It's Official!!!

[SuperTrooper]

My youngest daughter graduated from high school Tuesday night. We had good seat near the front, and since there were only 120 kids in the class they made sure there was plenty of time for anyone to take pictures while the kids were up on stage receiving their diplomas. While I watched all the people taking pics I realized...

I am the last person on earth with a film camara!

I saw 8 year olds with digital cameras. I saw someone's grampa, who must've been about 90, whip out his tiny Canon. I saw grandmas with digital video cams the size of a pack of Marlboros. We went out for a nice dinner after the ceremony, and when we got home my daughter started showing us pics people had already posted on Facebook. I used one roll of film and am half way thru another. I'll try to drop it off to be developed this week, but who knows when the other roll will be finished. Hopefully Father's Day. On Father's Day I'll be unwrapping my new digital camera, because I'm going shopping this weekend!

BTW, I knew I was in trouble when the grocery store I frequent eliminated the film section and replaced it with a digital media section. They put all the film in the clearance bin at 75% off. My camera uses APS film and I grabbed it all. When this roll is done I'll still have about 8 rolls for the camera. Oh well.

[Bicycle Bill]

My youngest daughter graduated from high school Tuesday night. We had good seat near the front, and since there were only 120 kids in the class they made sure there was plenty of time for anyone to take pictures while the kids were up on stage receiving their diplomas. While I watched all the people taking pics I realized...

I am the last person on earth with a film camara!

I saw 8 year olds with digital cameras. I saw someone's grampa, who must've been about 90, whip out his tiny Canon. I saw grandmas with digital video cams the size of a pack of Marlboros. We went out for a nice dinner after the ceremony, and when we got home my daughter started showing us pics people had already posted on Facebook. I used one roll of film and am half way thru another. I'll try to drop it off to be developed this week, but who knows when the other roll will be finished. Hopefully Father's Day. On Father's Day I'll be unwrapping my new digital camera, because I'm going shopping this weekend!

BTW, I knew I was in trouble when the grocery store I frequent eliminated the film section and replaced it with a digital media section. They put all the film in the clearance bin at 75% off. My camera uses APS film and I grabbed it all. When this roll is done I'll still have about 8 rolls for the camera. Oh well.

You are the SECOND TO LAST person with a film camera.

I'm still using a regular 35-mm SLR Pentax; you at least upgraded to the APS film. And because I've been using it since ... well, a long, long time ago, I can get pretty fair pictures of whatever it is I'm aiming at. Some of my shots have seen print (newspaper), and I've won minor prizes in photo contests during my career. I don't do my own darkroom work, so I generally get beaten out by people who can do the voodoo once the shutter has been snapped.

I'm in no hurry to replace it just for the sake of 'modernization', either. I like the idea of having something tangible in my hands, either a slide or a negative, that I can actually see and save. And modern negatives don't deteriorate if stored properly; I found a B&W strip of the old "Burlington Zephyr" train that my grandfather had shot back in the '40s and was able to print them off. They're not museum quality by any stretch, but it shows a moment of history in a setting that doesn't even exist any longer.

-"BB"-

[Dr.Corona]

Congrats on the graduation of your daughter. You've definitely earned your stripes. YOU should be rewarded with a Graduation gift.

[Frank4]

Congrats on your daughters graduation...fight the urge to get a digital camera....

[Brown Eyed Girl]

Congratulations Clayton!!! I bet you were a wee bit teary eyed seeing your baby girl graduate.

As for the camera...I technically still have a film camera, though I never use it. Found some undeveloped film not too long ago, wonder what pics were on it? But I do like the immediacy of a digital camera, nothing worse than thinking you got the greatest shot in the world, only to develop your film and find out you were wrong. At least with my digital slr I can take a bunch of shots and just dump the crummy ones...and I'll have a good idea right away if the shot was good. And I love my small digicam for phlockings and other social events. You can find some very nice ones that are reasonably inexpensive...and still shoot up all that film you have left. Best of both worlds.

[Hockey Mon]

fight the urge to get a digital camera....

No...succumb to the dark side and get a digital camera... (insert Darth Vader smilie here)

[dnw]

Congratulations on your daughter's high school graduation.

[pbans]

Congrats to you and your daughter!
You give me hope.....two more years!
There is something very satisfying about film cameras.......I don't use mine anymore, but I can't part with it either.....big surprise.

[SuperTrooper]

Thanks for everyone's congrats!

I'm looking for something with more than 3x optical zoom. I see that there are some Olympus cameras that are waterproof. My film camera is an Olympus so I'm partial.

[CaptainP]

Actually, my wife is a professional photographer. She still shoots about 50/50 film/digital. Digital has caught up to the quality of film, but barely, and can't do certain special effects in the same way.

[sonofabeach]

the cool thing about digital cameras is that I can can shoot a bunch a pics of the same pose
and pick the one I look the least fat in

[STL PARROTHEAD]

the cool thing about digital cameras is that I can can shoot a bunch a pics of the same pose
and pick the one I look the least fat in

does my assss look fat in this camera?



congrats on the graduation SuperTrooper!!

[buffettbride]

Aww Clayton! Congrats to you and your kiddo! You must be so proud!

[Spider Johnson]

First congrads on your daughter graduation. I still have my old Nikon I bought when I was in the military. It needs a new lense.
I also have a couple of digital cameras an Olympus and a Sony.
The Olympus is a great little "pocket camera". ( It is older DZ-520 Zoom. Enlargements beyond 5x7 are not so great due to the megapixels 2.1 I think.) The Sony is an H-1 with a 12x optical zoom.
At the time I bought it, it had the highest rated optical zoom of any similiar type digital camera. (Roughly equivalent to over a 400mm.) Both cameras do adequate (or better) macro photography.
Needless to say, both cameras are older.

I would suggest starting out with a pocket type camera with a good optical zoom ( I am sure you can find better than 3x) and large megapixels say 5 or higher. ( IGNORE THE DIGITAL ZOOM! It doesn't do much, if anything for the picture you take.)

The "pocket" cameras are usually easy and fast to learn. I take all my pictures on the highest quality settings. That is your decision to make. Yes it eats up memory, but the quality is worth it. Most digital cameras can also make videos of various length and quality. Some will do sound, some will not.

You probably should invest in quality rechargable batteries and charger. Stay away from the cheaper/low quality ones.

You may also want to invest in more memory cards/sticks, and a card/stick reader for your camera. It works like an external hard drive. You plug it in to a USB port. You can find them at varying prices

Here is an excellent site for almost any digital camera out there. Thourough reviews are made by everyday people that own the cameras and have evaluated them. Most any question you have will be answered on it.

Note they also list several sites where the cameras maybe purchased and the price will vary. You can also find excellent deals on e-bay if you want to take the time to look around.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs.asp

[rich_big]

What’s a ‘film camera’?

Congrats to you and your kid…

[Snowparrot]

the cool thing about digital cameras is that I can can shoot a bunch a pics of the same pose
and pick the one I look the least fat in

You can take pictures of yourself? talented!!

[rich_big]

the cool thing about digital cameras is that I can can shoot a bunch a pics of the same pose
and pick the one I look the least fat in

God bless photoshop....

[Bicycle Bill]

fight the urge to get a digital camera....

No...succumb to the dark side and get a digital camera...

fixed it for ya.

-"BB"

[JustDucky]

Actually, you're not the last person with a film CAMARA - you're the only one! I had some friends that had the car CAMARA, ha ha, but never the film CAMARA.

[SMLCHNG]

Congrats, Clayton!!