Well, I went and bought an EOS body. See, I've got EOS lenses for the DSLR, but all my film bodies are highly manual---the built-in meter in my Bessa-R seems like a pretty decadent convenience, and I feel like I'm cheating when I put the AE-1 in auto. But it seems a shame to have nice lenses that I can't put film behind, and a 35mm body that can do TTL flash would be convenient, and KEH had a Rebel X for the absurd price of *six* dollars...so I threw it in with my last order and I've been working on shooting a smoke-test roll today.
The whole experience is just weird. I spent forever trying to figure out how to attach the film to the take-up spool; oh, I see, *it* does that. Close the back and it mysteriously goes whir-whir-whir, counting exposures as it goes and ending by telling me how many frames I have left. OK, set the ASA---no, I see, *it* does that. Oh, yeah, that's what the whole "DX coding" business is about. So I need to cock---no, *it* does that.
All right, mode, frame, and I need to foc---no, *it* does that. Click. Ack, it's alive! More noise and vibration as it advances the film for me. So for the next exposure to be set up I need to do...um...nothing. Wait, what?
All this assistance is completely fouling up my rhythm. I see, intellectually, where it's useful to get the mechanical crud out of the way and free yourself up to concentrate on the image---but advancing the film is what my right hand expects to be doing while I'm concentrating on the image!
Not to mention that autofocus is itself pretty disconcerting. Unfortunately EOS lenses tend to have poor manual-focus ergonomics. I suppose I'll get used to it, but it just feels wrong to have a focus ring under my fingers that's a skinny little plastic thing.
Oh, and of course the darn thing is going to auto-rewind when I finish the roll, and I bet it won't leave me a leader to grab onto, will it? Well, it won't be the first cassette I've opened with a bottle opener in the dark.
None of this is actually *bad* (OK, except for the leader-in rewind), it's just a complete reordering of the photographic world to which I'm accustomed, and I felt the need to rant about it. I think I'm gonna go finish up the roll, then realign my brain by shooting a plate camera for a while.
-NT
The whole experience is just weird. I spent forever trying to figure out how to attach the film to the take-up spool; oh, I see, *it* does that. Close the back and it mysteriously goes whir-whir-whir, counting exposures as it goes and ending by telling me how many frames I have left. OK, set the ASA---no, I see, *it* does that. Oh, yeah, that's what the whole "DX coding" business is about. So I need to cock---no, *it* does that.
All right, mode, frame, and I need to foc---no, *it* does that. Click. Ack, it's alive! More noise and vibration as it advances the film for me. So for the next exposure to be set up I need to do...um...nothing. Wait, what?
All this assistance is completely fouling up my rhythm. I see, intellectually, where it's useful to get the mechanical crud out of the way and free yourself up to concentrate on the image---but advancing the film is what my right hand expects to be doing while I'm concentrating on the image!
Not to mention that autofocus is itself pretty disconcerting. Unfortunately EOS lenses tend to have poor manual-focus ergonomics. I suppose I'll get used to it, but it just feels wrong to have a focus ring under my fingers that's a skinny little plastic thing.
Oh, and of course the darn thing is going to auto-rewind when I finish the roll, and I bet it won't leave me a leader to grab onto, will it? Well, it won't be the first cassette I've opened with a bottle opener in the dark.
None of this is actually *bad* (OK, except for the leader-in rewind), it's just a complete reordering of the photographic world to which I'm accustomed, and I felt the need to rant about it. I think I'm gonna go finish up the roll, then realign my brain by shooting a plate camera for a while.
-NT