Monday, December 11, 2006

Camera For Sale. Some Assembly Required.

I hate my digital camera. Well, sometimes.

This past weekend, I was getting ready to take the family photos for our holiday letter and I was this close to hurling the confounded thing at the wall. To say that my husband would have been a little upset is an understatement, since he spent a pretty fair chunk of change on the stupid thing for my birthday over a year ago. However, the temptation was nearly overwhelming.

First things first, though. Let me explain the background of photography in my life. My father gave me my first single lens reflex camera when I was 14 and I loved to take pictures right from the start. After choosing and loading the film, it was easy: choose the aperture, choose the shutter speed, compose the shot, focus, shoot, advance film, repeat. Simple. Drop off the film and then pick up the pictures. I was hooked. Over the years and as my interest in photography expanded to higher-end cameras, studio lighting, and medium format photography, the equipment became more and more complicated, but there was still the option to shoot simply by overriding all the fancy features and shooting manually.

Then, my husband bought me my first digital SLR, a Nikon that we'd been thinking about for a while. Now, it's not like I'm a Luddite. I'd actually been dreaming of it for ages and thought that I'd be ecstatic. Yippee! A good digital camera! After all, we had a digital point-and-shoot that we never used because the picture quality couldn't match the film that we were shooting, but now I had the camera in my hands that would change all that. Wow!

I started shooting with it and the honeymoon was quickly over. What was once a joyous pastime became a tedious exercise in menus, submenus, white balance settings, noise reduction settings, image opimization, format options, resolution settings, focus zones, ISO choices, downloading, labelling, sorting, burning back up copies, and so on. While there might be a few good things about digital cameras, having to spend so much time at a computer just to get a picture has yet to become appealing, which is why we have over 3,000 images on our computer now and have exactly 5 printed out. It was only one print until we printed out four more yesterday on our inkjet printer, which is a waste of time. Over a whole year of photos and, in effect, nothing to show for it, all the while with the risk of the photos being lost by an errant keystroke or two accidentally sending them out into the ether. Well, that and having our computer crash or the back up copies being damaged somehow.

To take a break from all this, I've picked up my father's 25 year old film camera again and have found that I'm loving the simplicity of it all, not to mention taking some of the better pictures that I've taken in ages. Point the camera, turn two dials, focus, compose, and shoot. So beautifully simple.

So, back to this weekend and my wanting to hurl this poor, undeserving, expensive camera into the wall. Turns out (after having to go out and buy a book about the camera to replace the AWOL manual) that the feature that I was looking for was buried in a submenu that 20 minutes of searching hadn't located. *sigh*

I hate my digital camera. Sometimes.

20 comments:

  1. First off, wanted to say thanks for the egg substitute. I'm going to try my hand at cupcakes today...maybe. Secondly, I totally agree with you on the camera issue. I TRIED to work with our camera today. It's an awesome digital Canon Rebel...but I can't figure out anything on it. My hubby had used it yesterday and set the timer, while trying to figure out how to disable the timer I reformated the card and wiped out all the existing pictures that had yet to be downloaded onto the computer..right before I found the button on the top of the camera with the little clock symbol next to it....UGH!!! I don't think the hubby is all that pleased with me, but the only photos we lost were from Thanksgiving, and they were all his family anyway. Hee hee!

    With your permission I would like to add your blog to my places to check out list.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The only reason I really like our digital camera is for photos of the kids--now I can take 79 photos and delete 77 of them, keeping only the ones where they're actually in the frame. Oh, and I guess I like doing online sharing (we use Kodak Galleryshare)...so if the house ever burns down, I still have copies online. But I know what you mean about the beauties of film.

    ReplyDelete
  3. leeandra-

    Good luck with the egg substitute! I hope that it works for you.

    As for the link, absolutley! Link away.

    Wow, sounds like you had quite the digital camera experience! Funny, yet not. Maybe we should form a support group for disgruntled digital camera users. Sorry you lost all your photos... it truly is frustrating.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  4. jocelyn-

    There are some really great things about digital, especially what you mentioned about deleting photos and online photo sharing sites, not to mention even basic photo editing capabilities. There's no denying it. This is why I have a love/hate relationship with this particular camera. My problem is that I'm just a big fan of simplicity.

    In reality, I think that I'll be the only person in the corner weeping quietly on the day that film finally disappears. ;)

    -velvet

    PS I left a comment on your blog (about Gore-Tex) and it posted as anonymous. Next time I'll sign it, just in case!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I moved to digital a while ago, and eh...

    There is just somethng about film.

    I used to love being in that darkroom back in college.

    Steve~

    ReplyDelete
  6. Steve-

    Ah, yes the darkroom. In college, I was always surprised to see the sun rising and realizing that I'd spent the whole night in there... again.

    Yeah, I agree. There is just something about film.

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  7. Leave room for me in your crying corner when film goes away. If I hadn't had a successful career in something else, I would have attempted to make a living as a photographer.

    I see many advantages to digital, but like you, I love simplicity. My wife and I have bags of Nikon film gear but my favorite is an old F3 with a 35-85 zoom lense. When shooting landscapes I completely ignore the metering and pick the settings based on instinct and what I learned from John Shaw books. The best photos I ever shot were on a trip to Arizona and Utah ... Grand Canyon, Arches Natl. Park, Monument Valley. I'd post them, but they were all 35mm slides - which could make the case for digital. Aaahhhh!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. As a really poor photographer, I love my digital camera. I can take hundreds of photos before I finally snap a good one. So cheap.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Completely feeling you on this one. When people ask me if they can see some photos of my kids, I usually have to whip open my computer or my cell phone. I don't regularly have prints sitting around like I used to.

    ReplyDelete
  10. bernie-

    You come sit right here by me. I'll bring extra hankies. ;)

    Those photos must be stunning! I'm sure it'd be worth getting digital scans of the slides done at a pro lab.

    I know exactly what you mean about shooting by gut instinct... it's incredibly satisfying when the results are better than if left to the camera. It sounds a little hokey, but I find shooting like that to be an almost zen experience.

    Happy Shooting!

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  11. mist-

    That is definitely one of the benefits of digital. I love my delete button and use it often... not having ever printed out any pictures, I can only imagine how much I have theoretically saved.

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  12. liz-

    I miss having the photos, too! If I actually took the time to upload and order some photos,I'd have some to show. I just keep putting it off and get farther and farther behind. Ugh.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  13. Afer reading this, I might have to hold off on buying my wife a digital camera for Christmas...eeek!

    Nice blog! I'll be back to read more!

    ReplyDelete
  14. rockdog-

    Nah, get her the camera! Just wrap it in bubble wrap until she gets used to it. ;)

    Thanks for stopping by!

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey doll, you've been tagged! (If you can't do it don't worry - I'm cool that way.) Visit my blog for details...

    ReplyDelete
  16. heart in san francisco said...

    I read this post with great interest. I have a Nikon N90, and my husband wants to buy a Nikon digital that uses the same lenses. We've had an inferior digital for many years that we never use for the reasons you mentioned.

    I love film. And I especially love the simplicity of framing my picture w/o having to calculate settings or actually know what I'm doing. I am technologically challenged, so for me, the emphasis needs to be on getting the shot I want from an artistic point of view.

    Great and informative post, Velvet!

    ReplyDelete
  17. franny-

    Absolutely, I've even got the song that I want to use in mind. Got a lot on my plate today, so it'll take a little time, but I'll get to it!

    Happy Holidays!

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  18. Heart-

    Hey, welcome back! I hope that you're able to work out the rest of the commenting glitches soon.

    My husband and I both have Nikon film cameras, too, and we got a Nikon digital for the same reason (lenses and accessories). Of course, it's not perfect... the flash that I used for my Nikon film camera isn't compatible for TTL capabilities, but a comparable flash that will work with it isn't too expensive. I think that it helps if your lenses are D-chip lenses, though. Sigh.

    Still, there are some very nice things about the Nikon digital cameras, but it just adds a few more things to take into consideration while shooting. I wouldn't necessarily shy away from getting a Nikon digital SLR because of all this. You still get great photos with it and there are some really nice things about it like the instant feedback, computer photo editing, and ISO flexibility. The digital take-over is inevitable... I think it's just a matter of getting used to a new system.

    I love film. I love simplicity. But, given time (and practice!), I may yet grow to love my digital camera, too. ;)

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete
  19. My sony is the same way. I cannot figure it out. I let my wife handle the camera and picture taking since I've given up on 21st century camera technology.

    ReplyDelete
  20. hammer-

    I'm envious... I wish that I could hand it off! Actually, I know more than my husband does about many aspects of photography and about our cameras, so it's up to me to knuckle down and figure it all out. Unfortunately, the older I get, the longer it takes. ;)

    Thanks for stopping by!

    -velvet

    ReplyDelete