digital stills of film?

[bigway 4]

i am thinking i should go to digital stills. should i be bying a digital stills rebel or a cheap film loading rebel?
what are benefits and negatives of each.
thanks for voting.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[ltdiver 3]

Your profile says you've got 360 cameraflying (videoflying) jumps. What have you been doing on these? Just video?

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[bigway 4]

no i have been doing video and stills. i have a pc105 and what ever stills camera at the dz. it is kind of a first in first served with the dz stills cameras and i am quite sick of this. so i have been offered a canon film loading rebel for 300 u.s.dollars.
i am thinking if i sould buy this as i know the camera but do not and have never jumped with digital stills. i dont think i have even seen anyone jump with digital stills apart from web sites.
so i just wanted to see what people found the better, old school or new school. Also at my dz we offer our tandem customers a roll of 24 photos that they get developed. with digital do you just put it on disk? or do you print them out?
thanks.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[wlie 0]

Quote

i have been offered a canon film loading rebel for 300 u.s.dollars.

Dude! I'll sell you my Rebel for US$200

Seriously, there are lots of advantages to going digital, but consider the costs vs. convenience. For me... I just can't afford even a digital point-n-click

At least at my dz, I know that customers get a roll of 24 they take home to develop themselves. But should the camera flyer have a digital camera, they get to pick a certain number of prints. Then again getting a customer who wants stills are pretty rare, so getting digital prints are even more rare.

My other ride is the relative wind.

[ltdiver 3]

Quote

and what ever stills camera at the dz. it is kind of a first in first served with the dz stills cameras

Well, that sucks! Where I started skydiving the cameraflyer was supplied with helmet, video camera, and stills. The camera helmet was a 'one-size-fits-all scenario. That place no longer operates now (DZO retired from the sport after 25 years).

Since your DZ only flies film cameras, it would behoove you to buy one of those for yourself. If you bought a digital still camera (and only that), wouldn't you be stuck with going up with -only- those who wanted digital? That would suck even more.

Of course, my advice would be to buy both. You'd have your film camera for continuing student flow and be the first to integrate the digital concept to the crowd. That would be neat. Do a search and look at some of Deuce's posts. He did that for his DZ and -now- most of their students opt for the digital stills/DVD package.

In fact, if you PM Deuce, I bet he'd be able to help you alot. :^)

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[bigway 4]

yeah i think i might sell one of my sony pc's and go for both, i mean i can always give the film loader to my girlfriend or vice versa. I burn most of my videos to dvd through my laptop before they leave, or i get the guy who mows the lawns to do it. i think people these days would rather dvd than video, but the majority of people still have video's so whatever they want. I hope to maybe buy a good quality printer so i can print their photos out for them and give them a disk. i mean i would still give them 24. i dont know we will just see how things develope.
cheers for your replies.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[chachi 0]

I disagree, if you bought a rebel digital you can
a) educate the people and tell them any place will print the cd you give them actually cheaper than processing film and b) you can show all the people that didn't want stills the perfect pictures that you just shot of them and see it to them after the fact. I think you do yourself a disservice buying a film camera but it's up to you. I do not know one single advantage of buying film.

~Chachi

[vdschoor 0]

Quote

At least at my dz, I know that customers get a roll of 24 they take home to develop themselves. But should the camera flyer have a digital camera, they get to pick a certain number of prints. Then again getting a customer who wants stills are pretty rare, so getting digital prints are even more rare.

Actually I don't know why that would be, at my dz (Byron) we offer both, film and digital.
These days we see most customers upgrade to digital, they can email the pics to their family and friends and only print the one shot they really want.

Why do people not buy stills? I think the stills are way cooler than the video, but then I am a photo person.

Iwan

[jimoke 0]

I have shot a lot of film on spec. those people who buy the film develop it and I never see the results. people who don't buy the film goes to the tandem master who will usually bring the prints the following weekend always with mixed results. some good, some not so good.
3 weeks ago I bought a digital rebel........oh my god! there is no comparison, the quality is top notch.
here is a quick page I threw together.
http://homepage.mac.com/jimoke11/PhotoAlbum2.html
the images are all small file for the web except the one named "fullsize"
which can be expanded to see what 6.3 megapixels is all about.
I am glad I spent the money
Jimoke

The ground always, remembers where you are!

[ltdiver 3]

Quote

I disagree, if you bought a rebel digital you can
a) educate the people and tell them any place will print the cd you give them actually cheaper than processing film and b) you can show all the people that didn't want stills the perfect pictures that you just shot of them and see it to them after the fact. I think you do yourself a disservice buying a film camera but it's up to you. I do not know one single advantage of buying film.

~Chachi

You'd be amazed how many tandem customers refuse our digital set-up and opt for film. All our cameraflyers have both cameras and offer both.

I wouldn't want "bigway' to miss out on any jumps if he can help it.

And what's a Canon film camera run nowadays? Pretty cheap. Worth getting if you're into the student game.

I agree that digital is our preferred way to go, but the customer needs to be offered what they feel comfortable with and want to buy. It's their money.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[Zee 0]

I know digital is all the rave right now and the quality has really gone through the roof the past couple of years. A new digital SLR is unquestionably on the horizon for me but I still really enjoy the complexities of shooting slide film. There's really not a whole lot of room for error and the quality is simply exceptional when you get it right. The instant gratification you get with digital is great, no doubt, but I still enjoy the anticipation I feel when I'm off to pick up my slides.

As far as tandem customers go, I've found that most still prefer the good old fashioned roll of film. Most people just don't want to deal with the hassel of getting individual prints when they can just drop off the roll at the one-hour photo place.

Just my two cents.

Peace,
Z

Action©Sports

[ffejdraga 0]

here are my thoughts:

I have been shooting tandem video for about 8 years. In that time I have amassed 3 35mmfilm cameras (2 N70s and one F100 ). Just a few weeks ago, I picked up A D70, and I also bought one of those standalone cdburners from Alera. This past weekend was the test for me, and once I knew everything worked perfectly, I began offering digital to the tandem students. Now, mind you, i am currently the only one at our DZ with this capability, so I had to handle it delicately. When I was assigned a student, I would ask them what they wanted, either 35mm film or a cd with digital pics, one or the other, not both, no extra cost. I told them it wasnt an option for their friends, since I was the only one... out of 4 out of 5 opted for it on saturday (slowday). The only one I had that wanted film was a mother who said that her kids would scan in the pics for her. (which her kids are probably going to be annoyed that she didnt just pick digital in the first place.) But hey whatever, I switched cameras for her and shot 35mm.

As I am editing the video, I put the mem card in the burner, hit copy, and all the pics from that jump go on the cd. Then i make two copies for myself, and it is done. The burner has multisession capability, so one cd lasted the whole day for me.

When you get digital, you need more other stuff too. Very soon, digital will be close to 100% accepted, but until that time, film cameras will still be needed. When you can afford it, get both. But for now, since nobody on the dz is giving digital, the customers aren't really missing out.

btw, I pay $1.20 for a roll of film, 24 exposures.
Cds cost about 29cents each.

Also, another thing I loved about shooting with the D70, is I dont have to worry about how many pics I take. I was taking lots of pics I can't take with film simply because there arent enough pics. So I was taking pics on the ground with the entire group, pictures inside the airplane, more ground shots after, etc. A couple of Cds I gave out had 40 pics on there....I know it can be a little much, but what is the difference?

All the customers left extrrmely happy, and that is the only key.

jeff D-16906