I started with a Zenith EM which was tremendous value for money at the time and with its brass body, virtually indestructible.

 I then got an Olympus of some sort that I didn’t like at all as it was auto exposure only. I then got a Pentax K1000 which was my last 35mm camera.

I got really into monochrome landscape photography and in a lot of ways regret the passing of ‘film’ and ‘printing’.

It was a skill and a craft. 

14 hours ago, LHookins said:

The iPhone will do auto focus and auto exposure, and possible some color correction.  I'm not sure if it also has image stabilization. 

 

Modern phones do have image stabilization. They record images in JPEG and process them in the camera, as can modern high end mirrorless cameras. The issue is the small sensor size. There's no comparison with something like a Cannon EOS R5 mirrorless, shooting RAW and processing in Lightroom or equivalent. The JPEGs are also better in a high end mirrorless. There is no comparison between something like a Sony A7RV with its 61 MP and full frame sensor and it's awesome quality lenses and an iPhone or Samsung galaxy with its miniscule lens elements. 

1 hour ago, DD_Arthur said:

It was a skill and a craft

 

It was, and my job. I've shot with Sinar studio cameras, Hasselblad's, Nikon, Bronica and all manner of cameras. And yes, spent many hours agitating 5X4 film in a dev tank while pooing myself in case its all gone fubar. 😁 

Modern digital photography is astonishing. Back in the day, we would bracket exposures and pick the best one, but these days they slap all three together in Photoshop and get detail in shadows, highlights and mid tones. Not to mention focus stacking, of course. With focus stacking you essentially generate a huge depth of field by taking several exposures focused at different points and then slap the lot together in Lightroom, Photoshop etc. Then there are panoramas, in that you simply shoot loads of slightly overlapping images and stitch them together in Photoshop to generate an awesome panorama, or make up for the lack of a wide enough lens.

Modern high end mirrorless cameras have image stabilization in the body and the lens and all manner of amazing capabilities. 

It's almost cheating. 😀

10 hours ago, martin-w said:

It was, and my job. I've shot with Sinar studio cameras, Hasselblad's, Nikon, Bronica and all manner of cameras. And yes, spent many hours agitating 5X4 film in a dev tank while pooing myself in case its all gone fubar.

Same. Retired now however.

We were on the cusp of the analog/digital conversion and I was initially fascinated by how much faster it was to shoot digital. It almost led us down the slippery slope of "just shoot it, we can correct it in the computer" but we managed to avoid that pitfall and rather than spend untold hours buggering our eyes staring at a CRT screen (remember those?), shooting "properly" with due care to lighting, composition etc (as per the film era days) we had much less to do manipulating the image and spending silly hours trying to balance things in software.

I do agree though that digital photography is like magic. 

12 hours ago, speedyTC said:

Same. Retired now however.

 

Check this beauty out...

Beautiful price, too.  😃 £7,369 for the body only. Medium format 100 MP. 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

Check this beauty out...

Beautiful price, too.  😃 £7,369 for the body only. Medium format 100 MP. 

Why am I drooling??

Hook

I don't like iPhones and such. They are too fragile. A fold over (flip phone) are indestructible almost and much smaller (but thicker). They fit right in a mans pants front pocket.

There are some youtube videos showing a flip phone on a cement driveway and then they deliberately back out over it with the tires on their car. And then they show the phone still works fine. Dented but still works and screen is still perfect.

4 hours ago, LHookins said:

Why am I drooling??

Hook

 

Tell you what, if either of us win big bucks on the lottery we'll by one foe each of us. 😁

11 minutes ago, Fielder said:

A fold over (flip phone) are indestructible almost and much smaller 

 

Oh, really? 😄 I had a Motorolla flip phone, years ago, that I discovered wasn't indestructible.

I had a bad habit of putting the phone on the roof of my car while I got my keys out. Well, I went to get a tyre fixed and as I drove off I heard a clattering noise. Yikes! Realised straight away what I'd done.

There was my phone, in the middle of the main road after being flung off my roof. I quickly parked and jumped out but just as I was about to run into the road to retrieve it a sizable lorry ran over it. Totally fubar I'm afraid. 🫣

I've never tested mine and perhaps some YT videos are not completely honest. The rugged versions look almost bullet proof.

17 hours ago, Fielder said:

A fold over (flip phone) are indestructible almost and much smaller (but thicker). They fit right in a mans pants front pocket

Until the flex cable wears out after a year of usage and you get a broken wire. Voilà, no more phone.

I still miss my old Nokia 6300: aluminum body, full colors, and the typical Nokia sturdiness. I even installed a simple flight simulator there! And to think my current Samsung S23 (the smallest thing I could get now) is twice as big...

On 9/30/2024 at 1:50 PM, Luis Hernandez said:

Until the flex cable wears out after a year of usage and you get a broken wire.

 

I wonder who tough the latest folding phones are. 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

 

I wonder who tough the latest folding phones are. 

 

 

 

My Dad has the latest folding Samsung phone. He's only had it for around 3 months and already there's a thick multicoloured line running down the screen which makes it almost impossible to use. He also had the previous model. The screen didn't fail on it but the folding mechanism did and if refused to fold out flat after a short period. 

Edited October 2, 20241 yr by james42

Whether it's a Laptop, Flip Phone or a simple piece of paper... Folds or a component of the Fold fails after a time, especially when it gets used a lot. 

9 hours ago, james42 said:

My Dad has the latest folding Samsung phone. He's only had it for around 3 months and already there's a thick multicoloured line running down the screen which makes it almost impossible to use. He also had the previous model. The screen didn't fail on it but the folding mechanism did and if refused to fold out flat after a short period. 

 

He should get it fixed under warranty.