Once and for all! Explain ISO?

[kavanaru]

Originally Posted by ronaldhanko

I agree with Tropterrarium - the old days of film were not all bad. I still miss my film camera, though I doubt I would go back - digital is too convenient. I miss the sharpness, the color saturation, the carefulness required in shooting film.

YEAP! Totally True!! Digital has made big advances and it is an amazing technology, and very convenient, but film photography is/was great too... I also miss my old camera too, but as Ron,I doubt I will go back... digital is very convenient (no bulks of films in my bag when travelling, can shoot at anything without worrying of loosing material, and if I do not like I delete it, can see teh result "almost" inmediately, etc...)

Anecdote: I have two very good friends who are professioanl photographers, and tehy use digital most of the time and for most of their work, but when they go "artistic" they both take the film cameras instead... (Note: one of them is 53, so you could explain it as an old habit of him.. but the other one is 28... most of her friends - except those at the art school - had never used a film in their whole lives)

[tropterrarium]

Originally Posted by ronaldhanko

This is not entirely true - it depends on what lenses you had before making the switch - I was able to use my lenses from the Canon Digital Rebel (film) on my EOS 350D, and can use them on my 7D as well. That was the reason I went with Canon digital - I didn't have to buy all new lenses.

Agree. I am using old MF Contax/Zeiss lenses on my Canon 5DmkII. This is only possible on the Canons because of their shorter flange focal distance, so an adapter ring can be used while infinity focus is maintained.

[tropterrarium]

Originally Posted by kavanaru

YEAP!
Anecdote: I have two very good friends who are professioanl photographers, and tehy use digital most of the time and for most of their work, but when they go "artistic" they both take the film cameras instead... (Note: one of them is 53, so you could explain it as an old habit of him.. but the other one is 28... most of her friends - except those at the art school - had never used a film in their whole lives)

I'm pretty much in between, age-wise. Grew up on film, have done B&W darkroom, even some E6, but was an early adopter of digital imaging for print publication. In one journal, my plates were the first digital illustrations published (1998). My microscope cameras are digital, both on light microscopes, as well as on the SEM (direct digital capture). I did a bit of LF in college (dept. phys. chem., not arts), but only got a camera about 6 years ago; slightly delayed grad-graduation present to myself.

There are two distinct aspects:
- Camera capabilities.
- Recording medium capabilities.
As I mentioned earlier, LF is all about camera control. There are digital scanning backs, but they do not work for short exposure, so the subject must literally be steady as a rock. Then there's the Cambo SLR back, or you could add one of the medium format camera back$$$$$$$$, but still not covering 4x5". So for short exposures over the whole 4x5" area, there is nothing but film. There are esthetic reasons for using film in "fine arts" photography; couldn't care less, as I'm a scientific-minded recorder.

Also, LF has improved my photography tremendously. Just by slowing down, being forced to use a tripod, having all those adjustment options where I have to decide what I really want and why, they all translate also to SLR.

Output on Cibachrome/lightjet vs decent inkjets is a toss-up, IMHO. Carbon printing may have an edge, but never mind the trouble that goes into it. So digital processing of a RAW file or an optical scan of a chrome are equivalent. The two require different techniques (i.e., dust removal vs. color noise reduction in shadows). Re saturation, I very much like to work in Lab color space, as color values are independent of lightness, so one avoids color shifts when adjusting lightness and USM color artifacts by working in the L-channel, and can nicely adjust color neutral saturation by working the a and b curves.