----- Original Message ----- From: "graywolf" Subject: Re: My GFM wrap-up (pretty long, probably boring)
> This rampant enabling is one of the reasons I was never into nature > photography. A street kind of guy can get by with a 35mm and 100mm (or the > digital equivalent) real well. The nature photography thing has been a pretty pricey hobby. In the mid 80s I decided that I wanted better image quality than 35mm was able to give, so I went into a Pentax 6x7 system. This worked well as a dual use system, since I was able to use it for weddings, both in studio and on location. Unfortunately, in use, the medium format system had too many limitations WRT depth of field, and I also heard the siren call of the Zone System. An inexpensive 4x5 monorail camera and darkroom equipment to support it fell into my lap, and I saw the advantages of 4x5 as a landscape format were too great to ignore. Rare were depth of field issues, and being able to control film processing according to exposure, rather than using a one size fits all method sold me on the format. I aquired a smaller field camera (the monorail weighed about 16 pounds) and happily shot sheet film for 18 or so years until I had to tear down my darkroom. Digital opened up some doors regarding longer lenses due to the smaller than 35mm format. I have always been interested in super telephotos, and getting the extra reach from the APS-C sensor is a bonus. The quality that I was used to with sheet film still isn't there with digital, but recently I started playing with multiple overlapped exposures and image stitching as a means of increasing quality. This is showing great promise, so I will probably now start researching monochrome conversions with the idea of seeing if I can produce decent black and white work off the computer. If this all goes well, I may permanently shelve my darkroom (sigh), and stay with digital imaging. Unless Pentax goes TU and my K10 breaks and can't be replaced, anyway. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
