Switching to Canon EOS "Kiss/300D" Digital for my 35mm photography

Ever since I saw a $30K digital back for my Hasselblad, I've been waiting for digital photography to come to REAL cameras. The guy at the store said, "some day they will be cheap enough to be worth it." Then I saw the article about the Digital-Modul-R digital back for the Leica R8/R9, I decided that I was going to go that route. I have a whole R8 system with many many lenses and this just made sense to me. Yesterday I went to a camera shop and asked when they would have them. "Oh, probably about a year from now." !!! I broke down and bought the Canon EOS "Kiss" Digital or a 300D as they call them in the US. I'm very happy with it. It's reasonably priced and just works. I was getting really frustrated with crappy digital cameras and using the 300D just feels right.

I'll still use my Hasselblad and my Nikon Coolscan 8000 film scanner for medium format work, but I think I'm going to dump 35mm photography and switch to digital for awhile and see how it goes.

Yesterday, I played with my camera and posted more pictures of the house and of Bo. Still messing around...

Sorry, this is a dupe from my main blog

Comments

[steve]

Thanks for the new page - it should be fascinating.

I find myself using my not-very-good 3 megapixel digital camera these days as it is so convenient. I find myself taking at least an order of magnitude more images and having a camera that is nearly always at hand wins in most cases.

I still use and love my Nikon 35mm system (where there is a serious investment in lenses) and my medium format Mamiya 67 - I just can't afford to use them at the level I use the cheap digital.

There are two concerns I have are the "feel" of the camera and ultimate resolution.

The feel includes things like responsiveness. I was always jealous of Leica owners as a Leica doesn't get in the way of your imaging. The analog layout of the camera with wonderful manual controls and the immediate connection between your finger and the shutter are the best in the business. I have high hopes that the Leica digital cameras will evolve in that direction (although the first effort isn't that good).

Resolution is the other concern. A poor focused and printed film camera may not be as good as a digital camera, but the ultimate resolution of film is still superior. There are many elements that go into final resolution ... sensor, optics, printing material, etc etc. The formula for determining the ultimate resolution of a system is simple:

1/R = 1/r1 + /r2 + 1/r3 + ...

where R is total resolving power and the small rs are the resolving power of each component in the system

So assuming a system dominated by two elements - the lens and the film. A poor quality 35mm film may resolve only 50 lines/mm and a great film about 200 lines/mm. A very sharp lens might resolve 200 lines/mm.

The good film + good lens is 1/R = 1/200 + 1/200 or 100 lines/mm

The bad flim + good lens os 1/R = 1/50 + 1/200 or 40 lines/mm

(this assumes everything else, including focus, is perfect)

It is very difficult making direct comparisons as pixels don't directly overlap with the chemistry in the film, but the important thing to note is that any element in the system can really bring down resolution ...

So I continue on with my cheap digital taking images that I'm really happy with because I could take them. I would imagine a $1000 Nikon body that could take my lenses and give me 8 to 10 megapixels would make me very happy.

__

By the way .. a great place to get you thinking about images is 26 things

[damon]

joi film is the way to go! i know you trying out digital but i believe there is no substitute... unless you are a sports photographer on the sideline of the world cup that needs to take his shots whack out the card into the pc and send to the newspaper.

have you tried the Nikon D100? jim has that! nice camera. i myself also have the nikon cool scan though i found a wonderful place to develop film. its done in an hour (negative film only) and put onto CD rom. i only use the cool scan now for slide film or black and white which takes days to develop.

[damon]

oh and while iam at it i truly recommend the Lomo LC-A camera. Just do a google search for Lomo!

Best 20,000 yen I ever spent on a film camera. some example shots can bee seen on;

http://japan.box.sk (check the gallery for Lomo LCA)

and my friends site;

http://www.myprivatetokyo.com (click lomo under heading.)