Exploration Photography Daily View - February 8, 2016

Hi and welcome to the Daily View!

I was going over some old photos today and came across some scans from some prints I made back in the '90s. If I were to try to pick an exact year I'd say they were made around 1998 give or take a year. I know this because they were shot with my Nikon Pronea S APS SLR film camera. This camera was produced between 1998 and 2000 and I bought one very early in production. It was a cool camera for the day and a good attempt at making the loading and unloading of film a bit easier for casual snap shooters but overall it just didn't catch on. Besides, digital was really taking off by this period in time and I suppose the rest is history. But enough history. How about today's photo?

This is Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge. One of my favorite subjects. Not my best work but I like the composition. And I love the shadows. Oh and yes, I still own this camera :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

November 14, 2014 - Photo Of The Day

Well we have had our first snow of the season so I figured I would use it as a theme for today's "retro" blog post. It wasn't a lot of snow mind you but it was snow none the less.

Today's photo takes us back to the winter of 1998 at Valley Forge. It was shot with my Nikon Pronea S APS SLR camera. The APS format was relatively short lived spanning from 1996 to 2011. It was a good idea in it's day being easy to load and yielding fairly nice images. I always thought it was cool that you could roll a partially exposed roll of film back into it's canister and load a different roll into the camera and then go back and load the original roll again. This was handy say if you needed to use a different film speed or perhaps change from color to black and white. You also received your negatives back in the film's original canister. You can read more about this unique film format here.

And here is today's photo.

There were many different APS cameras out there ranging from point and shoot all the way to SLR's with interchangeable lenses. I had or should I say have a Nikon Pronea S model. It uses Nikon IX APS lenses but could also use standard Nikon lenses that were designed for auto focus. I would love to take it out and shoot but even if I could find film for it there is no place to get it developed anymore. It is now part of my collection. You can read more about it here.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a trip back in time with me. After all isn't that what photography is all about? Being able to go back in time a get glimpses of days gone by? That's the way I like to see it.

Until next time...

A Morning Of Fun and Film At Valley Forge

Every once in a while I feel compelled to go out and shoot the old fashioned way. With film! Today was one of those days. Actually I have been wanting to fire up my Nikon N80 for a while but it needed batteries and I just always seemed to forget to pick some up. I finally remembered yesterday.

I got up and out early today and headed to Valley Forge Park with both my Nikon N80 35mm SLR film camera and my Canon Rebel T3 DSLR. 

Nikon N80 Circa 2006 (Stock Photo)

Canon Rebel T3/1100D 2014 (Stock Photo)

Right off the bat I was reminded of something that I have mentioned here before. When shooting film you have to be more "frugal". Every frame costs money. And these days it is a lot of money. It cost me $11.99 to get a roll of 24 exposures developed. That is on top of the price of film too. I figured that if I shoot 200 frames on film like I often do with digital that between film and processing it would cost me approximately $122.00. Wow! That is a lot of cash! Now think about this. I purchased my Canon DSLR about 6 months ago and yesterday I passed 10,000 frames shot. That would be more than 416 rolls of film at an average of $12.99 per 4 pack. Add to that the developing cost of about $4,987 and we are at a grand total of $6,337.00.

Now I realize that I could save money by purchasing film online and sending the film out for development. But I am trying to compare digital photography with film based on the fasted possible turnaround. The local lab I use is 1 hour which is rare nowadays. At least around here. On top of the hour it takes to receive my photos there is also time involved to scan each photo I want to use online.

Okay, money and time aside what really matters is results. here are similar photos from each camera. I shot these at Valley Forge this morning. Each is presented after post processing in Photoshop. Take a look.

Nikon N80 35mm SLR Using Kodak Ultramax 400 Speed Film

Canon Rebel T3 DSLR Using 100 Film Speed Equivalent

Nikon N80 35mm SLR Using Kodak Ultramax 400 Speed Film

Canon Rebel T3 DSLR Using 200 Film Speed Equivalent

 

Nikon N80 35mm SLR Using Kodak Ultramax 400 Speed Film

Canon Rebel T3 DSLR Using 100 Film Speed Equivalent

What are your thoughts? To me there is no clear winner based on quality. First of all comes the film. I had Kodak 400 speed film on hand and was not going to spend money on more. I would have preferred 100 speed to help with the bright sunshine. Second I had no control over the developing of the film. When I shoot digital I generally save my images in RAW format so in a sense I actually control how the photo comes out even before processing in Photoshop. The machines used for film at any local lab use a default setting to get "average" results. And third when I shoot with film I can't check to see how an image looks and adjust accordingly to get a better result.

All I can really say is that I am so glad I grew up with film. Now, I am by no means a pro photographer and don't claim to be. I am continually learning. That is what makes it fun. I can't imagine "knowing it all" and having nothing new to look forward to learning. I do however think that film made be a better photographer than if I learned strictly on digital. I am usually (but not always) more careful in composing a shot. But the big difference with digital is that after composing I can shoot using different settings such as a larger or smaller aperture or perhaps a different film speed. I also bracket a lot more now than I used to. I do this because it is now "free" to do so.

How about you? Are you all digital or a film purist? Or are you like me and use digital 99% of the time but every now and then shoot film for the sake of nostalgia and for a reminder of why digital is so great? 

Thanks as always for your time and I do hope you come back soon. I should have my "Photo Of The Day" posted a little later in the day.

Until next time...