Digital cameras versus the old days

[Beth-Lock]

Digital cameras and the new digital picture frames, are a great thing for CD'ers, particularly those n the closet. It used to be, unless you had a darkroom with smelly chemicals, any pictures you would take would have to go to the laboratory where they were scrutinized, gave the technical people a laugh and were screened for any seeming signs of what was then considered 'perversion.' The police might be notified.
Then came the Polaroid camera, which was relatively expensive per picture, and the better ones with self-timers so you could take a pciture of yourelf, while alone, were relatively expensive.
Today, you can take hundreds of pictures of yourself, using a digital camera with self-timer, and maintain complete privacy. With the new digital electronic picture frames using an LCD display, you need not even go to the expense of making a print on paper of any of your pictures.
Do any of you have stories about the old days, and the difficulties then?
Any contrasting stories about using today's digital technology, or mishaps with it? Are digital pictures stolen off the web? Can that put you under a mistaken, misdirected police investigation?

[Deborah_UK]

I remember getting my first homepage and needed some photos to go on it. I had a Minolta SLR camera (pre digital) and got a cable so that I could take photos remotely.

When I'd used up the roll of film I then considered how I should get it developed. I was very shy and closeted then so didn't want to go to the local photographic shops, so decided to use one of those postal developing services.

Sent off my film - it never came back!!!!!!

Surely I didn't look that bad!!

[Laura_Stephens]

Digital cameras are also better for the environment.

A long time ago, I used to take pictures of myself with a Polaroid -- the self developiing kind. none of them ever turned out right and I always cut them up before leaving the hotel room. I am FIRMLY in the closet.

[Sarah...]

I've been on the other side of the fence - I worked for one dismal summer in a photo processing lab. Saw several sets of "interesting" pictures going through and despite being instructed to bring such pictures to the attention of the manager I declined to do so. I had too much respect for the photographic subjects who had been brave enough to send photos in for developing because I was too scared to do the same!!

I'm a modern gal - it's digital all the way for me now. Although I'm not particularly environmentally friendly as I still print a lot of my pictures.

Sarah...

[Julogden]

I can relate to this, as I did my own black-and-white darkroom work back in the old days, spent many an hour making prints, inhaling those chemicals. When I did color, I used slide film, developed the film myself, but had to send the slides to a lab if I wanted prints, always a stressful time waiting to get the prints back. Digital is SO much better in so many ways, at least in my opinion.

Carol

[KarenCDFL]

As a life long amateur photographer, I have to say that 35mm film had its own special quality that some will say always will look better than a digital photo. Same as music purists like vinyl better than a Digital Compact Disk.

Honestly, with the DSLR's I am using now, I am much happier with the control over the content plus no wasting of film, no chemicals etc.

I use a Nikon D300 now.

[Emily Anderson]

Digital cameras are definitely a blessing as far as having the ability to take a virtually limitless number of pictures, but what often saddens me is the fact that so many of those photos end up on a hard drive somewhere, in the oblivion of thousands, perhaps millions of other "trivia" that we gather in this digital age.

[Felicity]

Digital camera's are nice, but not for me until I find an affordable full feature camera that does the equivalent to 100 dots per millimeter on the negative size. That's a 2400 x 2600 format, or 8.64 megapixil. They are now there, but spendy.

At that fomat, you can print a 8" x 10" at 300 dpi. Di some decent cropping and sill do the 8 x 10 at 150 dpi. I may wait until they are beyond 12 megapixil for a decent price however. But the 2400 x 3600 (maybe 3000) format is my minimum. Until then, I'll stick with my Minolta 35 mm and 2 megapixil camera phone. The Shadow.

[suzy cool]

Digital cameras are definitely a blessing as far as having the ability to take a virtually limitless number of pictures, but what often saddens me is the fact that so many of those photos end up on a hard drive somewhere, in the oblivion of thousands, perhaps millions of other "trivia" that we gather in this digital age.

I agree. History is based on photos at the back of a drawer somewhere and it's all lost now. People just don't print them out. I have quite a lot of photos but they never saw the light of day and probably never will.

[Deidra Cowen]

I still have a 35mm camera and I luv that I have all my pics both on the computer and I have real copies too. LOL I have a huge shoe box full of my CDing pics. I am lucky if I have 20 of me in boy mode in the past 10 years.

I get them developed at the drug store and sometimes Wolf Camera...never had any troubles....but I can tell sometimes they have looked at the pics by the smiles on their faces when I pickup my pics in boy mode.

[docrobbysherry]

I use a video camera. I get thousands of frames in the time it takes to shoot 10 still pics. Even if u have a remote, (which I use with my new camcorder).

Another advantage: I can mess around with any frame, then just trash it if I'm not happy with it. I do that with 1000's of single frames. Yet, my original tape stays untouched, if I ever want to select more frames.

A computer virus mite wipe out all my frames, and months of editing work, but can't touch my original video tapes!

[Samantha43]

I love technology. I have been crossdressing for over 30 years but never took a picture of myself before I bought a digital camera. I was always afraid to get them developed. Now I have hundreds of pictures. Usually I have to take about 50 pictures to get a few that I like. The others get deleted. This is a huge benefit of digital cameras. No waste.

[Karren H]

I've had people email me and tell me they saw my photos on different web pages so i know that they ahve been borrowed and spread around... but i don't care... they were actually pretty good photos!! lol I love the digital age myself....

[tamarav]

[SIZE=4]After many years of going through the effort of getting pictures developed I went to digital a few years ago. I now own three 5 megapixel Sony cameras that have each taken over 10,000 photos. I use each picture to decide what doesn't look right and try my best not to do it again. I couldn't do that easily with film cameras.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4]I use the same style camera in my transformation studio to capture images for clients to take home with them. since I am used to how it operates and have all the remote triggering equipment (and I can write it off as a business expense). Amazing how much camera gear and makeup you can write-off....[/SIZE]

[Kendra (Tx)]

[SIZE="3"]I now use a digital....But at the first...My old reliable SLR...And the good natured individuals at the "1 hour photo"...LOL...I've often wondered how many of "Kendra's pics" ended up in someones personal collection...One time in particular, My GG friend ( Emmy ) and I had gotten back from Houston where she had given me a professional makeover and photo shoot for my birthday, and afterwards we went shopping...I had to work the next day and she offered to take the pics down to the Walgreens 1 hour Photo..Not a problem... I was in the middle of work when she stopped by with the developed pics....I "peeked" at some...not wanting to let anyone else see Kendra...And she proceeded to tell me that Kendra has an admirer...The poor kid who was running the photo department asked Emmy "Who's that lady in the pics? She's cute..Is she single???" Etc..Well..Emmy has a sense of humor a little to the "left of center"...She told the kid.."That's my BROTHER...He's a ( insert a macho occupation here )...And he did this for a costume party"...She told me that the kid turned awfully pale when she said that...and then walked off with his tail between his legs...LOL A post script to this is..Emmy likes to say that her and I are Identical twins...I got the height, and she got the green eyes...Now, Picture this...I'm 5'17" in heels and she's closer to 5' then I am...LOL I have a posting elsewhere on this site of a pic of the two of us...You'll see what I mean...Twins??? Yeah right...[/SIZE]

http://kendra954.com

[Melinda G]

Small video cameras, digital cameras, and self timers....truly gifts from God.

[bah-bah-bobbie]

I'm technolgicly inept. I don't even have a cell phone. Then again I have noone to talk to. But I would love to learn how to upload images and video for web forums or cataloging memories. As it stands now I'm having trouble puting a picture in my profile from my desktop. I keep getting upload file failure or something that means I don't have a picture under my name. Any help would be appreciated.

[Cristi]

I worked in a darkroom years ago... and also had all of the equipment/chemicals to develop film at home.

I shot a lot of B&W film and developed the negatives, but never had anything good enough to go through the trouble of making prints. I still have sheets of negatives from those days, someday I'll get around to scanning them into the computer.

Then came polaroid , but the prints aren't archival, so any pics I have left over from that period (late '70s) are looking pretty bad

Finally, my first digital camera (less than 1MP, about 15 shots on a set of AA batteries!) Terrible quality, but I didn't CARE!

Now I have two 12MP digital SLRs with a nice selection of lenses and a small studio lighting setup (work related) plus a small pocket 'point and shoot' for more spontaneous stuff... the sky is the limit!

[Pamela Julie]

I have a Nikon 35mm slr and many accessories to go with it. The cost for a dslr Nikon is still too high except for the low end D40 which really isn't that great a camera. I suspect in two more years there will be a dslr that will meet my requirements.

I am now looking at some of the smaller 8mp point and shoot digital cameras, I want a camera I can keep in my pocket at all times. At near $100 for 8mp and 3:1 optical zoom, the current cameras meet my need for portability, so I will be getting one in the next few weeks, finally.

I have been cataloging and editing some of my wife's digital pictures, and scanning 35mm negatives to Photoshop, so I have gotten well skilled at digital touchup. I just didn't have a way to take pictures of Pamela. Digital would need to reach over 50mp to equal films ability to make large blowups, but the current 8mp will blow up to 8x10 quite well if you don't crop the image, good enough for most people, and good enough for me at least 75% of the time.

Pamela

[kayallen66]

I used an SLR 35mm camera for years, always took the film to be developed, always worried "what if", even though I never took any x-rated pics. I now use a digital, much easier and convenient. (Although I do miss the thrill of going to pick up the pictures.) I have a bunch of pics that somebody will find someday when I'm dead and gone. Should I get rid of them or just say the heck with it.

[Laura_Stephens]

Can anyone recommend a decent digital camera to someone who doesn't know which end is up or down on a camera?

[JaymeCD]

I could not imagine bringing my pics out to a one hour photo lab or sending them out to be developed. I worked at a one hour photo lab for a while and ran into some interesting pics. But I never ran into any cross dressing photos. Some pics that I did see were like spring break pics where girls are flashing the camera and pics of like guys girlfriends in their underwear. But thank god for digital cameras!

[Beth-Lock]

Laura: They, (Consumer Reports), say Kodak ones are the easiest to use. I have an ultracompact Kodak, and it seems fairly good.

[BritneyLynn]

Just remember that any photos you store on a computer's internal hard drive might be subject to scrutiny if you have to take the computer to a shop for repairs. Better to store them on an external hard drive or a CD-R. As a bonus, many DVD players are designed with a function that allows them to display ordinary JPG files (the most common format for digital photos) as a slide show on your television.

[Keely]

I started out with a Pentax SLR 35 years ago. At that time any CD pics were on slides as could process them myself. Now it's digital all the way. Sure wish I had those old slides though, they would be fun to look at and to post.