On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 10:30:15 +0000 (GMT), Kostas Kavoussanakis > > Well there you are. The last people you should listen to are teachers! > > Good point. Here is another point: as far as I understand, the lass > with no name wants to learn photography. She can do most of that with > any camera and leave the digi vs film dust to settle on its own. A > learner (in my opinion) need not have strong opinions, open eyes and > ears will do. > > Kostas
Well, absolutely. This whole Digital vs. Film thing is really pretty silly, isn't it? The most important part of the photographic equation is the thing that looks through the viewfinder (by that, I mean the photographer, BTW <g>). The very fact that some of the photographers on this list that I respect the most use and enjoy both media indicates that digital and film have their advantages. Some advantages (of both) are technical, some are emotional, some are financial (as in, if I had the bucks, I'd likely have a digital camera - not that it would replace my beloved film gear). NOW... that being said, here's what I think about starting with film as opposed to starting on digital: I think that learning photography on a completely manual camera has it's advantages. Being forced to think of what light does to a capture surface (and by that I mean either film or a digital sensor), and how you can control it with the three basic functions of a camera (shutter, aperture, focus) will likely make you a better photographer, faster. I'm not saying you can't learn on an automatic camera. I'm not saying film is superior to digital for learning. If they made a digital camera with completely manual controls, that would be what to learn on. I'm not talking manual over-ride, but no auto anything at all. You and I know they'll never make one. No one would buy it - except students, then they'd sell it at the end of first year, and the incoming class of next year would buy the previous year's used ones at the local used camera stores. But, since digital is an electronic medium, the cameras pretty much have to be automatic. So, the way to learn photography is with film, IMHO, due to the foregoing. That's not an advantage of film per se, but an "advantage" of some of the cameras they once made to accept film. However, to re-inforce what I said in the beginning, no matter what the medium, the photographer will always be the most important part of what makes a good photo (except that without a camera, there'll be no photo, no matter how talented the photographer - but that's another story for another time). There. Now I've ranted, and I feel better. ciao, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
