Glad I Waited For The Evolution of Digital Photography

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sonicbuffalo_RIP

Senior Member
In the mid to late 80's, I bought a Minolta 7000i film camera and several lenses. I spent a little over a grand, but was driving cross country in a big rig so I wanted to capture the beauty of America. I ended up driving in that short (compared to many truck drivers) span of a year, 48 states. That's right, I travelled in every continental state in the US.

When I quit driving over the road, I still kept the camera as our kids were young, and the pictures the camera produced were very good. A few years ago, I bought a Nikon D5100. My thoughts here are simply to say that I'm glad I resisted the urge to go out and buy a digital camera when they first came out. The megapixel rate was so low, and the technology just hadn't developed into what it is today. I figure I saved a lot of cash by not buying any of the first generation, or second generations of digital cameras.

Now, I've sold the 5100 and realized that I wanted to upgrade a bit. I bought a D7100 and am very happy that the technology has finally caught up to a very high level compared to film photography. In fact, digital photography has surpassed film in overall technological advances to such a high degree that I am more often than not, overwhelmed by all the features built into my D7100 (I've only had it a month, and most of that time has been spent reading David Busch's "Guide to Digital Photography with the D7100". I finally finished reading the book, and I have so much to learn. I feel as though I just walked through a time machine when I compare it to the 7000i that I had built by Minolta. :mask:
 
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stmv

Senior Member
in a lot of ways,, the 7100 is almost the perfect camera,, without the antiAlias filter, super sharp,, form factor is fantastic, features are well balanced, decent in low light. Meters old glass, can drive the old AF lens, Dollar for Dollar just a great camera. I have the D7000 and totally enjoy it. I have used it for weddings, outdoors, etc. enjoy.
 
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sonicbuffalo_RIP

Senior Member
You're right....it's a very versatile camera....and technologically advanced as we speak (slow down time now so it'll still be "advanced" for the next 20 years...lol)
 
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stmv

Senior Member
well,, cameras are stabilizing, my D800 has been out now for over 2 years, and still no hot rumor replacing it,, and really the features and function of SLRs are very stable. If you are talking SLR lens use,, these cameras should be fine for a long time. I know mirrorless full frames are around the corner, but I will miss looking at the image via the mirror, I am not convinced that the electronic finder will be as fine, but maybe I am wrong,, but, even so,, I suspect the camera will be fine for many years to come.
 
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john*thomas

Senior Member
In the late 90's I bought an Olympus 900. 1.3mp......for what it was it wasn't all that bad. You think 1.3 today and can't imagine but for images on the internet it wasn't too bad.

I believe I paid $300. It didn't last real long was the only problem......A couple years and it was dead.
 
SkvLTD

SkvLTD

Senior Member
Haha, all I can say is that I'm glad I shelled my own money on a DSLR. I've used quite a few family digi cams over the years, but they never saw the light too much due to quality simply not having a proper oomph for me (nor having a heavier interest in more serious photography). Used an older and newer Canon SX, Nikon P80 or P90 (I think?) and of course plenty of cellphones when those started becoming much better than the earliest incarnations of the idea.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
I started digital with cell phone camera. It was god sent, as I could now take pictures without bothering about film, developing and printing costs. For nearly 15 years I shot tens of thousands of images, mostly for professional work - road construction, infrastructure and buildings. In the mean time seven years ago we got the D70 and later the D300. But the cell phone remained my favourite as it was always there and pretty discrete. Now that I have retired I got the D3300 for the sensor and light weight.
 
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