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Re: [OM] Digital vs. film)

Subject: Re: [OM] Digital vs. film)
From: Morgan Sparks <msparks@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 02:29:47 -0400
C.H.Ling wrote:
 I just want to point out that, the digital image developed very fast,
just like the
> computer, speed and capacity has increased more than a hundred times in
> 20 years (with the same price level). Digital camera has just entered
> the consumer market for two to three years, so what will happen 5 to 10
> years later? 

I'm addicted to film, but I concede C. H. Ling is probably right.  The
improvements in films have been real, but they have crept up at an
arithmetric rate; digital progress has been geometric.  For the time
being I and most others on this list will continue to expose film.  When
I can get as good or better images using digital tools, I'll consider
switching over.  Like Ken Norton, a digital back to let me use my Zuikos
is what I really want.  This is the big hangup most serious
photographers have about going digital: the creative investment they
have in their lenses---a concern not shared by the snap-shooting masses.
(The digital revolution is not trickling down from the top, but is more
akin to a flood rising in the basement)  I've heard the skeptics say
that current sensors only give high quality in large format digital
backs, but I don't care too much about current technology.....in a few
years or months it will be ancient history.

The real future of digital formats is closely linked to the Internet, I
think.  Right now the jumble of file formats and compression technology
are baby steps towards a very fast, very high quality video and print
matrix that lies ahead, somewhere.  It seems the hardware for this is
already in place.  The area evolving real fast is storage. . . .the cost
is dropping like a safe out a window.  Even if the longevity of optical
disks isn't great, the digital format lends itself well to rapid and
error-free duplication to future formats.  I don't like everything about
digital imagery, but I am positive it will be the way most photographs
are made in the very near future.

Morgan Sparks

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