A rant on the term Analog when relating to shooting Film

Untitled – Cedar Rapids, Iowa

There is a recent trend to refer to shooting film as analog and I’m sure this is due to the image capture device which is a physical emulsion of silver halide. There is nothing digital about an old mechanical camera filled with your favorite emulsion. So what does this have to do with digital cameras?

First off, the CCD sensor that most digital SLRs use to record the light, is an analog circuit; there is nothing digital about the component. This is not the case for CMOS sensors which could be either an analog or digital circuit. (This is the actual imaging sensor and not the components that work with the sensor)

Why does this bug me?

I think it bugs me because no one bothered to think about what is actually recording the light, granted there may be digital circuitry behind the sensor to process the data, but the fact is the device that gathers light is analog in one of the 2 types of sensors used in digital cameras. I don’t believe film is an analog process, it’s an everlasting chemical process, from creating the emulsion, to shooting, to developing. The only chemical process used in the creation of a digital camera is the etching of the copper off of the circuit boards, which really doesn’t create something tangible as it’s removing most of the copper to create traces for various components.

I guess I’m a little jaded because I grew up with film cameras and today there is a generation of children who have no idea film exists. There are people converting from digital to film (how odd is that) and I think this is where the analog term came about; most likely some trendy kid or online magazine/blog coined the term and everybody latched on.

Respect the chemical process, call it by what it is, film.

As an aside, I’m tired of seeing the Dell/Verizon commercial for their collaborative netbook, that damn “Lollipop” song is pissing me off.

Adventures with Photography…

4 Bolts and a Nut – Downtown Cedar Rapids, IA

Yesterday was the 2nd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. Most of the Rebel Photo Club crew was down there and joined up with another 25 or so people that made up the Cedar Rapids walking group. I had a good time, hung out with my buddy Dean for the hour and a half we were allotted for shooting. The only problem is the event happened during the downtown Farmer’s Market which I did my SoFoBoMo shots of and just happened to be there earlier in the morning buying stuff with Erica and Lilly. Since Eric finally got his Pentax K-7, he let me borrow the K2000 since the shots have to be uploaded to the servers in a certain time window and film just wouldn’t cut it, especially with my lack of funds. I’m sorta mad at myself for not taking any artsy shots like the blurry train.

There is something about Digital SLR’s that bug me and that was reconfirmed while I was using Eric’s K2000. The K2000 has a setting where you can shoot black and white JPGs instead of color, so I decided to rock that on the photowalk. The annoying thing about all of this is the fact that my awesome manual focus lenses (SMC-M’s) don’t have the aperture contact to the camera body to use in Aperture Priority mode, so I’m stuck in Manual and completely screwing shots up because I can’t meter the camera. I wish that (at least for Pentax) that they would support reading the aperture from the lens mechanically like their older cameras. I don’t even know if their flagship 35mm camera, the MZ-S, supports this. Nikon and Canon have it worse in my opinion, at least I am able to meter my lenses on the K10D, K20D, and the K-7.

Dean was awesome enough to give me four boxes containing a pretty complete dark room, all I need are a gallon brown jug for the developer, some replenisher, and a scanner since I now lack one. I’m pretty excited to develop my own black and white film, I have 2 maybe 3 rolls to do. I might improvise and take a gallon milk jug and duct tape the outside to make it light tight.

In dissappointing news, my Vivitar 75-205mm f/3.8 has fungus behind the front lens element. Completely my fault for shooting it in the rain at the first Farmer’s Market of the season and for not having a shammy bag made for it like my other lenses. Guess I’ll have to get to sewing that sometime soon here.

Busting 5 knots, wind whipping at my coat…

Sunset in a Starboard Turn – Whitefish Lake, MN

Want to thank The Lonely Island for the title of this post, seems fitting for the picture. The shot was taken from Erica’s uncles’ Cobalt while we boated to see the sunset out in the middle of the lake.

The trip to the lake was a good one, I believe I got some good star trails and the one that I can at least see from the 35mm loaded into the Pentax looked sweet. Other than take pictures, I really didn’t do much which was nice.

Drove to Lincoln, NE to visit the family for the 4th and had a good time there. Saw Larry the Cable Guy for $6 at the football stadium. We took Lilly to the zoo for the first time and had a blast there. I got some good pictures I think and hopefully the torn sprocket holes and the opening of the camera back didn’t screw too much up on the roll of film. I did get my dad’s old multi-meter since he isn’t using it anymore, so that’s a plus as they always come in handy.

I borrowed an old Kodak Retina III C from my aunt which turns out to be my grandfathers’ old camera. It’s pretty sweet, but the shutter is sticky some times, the selenium light meter is dead, and the rangefinder is ultra dirty. I remembered that Ken Rockwell found a repair place near to him that does excellent work, so I emailed and ask for a quote. Sorta too much for me to pay for now, but it would be nice to get the camera fixed. I would do the repairs myself, but I have a feeling that it wouldn’t turn out too well. Maybe I can find a repair manual for it somewhere…

So I’m actually making it through Solaris right now from when I recorded it on the DVR months ago. I need to get the book.