Taking photos of displays...

[Tony Duell]

> Unless, of course, you actually have a decent digital camera... ;-)

Yes, but I can;'t afford a 5*4" digital back for my monorail. And even 
then I am told film still has a higher resolution.

> 
> http://www.30below.com/~zmerch/d70/Nitetime_shot_30sec.jpg
> 
> It's a big picture - 3028x2002 pixels (native resolution of my Nikon D70) -

I hate to tell you this, but a good 35mm image is normally regarded as 
being equivalent to 12--20 megapixels. 6 megapixels is not enough IMHO.
 
> 1.2Meg of storage used -- it's a 30-second exposure of downtown Grand 
> Rapids, Michigan about 8:07 PM local time (2008 hrs) through smoked glass 
> using a little hand-held tripod.
> 
> And yes, it has an iris, shutter (speeds from 30sec -> 1/8000 sec) takes 
> most Nikon lenses made in the last 15ish years...
> 
> The last camera I'll buy for a long, long time... ;-)

Well, until some custom component fails and you can't get a replacement, 
anyway. One good thing about the old, mechanical, film cameras is that 
most parts could be made in a good home workshop (and they don't tend to 
fail anyway).

> 
> [[ Tony's gonna bitch at me at this one, but I finally have a digital 
> camera that takes pictures as nice as my Canon 35mm film camera. So it got 
> sold on ePay. Megapixel, schmegapixel - I looked at the last 4-5 rolls of 
> film I took with that camera, and I printed several pictures on my Kodak 
> dyesub from my new one - to my eye, they are equally aesthetic - therefore 
> I'm happy. Oh, and the last roll of 800-speed film I ran through that 
> camera didn't look as nice as some ISO800-setting pix off of my Nikon. Bad 
> film processing? Maybe, but now I don't have to worry about that anymore, 
> eh? ;-) ]]

Well, I've never actually used a Canon camera, but I believe they're 
pretty good. So my question is bascially 'what were you doing wrong with 
it'. Because it should be capable of giving much better images than a 6 
megapixel digital camera.

I think we can discount any problems with the lens. Canon lenses are 
good, and anyway it's hard to mess up the design of a standard lens. I 
know of only one poor standard lens -- the Myers Domiplan. But anyway...

I'm a bit worried by your choice of film. To me, 800 ASA is a fast film, 
which will have coarse grain. I normally preder something slower than 
100ASA. And then there's the issue of developing and printing it. These 
high-street places can ruin a picture from even the best camera :-(. 
Personally, I'd take slides (thus eliminating the printing stage) and 
probably process the film myself (not at all hard to do).

FInally, I am sure you're aware that camera shake ruins more pictures 
than anything else. Use a tripod!

-tony