At the end of the day, photography is about life more than anything else. It’s about capturing things that cannot be later reproduced. A good camera is one that you never think about. It is in your pocket when you need it to be. And good photograph is one that you enjoy twenty years from now.
I’m on record as saying I’m going to wait on buying an M8. I have three systems I’m working with for now:
- Nikon D80 with the 24mm f/2.8 (supplemented by the 50mm, 12-24mm)
- Nikon P5000 Coolpix at high iso in black and white
- Leica M6ttl with 50mm or 35mm Summicron with C-41 film scanned with National Photo’s (Reisterstown Rd, Baltimore, MD) Noritsu scanner.
I’ve run the economic numbers many times and so does Dante: Dante’s calculation for me is about right- the Leica costs me about $20 a roll all said with film and developing costs. His estimate of 60% depreciation of the M8 over 3 years is realistic looking at the prices of 3 year old high end Nikons. Buy a US$5000 camera today, resell at US$2000 in 3 years- cost $1000 a year. 50 rolls of film.
I think that if I didn’t have the convenient film workflow, I’d be more inclined to use digital capture. But I like the imposition of non-linear chemical sensitivity in the workflow for it’s transformative capabilities. The M8 is a very accurate painter of the scene. Film stretches and compresses by itself. The transformation to black and white, out of my control, is another step away from the scene as presented. Even the wait to develop and view provides more distance.
There’s a pleasure in the unexpected transformation of film photography that is different from the immediacy of digital. For learning how to expose and light, digital is far superior. It is immediate and predictable. For me there is then a journey to transform the image to create the personal vision. My experience with film is different, it is one of experience and discovery.