If you care about such things and have been paying attention here, you may have noted that I do not often post material from my electronic camera. The reason is simple: I’m stuck in the film age.
We have four single-lens reflex cameras, and a couple of other 35mm film-using cameras that served us well for the past 30 years or so. We have some wonderful images, and lots of snapshots. An early experience with electronic images suggested the color might not be as good in purely electronic images, and of course, the detail . . .
Well, I borrowed son Kenny’s Canon PowerShot S70 for the current trip to New Mexico, and I think the results are spectacular. In only one category have I found a flaw: Extreme telephotography.
My thought is that teachers should get a good digital camera for use in creating images for classroom and internet use. No, not the clunky things most schools had that I’ve seen in the past four years — a good Canon or Nikon, or Sony or Fuji or Panasonic, or Kodak. Budget to update every two years or so for the school (the camera I’m shooting with is more than two years old, though).
There’s just no substitute for good images in teaching.
Photo taken 12 hours ago, on July 5, 2007, of student James Darrell applying lessons in building with adobe, in an adobe house under construction in Taos, New Mexico. Photo taken while photographer was balanced precariously atop a ladder and holding concrete forms. Copyright 2007, Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
I just love my Nikon D50 … it uses standard Nikkor lenses, and the detail is excellent for a 6mp camera. The only REAL issue I see with using digital these days is in extreme blowups … at 6mp, I can probably print a broadsheet poster fairly clearly, but larger blowups of pictures will start to fuzz. Blowing up a film image is a wholly different process, and quality isn’t really affected if its done correctly, so in the event you need to make huge posters, film is an easier choice. Otherwise, except for the occasional special purpose (I also still think that B&W film is better than most B&W digital), I think that digital photography has matured to a level where its indistinguishable from film to the average user, and even to good percentage of professional photographers.
LikeLike