Yesterday we went to the San Diego Zoo with my daughter’s family and her two young girls, my grandkids. Two days before I got back the pictures from a roll of Velvia 50 I had taken with my Olympus OM2n. The pictures came with the rich voluptuous colors you normally get with this film.
So I loaded up my Olympus with another roll of Velvia, this time 100 speed and was planning to take it on our outing. At the last minute I switched to taking my Nikon digital DSLR. Why, kids move, and sometimes they don’t wait for you to focus. The Nikon gets the shot almost instantaneously. The second and more important reason is that I figured I would not take more than 20 or so pictures and the film would sit in the camera for a while.
So, the third most important advantage of digital cameras in my opinion is that you can take a few shots and get the results right away. With film you normally wait till the entire roll is exposed.
So how did the shots turn out? Judge for yourself.
Here is a much better snap quick shot from last month.
So am I happy with my decision. No. I would have made better pictures by using film. The lion shot would have come out better with Velvia. Film’s dynamic range for outdoor photography would have been useful in yesterdays bright sunny day that had lots of shadow on light pictures. But I did get my pictures back at the end of the day.
Bob Nuttmann 