Reply #78: YOUR standard photography, maybe...

[jmowreader]

I shoot 35mm only when absolutely necessary, although I keep a Nikon FG on hand at all times. My preference is 6x7cm transparency film, specifically Fuji Velvia 50. In a medium format camera there is no digital camera priced at less than, say, $20,000, that can approach the quality you will get out of this film.

You can sort slides faster than digital--just throw a hundred or so of them on a light table and grab your loupe.

If you put a scratch in the back side of a slide, you can put a little Edwal No-Scratch on it and print with impunity. Put a scratch on the back of the CD that has your digital images and see what happens.

You don't have to worry that Adobe is going to supersede the file format your slides are in and render all your work unreadable.

If you're out shooting digital in the middle of Timbuktu and fill up your camera's memory cards, you're pretty much out of luck if you didn't bring a laptop with you--roadside gas stations usually don't sell memory cards. If I'm out shooting film and run out (and that would be a feat to remember, because I can't remember the last time I went out shooting with less than a brick of film in my possession) every gas station and grocery store in the known universe has 35mm film.

And here's the kicker: If you for some reason have a great digital picture and you need it bigger than your image size will allow--maybe you want a 20x24 to hang over the sofa--you're basically screwed. If I want to print a 20x24 off one of my images, I just run the head of the enlarger up higher.

Digital has a place--it's good for fun snaps you'll print a couple of times but don't really care about. If you go to the club with your friends and want to take pictures to remember the evening, yes definitely carry a digital camera. But for archival work, wet process is the ONLY way to fly.