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Digital vs Old School Camera for Model Railroad Photography
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by Kenny2005</i> <br /> If I take my 35mm film to a photo finisher and get my photos on computer disk, how will those photos compare to photos from a good quality digital camera? <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />I've never done this, are you talking about print film or slides? I imagine you would need to take your film to a specialty processing location to have high quality scan from the negatives or slides. I've read on photo groups that Kodak used to offer high quality digital images from negatives, but now their offerings are much lower in quality and file sizes. Again I've never had this done myself so I don't really know. <br /> <br />I eased into digital photography after using film cameras for about 35 years. I've had great success with film cameras in color prints and slides as well as black and white that I did in my own darkroom. (I just donated all of my darkroom stuff this week to a local camera club, as I hadn't used it for 10 or more years). <br /> <br />My entry into digital was with a small point and shoot 1.3MP camera, bought just our of curiosity. I had a great time with it and was surprised with the results that I could achieve. I moved on to another point and shoot with 3.3MP, and continued to have lots of fun with it. I found I was using my film cameras (Canon EOS Elan IIe & Elan 7e) less and less. A year ago I moved up to a Canon Digital Rebel with 6MP, and I'm not looking back. <br /> <br />I really enjoy using the digitals because of the almost instant feedback, I can see if the photos I just took are what I wanted. I recall when shooting photos with slide film for submissions to magazines that I would leave the photographed scene set up until I could get the slides developed the next day, to ensure I got the photos that I wanted. Some times I had to re-shoot the scene; no more with digital. Keeping in mind the Ektachrome 64T slide film cost me around $14.00 for a 36 exposure roll, and another $11.00 for one hour developing. This can add up! <br /> <br />Plus I can shoot almost as many shots as I want, just keeping the best ones. I think nothing of taking 50-75 photos at one session of the birds at our backyard feeders then picking the best. With print film I would probably have shot 5 or 6 photos. <br /> <br />The only real thing I miss with the film cameras is the wide angle ability. Since the sensor on my Digital Rebel is only 60% the size of a 35mm film frame, my stable of 6 Canon lenses only see the center 60% of the field. I've used the 18-55mm zoom that came with the Rebel, as it equals the view of a 28-85mm lens on a film camera. It is an inexpensive lens and I'm fairly satisfied with it, but wish I could use my Canon 28mm lens and get the same angle of view with it. <br /> <br />In the example in this thread about scanning a color print to make a digital images illustrates one of the failings of print film - most processors seem to make prints with too much contrast. Most eveyrthing in the photo is either light or dark, with no mid tones. Digital has quite a latitude for exposure, and it is easy to adjust the contrast to make such a photo much better. <br /> <br />Even when it comes to making color prints, digital seems to be working better for me. While I can and do make borderless high quality glossy prints and enlargements with my printer, local shops have great deals. We can get 4 by 6" prints for 25 cents from digital, while prints from color negatives are 67 cents. 8 by 10" enlargements are only $3.00. Can't beat that! Keep in mind these are prices here in Canada, which are alway higher than those in the U.S. <br /> <br />I had my first digital images printed in an article, in the March "Model Railroading" magazine, and they all were great. I've submitted another article to RMC again with all digital images. <br /> <br />So my final suggestion would be to try a Digital Rebel XT. I'm sure once you try it you will not regret it! [:D] <br /> <br />Bob Boudreau
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