I might be buying a high end digital SLR, possibly the Canon Mark III 5D which runs around $3300 (plus the lens). My friend Larry has this camera and I hear its a beautiful tool.
I hate the idea of printing digitally but for commercial work digi is the way to go that's a no brainer. The only reason I am considering this is that I am being hired to do a commercial job at the plant where I work security. The job would be a large group portrait of around 40 people sitting and standing in front of a fire truck. I need to shoot the job in color and produce a high quality image. Digital would allow me to produce the photo without all the difficulties of using a view camera and doing the C-41 development plus scans etc.
My options are to rent a Mark III for around $165 a day or buying one for around $3300. I also might try asking a friend if I could borrow his Mark II which I might be able to do for a couple of days. I also need to get the print printed to a high quality/standard and which will add to the cost of the shoot.Digital!!!! I am not sure what to do. I am very happy with the quality of my film work over the last 3 or 4 years, I feel I am in tune with my tools. Now if I buy yet another camera that could all be mixed and mashed up. Having a digital thou could be advantageous especially when I am shooting in low light like at the boxing gym in Klong Toey or if I do the "Lost Innocence" series. I was told by a friend photographer a while back that shooting at 6400ASA with a digital is no problem, so thats another 3 stops faster than what I am currently doing with the Leica and Tri-x at 800ASA. The other big advantage is that I might be able to get a commercial shoot here and there if I owned a digi cam. I could use the extra money to fund my documentary work.
There is also the possibility that I could still do the digi photos in the darkroom. Sebastiao Salgado for his last book shot both on film and with a digi camera. His guys transferred the digital files back to 4x5 film then printed it traditionally in a darkroom. Just because you shoot something digitally it does not mean you need to print it digitally. I always loved the look of a darkroom print better than something that comes out of a printer, maybe even if I shoot some of my stuff with a Mark III I could still print it in the dark.
Another thing I hate about entering the digi world is there will be a Mark IV a Mark V and a Mark IIIIII, which always temps me to buy more and more gear. I am tired of the camera buying crap, I just want to make photos. If I buy a high end digi slr camera there will always be the temptation to keep on buying the latest and newest shit.
More thought on this needed, I have to see how much money they will pay me for this commercial project, then go on from there.
