On: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 Michael Wilkinson wrote:

> This comparison MUST have been arranged to come down in favour of digital.

SNIP

> Comparisons at conferences must be transparently fair because when all the
> oohing and aahing is over people talk, when they talk they find fault, when
> they find fault they spread the news and the news is that they are buls*****g
> again.

It is foolish to compare analog film with digital capture in terms of being
better, for as Ying is to Yang, they are entirely different media. I do not
have any difficulty in understanding that in perhaps two years time, all
commercial work will be done with digital capture. Oh happy joy.

OK, let's get back to Jay Maisel, a big influence on me in my twenties. Back
then I once read that Jay had all the clickstops on his Nikon lenses shaved
off, so that he could rapidly spin the aperture ring backwards and forwards
at a motorised rate of 5 frames per second. This meant that he could almost
guarantee a perfect exposure to within a quarter of a stop, with at least
two or three immaculate in camera replicants for stock purposes. It was not
unusual for him to shoot over a 100 rolls of Kodachrome a day. Jay never had
to worry about image quality then, and explains why he is well past the
facile argument over whether digital is actually good enough or not for him
in the here and now.

Of course digital is better - if it fulfills whatever niche advantage any
shooter is looking for within today's hyper-competitive commercial market.

And of course film is better - if it fulfills whatever niche advantage any
shooter is looking for within today's hyper-competitive commercial market.

It really depends on what you want to do, and where you want to go. I love
working with scanned film, and I think digital capture - whether it is high
or low resolution - is fantastic to work with.....and more than anything I
love the difference between the two.  My initial positive and constructive
experiences with digital capture has proved beyond any shadow of doubt that
it is absolutely crucial for me to carry on working with film.

In fact, when my website is rebuilt, you will all be able to see what this
mid-life emulsion monster can do with a fun 2 mega-pixel box camera :)

As usual, I digress.

best

William Curwen   www.william.ws 

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