Nikon to cease most film camera production

I was a 35mm junkie from the mid 80's to the late 90's. I loved what I could do, but was always disappointed with the limitations of physical film. Digital was what I dreamed of. And now with my 2 digitals (big body & lenses on the 8-meg and a compact for the 7-meg) it's fantastic.

My dad doesn't ever touch the computer, yet he's having a blast now that he's figured out to make printouts directly from a memory card. And the organization of 1000's of photos is rather trivial when digital. Dealing with negatives is not something I ever want to do again. Heck, much of my grandparent's old photo albums are now digitized.

What would any non-professional what film for nowadays? For that matter, what benefit would it serve for the professional anyway? Consumers overwhelming prefer digital, now that they can print at home with quality better than film using ink that won't smudge and will last for decades.

 

I'm going to tag this inquiry onto this thread, since this is a digital sensor type question, and not a film one.

I just happened to be outside taking some photos and took a couple of pics of the sky on a whim, and just now looking at them. It appears I have dust on my sensor, I even swapped lenes to make sure it wasn't the lens. There are about a dozen spots around the edges of my photos. I tend to notice the spots on pictures with smaller aperatures, and not the f8 and wider ones.

Can anyone here confirm that dust has happened, and what general guidance can you give me on cleaning the sensor from experience. Don't try to stop me from cleaning it myself, I tend to hack into everything.

 

Thanks for the advice.
Image attached. The upper left hand corner of an image of sky shot at f32. [attachmentid=1998]

Dust circled in red. Man, have had this camera only since November. I have acquired 4 lenses, and admit I do change them more than average cause I'm trying them out to see what I like best.

Canon recommends using bulb blower, though I've read that is not too successful, seems to swirl stuff around. Lots of folks on the web seem to like the CopperHill method you mentioned. Another good tip is that Canon service centers will do a free cleaning if you walk it in, but not sure if I've one here in Atlanta.

My style so far has not been to shoot at really narrow aperatures, so the dust might not be a problem in my typical shots. I'm just anal about having it dirty so soon....

 

I also am an old film junky. I had my own B&W/color darkroom since junior high school in the early 70s, and I loved the control it gave me. Probably 80% of what I did in the darkroom I can now do with Photoshop, and of course there are things Photoshop can do that just couldn't be done by humans dodging, burning in, bleaching, retouching, etc. I still have my lenses, bodies, enlargers, dryers, processors, etc., but I honestly doubt I'll ever bring them out again. Miss those (marginally toxic) smells of the old darkroom chemicals...

 

Don't digital sensors still have a ways to go achieving the dynamic
range of film? Or is everyone just happy to live with some bloom?
.
_H*

 

That's definitely dust. I have a picture just like that.

Be sure to carefully read the articles about cleaning. I have cleaned my camera a couple of times. It's not difficult with the right cleaning materials. A blower will not get all of the dust as it seems to stick pretty good!

Heed all the warnings and cautions . I just read about someone who mangled his shutter when the camera decided to close it during a cleaning.

I have also read that the cameras can have dust straight from the factory.

A good cleaning and careful lens changing technique will go a long way!

 

Another old film junky.
I miss the darkroom in a lot of ways (ahh, I love the smell of fixer in the morning!).
But Photoshop helps me forget! My digital prints are better than anything I could produce in a wet darkroom.

I have gotten rid of all my old film camera bodies (wasn't easy). Went digital cold turkey about 2 years ago.
Oh wait, I still have some film in the frige, duh.

I shot with Nikon film cameras for over 40 years. End of an era. But I think film will stick around for a while longer as a niche market.

 

There is lots of complex engineering going on, but from a practical standpoint, it's generally conceded that digital (the good SLR cameras at least) has about the same dynamic range as transparency film, and significantly less range than negative film. And digital tends to blow out the highlights easier. If you shot a lot transparancy film, the switch to digital is easy.

Of course, with digital, you can take several shots of the same scene, vary the exposure over 5+ stops, combine them in Photoshop, and extend your dynamic range beyond any film!

 

You work around it. The same way you work around it when using transparancy film.

 

I ordered Copper Hill's kit right after I posted that picture. When it comes to photos, I feel a little like Howard Hughes... can't be too clean.

I bought a new lens yesterday. I went back through my photos, and from what I can tell, the problems did not appear until I took about the 10th picture with the new lens. Something came into the body (big dust bunny?), either from the lens or from the time I took to change the lens over to the new one. Lesson learned....

 

I have a Canon AE-1 Program with motor drive, flash gun, and 4 different lenses, that I purchased as I finished college. This was around '84 I believe.

Haven't used it in 4 years, but am very nostelgic over it. Like your first woman, you know. For a long time I swore I would never get a fully automatic digital camera, but finally stopped developing my own prints when it became too much of a PITA.

For everyday use I have a Fuji E500 with a 512 MB xD card that I got on sale at Future Shop. Honestly, I can't tell the difference in picture quality, especially if I load my printer with photo paper.

 

So, I assume y'all are using something or other from Epson to
print, since they seem to be the only game in town with decent
inks that don't run if you sneeze near them?
.
fulla questions, I'm sorta still getting started on this stuff,
as you can probably tell from the stuff up at techno-fandom.
.
_H*

 

H:

Actually, I finally bit the bullet and stopped using the ancient HP 6MP laser printer and Epson LQ850 dot matrix, though I still keep them around. They work perfectly.

The local Future Shop chain stores had a great sale on HP PSC 1610 "all in one" last year for $99 Cdn. The Purist may argue it's a medicore color inkjet/scanner/copier, but for my needs it works fine.

I've had very good results with the HP Premium Plus Photo Paper. It was a freebie mail-in for the HP Celebrations Pack offer that hooked me on using their Premium Plus photo paper. At least the picture of kitty turned out well.

J

 

I just ran off some prints from the FL trip on my s.o.'s HP, in
fact -- on photo paper and all. They look great, but woe betide
a run-in with a damp thumb or something. The HP stuff just doesn't
seem to have *any* water resistance, and I'm assuming "archival
quality" is out of the question here.
.
I've read some of the Wilhelm comparative studies on accelerated
lifetime and permanence testing -- fascinating stuff, but probably
doomed to be forever behind the curve from the viewpoint of someone
who might be shopping.
.
_H*

 

I agree.
I have also used Costco for some excellent prints, not pro stuff, but a bit beyond everyday stuff. And the price is right ($.17 for 4x6, $1.49 for 8x10, $2.99 for an 11x14 or 12x18). If anyone is into Photoshop, you can download a free custom printer profile for the printer that your local Costco uses (I think most, but not all stores have this service). Most of them use state of the art printers (the people working there are a different story). I printed some 12x18's that were just spectacular and had spot on color. Its worth giving them a try. You can upload your print file, then specify what time you would like to pick it up.

The free printer profile can be found at:
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/
On the left side of their main page is a box titled "Digital Printer Profiles". You need to read through a few pages to figure the whole process out, but it's worth it. It's a bit envolved, but once you get throught it, it doesn't seem so bad.

 

I just completed my first sensor cleaning with the Copper Hill stuff. I would say that I cleaned up about 80% of what was there with my initial sweep. Was a little timid about doing it for the first time, didn't want to screw up the sensor, so didn't want to do it again just yet. Will get better with practice I believe.....