Award winning Amateur photographer needs help switching from 35mm film to digital

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Award winning Amateur photographer needs help switching from film to digital.

A customer asked me the other day:

After twenty years of shooting double exposures, landscapes with water and art photography for myself, I am seriously looking to switch from my Canon EOS A2e film camera to a digital set up. Where do I start?

And here is what I suggested:

The first point is that you have a set of EF lenses, so you'll most likely be sticking with Canon PowerShot SD870IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)">Canon to be able to use your existing lenses. Next, "kit" lenses probably won't tempt you, although you might get a really good deal if you purchase a lens with a new body.

Next, you need to decide about FoV crop cameras. In these, the sensor [the single most expensive part of the camera] is smaller, and acts like an extender as far as the focal length, but the aperture is not affected. Indeed, as the sensor is in the middle of the film frame, any of your lenses that were a bit soft in the corners will be improved due to the crop! OTOH, any lenses with a bit of CA, chromatic aberration, will likely be worse in digital. With one of Canon's 1.6 FoV crop cameras, your wide angle 24 mm lens will act like [fl x 1.6] a 38 mm lens, not very wide at all. This is good at the long end, for distant wildlife shots, but not so good at the wide end.

So, to maintain the focal length experience you have, the FF [full frame sensor size = 35 mm film (negative) size] Canon 5D Mk. II is the camera to get. There are other possibilities, but they are all more expensive. The 5D Mk II is an excellent camera, although all cameras have limitations. A FF camera will be more important if your landscapes are normally shot at wide angles, as some are, or you may need to get a new wide angle lens also.

OTOH, the Canon 40D and the new 50D cameras are available new, are quite capable as FoV crop 1.6 cameras, and are less costly. As an experienced shooter, I think you would be less happy with the entry level Canons, of which the XSi is the current leader, although they are smaller and weigh (and cost) less. If size and weight of the XSi is good for you, it's a nice entry level camera.

Indeed, as you venture into digital, not only will film costs go away, but you can do things like check the previous shot on the LCD display and checking the histogram to see if the camera clipped and you need to adjust the exposure. Many advanced features such as a higher frame rate, more capable autofocus, double exposure ability, histogram display, etc. will be found, or be better implemented, on the xxD [and 5D] cameras, rather than the entry level XSi, XTi, etc. cameras. Check these cameras out in your hands, and feel how whichever camera feels natural [or less so] in your hands. Check out the viewfinder also, as some SLR people find the viewfinder to be like looking through a tunnel compared to using their SLR viewfinder, and hard to get used to. Different models of DSLR are better or worse at this, as usual.

Try these out, and welcome to the new world of digital photography.

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