[TheForge] Digital camera (Yak)

[Ries Niemi]

Like all tools, you need to think about what you want and why you want 
it. If it is just unquenchable tool lust, then yeah, think about that 
zillion pixel that will take 1000 pics.
Or, if you are really a professional photographer, and you make money 
from it, then an SLR from Nikon or Canon with a digital back is 
perfectly justifiable. I have a friend who shoots for a major daily 
paper, and they give him a multi thousand dollar digital camera, that 
literally  will shoot 1000 frames in no light. He has taken amazing 
portraits at my house in the dark. And, for most of the quality of 
printing he does- up to and including a glossy weekend magazine 
section, the digital is indistiguishable from a film camera. Ansel 
Adams would still need film. But there are amazing deals on used large 
format cameras- If you really want the resolution, I have seen
  2 1/4" Yashica's for 300 bucks that will shoot a great photo.

For most of us, however, we already have a hobby/obsession/occupation 
that sucks up all our tool budget- metalworking.
I find that the main thing I use my digital camera for is quick shots 
of installations, work in progress, and finished work. With photoshop, 
I can touch up colors, remove irritating background items, and quickly 
paste up good looking images for flyers, invitations, web pages, 
proposals, resumes and self promotion. Most of this I print myself on 
my $200 epson printer. I find it makes a lot more difference to spend 
the money for good printer paper than for a really good camera, as for 
almost all of the applications I will be using it for, no one can tell 
the difference.
If someone ever decides to print a coffee table book about my work, 
they can take their own damn pictures.
So I think it is more important to spend less on a servicable digital 
camera, than to get carried away getting the best, biggest one out 
right now. Because the lifespan of todays electronics, is frankly, not 
very long. Both because of the high speed of innovation, making your 
current stuff obsolete and incompatible in about 2 years, and because, 
frankly, the stuff just doesnt seem to be built very well. We need to 
buy a new cd changer for the shop about every 2 1/2 years. Couldnt be 
anything to do with grinding dust- the things just break after a while. 
  Usually just about the next week after the warranty expires.
But most all of the electronic devices I have bought in the last 10 
years have only lasted 2-3 years before they pooped out, and repair 
charges are invariably 90% of a new one. My little olympus digital 
camera, which I was very happy with, just died, and it would cost more 
to fix than to buy a new one. Some of the reason it died, of course, 
was because it was so damn convenient, so it always ended up being 
taken along in pockets, cars, and backpacks, and so it got dropped a 
lot more than the 35mm camera which is too big and bulky to want to 
take with.
So, while they are not totally a disposable object, I think you need to 
think of digital cameras as something having a limited lifespan, and 
therefore, when I go shopping for a new one next week, I am planning on 
being pleasantly surprised at how much better a camera I can get for 
$250 than the last time, about 4 years ago.

ries