Anyone can take a good picture with a digital or cell phone. It takes no talent at all. Photoshop and airbrushing and everything is perfect. The whole point of focusing yourself, finding your subject and making it interesting, was you had to see it and be talented enough to be able to show what you saw on print. It takes real talent to use a manual camera.. period. There would be no Ansel Adams without a real camera and real talent.
The high end digital SLR s address most of my problems, at a far higher price than I can afford. That said, I miss:
* Image quality. The typical digital camera produces about the same image quality as a cheap Pocket Instamatic.
* When you press the shutter, you take a picture. You don’t have to wait for what seems like forever while the camera thinks about it.
* Natural light. It seems like you have to use a flash with anything less than full daylight.
* Focusing. Auto-focus gets boggled far to easily, and that’s all you generally have.
* Exposure control. Try to take a strongly backlit portrait. I dare ya! No matter what buttons you push, the camera still exposes for a “typical” scene.
* The viewfinder. I simply can’t hold a camera still at arm’s length, looking at the screen on the back. Mash the camera up against my face, no problem.
* No batteries. The batteries won’t last through a full day’s shooting, and they always go out at the most inconvenient times. The batteries on my old cameras only run the light meter, and they lasted for years.
I really miss being able to take great care and picking the best shots for those once in a lifetime events. I miss the ease of adjusting the settings on film cameras. Affordable digital cameras I’m aware of require digging down through menus to make changes. You have to take your eyes off the subject. I also hate the inability to manually focus most affordable models. Lastly, I question the durability of most digital cameras. Mine was well recommended but is beginning to act up after ten years. I can pop a roll of film into my forty year old Minolta and shoot away.
Bob Goley