Gone Digital!

Well, that time has finally come. One of my co-workers was selling his nearly-new Nikon D200 digital SLR with a couple of lenses and a flash, and it was too good a deal to pass up. So I've listed my Contax G1 and Olympus OM4 (both my staple 35mm cameras for many years) up on Ebay.

I definitely had some pangs while setting up these auctions, because these cameras meant a lot to me at one time. The OM4 was a camera I purchased new in 1986 with insurance money I received when my OM2s was stolen. I went ahead and bought three lenses with it at that time, and only added one more lens over the years. But then in 2001, I got the bug to get a rangefinder camera for the superior optical performance (no mirror makes a difference!) and ended up getting the G1. The lenses for this camera are nothing short of spectacular.

But all good things must come to an end. I've spent years working on scanning and Photoshop techniques to recover the skewed color of film. I've spent countless hours cleaning up the scans by removing dust spots and scratches. Not only that, but film needs to be processed. In the last few years, I've used digital cameras many times, and largely felt that the quality was just not there. Well, I think it is getting close enough for most things (this camera is 10.2MP) but mainly the work flow, speed, and convenience just can't be matched.

So that's it! End of an era. I'm only now starting to get familiar with this camera as there is so much to it I'm a little daunted. But I'm sure that by studying the manual, I can learn this system just like all that have come before. Wish me luck!