Author Topic: What Digital Camera?  (Read 3049 times)

golunvolo

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 7174
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #15 on: April 05, 2024, 23:37:46 »
Started with small kodak cameras that allowed manual mode, jpg only

my pentax film camera was failing

Eventually got a nikon d40 and I started using raw

the rest is history

 My experience is very similar. I started with a sony dsc-w5 I bought specifically for a trip to India. A graphic designer friend so saw the images and encouraged me to get a real camera: nikon d200. He also gave me the first lessons. Thank you Mario!


   

Akira

  • Homo jezoensis
  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 12838
  • Tokyo, Japan
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #16 on: April 06, 2024, 02:34:01 »
My first DSLR was Nikon D2H because it could shoot both in IR and UV.  I decided to invest in this highest-end model after reading Brna's classic naturfotograf.com.

I remember Birna revealed that even the image quality of D1 with a "lowly" 2.73MP APS-C sensor could be at least on par with that of the 135-size Kodak E100VS film:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/D1_review.html#top

Around at that time, I was experimenting with a Hasselblad 6x6 body with Fuji RTPII film for UV, but I totally abandoned 135-size film camera.
"The eye is blind if the mind is absent." - Confucius

"Limitation is inspiration." - Akira

Snoogly

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 638
  • Flipping the bird
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #17 on: April 06, 2024, 06:49:12 »
Mine was a Canon G1. I loved that jangly thing, and even bought a wooden grip.

https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/dcc463.html

***************
Richard Hawking (not Richard Haw!), in Tokyo

KenP

  • NG Member
  • *
  • Posts: 34
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #18 on: April 06, 2024, 12:09:06 »
Some very interesting replies. Seems just Roland continues to shoot film. Do any of you have an interest or would return to film of any format? Short of a particular aesthetic, there is probably no reason to do so. I did play a bit with film growing up as my Dad had a Polaroid Land Camera in the late 60's. Not much since and still own an older D2xs that I have not shot much since my kids have grown.

MEPER

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 1179
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #19 on: April 06, 2024, 13:04:45 »
I am quite sure I will never return to film.
Life is too short for that. The money saved I can use for good wine, new lenses etc........

KenP

  • NG Member
  • *
  • Posts: 34
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #20 on: April 06, 2024, 13:59:49 »
Makes sense in terms of cost though there is nothing inexpensive about digital technology. I have not purchased anything since the D2xs and that I got for cheap as it was quite a few generations old by then. Since I do not shoot much these days, the only consideration for me would be to buy a smaller camera.

MEPER

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 1179
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #21 on: April 06, 2024, 14:10:44 »
We are a very small group of people that use "real" cameras to take photos.
I wonder if you take all images shot in a period of time. Which percentage are shot using a phone or another Android or IOS device?
My guess is 99.99 % or more. I think it is more but don't know how many "9" no need after the ".".

Ian Watson

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 562
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #22 on: April 06, 2024, 16:07:01 »
Seems just Roland continues to shoot film. Do any of you have an interest or would return to film of any format?

I was happily developing and printing my own black-and-white film until 2013. The camera was a Nikon F100, although an F2A came out to play once in a while. Then my new fiancĂ© (and now lovely wife) asked if I could take family photographs in colour. That pretty much meant going digital. A search for a used D700 led to a refurbished D3  :) After discovering the joys of editing and enhancing digital images, I have never looked back.

MILLIREHM

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 863
  • Vienna, Austria
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #23 on: April 06, 2024, 21:12:38 »
Bought a Coolpix 4500 (follow up of 950) in 2003
from this day on I noticed that I am more and more tended to shoot digital
I decided to wait -and buy a Coolscan 5000
D2 Series appeared to expensive, considered D100 but it was lacking metering support for non CPUlenses
Then  in 2006 the D200 that indeed supported old lenses was my first digigal SLR body. Two years later the D700 made me go full-format.
Wolfgang Rehm

pluton

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 2687
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #24 on: April 07, 2024, 06:55:05 »
When I first had access to 24x36 interchangeable lens cameras, I liked the color and "sharpness" of Kodachrome, plus that was what the great color photojournalist/artists of the day like Ernst Haas and Harry Gruyeart used. 
Alas, Kodak stopped processing Kodachrome in the late 1980's---first nail in the coffin.  Then Kodak stopped making it---end of the line. I was not happy with Ektachrome 100 or Fuji E-6 films. 
The D200 was the first 'affordable' interchangeable lens Nikon digital camera. Got D200 in 2006, D2Xs in 2007.  Alas, the D3 (2007 release, 2008 to buy in the store) came out and DX went away for me.
Digital meant the freedom to shoot unlimited quantities of shots.  Comparing the per frame cost of E-6 film plus processing against the cost of purchasing and then shooting the same number of frames on 2 D3 bodies, the two D3 bodies "payed for themselves" within about 1.5 years.
I still have a fascination for the look of very large format film such as 8x10.
Keith B., Santa Monica, CA, USA

Matthew Currie

  • NG Member
  • *
  • Posts: 679
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #25 on: May 23, 2024, 03:46:40 »
I was relatively late giving up film for good.  At some point earlier on I got a couple of early generation digital point and shoots at yard sales, which I found useful for non serious stuff like keeping track of the parts of some machine I was fixing, or posting pictures to forums on things like how I added a leaf spring to my Jeep or the like. My first digital was a Kodak with something like 1.2 megapixel sensor, and not even close to continuous shooting.  In 2012 my wife and I needed something compact that worked underwater and got a couple of new Fujis that worked under water, and the ease of packing as well as the ability to take lots of pictures was nice.  The change came in 2014 when we set off for the Galapagos and beyond.  I got a D3200 and my wife a D7100 (she had some earlier AF lenses and wanted the screw drive)..  A couple of years later she tired of the D7100's tiny buffer and I of the D3200's limitations and a tendency for the high ISO noise to cause ragged edges, so she got a D7200 and I took over the 7100, and that's how we have remained for the last 8 years or so.  She's getting weary of the weight, and thinking of lighter mirrorless cameras, so I might end up with the D7200, but that's yet to happen, and I might succumb to the urge to go mirrorless too, for the combination of more compact travel and the ability to use interesting old lenses.

My D7100 is getting pretty worn, and has a pretty high shutter count, but you never know.  In my experience if you wait until a Nikon camera breaks, you may never get a new one.  I used an F for 40 plus years, and if I'd waited for it to break, I'd be up to 60.  I like new machinery, but at the same time there's an advantage to something older.  Less tragedy if lost or stolen, and I can change settings in the dark.

felixkh

  • NG Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2
  • You ARE NikonGear'23
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #26 on: June 13, 2024, 10:04:05 »
I just slowly moved to digital but I kept my film cameras.  My first digital camera was a Canon bridge camera in 2003.  After about 6 months of use, I hated the output and started looking for a DSLR.

My first DSLR was the Pentax K10D which i bought over from a good friend.  1.5 years later, I got the K20D.  Every 1.5 or 2 years I would upgrade to the next model.  My last Pentax was the K1 MKI. 

In between, I got Olympus and Panasonic m43 systems.  In 2023, the Fujifilm X-T5.

It was only in Mar 2024 that I got the D850 second hand and a Df in May 2024.  The menu of the Nikon is fairly similar to the Pentax and I got used to it quite fast. 

I also bought a Nikon Nikkor-SC Auto 44mm F1.2 in April and 2 weeks ago the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm F1.2.  I will be comparing them soon when I go for a photoshoot at the end of the month.

Dogman

  • NG Supporter
  • **
  • Posts: 481
  • You ARE NikonGear
Re: What Digital Camera?
« Reply #27 on: June 13, 2024, 15:50:01 »
It wasn't a particular camera as much as the realization that digital proved to be better suited for my purposes. 

When AF came along, I had switched from Nikon to Canon and sometime later I also started using Leica rangefinders.  My first digital camera was a Canon 30D that I used along with a pair of Leica M6 film bodies.  I was reluctant to give up using the Leicas but digital was proving to be capable and certainly the future.  When Leica came up with a digital M body it was way too expensive for my budget and it had some annoying quirks.  After some years, I started using Fuji X-Pro bodies.  They handled much like the Leicas but had AF and a much lower entry fee.  I also found the Fujinon lenses to be outstanding.  I didn't really use my Canon digitals that much after discovering Fujis.  Eventually I wanted a full frame digital.  I also wanted to digitize some of my old negatives using camera and negative holder--an endeavor I later abandoned.  Since I had used Nikon gear for 20+ years prior to Canon, I bought a used D800 and the 60mm micro Nikkor with an ES-2.  It kinda snowballed from there.  Older used Nikon digital bodies were plentiful and relatively cheap as well as older AF and the beautiful old manual focus Nikkors I had started using in the early 1970s. 
"If it's more than a hundred feet from the car, it's not photogenic."--Edward Weston

My Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197057338@N03/