Matt
> It's the emotional part that I'm working on. > [Or maybe since I used to work in the high-end IT industry I just saw > too much and don't trust it one "bit".]
I greatly appreciate fine tools for the creative empowerment they give me, but I find it hard to get emotional. My first superfast Seagate 1GB SCSI drive was a wonder to behold in my machine (limitless storage), but when it crashed, it was days restoring off floppies. With the terabyte RAID in this machine, I somehow lack nostalgia. In fact, as I typed this, I realized that I did not even know what brand of drives I had installed. It is a purpose-built graphics workstation fine tuned to Photoshop and multi-media content creation and presentation. All the criteria were grounded upon "fast". It is networked to a slightly older and slower machine, and they often work together interactively, network rendering.
Sharp contrasty prints are also appreciated from a fine lens, no matter who makes it. I have lenses from Nikon, Canon, Leitz, Olympus, Vivitar, Bronica, Schneider, Zeiss, Rodenstock and some with the Linhof brand, of whose origin I have no idea. I don't think Linhof ground them, but had enough confidence in their quality to sell under their own name.
Each was purchased to solve a specific photographic problem, and they have done so admirably. Each one is a "favourite" when put to its specific use. None - absolutely not one single lens - was bought out of lust. Each was carefully chosen for its intended task, and is the best choice for that task. I have about the same level of emotion to lenses and RAID arrays.
> Anyways, I've known that we're speeding towards a "digital future",
No, we are in a "digital present", and that is why you have so much trouble finding these lenses. The film camera industry ended over the last few years. No more Yashica, Contax, Minolta, or Konica. Agfa is pretty much out of the film and camera business - or photographic business in total. Ilford is trying to recover from bankruptcy. Kodak is struggling desperately make the transition. Bronica has ceased making SLRs, making only the rangefinder now. Leitz is just barely hanging on, with alarming reports of a drop-off in quality.
Now over 90% of Nikon's revenue is from digital photo equipment. That is clearly not "speeding toward" but rather "arrived and settled in". My F3 and arsenal of lenses has sat dormant now for half a dozen years. I recently discovered that I had not even taken the last roll of film out of it! My Bronica ETR system has been idle for at least a decade. These were my daily workhorses!
It takes a situation where a 6x7 medium format frame is needed to make film still practical for me to shoot, but once it is processed, all the darkroom work is digital. My colour fume-room has been closed since the mid-80s and I recently gave all my enlarging and processing equipment away.
The only 35mm film I anticipate shooting in the future will be panoramics with my WideLuxe. Three exposures will do a 360° image that is simply layered together in Photoshop. Much simpler that stitching from digital images. I can scan all three as a batch for perfect seamless matching of colour and lightness.
Other than that, I can do much better with direct digital shots. While there is digital equipment on the market that can better my 6x7 stuff, it would be at a price I can not justify. I already have a bunch of medium format equipment, so shooting with it is a small compromise to get 16MP to 22MP equivalent quality using film. I doubt that I will ever put a roll of film through the Nikon or Leica again - they simply can not match my digital stuff. In so many ways, 35mm has become a totally obsolete format.
larry!
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ ICQ 76620504