User ID

A bit late to the party but OTOH you’re actually just in time for some fantastic coffee and desserts :-)

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Yes you are correct. I will have a cup of coffee instead.
Mundy

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

I know what you mean. "Gee, now even morons can take a good picture!" LOL. the new cameras don't frame the shot. You still have to have an eye for it.

jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

That 777 (Asiana Airlines Flight 214) crashed because of sloppy work by the PNF who did not monitor the speeds on his XXI century display.

They'd crashed their plane exactly in the same manner in 1930.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

As someone who actively shoots film in 2021, as well as old manual focus film lenses on digital cameras, my thoughts would include:

1) Consider a mirrorless body that allows for sharing all your current film lenses with now a practical 'digital back'.

2) If you have AF capable film lenses, consider the compatibility of these lenses with a target digital camera, whether mirrorless or DSLR. I say this with the idea of maintaining film shooting along with digital.

Personally, I gave up on manual focus film lenses and bodies about 5 years ago. I can't focus as well manually without digital aids and I was just wasting film as compared to what I can do with AF-capable lenses. Now, I seamlessly share my Canon EF lenses, with both AF and IS, with an EOS 1v for film and the corresponding EOS 5DIII for DSLR.

The old completely manual / non electronic Canon FD lenses I mount to a Sony a7II. Multiple tools in the mirrorless Electronic View Finder (EVF) let me focus these lens better than I ever could with the manual focus film bodies, better than even back in my 20s with fresher eyes.

Ideally, I'd have one EOS mirrorless platform for both AF and MF lenses as a digital platform. That consolidation is still a few years into the future, as the option didn't exist in the past when I made the decision to dump the MF film bodies for the Sony. Depending on your legacy film equipment, you may / may not have an option to add a digital body that leverages all the old equipment on the new.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Many use the a zoom lens to compose, zoom to fill the frame.

goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

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LeWhite

Digital Technology will always advance,
~~~ it's just a matter of "If you have enough money" to be a good photographer ??

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha...


Cheers
George Veazey
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Real Nikon Lover Loc: Simi Valley, CA

Amen. Sometimes a great photo is captured by shear dumb blind luck. Literally. And it didn't matter what camera. The person just happened to be there at the right time and pushed the button.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Self-doubt can be an ally. It can serve as an indicator of the need for a new camera.

goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

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Tomcat5133 Loc: Gladwyne PA

These new focus techniques are great. If someone is running past you their are some
ways to get the shot. News guys use rapid fire shots to get a frame. Focus assist is
fine with me. They new camera's are amazing. In movie and commercial production
the DP uses another person to "focus puller" as he or she is working on the moving shot.
They usually have a wireless device that controls the focus.
And you can find much less cost camera's that can track focus. My Sony's like the 6300
and the a7s II have great focus assist. Don't know if you need animal eye detection
but I seem to remember Sony had human eye detention.
I was talking to the guy who runs my car repair shop. He was a editorial
sports photographer. And had to work hard to get a single frame that was
the money shot. He would have loved to have Sony and Canon technology
Good luck.

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

How is that?

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

An old adage for photojournalists in the Speed Graphic days was, "F-8 and be there." They had focus-stops on the bellows rail for near, middle, and far distance. If they needed faster shutter or smaller aperture, they marked it for push-processing.

Part of the art is having an eye for composition, but also the craft of applying the science to the vision.

A surveillance camera in a lot or building makes no decisions but those of the people who installed it, and all the pictures are meant to be the same. But it takes craft to set it up for evidence in court. That is where the human choices come in. The journalists have decided what pictures are wanted, and what the editors want, so they can pre-set some things for that. Postcard photographers wants different look (remember postcards?)--typically outdoor scenes in bright sun, F-16 on a tripod, at hyperfocal distance.

Editors of stories have a particular audience in mind, so being a great writer is not enough for them. Most of them want something that can sell, not great literature with very small audience. It is the same with photos, yes? If you take your child to a department store for a portrait, you have expectations quite different from what people do as pure art. (Do they still do portraits at Walgreens, etc.? iPod made that superfluous, yes?)

Besperus Loc: Oregon

Well, take it back a few steps. Critical thinking might argue that digital photography is for those who lack skill. You have technology which allows you to shoot at any ISO, shutter speed or aperture or any variable. Focus, heck we’ve had auto focus in point and shoot film cameras and gotten spoiled. Photography as an art or a skill went away with the rangefinder and the view camera. Thank George Eastman for making it a pastime. How many birthdays, graduations and family vacations have been shot since roll film came into existence? The push has always been in this society to make everything easy, simple and thoughtless. Grab a burger, beer and watch a movie on a massive screen at home sitting there in your underware.

Besperus Loc: Oregon

Or be lucky enough to be at the right place, right time and press the shutter on the camera that focuses and exposes by it’s self. I dog, monkey or rabbit could do it. Luck