Chapter 4 - Analog GAS
GAS hurts. With analog it hurts less. Analog lens and camera prices (non-Leica!) are about 1/5 to 1/10 of their digital counterparts. And there’s the joy of the hunt of course, across ebay, Etsy and other sites. Surprises too, sometimes bad ones. But at these prices, there’s much more margin for error, and many of the bad surprises can be repaired by a decent repairman. I haven’t yet had the courage, money or urge to buy more Leica lenses. I’m not yet convinced they’re worth it. But the Nikon really needed a 35mm f/2. And then a 28mm f/2.8. Really. Reading and adjusting speed and exposure in fast changing situations required too much fiddling, and I heard the Olympus OM family had Av mode and very good lenses. So I got an OM-2n from Japan with a 50mm f/1.4 (and I really need a wider lens too), and that Canonet looks really cool… When a Canonet QL17 III popped up on a local forum, I snatched it. Yes, with the adapter to fit modern batteries instead of those old mercury cells. Frankly, I’m probably not done yet. And my son wanted a film camera too… he’s certainly not getting one of mine. So I searched the second-hand sites for another Olympus, and found an OM-2sp in good condition. I got it. And I do need some more primes. One thing I’m quite certain about is that I won’t get any zoom lenses for these oldies. I like the tiny primes, and older zooms are slow and have low IQ. So I’m told, and please don’t prove me wrong. Interim Non-summary I have NOT abandoned digital! I can’t really bring this to a close saying anything categorical, like “that’s it, I’m done with digital.” Nor the opposite. Which is a bit frustrating, really. I’d like belong to one of the either/or camps, but I can’t. Digital equipment is very fast, precise and forgiving, especially when shooting Raw. Orange cast? Underexposed? Lightroom fixes it all! With the Canon 6D, the equipment just melts away, plastic and all, and I can just concentrate on framing. With the analog equipment there’s much more fussing around, and forgiveness is gone. Try to bring up the shadows on a film scan, and you’ll get horrific noise, but no hidden details. On the other hand, when it works – it has that character that I can’t name. Like I mentioned above, I shot one performance in the last year, and showed the band both the digital and analog photos. They liked the analog! So nowadays, wherever I go shooting I take both. Both types, that is. Which leaves room for endless combinations (Canon and Nikon? Fuji and Leica? Ricoh and Olympus?) … there’s me standing in front of the camera cupboard, deliberating with myself for an hour while my wife waits at the door J. Taking a digital camera means I’ll always come back with something, probably something quite good in fact. And lots of photos. The analog means much less photos, and sometimes a week or two later. With an extra bit of magic in them. Sometimes J. But I’m hooked.
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