What was your FILM to DIGITAL transition story!

captures.in.time

captures.in.time

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For me it was one of resistance for a very long time until the time spent scanning slides for such poor results compaired to the original trannie on a trip to South Africa made me realise that the end use of my photography had moved on from prints to digital albums... and hence I moved over... But that was only last year.

I originally was taught on a Pentax K1000 fully manual camera... where everyone should start... and its such a petty no one does a fully manual cheap digital SLR for beginners! I'd buy it as a retro... back to my photography routes purchase... but I so wish I'd never sold my original K1000... It was my grandads... he taught me on it and with his permission sold it to get a pentax MZ5n! My biggest photography regret... not the purchase but the sale! I then used the MZ5n till the auto focu died... at that time the first ranges of digital SLR's where in but very expensive and I felt I was not getting value for money... but took the jump from to Pentax to Canon... Def the right move... The EOS 3 was an amazing camera... I loved it... but like I say I was taking more and more pics and using slide film... the IQ was great on the tranny but without spending allot in time and equipment my digitally scanned results are poor compaired to even pics I was getting with a 4 mp compact of my friends I borrowed! Hence my move to a digital SLR...

So that's my story... what was yours???
 
My story is somewhat in the other direction, but I thought i would share it nevertheless. I started digital a few years ago with canon 400D, since then buying some L lenses and recently also Contax with adapters. I guess it is my fascination with the old mechanical cameras that has persuaded me to try out film at last. I have now bought a Rolleiflex TLR and am putting together RZ67 kit as well. I can see, however, that I will not give up digital but hope I will love the MF film and the slowing down and thinking it will demand of me. I don`t think I will invest in 35mm film gear, unless there are affordable high quality scanners any time soon.
 
for me it was a case of waiting until digital exceeded the quality and size of trannies
once Canon reached that point with the 1Ds i simply switched over in a day
one day i was spending a fortune on processing the next i was spending even more on bodies, PC's, memory cards back ups, etc
 
For some reason in 2003 I decided I wanted a Nikon D100. After about nine months I got fed up with the amount of processing time sat in front of a computer and went back to film.

I now have 30+ cameras in 35mm, medium and large formats.


Steve.
 
I got my first SLR in about 1982 to document the work I was then doing. But I quickly found that I didn't have the time I needed to devote myself to learning how to use it correctly. So after a few years I let it go and settled for taking snapshops with a variety of 35mm compacts.
Then around four years ago I found myself interested in the comparatively instant results offered by digital cameras - now I could learn from my mistakes at a faster rate than before. This coincided with me meeting a photographer who asked me to help him with a number of shoots. While the type of work wasn't really my first choice it certainly dropped me in at the deep end and encouraged me greatly.
Now I'm comfortable with both digital cameras and the workflow involved. While I'm still very fond of film I don't ever see me working in that medium again. But I tend to avoid the MF forum, just in case the bug bites...
 
Straight in as soon as it got "affordable" if £25000 is really affordable :D:D:D

Bought the Fuji S1 for £2500, a 1gig card for £436, a Nikkor 24-120 for £450 - yep a card costing almost as much as a lens........... an Epson 7500 for £8500, a pc costing £1000 and rip software costing £2500.

Then bought three more S1 outfits and along with three photographers we set off shooting portraits. We employed sales teams and we were shooting 100 portrait sittings every week. Every customer got a 20x16 canvas print. Even though the S1 was about 3million pixels we never received a complaint about quality.

Digital photography - love it

stew
 
2006 bought a canon a75 did me well for 2 years
2008 bought a 400d with kit lens later a 50mm 1.8

Then a few months into 2008 I bought a canon a1 and various other film cameras.Hardly touched my 400d even thinking of selling it for a eos 3.:)
 
Used cheap EOS SLR for a bit, then Nikon FM2 (both Dad's), then moved abroad and bought a 2MP digital compact (back when Digital was fairly new), took loads of photos, that died after 6 years, just as I was finishing at uni, so went back to the FM2 and decided I was going to treat myself to a DSLR when I'd handed my dissertation in.
 
I have always loved photography, my grandad was into it for years and had a few different bodies and lenses etc. I had my first 110 compact which was my mums old one when I was 5yrs old, and had a camera ever since. When I was 16, I did a night class in photography and used my grandads Practicka fully manual m42 body and a some primes (50 and 135 I think).

In 2003 I bought an EOS 300v and a couple of lenses. But by October 2008 the cost of developing was increasing and the quality of the prints from the likes of Boots was decreasing, I worked out by the time I had bought and developed 48 films I could have paid for a 400D!

In April last year, I made the switch to digital and bought a 40D as I figured I wouldn't outgrow it, and it promptly showed the flaws in my cheaper lenses, so I had to start buying some new ones! I have picked up some M42 fit primes too which are great quality, but I don't know if I will use film again or not. I have a new teaching job starting in September, and the school has a photography club, so they may have a dark room, so I may dabble a bit with it. I do love the immediacy of digital, but nothing beats the magic of seeing your image appear in the tanks!
 
I bought a Canon F1 second hand as my first SLR back in 1990 and spent a fortune working out what all the manual functions did, producing plenty of poor images along the way. Funds finally gave out and I had to sell up, I promised myself I would get another SLR when I could afford it which pretty much coincided with the launch of the 400D at which time I was amazed by just how much work the camera does for you, now I cant believe I used to do it all manually!
 
Transition, more like history but it includes the transition.....

My first camera took 110 film cartridges and disposable flash modules. The flashes, I remember, came in a cardboard box with 3 plastic flash modules. Each module had a flash bulb on each side and it fit to the camera. As you took a shot it spun round by 90 degrees. We were not very well off so I only had film and flashes for special occasions. I remember taking it away on holiday with the school to Pontins at Pwllheli and someone taking a picture of me with a crab the size of my head!

EDIT: I bought a Nikonos underwater camera which I had for a couple of years when I was into scuba diving. I couldn't afford the flash as well so could only take pictures down to about 6-8 metres. Great fun :)

After that I had no camera until I went on holiday to spain and bought a Canon IXUS APS camera. I used this for snaps for years probably taking 40 films worth but the processing was too expensive.

Next I treated my wife and myself to new cameras, she chose a Canon EOS 300V film camera with a kit lens and a 55-200 zoom lens whilst I chose another Canon IXUS, this time the 500 digital, with the 300 printer!) which I still had until it packed up about 6 months ago and I sold it on here as spares. (my wife is selling the 300v, still boxed - must put it in the for sale section!)

Now to the present, I always wanted to get an SLR but the processing costs put me off then when digital appeared the cost was still too high. I had a very serious car accident and the compensation allowed me to treat the family so I bought the Nikon D200, flashes, lens etc you see in my sig (well most of it). My wife swapped the Canon EOS for a Nikon D40x at the same time.

The biggest thing was being able to experiment, it didn't matter it you shot 50 totally rubbish shots because it cost nothing and you could learn. This was a revelation. I could experiment and learn all about photography without paying for processing, waiting for the processing and then trying to remember what I had actually done in order to get the picture that I was looking at.

I would now consider myself a serious amateur with my own studio equipment, R2400 printer, serious computer and software, more than one body, several proper flashes etc...... This would never have happened with film and whats more I have gained lots of new friends on here, even though I have only actually met a few of them :) - This is something I want to rectify but all the meets are either too far away or when I am working - oh well one day :)
 
cowasaki said:
My first camera took 110 film cartridges and disposable flash modules. The flashes, I remember, came in a cardboard box with 3 plastic flash modules.
Click to expand...

I had a camera like that as well - forgotten about that until now :thumbs:

For me the arrival of my children triggered the interest. First a Fuji 6500fd, then moved to a 3000V 35mm to see if I'd get anything from an SLR. Liking that, but hating the film developing costs/effort (and no desire to do that bit myself) mean the transition to a DSLR.
 
Been a film photographer 35mm and MF since 1976 but in about 2001 the wedding Tog I worked for decided we were going digital,got my own,a D60 a couple of years later and have been digital ever since.If money were no object I would still shoot film with either a Canon A1 or Nikon FA but I cannot afford the cost and processing of film whilst still taking the amount of shots I do
 
I had no easy transition.
For a variety of reasons I lost interest in photography and sold all my considerable Nikon kit.
About 8 or 9 years elapsed and I started to read the mags again which were all heavily biased towards digital.
When the Nikon D70 came out the reviews were stunning. I bought one - cost about £1000 all those years ago. Bloody nightmare - could not get my head around it and it saw little use for a couple of years so I got a P&S and gradually got familiar with digital.

Absolutely love it now.
 
Owned a Boots 110 film camera which took plug in cube flashes for about 2 years and then went to a Olympus OM101 for quite a few years and in that time I also purchased a Praktica BCA and a Praktica BC1.
Sold the Olympus and Praktica cameras and bought a Minolta Dynax 7000i which I had for a couple of years.
I then switched to Canon and bought an EOS 1000FN and numerous lenses.
Got rid of the EOS 1000FN and bought 2 EOS 50E and then a EOS 1NHS (this was bady marked but worked).
Managed to drop the EOS 1 while taking photo's from a bridge in near Keswick and bought a Minolta DiMage 7i with the insurance on the advise of my cousin (my first digital camera).
Bought a Canon EOS 350D and then upgraded to a 400D after six months.
Bought a 30D and traded my 400D in for a 40D.
Thats where I am to date.
Next step 5D or 1D.
 
1989 - Canon Ae1
1992 - Canon eos 650
2004 -Canon eos 5
2005 - Got contract with large nightclub chain taking photos of live bands, need CD with images on within 3 days - Canon 10D
2008 - Canon 40D
Thats the story really:thumbs:
Dean:)
 
2000 - EOS 30, 28-105 MKii, 50/1.8, 550EX, Manfrotto 055pro

2006 - 30D, 18-55 Kit,

2007 - addedTamron 17-50 2.8

2008 - Sold all the lenses, bought 50/1.4 (December)

2009 Feb - added 16-35 2.8 L

2009 May - added 5D MKii
 
1988 ( i think) Minolta 7000
Then on to a Dynax 700si
The a dynax 7

Sold all that to get a Minolta Dimage 7
Then a Minolta A1
Then got fed up waiting for a Minolta Digital SLR and bought a D70.
Since then, a D200, D2h, D2x, D3, D300 and now the D3x......
 
I had a couple of Slr cameras way back, and always took crap shots. The time lag between taking a picture, and getting it developed meant I never learned from my mistakes.

My first digital camera was an apple quicktake 100 which stored 12 images at 640x480 res., which I bought to flog stuff on ebay.

From then on a series of compacts, then bridge cameras.

Last year I bought my first DSLR a 30D.

If it wasn't for digital, I would not be a photographer now.
 
My parents bought me a Praktica SLR in 1997 when I went to university (had an awesome 70-210mm Ziess lens) that allowed me to follow all those John Hedgecoe books and teach myself.

Started uni, left my illustration course to go onto the photography course and then started using Cambo 5x4" and Mamiya RB67s, alongside FM2s.
Loved every minute of film photography, especially devving and printing, and ended up doing all of the tutor's photography for their personal shows. Halfway through the course the college bought a Fuji bridge digi thing that was pants, horrifically slow but allowed to directly import into Photoshop - I hated it and stuck with the 5x4". I did buy myself a T70 and an EOS650 (then a 620) for the benefit of AF - film was definitely my thing.

Di my major exhibition, left uni with a shedload of film that was destined to go off and just pottered around taking shots here and there.
Got a job at the publishing house where I still work today and they used EOS300 and EOS50Es and then we bought a D60 DSLR and gradually, we took more digital on until we went fully digital and that was me.

Since then I've used all sorts and now wouldn't be without a DSLR - for reportage and journalism it beats film hands down. I still use a Pentax ME Super 35mm now and then for nostalgia but I can't really say enough good about digital these days:)
 
Had cameras since I was about 12. Kodak, Halina etc.
Bought a Praktica LLC SLR in 1973 or 4, gradually bought a few prime and telephoto lenses plus a TC.
Got an Olympus Digital P&S with a computer package in 1998.
Bought a Fuji Bridge in 2003.
Bought a Nikon DSLR last year.
I still have the Praktica, the TTL metering went so I had to use a separate meter - and understand exposure :), then the frame counter went so I had to learn to count :D, the mirror sticks up sometimes but frees if you use the timer :lol:
 
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