Little and Large or Large and Little?

Ambermile

Ambermile

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OK, it's a fact that if I take a film camera out, I also take a digital. Most of the time I have a digital nearby while the film cameras tend to be stashed carefully away (I mean, digital is easy to replace, right?). I am interested to know however, what people prefer if the above is true for them (two cameras). Do you take a compact film and SLR digital, an SLR film and compact digital, or a combination of both? Why? eg. if two slr's is it because they use the same lens system? If two compacts is it for anonymity? Do differing walkabout intentions define the tools or do the tools available define the targets? Have you ever been caught out wishing you had a small and discrete camera when all you had was a 500mm zoom? Or the reverse?
 
Ambermile said:
OK, it's a fact that if I take a film camera out, I also take a digital. Most of the time I have a digital nearby while the film cameras tend to be stashed carefully away (I mean, digital is easy to replace, right?). I am interested to know however, what people prefer if the above is true for them (two cameras). Do you take a compact film and SLR digital, an SLR film and compact digital, or a combination of both? Why? eg. if two slr's is it because they use the same lens system? If two compacts is it for anonymity? Do differing walkabout intentions define the tools or do the tools available define the targets? Have you ever been caught out wishing you had a small and discrete camera when all you had was a 500mm zoom? Or the reverse?
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I typically carry one camera and one lens, usually my Bronica SQ-A with 80mm, although I will sometimes carry two viewfinders. This holds true for walk around, landscapes, travel, social, etc. Digital cameras don't do anything for me, so I never carry one.
 
Having only recently switched from digital to film..... I have opted to go film only for now....
I take both my Mamiya RB67 with the 180mm lens and my F4 with a 50mm lens when I go out...... if I'm only going out and about on foot, it's generally just the F4 though.
Saying that though, I sure do miss my digital camera and long lens for bird photography.
 
Ambermile said:
If two compacts is it for anonymity? Do differing walkabout intentions define the tools or do the tools available define the targets?
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The intentions almost always define the tools:

I always carry a film and a digital camera
DSLR, 35mm slr and a 6x9 folder if I'm visiting industrial sites etc.
DSLR and/or compact digi if going underground exploring mines, occasionally a 35mm slr for b&w too. All depends on the space and conditions.
DSLR, 35mm b&w when I'm out walking the countryside. Often I'll also take another 35mm slr loaded with colour or slide film. Depends on the weather and what I intend shooting.
Compacts and occasionally a tlr for anonymity.
Compact digi and XA2 or similar for gigs.
For day to day where photography is not planned I carry the digi compact and a 35mm compact (XA2 usually) or rangefinder.
The digi compact is a Nikon Coolpix P7000 which gives me lots of options.

The times the tools define the targets are when I'm taking out a particular format or a vintage camera that might have certain limitations but then it's fun to experiment...

Ambermile said:
Have you ever been caught out wishing you had a small and discrete camera when all you had was a 500mm zoom? Or the reverse?
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Yes, because no camera can do everything!
 
I don't have any set 'rules' for what camera I take. Sometimes I take medium format and 35mm film cameras, sometimes I take 35mm film and my 7D, sometimes medium format film and my 5Dmk2, sometimes I just take my 7D and 5Dmk2. Sometimes just my 5Dmk2...

Ultimately cameras are simply tools to me, it doesn't matter too much to me what they are and which ones I take just depends on how I feel at the time. If I started worrying this much about what cameras I need to do what job I'd never shoot anything at all...
 
robhooley167 said:
When you have a RB67, everything falls under the "Compact" label :thumbs:
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Lol... the RB67 is a lightweight compared to the 1D mkiii and Canon 70-200mm F2.8 lens and a 1.4x converter, that's some weight to swing around shooting birds handheld for hours
 
Hi Arthur, I have pretty well returned to pure film shooting.I tend to carry two cameras, today it was the Bessa L and the Rolleicord V, last weekend in Snowdonia it was the F100 and the ETRS. I have sold all my digital other than the X100 which I tend to use for low light indoor work. I have absolutely no issue with digital I just prefer the whole film experience.
 
Long ago when I shot film it was two Pentax Spotmatic SLRs each with a different prime lens (dependant on waht I was shooting) attached.

Nowdays I shoot digital only and it may be two DSLRS with different lenses (including zooms) or a DSLR and a P&S camera.
 
Film only here and usually the Hasselblad with two or three lenses and a couple of backs. Unless its something that needs autofocus and motor wind (kids rugby usually) then its a Dynax 9 and a couple of lenses.

Mark
 
If you had asked this question before yesterday I would have said film camera only, as I haven't used a digital camera in the last year (apart from ebay pictures) and really haven't missed it.

However, I went out yesterday with a view of capturing some shots of waves at high tide as I live on the east coast and took my digital camera. For what I wanted digital was ideal, I needed the rapid fire that my digital camera gave me and more helpfully was the ability to see that I had caught the waves as I intended before moving on to the next shot. I don't think that I could have got the same shots on any of my film cameras without a good dose of luck. So I suppose it's really "horses for courses".

For anyone that is interested this was what I thought to be my best shot of the day http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/the-morning-after.520323/ . I am also pleased that BBC Suffolk were happy to include the picture on their website. I could never have got a copy of the picture to them without shooting on a digital camera for it to still be topical.
 
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I'm in a similar camp to PMN and Jao.

A lot depends on what mood I'm in or even which camera takes my fancy on any particular day. It also changes as cameras come and go.

Almost exclusively film at the moment but, if visiting a museum or something, I tend to use my Fuji x100.
 
Used to be a digital body with a telephoto of some description and a film body with a wider angle. Now though, I have FF digital so unfortunately the film bodies are sadly neglected. They do belong to the same system as the digitals though and so I do still have the option of using any of my lenses on any of my SLR bodies (apart from one 'superzoom' that's a Dx lens).

Years ago it used to be different emulsions in different bodies, generally colour in one and BW in another, although there were times when both would be similarly loaded but with different primes fitted - the joys of screw mount systems! Changing to bayonet fittings allowed far faster and less fiddly lens changes but by then, zoom design had moved on so they were more than useable.

I'm afraid that these days, any pair of cameras is likely to be both digital, although I have been known to take a disposable shot or two!
 
There was a time when I first "found" film that when I went out I always took my digi kit too, not a compact or bridge or anything, the full dslr mashings.
I reasoned this using the idea that I needed back up, I needed the certainty that I could get the picture without the potential for cock-up that film cursed me with.
That was then, this is now, whilst the potential for cock-up has decreased quite a lot, I'm not interested in digital at all, if I don't get the shot, I don't get it, if I had digital with me I wouldn't use it because that's not what I want, its a moot question really because I wouldn't have digital with me.
If I can't shoot it on film....I can't shoot it, coming home with nothing doesn't bother me in the slightest, a digital camera does not make what I want, it may as well be a toaster.
 
Seems that there's a pattern here - new one or the other types go both film and dig, old hands go one or the other... guess I am not like the pack in that although I have a mju in the glovebox I do need a concerted and conscious decision to take a film camera out with me. More often than not I can be seen with the E-PL1 (allbeit sometimes with the minolta 1.4 and the fisheye adapter) on those days that I remember to take a camera out. Don't get me wrong, film is something I love - and cannot see that changing - but I seem not to have the time these days that film demands. That means a compact film and a bigger (M4/3?) digital - unless I really want to go retro. That compact though is going to be something old and crotchety, like me, maybe the Radix 'cos it's a b****r to get the film in and to use, so when I do use it it's an achievement.
 
I am just getting back into film and still mostly use digital.

Last weekend I was in Manchester and I took a trio of Olympus cameras a 35-sp, Trip 35 and my XZ-1. I love using all three and mostly carried two at a time but always had the XZ-1.
 
Last time I was out I took an RB67, a 6x12 pinhole ( a big block of wood) and a disposable... who's got room for a digital...
 
Last weekend I was dual-wielding two compacts, one with b/w film, one with colour. Fun!
 
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I usually have one back loaded with colour and one B&W, doyou take two of the same to compare Charlotte?

Mark
 
I do love changeable backs for the colour or black and white option, just a shame they weigh as much as a compact.
 
Last time I was out I took the 4x5, a 6x6 pinhole and the digital. I got the most use out of the digital as it was not the sort of conditions where it made using film worthwhile, but it meant lugging 2 tripods around as well. Would have taken the RB67 as well if I wasn't so lazy. I always take a digital camera as sometimes I will want to take a photo, but will not want to waste film unless the conditions are right, and once my light meter packed in so having the digital meant that I had a back up.
 
I use both, I think digital is really good for getting flash how you want it, and for easy useage or spray n pray
 
My camera bag consists of a digital setup and my LF setup. My justification for carrying the digital consists of "what if my light meter packs up", "what if I run out of film on the occasions where I don't take spare film + darkbag", "what if I want to take a photo unworthy of a sheet of film" and "what if I want to take an experimental shot of an unusual composition". That said, it's very rare that I will even stop to take a photo unless the scene really works for me, so the second to last point is kind of moot. I suppose the other - and most common - reason is replicating a photograph on digital if either the scene is fantastic or I'm worried I may have shafted a frame or both.
 
I've only just started with film but right now i only take that out, Digital has sat in its bag for a few months really now and have no major interest to play with it and veering more at adding to my wish list other film cameras
 
^^^ I love when people with an open mind really see film for all it can be, they suddenly find digital really uninspiring and frankly a bit boring. Further it's a testament to this forum being completely awesome. I hope you don't mind my using you as a case in point of this, T, but where so many other places could have called you a noob and shunned you, this place instead embraced. We now see the post above this one. Makes me smile :)
 
Woodsy said:
^^^ I love when people with an open mind really see film for all it can be, they suddenly find digital really uninspiring and frankly a bit boring. Further it's a testament to this forum being completely awesome. I hope you don't mind my using you as a case in point of this, T, but where so many other places could have called you a noob and shunned you, this place instead embraced. We now see the post above this one. Makes me smile :)
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I totally agree, i only have to look at my first thread in the film section to see how lovely everyone has been here, considering i was concerned about posting, especially as i really didn't/don't know much you all could have just skipped past me with an odd hi etc, but instead i got given my first roll of film, offers of cameras to try out and my first roll being devved and scanned, it blew me away to be honest and really did make me smile....
 
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I went up London on Saturday with a DSLR & 2 lenses & a Nikon F3 with 3 lenses. On the day I shot more with the F3 than the digital. Main reasons for taking the digital were the poor flash on the F3 & wanting some instant feedback on low light photography, which never happened in the end as I came home earlier than planned. I could have taken a camera with better flash capability than the F3 on the day but it was the F3's turn for a day out :)
 
I've done many versions. Most recently it's Been F100 and S5 together as they share the same lenses. I was out with Regular S5, Infra red S5 and F100 not so long ago. For a while I was film plus LX5 for metering, before that I was film exclusively, and before that it was GH1 and several film cameras.

Now I have the A7R I can take whatever I like again, although as it's still new I'm mainly just taking the digital.
 
Just depends. I always have my phone with me so I technically always have a digi cam of sorts... I'm more likely to take just the digital slr to somewhere far away though as film is a bit restrictive if you go somewhere and suddenly decide there is lots to see. My dynax 9 is pretty idiot proof fortunately so I can just snap away without a care in the world.
 
Threeracers said:
I usually have one back loaded with colour and one B&W, doyou take two of the same to compare Charlotte?

Mark
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No, I try not to double up on cameras, just for lack of space! This was a Fujifilm Tiara with the colour, and an Olympus XA4 with the b/w.
 
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