Why did you go digital?

[Nikon Photographer]

My first digital camera was part of a computer purchase back in 2000, a Fuji Finepix 1300, didn't really use it for anything than taking photo's for eBay listings, it was only 1.3mp, and anything over postcard size photo's and the quality was crap, and as I still had quite a few Nikon SLR cameras, I did say to myself this digital stuff will never take off ......
On a holiday to Tenerife back in 2003 I let my partner use the Fuji and I took a 35mm compact, a Chinon Bellami which I still have, the year after I took my F-80 on holiday while I had bought a new Kodak DX 4530 5mp camera, as I had a friend working in a computer store and got my a good discount, I let my partner use it, looking at the photo's on the computer when we got back home, I was pretty impressed with the results, but it was still to me not a 'proper camera', I carried on using my 35mm gear, but at the airport flying out I bought the latest issue of Amateur photographer, and they did a review on the new Nikon D70, wow it sounded a great camera and I could use my Nikon lenses I already had on it, film prices were going up and up, as I used transparency film, and I no longer had my darkroom, the bad news was the price, over £1,000 in the U.K and no one had any stock, but while on holiday I found a great camera store that had just had the D70 delivered, so I did a deal on the D70 body and 18-70 lens, a few memory cards and after spending around £730 made my way out the store .......
And thats when i really got into digital and sadly the film camera's which I still have sadly sit un-used, plus the magazines I was working for were going over to digital, so it made sense to go fully digital ......

 

[reverb]

It just seemed a natural progression. I had a Sony film P&S for several years, which got lost on a family day out. The obvious replacement was a digital Sony P&S (I had recently bought a computer). After a couple of years (just beyond warranty) the lens stuck, and the man in the shop suggested it was cheaper to buy a new camera than replace. So a Canon IXUS came next. This camera had the advantage that you did have the opportunity to play with manual settings if you wanted to - and I enjoyed seeing the difference you could make. A few months ago, my father-in-law lent me his Canon 30D, and I was staggered at the difference a good DSLR and lens could make. After weeks of comparing and agonising, I went for the D3200. Very pleased, two more lenses since, and at least a year of learning ahead before I even think about changing up.

 

[Carolina Photo Guy]

I went digital because of the film costs.

​I still have my Polaroid PDC 640 .3mp digital camera from back in 2002. It still works perfectly and it's still a battery hog!

I haul it out every once in a while to remind me how far I have been. I've had Sony, Canon (60D), HP, Kodak and Nikon (D40-D60-D70-D80-D90-D3100-P310 and Nikon 1J1).

So far, Bessie is the ONLY one I have seriously named. She is the Nikon One J1.

 

[WeeHector]

As a kid I used a Kodak 127 Brownie which took about 12 photos to a roll. I missed out on a great shot because I was out of film. For years afterwards I was always reluctant to take the last photo unless I had a film to replace it. Access to a developer was a problem for me from 90 onwards and I occasionally had films processed 10 years after they were taken. I have recently found one which was taken back in 98 and I'll put it in one of these days.

I moved onto digital, in a small way, in 98 and loved the immediacy of the process: take the photo, look at it at once and then download to computer. Then wipe the card clean for a new series. With my new camera I can now permit myself the luxury of taking 150 photos of a single spider over the course of 20 minutes.