CCD abuse

[xmatt]

I'm beginning to become annoyed by digital cameras. I don't have one of my own and I don't want one, at this point. I've noticed a disturbing trend whereby many people become so fixated on taking pictures of everything that they forget to experience whatever it is they're photographing

Comments

huh?

[jwmo]

I'll note before I begin this retort that I own a Nikon Coolpix 3500. It's pretty cool, and in my opinion, it is significantly underused by me.

That said, the advent of affordable digital cameras has made photography a viable hobby for many who before didn't have the avenues for it. REAL print photography is incredibly expensive, and you have no control of your shot with a Kodak Funsaver 35, the previous forerunner of consumer cameras. Even the worst cameraphones have manuals to control at least the zoom and use of flash. My camera, definitely a consumer model, has very detailed controls for resolution, focus, lighting, etc. A film camera with those kind of controls probably would've cost me three times as much back in the day of analog photography. With someone as left as you claim to be, matt, I would think you would support the availability of resources to greater masses.

Photography used to be a real art form...

Art is fundamentally linked to experience. Photography is still an art (cell phone photography included). This trend has just made it more populist. It certainly doesn't dilute the quality, nor does it invalidate the medium. I would say that the digital camera movement has done far more for the progress of the medium than almost anything else.

Re: huh?

[piratehall]

Right on.
-E