At 08:15 AM 11/16/01 +0800, Bjorn wrote:
>John wrote:
>
> > Even at 3 megapixels, digital cameras don't come close to analog,
>
>I must disagree with this. While I haven't taken my CoolPix 990 underwater,
>I use it extensively (almost exclusively these days) topside. I send the
>memory card to a pro lab for printing. Off a dye-sublimation printer, there
>isn't the slightest difference between the analog pictures I take and the
>digital ones. Yes, if you want to blow up the shot to more than A3 size,
>then analog rules, but how often do you do that ? :-)
Since we've got almost as many CDs as vinyl in the house, I don't
want to be on the analog side of any argument except in the very short run
(which is over for me personally). In a few years, we will probably have
consumer digital cameras that will record as much information as a person
can get with a slide scanner and film will go the way of vinyl. When we
were at the last NEDfest, and I saw the size of Crusty's digital camcorder
(I already knew the format was superior to HI8), I decided the way
I wanted to go with video, but the right package hasn't come along (or
more to the point I haven't acted quickly enough) yet. I also like
Crusty's minimalist approach with stills. Last spring Crusty mentioned
that Canon makes a housing for the 300S (a sophisticated 2.1 megapixel
ELPH) that's good to 100'. I'm not sure if it syncs to strobes and I wish
it recorded more data per still, but if that's what Crusty is using now, it
certainly makes good images for the web. Given the Canon 300S' petite
size, even with the housing, a person really has to wonder about dragging
along the NikV and its retinue, particularly since postage stamp size
memory chips will now hold 160 megabytes, and airport authorities have
gained even more enthusiasm for fogging film. I'm pretty certain that
nothing of mine will be viewed except by me and a few close friends, so I'm
beginning not only to think it's stupid to flatter my vanity and contract
my exposure latitude by shooting slides but also to think that for me
anything other than digital is a waste of weight and space.
DPTNST,
John
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