End of road for MF/LF...

[Nokton48]

For the idiot technofetishists with a drooling obsession with 'resolution' above all else.

LOL

Quite true

 

[Jim Jones]

Gigapixel may be nice enough for those who have forgotten or never knew how suitable film has long been for large images. However, consider the hundreds of Colorama transparencies displayed in New York's Grand Central Station for decades. They were 60 feet wide, and enlarged from large and medium format film. https://montanusphotography.com/neil_montanus_bio/coloramas.htm

 

[jtk]

I'm not sure either...

Try reading the post and clicking the link.

 

[jtk]

Gigapixel may be nice enough for those who have forgotten or never knew how suitable film has long been for large images. However, consider the hundreds of Colorama transparencies displayed in New York's Grand Central Station for decades. They were 60 feet wide, and enlarged from large and medium format film. https://montanusphotography.com/neil_montanus_bio/coloramas.htm

Yes, spectacular. And for decades people who hand painted roadside billboards were heros. The point (fwiw) is that camera sensors (and scanners) have barely begun their evolution. It was only a few decades ago that computer chips were built with silk-screened matrices partially made by former dye transfer labs (Graphic Services in San Francisco, for example) and more recently that robot-made chips only had one working layer. It'd be great if Grand Central hired painters to do what Kodak has quit doing.

 

[faberryman]

For the idiot technofetishists with a drooling obsession with 'resolution' above all else.

Have you thought about why you are so angry.

 

[Lachlan Young]

Have you thought about why you are so angry.

Satire doesn't need to be nice. Especially when you see the technologically credulous being taken for a ride.

 

[Cholentpot]

Try reading the post and clicking the link.

An AI program.

You think it'll work as well as advertised? I doubt it. I'm sure it'll take multiple passes and renderings to get it to work, if at all.

 

[odell1618photography]

Why so dramatic, "End of road for MF/LF" ? It would take much, much more at this point for a digital tool for
digital photographers to create the demise of large format or medium format photography. It seems short sighted
and even slightly irritating to suggest that all we analog photographers would immediately abandon our tools and passion
to jump into digital photography.

 

[KenS]

Why so dramatic, "End of road for MF/LF" ? It would take much, much more at this point for a digital tool for
digital photographers to create the demise of large format or medium format photography. It seems short sighted
and even slightly irritating to suggest that all we analog photographers would immediately abandon our tools and passion
to jump into digital photography.

That 'might' happen 'if... and when' digital cameras could come with the ability to apply 'swings' and 'tilts' on the lens or the 'plane' of the sensor (think 'Scheimpflug principle')...and being able to see the results 'live'. But 'somehow' it is much more 'fun' having-to or 'making' the time to work in the darkroom rather than having to sit in front of a computer screen and 'play' with that which the sensor at the back of the 'digital' hardware managed to 'capture' as 'zeros and or 'ones'.

Ken

 

[odell1618photography]

That 'might' happen 'if... and when' digital cameras could come with the ability to apply 'swings' and 'tilts' on the lens or the 'plane' of the sensor (think 'Scheimpflug principle')...and being able to see the results 'live'. But 'somehow' it is much more 'fun' having-to or 'making' the time to work in the darkroom rather than having to sit in front of a computer screen and 'play' with that which the sensor at the back of the 'digital' hardware managed to 'capture' as 'zeros and or 'ones'.

Ken

I used to be a 'digital guy', I purchased the latest and greatest Nikon as each came out, the D300 was my last. I bought the latest and greatest Apple desktop, Apeture, Adobe, had an Epson 9800 44 inch photo printer,
an Epson Super B format printer, color checkers, calibrators, Hanumule papers, you name it. And then on a lark I bought a Mamiya RB67 ProSD 10 years ago and have never looked back.
The time I spent on printer and paper profiles, monitor calibration, photoshop etc is amazing considering that I can develop a roll of film and make a print much better than I ever did with digital in a couple of hours.

 

[jtk]

An AI program.

You think it'll work as well as advertised? I doubt it. I'm sure it'll take multiple passes and renderings to get it to work, if at all.

Congratulations for actually reading and thinking.

 

[jtk]

I said that earlier in the thread

After about 13 or 14 hours the program is still hung at 1% up-sizing a small 6mb photo by 6x.

Ian

I don't think this crowd can help you. Do you know a recent high school graduate?

 

[Cholentpot]

Congratulations for actually reading and thinking.

So how does this kill film formats again? You can't kill something that's already dead.

 

[removed account4]

I used to be a 'digital guy', I purchased the latest and greatest Nikon as each came out, the D300 was my last. I bought the latest and greatest Apple desktop, Apeture, Adobe, had an Epson 9800 44 inch photo printer,
an Epson Super B format printer, color checkers, calibrators, Hanumule papers, you name it. And then on a lark I bought a Mamiya RB67 ProSD 10 years ago and have never looked back.
The time I spent on printer and paper profiles, monitor calibration, photoshop etc is amazing considering that I can develop a roll of film and make a print much better than I ever did with digital in a couple of hours.

obviously you didn't spend enough time doing the digital thing. i hate to say it, but i am a film person too, but i have been doing the digital thing not since my uncle told me film was dead in about 1988 but a handful of years after that. and while doing profiles and calibrations are a real drag, once you do them
and you make sure your printer heads aren't clogged and you didn't run out of ink and everything is good, you can make some astounding things with digital ( or film scans ) and a printer. and with modern tech, any once crappy .25x.25 300 dpi image can be ( or will soon be ) made nice on your sweet set up.
while it makes me happy, it also makes me wonder what the point of all this is..
im thinking of making smallish tintypes now because they are what they are... and there's only one... but still its mind altering technology !

 

[odell1618photography]

obviously you didn't spend enough time doing the digital thing. i hate to say it, but i am a film person too, but i have been doing the digital thing not since my uncle told me film was dead in about 1988 but a handful of years after that. and while doing profiles and calibrations are a real drag, once you do them
and you make sure your printer heads aren't clogged and you didn't run out of ink and everything is good, you can make some astounding things with digital ( or film scans ) and a printer. and with modern tech, any once crappy .25x.25 300 dpi image can be ( or will soon be ) made nice on your sweet set up.
while it makes me happy, it also makes me wonder what the point of all this is..
im thinking of making smallish tintypes now because they are what they are... and there's only one... but still its mind altering technology !

My day job is land planning, I own a land surveying company. Most of my day is spent in front of a computer running autocad preparing digital terrain models, land plans, etc.
The last thing I want to do when not at work is sit behind another computer screen, therein my preference to use film and a darkroom. I would say that I did give digital as well as the
digital workflow its due respect, effort and time to master. Oddly enough one of the best images that I have printed 11x17 came from an 8 megapixel Sony CyberShot.
At the time I was also a member of the local camera club. I had an extra office building with a basement that I let them use for a meeting / gallery space. They set up a small but
well equipped darkroom in the basement. The club moved on to other things and I inherited the darkroom. I sold all of my digital gear and have never been tempted by digital since.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I just bought a new 4x5 on a lark. I don;t have a darkroom but have been shooting MF for years (RB67). WHen I travel on vacation though, I take and shoot a digital P&S (Sony RX100iv) that fits in my shirt pocket. From it, I make UHDTV 4K video slide shows that play on my 75" TV. I also scan film at home and make similar slide shows to play on the TV. I post them also on FLickr. Nothing wrong with enjoying the best of both worlds. It's not an either/or world.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I don't think this crowd can help you. Do you know a recent high school graduate?

You obviously don't know high school kids. They can only help you if the app is on their phone. They are quite ignorant when it comes to a desktop. I'm not kidding.

 

[Cholentpot]

You obviously don't know high school kids. They can only help you if the app is on their phone. They are quite ignorant when it comes to a desktop. I'm not kidding.

This is true. Saying 'Ask a kid' for help is something out of the 90's. People marvel at infants using smartphones. Of course they can, these things are designed for idiots.

 

[warden]

You obviously don't know high school kids. They can only help you if the app is on their phone. They are quite ignorant when it comes to a desktop. I'm not kidding.

I have to agree there. I'm up to my eyeballs in experience with teenagers at the moment for what it's worth.

This is true. Saying 'Ask a kid' for help is something out of the 90's. People marvel at infants using smartphones. Of course they can, these things are designed for idiots.

Haha so true

 

[DREW WILEY]

Teenagers are the great hope. The next batch will probably rebel against all their parents' obsession with consumer electronics, and it will be in style to do things hands-on again.

 

[Cholentpot]

I have to agree there. I'm up to my eyeballs in experience with teenagers at the moment for what it's worth.




Haha so true

'Oh look at Jr. He's so bright, he can swipe photos!'

Really? Is this the bar we set?

Teenagers are the great hope. The next batch will probably rebel against all their parents' obsession with consumer electronics, and it will be in style to do things hands-on again.

It's happening.

 

[Michael Firstlight]

Michael, what's to stop Stitch and the like from replacing all scanners AND from replacing today's primative camera sensors?

That's a dual-edge sword. First, stitching rarely works with any scenes with motion, then there is parallax to deal with (carefully), but most of all it just takes a lot of time, so it's impractical for most common shooting. However, if time and the inconvenience isn't an obstacle, it makes any higher MP for murals moot - you can make terrific murals with an image matrix with relatively low megapixel cameras - the more important factor becomes the quality of the optics.

Michael

 

[Cholentpot]

That's a dual-edge sword. First, stitching rarely works with any scenes with motion, then there is parallax to deal with (carefully), but most of all it just takes a lot of time, so it's impractical for most common shooting. However, if time and the inconvenience isn't an obstacle, it makes any higher MP for murals moot - you can make terrific murals with an image matrix with relatively low megapixel cameras - the more important factor becomes the quality of the optics.

Michael

I stitch with 120 film. The scene makes no difference motion or not. Then again, I'm not shooting sports with a TLR.

 

[Luckless]

Then again, I'm not shooting sports with a TLR.

You should, its fun...

 

[warden]

You should, its fun...

Sports with a TLR would be a riot: runner takes off to the right, while I, looking into my TLR, pan left to catch him.