Get with the times, lady

[Trixie]

Had a woman come up to my counter last night with a roll of film and immediately starting complaining. I'll just list her complaints since this really wasn't a conversation.

-Why don't we print pictures smaller than 4 x 6? Like the size they were before that, the 3 x 5. That's the only size that fits in her photo albums.

-It's very hard to find film anymore. She had a digital camera (though she didn't call it that) and just erased all the pictures because she knew she wouldn't get them printed.

-It takes her two years to use a roll of film. She really misses being able to find rolls of 12 exposures since they were easier to use up. Probably only took a year to use.

-Once she gets the prints back they never leave the envelope. I guess because she can't put them in her photo albums.

The only thing I could think of after she left was "Why bother having a camera?" Right now I'm without a good camera and I miss having one. I have a cheap digital one that's more trouble than it's worth. I only have a flip phone so no pictures there.

After this woman I had to go take my break because she just wore me out. And that was just in the four minutes tops it took to enter her order for send out.

[Slave to the Phone]

I have several nice cameras. When I use them, I need more than 12 pics for one shooting session. Digital cameras are really nice, though. You can take all of the pics you want and then delete the ones you don't like.

Just deleted a long screed about people blaming the messenger. Forgot where I was.

[sirwired]

I cannot even imagine only taking 12 pictures in an entire year. Especially since even in the hands of a good photographer, the chances that more than one of those 12 pictures will be really good is quite low.

I'm something of an amateur photographer, and I can say for myself that my first digital camera was a revelation. Not having to be constrained by the cost of film or processing made picture-taking so much less stressful, and I never had to worry about running out of film. (Okay, I never had to worry once I started using digicam number 2, which had a decent-size memory card.) And the instant feedback on the picture meant I could see if it turned out and if not, either correct it for the next shot if I could, or move on to another subject if I couldn't.

My photo storage is up to something like 30k photos, and none of that would have been possible in film days.

[Trixie]

I think that especially for someone that doesn't take many pictures a digital camera would pay for itself. For the price of film and developing it, that's about $25 right there. I don't know if she was really that close minded about it or didn't have anyone to explain the benefits of it. I think she was just stuck in that mindset and nothing would change it.

[EricKei]

Especially since even in the hands of a good photographer, the chances that more than one of those 12 pictures will be really good is quite low.

Amen! Back when I used to work at a small paper, we preferred to get fifty to a hundred shots of any given subject -- more if it was something ongoing, such as a fire, etc. We did this knowing that, even out of that many, we *might* get three that are both clear enough and good enough to run in the paper. Turns out, it was a good policy. Another photog from there won a "Best newspaper photo of the year" award for our state a few years back, as a result

[Docmayhem]

Amen! Back when I used to work at a small paper, we preferred to get fifty to a hundred shots of any given subject -- more if it was something ongoing, ...

From a news photographer I used to know: "Film is cheap. Missing a shot is expensive."

[wolfie]

Amen! Back when I used to work at a small paper, we preferred to get fifty to a hundred shots of any given subject

Easy with a digital, 2 or 3 rolls of film (assuming 36 exposure) with a 35mm. Try doing it with an "old school" Speed Graphic (the stereotyped "press camera" you see in old movies - takes 4"x5" sheet film, and individual flash bulbs).

[earl colby pottinger]

Digital camera

My mom could never understand me taking multiple pictures once I went digital. She was always saying I did not need to take so many photos, but as pointed out if you are not an expert (and I am certainly not one) most shots do not come out so good, so with a 32 GB SD card I just snapped away.

When using film, each picture you take will cost between $0.25 to $2.00 a picture once you factor in film, processing and printing.

On my digital camera, picture to computer probably costs me less than $0.001 per picture if you just look at electricity costs, and probably less than $0.01 per photo is the computer is only used for photos.

What made it even more funny is my mother would delete old photos on her computer to save space, she was saving space on a computer with a 80 GByte hard drive, and she only was using less than 12 GBytes which include *ALL* the photos I took for her, and scans of all her old photos from the albums she had.

[Trixie]

Even though the process of taking and printing pictures has changed people haven't. People will still blink, move, walk into the shot, squirm or whatever. I always dread when people come in with babies or toddlers and need a passport photo. That's the perfect reason right there for taking more than on picture. At least it doesn't cost anything to delete them.

[EricKei]

Trust me, wolfie, I remember those days. I grew up using 126-type film cameras with the 4-use flashbulbs, and the occasional 35mm camera. I really don't wanna go back to film, though I am eagerly awaiting the day when the digital instamatics (nee Polaroids) have more common cameras that are a) reasonably cheap and b) optical zoom. Digital zoom can GDIAF as far as I'm concerned. Get me one of those, and I'll gladly stock up on the media and a few sets of Eneloops.

[wolfie]

I grew up using 126-type film cameras with the 4-use flashbulbs

My brother's first camera was one of those - the old drop-in cartridge that took square pictures. Did you shoot prints or slides? Also, did it take electrically-fired flashcubes or percussion-fired (Magicubes)?

[MadMike]

Where would you even go to get film developed anymore? All the place I know of dropped that particular service years ago.

I got my first digital camera for my birthday 11 years ago, and it was so nice not having to deal with film, or worry about someone walking into your shot, flinching, the flash not going off, or the shot just not coming out right. If something goes wrong, nothing's wasted. Just delete it and try it again.

And of course, you don't have to worry about running out of film. Sure, you could run out of memory, although it's unlikely, and even if you did start running low, you can always delete some of your less favorite shots to free up more room. I took a film camera and two or three rolls of film on the first cruise I went on. And of course, I had to be careful of what pictures I took, so I didn't run out of film. When I went on my next cruise, I had a digital camera, and I took about 700 pictures with it. About 100 or so didn't turn out. Can you imagine how many rolls of film that would have taken, even just the ones that didn't turn out?

[Trixie]

My store stopped doing film about 5 years ago. There were a few that still did but I think they stopped over a year ago. My first digital camera was a 2.1 Megapixel and came with a 32 MB memory card. Yes, that's mega not giga. I used it right up until it conked out on me last year. I was happy with the pictures. They're just for me anyway.

I bought a super cheap digital maybe 5 years ago that really wasn't much better than the first one. I fell for the digital zoom. Yeah, it sucks. It works fine to get a little bit closer but not much else. I'm still considering getting another camera. Just a good low priced one will be good enough for me.

[notalwaysright]

I got my first digital camera for my trip to Japan. The main issue I hadn't considered was how freaking fast it ate batteries. On the plus side, I got to see places I wouldn't have if I hadn't been searching for a mini-mart to buy batteries. This experience also made me get my first set of rechargeable batteries and they still charge after more than 10 years.

Of course this lady had just picked something to be pissed about. Can you imagine a life so sad that you berate someone about not being able to find film with a specific number of shots? Sometimes when I'm cranky about something, (this is often) I will try to remember how stupid it is. Like when a little old lady is cranky at me because she can't find 10 skeins of yarn with the same dye lot. Not saying it always works, but I just don't want to become that person you know?

[XCashier]

Can you imagine a life so sad that you berate someone about not being able to find film with a specific number of shots? Sometimes when I'm cranky about something, (this is often) I will try to remember how stupid it is. Like when a little old lady is cranky at me because she can't find 10 skeins of yarn with the same dye lot. Not saying it always works, but I just don't want to become that person you know?

Or berating someone for five minutes because you didn't like a picture in a coloring book. I'm sure we can all name many specific examples. Yep, if I ever become that person, please shoot me.