased on the original date.[10] While the majority of the viewers of over-the-air broadcast television in the U.S. watch full-power stations (which number about 1800), there are three other categories of television stations in the U.S.: low-power broadcasting stations, Class A stations, and television translator stations. There is presently no deadline for these stations, about 7100 in number, to convert to digital broadcasting.
In broadcasting, whatever happens in the United States also influences southern Canada and northern Mexico because those areas are covered by television stations in the U.S.

Canada and Mexico, again.

We have about 15 times the population of Australia, I think a little extra time is justified.

I blame the NTSC format being hard to get rid of.


Much like a nasty rash...

That's so funny, I forgot to laugh.