http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/bill_clough/5227    By a quick and probably inaccurate count in a recent catalog--about the size of a Victoria phone book--B&H Photo now offers 132 digital cameras.    The digital revolution is not news, but its effect (please note I did not use the word "impact") is widespread.    For instance, this recent article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/business/09film.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slog    Film drop-off processing plants appear to have a limited future.    A member of the Leica Users Group wisely points out that in the rush to go digital, "everyone seems to overlook one inescapable advantage of film, NEGATIVES….Five years from now if someone asked you to reprint a specific digital image, do you suppose you could find it? I doubt it."    Good point. Many a photographer has learned that while the ability to preview what you have just shot is a godsend, going digital also carries a heavy price of storage. It’s just too tempting to take too many pictures of the same subject and then to store them.    This discussion is concurrent with Kodak’s introducing a new version of (gasp) T-Max 400 FILM! And, a press release that is heartening to those of us who still enjoy shooting film: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&pq-locale=en_US&gpcid=0900688a807b9764    One tiny anecdote about switching from film to digital,--at least if you are a Leica rangefinder user: Since the introduction of the famous M series of Leica with a re-wind lever to advance the film, photographers have rested their thumb against that lever. It made the photographer stabilize the camera and allowed the film to be advanced quickly for the next shot.    Well, with the introduction of the M8--the digital version--there was no reason for a film advance lever.    Enough Leica shooters have complained that when they are shooting with the M8 they have no place to put their thumb, a man now offers for sale a spiffy attachment.    One end slips into the hot shoe. The other end has a tab on which to rest your thumb.    Thumbs up to that idea!    By a quick and probably inaccurate count in a recent catalog--about the size of a Victoria phone book--B&H Photo now offers 132 digital cameras.    The digital revolution is not news, but its effect (please note I did not use the word "impact") is widespread.    For instance, this recent article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/business/09film.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slog    Film drop-off processing plants appear to have a limited future.    A member of the Leica Users Group wisely points out that in the rush to go digital, "everyone seems to overlook one inescapable advantage of film, NEGATIVES….Five years from now if someone asked you to reprint a specific digital image, do you suppose you could find it? I doubt it."    Good point. Many a photographer has learned that while the ability to preview what you have just shot is a godsend, going digital also carries a heavy price of storage. It’s just too tempting to take too many pictures of the same subject and then to store them.    This discussion is concurrent with Kodak’s introducing a new version of (gasp) T-Max 400 FILM! And, a press release that is heartening to those of us who still enjoy shooting film: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&pq-locale=en_US&gpcid=0900688a807b9764    One tiny anecdote about switching from film to digital,--at least if you are a Leica rangefinder user: Since the introduction of the famous M series of Leica with a re-wind lever to advance the film, photographers have rested their thumb against that lever. It made the photographer stabilize the camera and allowed the film to be advanced quickly for the next shot.    Well, with the introduction of the M8--the digital version--there was no reason for a film advance lever.    Enough Leica shooters have complained that when they are shooting with the M8 they have no place to put their thumb, a man now offers for sale a spiffy attachment.    One end slips into the hot shoe. The other end has a tab on which to rest your thumb.    Thumbs up to that idea! en-us Good Lord, Bill - only in the Leica User's Group could one find people with so much time to waste they have to complain about not having any place to rest their thumbs when shooting with their $5000 digital Leica cameras. And as to that nonsense about digital photography not producing "negatives" - they're called RAW images, and unlike negatives, they can produce color or black and white images, and everything in between. And if properly filed, they are no more difficult to find than negatives. I don't know about you, but over the years I have lost the negatives of the most important groups of images I ever produced - and one of my past employers managed to loose the negatives from an irreplaceable shoot. Film is a wonderful capture medium; always ways, and will be for some time to come. But it lacks the flexibility of digital, and it is inevitably becoming an artifact of a time past - just like glass plates and copper sheets. Keep shooting the Tri-X, Bill - you're a true artist and it's your canvas. But please, please, don't buy the swill peddled by the neck jewelry Leica collectors who call themselves photographers but couldn't produce a meaningful images to save their lives. Your buddy, B. D. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/bill_clough/5227/#c_19577 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/bill_clough/5227/#c_19577 Good Lord, Bill - only in the Leica User's Group could one find people with so much time to waste they have to complain about not having any place to rest their thumbs when shooting with their $5000 digital Leica cameras. And as to that nonsense about digital photography not producing "negatives" - they're called RAW images, and unlike negatives, they can produce color or black and white images, and everything in between. And if properly filed, they are no more difficult to find than negatives. I don't know about you, but over the years I have lost the negatives of the most important groups of images I ever produced - and one of my past employers managed to loose the negatives from an irreplaceable shoot. Film is a wonderful capture medium; always ways, and will be for some time to come. But it lacks the flexibility of digital, and it is inevitably becoming an artifact of a time past - just like glass plates and copper sheets. Keep shooting the Tri-X, Bill - you're a true artist and it's your canvas. But please, please, don't buy the swill peddled by the neck jewelry Leica collectors who call themselves photographers but couldn't produce a meaningful images to save their lives. Your buddy, B. D. Hey Bill... I'll bet that gizmo costs a lot less than my vibration reduction lens. OlderFella http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/bill_clough/5227/#c_19590 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/bill_clough/5227/#c_19590 Hey Bill... I'll bet that gizmo costs a lot less than my vibration reduction lens. OlderFella The Honorable Mr. Clough,     The previous poster is right about there being such a negative thing as RAW...which is great and becoming easier to develop. Also programs such as Lightroom and Bridge. You can archive photos by date, subject, and other fields. Also you can assign key words which you can type in to pull up such as "Sports", "Football", or "Landscape". Film still has some benefits and it is nothing like taking a film picture but you can shoot full manual in digital cameras (which i do), and you can have negative processing. I still shoot some film every once and awhile, but digital is going to make a huge impact and has it is just touching the surface. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/bill_clough/5227/#c_19742 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/bill_clough/5227/#c_19742 The Honorable Mr. Clough,     The previous poster is right about there being such a negative thing as RAW...which is great and becoming easier to develop. Also programs such as Lightroom and Bridge. You can archive photos by date, subject, and other fields. Also you can assign key words which you can type in to pull up such as "Sports", "Football", or "Landscape". Film still has some benefits and it is nothing like taking a film picture but you can shoot full manual in digital cameras (which i do), and you can have negative processing. I still shoot some film every once and awhile, but digital is going to make a huge impact and has it is just touching the surface.