Hi all, As I noted in a previous post, I suspect that black and white is better served (at least so far) by film. Why this is so I'd love to hear some speculation on by such folks as Mike. But let's say it is. Then "going all digital" doesn't mean leaving film. It just means that color is better served by digital. And then a camera like the Canon G3 is a great "stop gap" measure while you wait for digital to mature. Something like this happened in high-end audio where it there was a transition time when it was, uh, stupid to sink lots of money into the "latest and greatest" in CD reproduction. But now it's gotten to the point in the learning curve where unless you have LOTS of money to burn (easy to do in high-end audio), it's just plain stupid to buy very small company specialist digital gear. Well, dare I predict that the same will shortly be true in "digital imaging"? The companies that can fund their own research and development, supply their own chips, etc. etc. will dominate the higher ends of digital imaging. As I said before, Pentax tried the high-end and got burned. They've identified what they intend to be good at: putting the most (innovative) features in the smallest package. The traditional photography company that has the best chance (meaning the most significant available resources) to do well in digital imaging is Canon. And the G3, however intentionally crippled for marketing purposes, shows they learn, they pay attention to feedback and steadily improve their product.
So: for color I suspect Canon will be the best bet for the future (assuming that Sony still decides it's not interested in a "specialist" "photographic" approach to its "prosumer" digital gear). For black and white? Well, there's seems to be at least a little controversy over my claim (based on my experience with Rollei TLR) that medium format is superior to 35mm in tonality, that is, in the subtlety and depth of the black and white tonal scale. I know, I know about Leica, etc. I use a Hexar AF, it's not Leica, but it's seductive. But surely you folks have seen what a Rollei can do.... Still, I'm already having second thoughts about putting the 77LTD up for sale. I know Fred doesn't like the focusing feel, but it's a really sweet lens.... And even though I was underwhelmed by the *ist (the best fill-in for the wildcard? How about: realist, since that's what Pentax is being), it's a nice feature set for what's going to be a fairly nice price.... Oh...decisions...decisions.... Tom
