Open topic.

[golunvolo]

Do you think the digital age have made better photographers, worse or just something different? I have been thinking about it from technical perspective, social, shear amount of images and people involved (including smartphones), etc...

  I'm not trying to be controversial, just sincere curiosity.

[pluton]

The economy of shooting and processing images in digital has probably allowed a greater number of gifted and talented people to get to where they are producing something of value. But photography is like music; each person has their tastes and moods. Thanks largely to automation of exposure, focus, and processing, the perfectly sharp photo with nice color is no longer as amazing as it once was.

[MEPER]

Probably 99,9999% of the total images shot in the world are down with phones. Most of them are not that good (composition etc.).
The primary reason for that is that total amount of images shot is much higher today than 30 years ago.
Still many pictures are shot with "real" cameras.

It seems many young people are interested in shooting with film. There has been rumors that the Leica M6 will have a revival?

I think professional shooters makes better images than before (wildlife, press etc.) as you can almost shoot an unlimited no. of shots and the technical quality possible from a 35mm digital camera is much higher than in the film days. Especially with higher ISO.

I was surprised that my Horseman 6x9 roll film back was sold immediately when I put it for sale online. I set a quite low price as my thinking was that not many were interested.......but I was wrong.

[armando_m]

Before Digital I was a pretty bad photographer

My learning materials were photo magazines and the feedback about each image came back days or weeks later oce the photos were printed, my basic iinstruction came from my Dad who was not very patient when I got a blurred image either from camera shake or bad focus, and I have limited resources ($)

Move forward a couple of decades 
the internet is now a reality and many resources are available on line
the feedback on a digital camera is instantaneous and one can shoot until the memory is full
Online communities will offer valuable feedback
In person commmunities are organized thanks to social media and there is lot of interaction with other photographers
Photo workshops are also organized through social media
Lots of images are available to be seen and serve as inspiration

So during my time using a digital camera I have learned and become a better photographer, even if I'm using the camera on my mobile

[Hugh_3170]

Slightly off topic, and I don't know to what extent the revival will translate into sales numbers, but the new build M6 is a reality.

Pentax earlier this year have also released a relatively expensive new build half-frame 35mm film point and shoot costing $A899 (about $US600).  Niche but new.

And there are a slew of cheap Kodak and Ilford branded plastic new 35mm cameras out now.

..............

It seems many young people are interested in shooting with film. There has been rumors that the Leica M6 will have a revival?

..............

[MEPER]

I wonder if film could have "developed" further if Kodak, Fuji still spent money on film development.
People using film today must live with what was available 20-30 years ago.
That said a 4x5 or 8x10 inch camera will still outperform a Z9 in some areas. I guess resolution, tonality, object isolation.

Not many buy the very expensive Leica digital cameras today is my guess so maybe a new M6 is a good idea.
It is very long time since I have seen anybody walk around using a film camera?

[Fons Baerken]

Leica M6 goes for the same price as a Z6_3.

[Akira]

I believe that the immediate confirmation of focus, exposure and composition offered by the digital cameras have created better photographers much more quickly than film cameras.  Also, just like the  UV/IR photography or astrophotography, being able to experiment without worrying  about the loss of money have encouraged some of us (I'm one of them).  The ability to use esoteric lenses is part of the benefit.

On the other  hand, as Keith noted, the technically perfect images have become commodity.  The composition and the captured moment may be the last stronghold of "good" photographers now.  Just like the music, the real time performance is valued as highly as ever.

So far as the artistic material is concerned, I never really miss the slide films but don't want the negative films (both color and monochrome) to go away.  To me, the analog print should be valued like the oil or watercolor paintings.

[pluton]

So far as the artistic material is concerned, I never really miss the slide films but don't want the negative films (both color and monochrome) to go away.  To me, the analog print should be valued like the oil or watercolor paintings.

There are still people making great photo work on the analog materials.  An irony about the analog prints:  Inkjet prints, whos content must be digitized before printing, offer vey nice and arguably more permanent records of color work than if they were printed with the analog color materials.

[Akira]

There are still people making great photo work on the analog materials.  An irony about the analog prints:  Inkjet prints, whos content must be digitized before printing, offer vey nice and arguably more permanent records of color work than if they were printed with the analog color materials.

Yeah, with digital, you can print the image again and again whenever the color is faded, so long as the data are compatible...

[Hugh_3170]

So very true.

Many of  my early colour prints are badly now faded and my Agfacolour CT-18 colour slides are almost indecipherable - horrible deep purple colour casts all over them.  Aargh!

...............................................

An irony about the analog prints:  Inkjet prints, whose content must be digitized before printing, offer very nice and arguably more permanent records of color work than if they were printed with the analog color materials.

[Frank Fremerey]

Slightly off topic, and I don't know to what extent the revival will translate into sales numbers, but the new build M6 is a reality.

Pentax earlier this year have also released a relatively expensive new build half-frame 35mm film point and shoot costing $A899 (about $US600).  Niche but new.

And there are a slew of cheap Kodak and Ilford branded plastic new 35mm cameras out now.

The used market is huge and it is easy to find a used for free from the neighbours father or grandfather. just ask and pay for film an provessing

[Ann]

If you once shot colour negatives, you can now get even better results from the scans if you use the latest software before outputting files for printing.

I almost never shot "slide film" but my large-format Ektachromes (which I always developed myself) have retained their colours and can still be scanned effectively. Loss of colour in slide film is almost always due to commercial processing where the lab took shortcuts.

My love-hate relationship to my digital captures (made over the past 15 years) is entirely due to the incredible advances made in the current image-processing software. That is now forcing me to reprocess every single one of my NEFs.

The difference between the results which I can now get from the new processing, over the earlier versions, is so entirely different and has made me realise that every single image which I have ever shot simply has to be re-processed.

I love the new results which I am now able to get but am growling at the company for improving their software to such an extent in a single update that reprocessing has become essential.

Thank heavens that I kept the all of my original NEFs.

[Ian Watson]

My love-hate relationship to my digital captures (made over the past 15 years) is entirely due to the incredible advances made in the current image-processing software. That is now forcing me to reprocess every single one of my NEFs.

The difference between the results which I can now get from the new processing, over the earlier versions, is so entirely different and has made me realise that every single image which I have ever shot simply has to be re-processed.

It is one of the better problems to have.

[Hugh_3170]

Me too.

Raw files can be a veritable photographic get out of jail card.

.......................................

Thank heavens that I kept the all of my original NEFs.