Digital BW, The Print

> I am going back to film for I can afford a Nikon body and a
good 1.4
> 50mm lens for $AUS1100, whereas a Professioinal Camera - Canon,
> Nikon, or Kodak, start at $AUS9000.
> The new Canon G5 is $AUS1400 and already it has its 5mb usurped
by a
> new amateur camera of 6 mb
> This is not forgetting that my expensive lens can also be used
on
> future Nikon bodies.
> So, for many of us the bottom line is cost (and a non-convinced
wife
> in the background).

Ken,

I'm not a pro or even a serious amateur in photography but
thinking along the same lines as you have done I decided to
postpone digital photography till 6-8 Mpix becomes available for
an acceptable price and rather in a G8 package than a SLR. To
bridge the period I did buy secondhand 6x6, 6x9 folders and am
busy to convert an old Polaroid 110A to a 6x14 panorama camera.
My philosophy is that there's nothing better for scanning than a
lot of square inches of film. I wouldn't recommend buying folders
like I do but secondhand Hasselblads or Mamiya 645's are getting
cheaper day by day. I have not seen comparisons ? between 35 mm
shots scanned on a 4000 ppi filmscanner and 6x6 shots scanned on
an Epson 3200 but with equal quality cameras I bet the 6x6 wins
in that case. The value of the old equipment after you change to
digital has to be considered too. My folders were cheap and can
be sold for the same price, the Hasselblads too, I'm not
convinced that the Nikons keep their price. It is collectors
value that counts after the revolution.

It all depends on what you have to shoot of course.

Ernst