keenmaster486
i have been shooting LF for 30 years
i have never slowed down. i've paid attention
to all the nonsense you have to pay attention to
( stopping down, lens cap, camera shake, tripod, noticing details &c )
and when i got a DC almost 20 years ago things never changed. over the
decades that 35mm was the main consumer film and format of choice no one was slowed down
they had auto winders and bulk loaders and everything else. the slow down thing is a myth
or something that people who are waiting for the sun and clouds to look "just right" after
they did spot meter readings for 2 hours do, and i am sure there are the same sorts of people who use digital.
of course ymmv
I'm glad to hear someone else calling out the "slow down" myth. Maybe I'm not alone in this: photography is a race against time. There is always an urgency about it.
Who uses a digital camera for 50 years? Digital cameras will have electronics failures, dead pixels, batteries no longer available, etc. You
will be buying another digital camera. There are many people out there who buy cameras like they do phones - every 2-3 years.
Of the
97 results on B&H for digital cameras over $3500, 21 are body only. A significant number more are body only kits with a battery and such, and the rest are with a lens and accessories. The cost of a new Leica M 240 that the author bought used? $6995. KEH has a used M3 for $919 right now. $2500 buys a lot of film and chemicals.
View attachment 198300
Two can play at that game:
Digital Cameras
: 1 - 24 of 687
Under $3499.00 Sensor Size: APS-C Sensor Size: Full Frame Sensor Size: Four Thirds Clear All
These are new cameras. Seven times as many, all under the fanciful $3500 price point that apparently people have so little self control and so much money they can't help but spend every two or three years. No one's going to use a digital camera for 50 years except NASA. I have a ten year old digital camera, which I still use, yesterday as a matter of fact.
Film cameras are cheap to own. I know, I have a few. They sit lovely on the shelf and cost next to nothing. They do cost money to use. I figure it's at least $10 a roll, just for B&W film and development. So taking that magical $3500 number minus the cost of the M3 you found, and the $10 a roll estimate, let's break it down. That's $2581 for film, divided by fifty years, $51.62 per year for film, so 5 rolls, 180 photos, and that's hoping that somehow the price of film and development remain constant (which isn't likely at all). That's a photo every other day. Perhaps it would be better to borrow a camera instead. Compare that to digital. Let's forget my $75 example and see how it fares when we price in a $919 digital camera, to keep comparison simple with the used M3. You use it for ten years, throw it away, spend another $919 on something that is far more capable than anything but that top of the line stuff available today, throw that away in ten years, etc. I guess you do end up spending more on digital, around $5000. Unless, you take a photo per day, then costs are now $5,000 for 50 years of film and development. Or perhaps 10 photos a day. I wouldn't exactly call that happy snapping, but here we are at 3650 pictures a year. Digital cost hasn't budged. Film costs are now at $50,000 for 50 years. And what about the crazy person who shoots professionally that takes on average a 100 photos a day. You're going to wear out the digital bodies sooner, no doubt. But it's nothing compared to the $500,000 you're going to spend on film. Plus I imagine that M3 might need a CLA or two in the meantime.
edited:for spelling and artithmetic