Pixel Pleasure

           I am always pleased to get comments and feedback to these Travel Notes, and was delighted when Bob Shell brought me up to date after my piece about x-rays was published here.

           Basically it is becoming less possible to travel by air with film, owing to an increase in security levels caused by a rise in terrorism, real or imaginary. Checked luggage has been subjected to higher powered x-rays for some time, but now carry-on baggage will get the same treatment. These machines are so strong they will certainly damage your film, so unless a hand search is possible, traveling with film by air will become more of a nightmare.

           For any travel photographer such as myself, this poses a serious threat to my work and income, unless I arrive in a country, buy film there and have it processed there. This is not always possible. In some South Pacific island countries for instance, it is out of the question. Even where it can be done, in some countries it is very expensive, although this has to be accepted if it means taking pictures or not.

           But thankfully the image creation landscape is changing -- the charge of the pixel brigade is on its way. Many photographers have already made the transition to digital, but to date I have held back, as the cameras currently offered are not, in my opinion, practical photographic tools. While the quality of digital pictures improves constantly, the cameras seem to fall into two groups: hybrids (added on backs to existing SLRs), and compact camera replacements.

           The SLRs have all the worst aspects of their type -- heavy, noisy shutter, and the inability to take successive frames quickly. One camera I looked through showed "busy" when I tried to shoot the way I can with my Nikon FA of 1985 vintage! As for the compacts, they lack the capability to even accept a Skylight 1B filter to protect the lens; there is no screw thread for one.

           But the biggest drawback with digital currently has to be the continued use of 1/2 inch and 2/3 inch chips for imaging, the same as video cameras, amateur and professional. If this is not enlarged to full frame 35mm, then the cameras should take advantage of the reduction in size potential. Which means either mini-sized SLRs or larger chips. I know which I prefer!

           Also, the lenses of digital cameras are of much shorter focal lengths, so the depth of field must be greater for a given aperture. This I rate as a big negative to creative picture-taking. I experienced the same thing operating professional video cameras for years -- with the small chips, the 'everything in focus' look was hard to avoid except with long focal lengths. I for one need selective focus more than the current digital cameras allow.

           Hopefully manufacturers will soon reach a point where any further technical improvement will be disproportionate to the cost involved, then move on to improving cameras as tools to create images and tell stories with, the job they were originally designed to do.

           I long for the day when I can buy a digital camera system that works for me as a photographic tool. The current bunch do not, but then, digital is hardly out of the cradle. With digital I could forget about carrying hundreds of films through airports – only a few memory cards and a device to send the images I want to keep do-able from any internet café, would be the norm. Meanwhile, this travel photographer will just carry on dreaming!

Visit : http://www.kodak.com/country/US/en/motion/support/technical/xray4.shtml to get the full facts of what x-rays can do to your films.