Viewfinder: Silicon or Paper?

Don’t turn your back on the old technology yet--it still offers many advantages that digital technology can’t provide.

On my recent vacation, I captured lots of images. I knew that I wanted still images, so I brought along a 35mm film camera. I also wanted to capture the sounds and movements of the activities on our agenda (like my daughter catching a salmon), so I brought a camcorder as well. The least enjoyable result of this decision was carrying the gear. Cameras are fragile, so we were inclined to hand-carry them on the plane. Cameras are valuable, so we wanted to keep them with us. Whenever we went someplace interesting, we had to haul the gear with us. Sometimes we didn’t feel like carrying anything, so we left the cameras at the hotel. Then, of course, we had to actually use the cameras. Sometimes it is fun to use a camera, other times it’s really work (which is not fun when you’re on vacation).

We wound up with some great pictures and great video. We watched some of the video right after we shot it (my son doing a flip-jump on the hotel bed) but we had to wait a little longer for the still photos. The experience of using two cameras caused me to reflect upon the differences and similarities of the gear and the types of images that we …