Jim Walczak
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2004
- Messages
- 226
- Reaction score
- 90
- Location
- Lorain, Ohio
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Greetings All,
I breifly looked for info on this forum about this, but didn't see anything right away, so please forgive me if this is a redundant post...
As I've been getting more and more into photography lately, or at least taking it more seriously, I've been reading everything I can (of course) to help me along my way. Recently my father picked up a couple of old copies of "Shutterbug" magazine, circa 1997, for me to thumb through. Now please keep in mind that I have been playing with photography for about 20 some odd years on and off really, with most of that working with 35mm...I had "heard" of medium and large format photography, but never really had much exposure (no pun intended) to it. Anyways, as I read thru these older magazines I'm seeing lots of adds for brands like Hasselblad, Rollie, Bronica, etc...medium and large format cameras (4x6, 8x10, etc) that at that time were selling for $1500 and up. Now in the "old days" (no offence to anyone here), I realize that the advantage of having, say an 8x10 large format camera was that it would allow massive blow ups of photos, especially for commercial work. While again I have never used said cameras, I'm sure they also had outstanding optics/lenses as well, at least compaired to some of the lenses that emerged over the years for 35mm's (K-mart's "Focal" brand comes to mind!). I'm sure back in the day, these pieces of equipment were quite worthwhile investments for pro's. With that said, in todays world of digital photography with 4-8 megapixel cameras being the standard (and producing exceptional quality in many instances) are the old Hassleblad's a dying breed? I mean I've been able to do some really decent 8x10 blow ups from just a 1 megapixel camera (thru the use of Photoshop and the "digital darkroom" of course) and with the newer cameras it seems like the sky is the limit. With the newer digital SLR's, the issue of decent lenses isn't even a factor any more...take a look at the options for a Canon D10...drool drool! LOL!
I guess what I'm really askin here is, is something like a Hasselblad or a Bronica or something really worth that kind of investment any more? I'm sure that there are probably still more then a few "clients" that prefer a hired hand to use a large format camera for commercial work, but it seems (to me at least) that with the coming of the electronic age, email, the electronic darkroom, etc., that digital photography is really the way of things to come. It seems to me that if I'm going to invest $1000+ into a camera, that something like the aforementioned Canon D10 or something equivilant would be much more practical and useful then spending the equivilant on a Hasselblad, not to mention a lot more economical (for both the photographer and the client)...am I wrong?
I'd just like to get some feedback on this issue...maybe the opinions of a few pro's. As always, I'm grateful for everyone's collective wisdom, knowledge and experience...thanks!
Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim
I breifly looked for info on this forum about this, but didn't see anything right away, so please forgive me if this is a redundant post...
As I've been getting more and more into photography lately, or at least taking it more seriously, I've been reading everything I can (of course) to help me along my way. Recently my father picked up a couple of old copies of "Shutterbug" magazine, circa 1997, for me to thumb through. Now please keep in mind that I have been playing with photography for about 20 some odd years on and off really, with most of that working with 35mm...I had "heard" of medium and large format photography, but never really had much exposure (no pun intended) to it. Anyways, as I read thru these older magazines I'm seeing lots of adds for brands like Hasselblad, Rollie, Bronica, etc...medium and large format cameras (4x6, 8x10, etc) that at that time were selling for $1500 and up. Now in the "old days" (no offence to anyone here), I realize that the advantage of having, say an 8x10 large format camera was that it would allow massive blow ups of photos, especially for commercial work. While again I have never used said cameras, I'm sure they also had outstanding optics/lenses as well, at least compaired to some of the lenses that emerged over the years for 35mm's (K-mart's "Focal" brand comes to mind!). I'm sure back in the day, these pieces of equipment were quite worthwhile investments for pro's. With that said, in todays world of digital photography with 4-8 megapixel cameras being the standard (and producing exceptional quality in many instances) are the old Hassleblad's a dying breed? I mean I've been able to do some really decent 8x10 blow ups from just a 1 megapixel camera (thru the use of Photoshop and the "digital darkroom" of course) and with the newer cameras it seems like the sky is the limit. With the newer digital SLR's, the issue of decent lenses isn't even a factor any more...take a look at the options for a Canon D10...drool drool! LOL!
I guess what I'm really askin here is, is something like a Hasselblad or a Bronica or something really worth that kind of investment any more? I'm sure that there are probably still more then a few "clients" that prefer a hired hand to use a large format camera for commercial work, but it seems (to me at least) that with the coming of the electronic age, email, the electronic darkroom, etc., that digital photography is really the way of things to come. It seems to me that if I'm going to invest $1000+ into a camera, that something like the aforementioned Canon D10 or something equivilant would be much more practical and useful then spending the equivilant on a Hasselblad, not to mention a lot more economical (for both the photographer and the client)...am I wrong?
I'd just like to get some feedback on this issue...maybe the opinions of a few pro's. As always, I'm grateful for everyone's collective wisdom, knowledge and experience...thanks!
Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim