Camera Talk

It's 6 months since I posted about "getting used to digital". Weather didn't promote too much photography in that time, but looking at what I did do and thinking about it taught me a few things. The Oly C-4000 ("old" but effective) really prefers the expensive CRV3 batteries; when I used it a few weeks ago, I had to put in the last set that I had from a bargain I got when Target closed them out a few years back. By now I know that nothing works as well for this camera and I should just use them without getting bothered. On that same occasion an oversight reminded me that any time you change modes the camera reverts to a wide open aperture; I was trying to get good focus on a wide building receding horizontally and realized after several frames that I was shooting at f/2.8 rather than f/8. Once again, getting bothered won't help much. Finally, on some long Sunday afternoons this winter I tried to put recent photos in better order. It was quite a surprise to see that birthdays, weddings, grandchildren events, meetings, etc. were all documented and shared digitally. It seems accurate to say that I was relying on digital quite a bit even though I take a lot of film photos, too. What that reliance means, I think, is that "getting used to digital" is happening through experience and some of it leads to changing attitudes. Anyway, I did get an acceptable photo of the new Whole Foods store (not the wide view, though) that I've been documenting even though it was shot at full open by the camera's decision, not mine. Here's the photo:

Yeah, I'm always intrigued by the settings picked by my digicam. I'd shoot it in manual more often, but it's hard for me to see the info icons on the screen, and it only has one control dial, so Aperture or Shutter Priority are usually a better pick.

PF

I have also drifted to digital for family and trips, although I do try to shoot some B&W along for permanence of records.

I remember being surprised by the exposure combinations chosen by my first digicam, an Olympus. 1/1000 at f/4 in the sunshine with lowest ISO? Then I realized that, with the small focal distance, DOF was enormous and the little electronic brain was trying to maximize sharpness with a fast shutter speed. In fact that little Oly gave sharper images than my Pentax K-1000 shot at 1/100, when both images were compared in large size prints.

Now, my Canon G12 is almost always on Program exposure mode and autofocus. I do turn the flash off and take advantage of the variable ISO of digital.

Instant feedback, variable ISO, image stabilization and auto color balance are nice to have.

But now smartphones are coming in with very good quality and convenience, and digital camera sales are going through the floor. I believe that the digicam as a consumer item is dead.

Smartphones have eaten into sales of digital P&S in the same way that those killed off film P&S models. I still see some people now and then who shoot with a digital P&S.

For most people, the smartphone camera is good enough. My wife is probably typical of a lot of camera phone users. Takes a lot of photos. Post one or two on Facebook. Eventually, they end up on her backup drive. Once or twice, she goes into that drive to find a particular photo. I guess that's what many of us do with our photos but on a much larger scale.