digital vs. manual

[ontforkicks]

does anyone have any good advice for switching from manual to digital photography?

 

[Alex_B]

hmm .. from film to digital you mean? my film-SLR can be operated fully automated, and my digital-SLR can be operated manually

 

[Alex_B]

good advice? keep the crop factor in mind ... you lenses get "longer" in terms of field of view.

 

[ontforkicks]

yeah i noticed that whenever i take a picture with my digital more of the picture shows up then i intended.

 

[Alex_B]

digital shows a smaller angle of view than film ...

also, with digital you more easily lose the highlights and shades. exposure is more difficult.

 

[ontforkicks]

so overall would you recommend film over digital?

 

[Big Mike]

Would you recommend apples over oranges?

 

[Alex_B]

so overall would you recommend film over digital?

oh, so that was the question?

I think, digital is more convenient.

it is cheaper if you shoot alot.

resolution in prints is the same or better

I do both.

 

[lifeafter2am]

good advice? keep the crop factor in mind ... you lenses get "longer" in terms of field of view.

Depends if your camera is full frame or not though!

 

[Alex_B]

Depends if your camera is full frame or not though!

i know, my digital is 35mm, but most are not.

 

[shorty6049]

i know, my digital is 35mm, but most are not.

lucky....

 

[jstuedle]

lucky....

I have grown to prefer the crop of my digital. Makes good long lenses longer. I could never afford my fav long lens, a 600 f/4, but my 400 f/3.5 has the same reach in digital and is 1/3 stop faster. I love it! I cover wide with a 14 f/2.8. Also the crop only uses the sweet center of the lens. No worries mate!

 

[glaston]

It depends on what your area of interest is.

Portraits, landscape, nature, industrial, product shots?

How much post processing do you plan, prefer, or expect to be doing?
How much control do you want? Do you prefer to work with a higher dynamic range in terms of exposure?

You should weigh these factors out.

Do you already own alot of film equipment? Is some of that equipment compatible with a dSLR or digital in general?
Are you prepared to shell out some bucks for digital equipment?
Do you use a basic PC or laptop, or a visual workstation? Mac or PC?

You should keep in mind that if you own a consumer grade PC that you may very well have to sink some cash into it if you want to be efficient in your workflow.
You should have a minimum 1GB of RAM, plenty of disc space, at least a mid-range consumer grade display card (Nvidia or ATI) with at least 128MB of onboard memory.
You'll also need software. Depending on how much power and control you want/need there are some decent and inexpensive(some free) applications.
But if you are/will be doing professional level shoots, you'll want a pro app like Photoshop.
With that in mind, you'll want a monitor calibration system. Not to mention a good monitor.

Once you start to accumulate alot of images you'll want a good backup system. A fast firewire or USB external hard drive is what I'd recommend.
Not too expensive, and you can stack them when you need to add more space.
You can also connect them to an existing LAN so the contents are available over ethernet.
Gigabit ethernet is what I use and recommend. If you plan to move large images around the network quickly, 10-100Mb ethernet isn't practical.

With that in mind, you'll want an asset management application like Lightroom or Aperture if your an Apple user.
Cheaper ones exist but I'm just using these as an example.

You should come up with more specific questions. Or just tell us what the majority of your work will involve.
Anyone here could most likely offer advice then.

For me, post processing is a major part of my work. When I shoot, I shoot with post processing in mind. So film wouldn't fit into my workflow seamlessly.
I also started with digital. Never owned a film SLR in my life.
I come from a graphic design background though too.

 

[michaelb]

now that was a lot to take in. with what i spend on film in a year i could probably go digital

 

[ontforkicks]

i agree, it was alot to take in but thanx for all the really good tips on digital. So far i have just been shooting with film so when it comes to digital i'm pretty lost. I do want to start shooting digital because i know that there is alot of possibilities and is more convenient than film. I do really like film though, and the process of developing my pictures and am an amateur so i still have a lot to learn about film as well as almost everything to learn about digital and photoshop. thankfully though, my mom was a graphic designer too so she can teach me photoshop. But all in all i just want to learn and progress as much in photography as i can.