The Major Difference Between Digital and Film

Here's the biggest difference between film and digital cameras, and never mind everything else you've heard or read. With film, I would periodically take pictures of my own feet. I'd be sitting there in my easy chair watching TV or something, and I'd just get the urge to fondle the camera, so I'd start playing with it, and eventually I couldn't help but waste a frame so that I could click the shutter and hear its sound or feel its action or whatever. So I'd end up with a picture of my feet every five or six rolls.

It's not as much fun to fondle digital cameras. With digital, what I find myself doing is taking pictures of my computer keyboard instead. Because I'll be sitting here reading up on about this or that feature of the camera, and I'll change the settings and, of course, try a quick frame or two. But it's the middle of the night and I'm too lazy to get up, and the monitor's too bright, so I just take a picture of the keyboard. Of course I don't keep those pictures. But I'll bet there have been countless pictures of keyboards made and deleted since digital came along.

And some not even deleted.

So now the next time a discussion of film vs. digital comes along, nod sagely and seriously and remember: it's feet vs. keyboards.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Harrison Cronbi: "There's a Blurb book in that, Mike. TOP readers submit their keyboard photos, you order them into themes and styles: 'full qwerty,' 'macro three-key,' 'is that thing hygienic?', 'Macbook backlight highlights,' and 'hints of cat.' I know I've got plenty, my personal specialty being 'old lenses held haphazardly in front of a micro four-thirds camera.' You won't believe the alphabetic bokeh I can achieve with my 50mm ƒ/0.75 beast."

Featured Comment by toto: "The reason we shoot the keyboard with digital these days is because we can no longer see our feet, unlike during the film days. :-)"

Comments

[Soeren Engelbrecht]

Where's the *SA notification ?? :-) Brilliantly put, otherwise...

[John MacKechnie]

Great observation. So true.

John

[Damon Schreiber]

Feet, eh? Apparently with camera phones, it's another part of the body.

[Paul]

Kitchen table, for both. Reflects less on the cameras than my kitchen table. Covered with dirty plates, books, cables, cameras, violin, computer.

[Barb Smith]

I periodically take pictures from across the room of the my temp board on the wall - and, sometimes even the TV. I usually delete them all, but someone has to periodically check the exposure and light in my room! And the backround blur of my lenses. One does what one must, you know.

[Mikkelsen]

This produced a record chuckles-per-word-score for me out of all the TOP post I have read. You demonstrate your amazing power of observation and present it in your usual engaged and honest style. I must admit, that I have quite a few observations to confirm your theory.

[Jean-Yves Mead]

A difficult one - I'll take a Leica M3 over a Pentax K20D for fondling any day of the week; but I have a Unicomp model M keyboard and feet worthy of a hobbit, and my keyboard is far more photogenic (in a Cold War sort of way) than my feet could ever be.

[John Krumm]

Hmm... I think it's just you. I still fondle my digital camera and take pictures of my feet. You probably don't watch enough semi-entertaining television in your living room.

[Jeff Hohner]

Yup. First digital camera...
http://photos.everybookinchina.com/six_months/galleries/still_life/10.html

[Pak-Ming Wan]

The major difference between digital and film: feet or hands! I love it!

Pak

[Tom Swoboda]

I remember just after I bought my first SLR in 1967 I was pulling guard duty at the entrance of a fire base camp and I was fiddling with my new camera and took my first picture of my feet. I haven't looked at that old slide of my muddy combat boots in years. I've never thought about it before but I guess I repeated taking shots of my feet quite a few times over the years. I haven't done it since switching to a digital camera but yes, I have digital pictures of my keyboards and my monitors.

[Paul Glover]

I feel a little less weird now. :) I'm prone to sitting on the couch manual focusing on various objects around the room. I've resisted the urge to shoot my feet, but more than a few impromptu cat portraits have been made...

[Rory O'Toole]

Yep, keyboard, edge of printer, filing cabinet, desk clutter, bookshelf, I've photographed them all without getting my lazy arse up from my desk. Bonus point if my four your old wanders in when the camera is in my hand. Close up of nose with fisheye is always favoured ...

[Ryan]

Do you suppose Charlie Cramer has any 40 mp shots of his keyboard, and if so, when can we expect the 'feet and keyboard' print sale to start?

[Dave Levingston]

And don't forget those odd frames at the beginning of each roll as you fired off a couple frames to advance the film past the exposed leader. Those will soon be historical artifacts if film goes away. I remember one of my photo professors invited all the photo MFA students out to his home to see his current personal work and showed them a slide tray full of those tailings. The students ooooed and ahhhed dutifully, of course.

[Stan B.]

Digital recording devices are just that, (film) cameras are tools that can be visual, tactile pleasures unto themselves. Koudelka has a series of feet pictures he takes to "keep in practice."

[Mike Johnston]

Stan B.,
And, as you know, as with any subject under the sun, there are bound to be great feet pictures and totally worthless feet pictures and everything in between.

Mike

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I took some pictures of my feet just this Friday. Standing up, and just the toes of my shoes. And I edited them out later, so although the photos are online, my feet aren't in them. But I did this with digital gear.

Happens pretty regularly with my 8mm full-circle fisheye, too.

I've never really had the sitting with feet up habit, and didn't photograph them that way in the film era that I can recall.

[Account Deleted]

Almost with you, but I tend to shoot the window with film instead of my legs and my legs with my digital camera...

The keyboard I usually shoot with my phone, because for some magical reason, I remember that I have a camera in there when I have the phone in my hand and the notebook on my lap at the same time ;)

[Stephen S. Mack]

Geeze, Louise. I thought I was the only one who did things like that. Now I don't feel so peculiar any more.

With best regards,

Stephen

[Rod S.]

Re shots taken at the beginning of a roll: I have a cherished photo of my daughter walking hand-in-hand with her mother to her first day at school, taken as I loaded the film while walking closely behind her.

[Nick]

I have (or had, not sure if I deleted them) a series of telephoto pictures of my living room television, taken while messing around with eBayed manual-focus lenses and trying to decide things like whether I liked the OM or the Hexanon 135 mm better on my E-P1.

[Zalman Stern]

Another advantage of a Leica M digital. Fun to fondle + soft-touch shutter + self-operating power switch = many pictures of feet. Add in an actual aperture ring plus manual focus and one finds a wide variety of pedal interpretations.

I'll leave the discussion of which lens provides the most beautiful rendering of near field appendages. I'm told there is a rift among serious connoisseurs between lenses which render the toes crisply and those which render the ankles supplely.

-Z-

[Jan]

I admit to taking pictures of my feet occasionally. A location of preference is when I have them in a swimming pool or a stream, but I also have some when sitting at a balcony at night with my feet over the railing.

But I also have pictures of my keyboard I think. I'm less proud of those though, and they often get deleted indeed.

[DerekL]

I took a picture of my feet *on purpose* a couple of weeks back. (Showing off my spiffy new waterproof boots before heading of to shoot on the tideflats...)

[Josh Wand]

To stand this idea on its head, here's a recent keyboard photo taken with a film camera (Canonet QL17 GIII, in the process of being resurrected):

http://d.pr/WbpT

[Ben Syverson]

I'm developing a camera app for the iPhone, and as a result have taken literally thousands of photos of my keyboard. I delete them in chunks of 250 or so!

[John Holland]

I've solved the feet problem by keeping an empty film camera handy (currently a Pentax SV, if you want to know) ready for fondling as I surf my fav photo sites.

Still haven't solved the keyboard/desktop problem with digital. And one time I got the fondler cameras mixed up and shot half a roll of film of my monitor with a motor-driven camera at 3.5 frames per second, immortalizing a Youtube clip of Charlton Heston as Major Dundee.

Jeez, this is pathetic. I should find a hobby or something...

[mark lacey]

Actually when trying out a nikonos I find feet in the bath more interesting, particularly if you have interesting taps.

[Dave Dickerson]

I guess some of us are too old to learn anything new...

http://www.pbase.com/dave_dickerson/image/70505094

[Jessica Sweeney]

Usually it's not my keyboard, but my cat. She's oddly patient with me taking photos of her; although she does sometimes come sniff the camera and ruin my focusing distance.

[David Bennett]

In defence of feet, it is useful to shoot them as markers for the beginning and end of a bracketed series.

[Uwe]

Mike,
its interesting you see it that way ;  )

Since digital age introduced liveview on the back of our cameras it allows us to actually see what we are snapping while still fondling around: I use these moments for composition exercises AND btw taking pics of your own feet is a nice way to document that you, the photog where actually THERE, it connects you with the scene your taking pictures of.

Cheers
Uwe

[Len Salem]

Someone once told me that every new photography student photographs their own feet at some point during their first term.
That remark effectively blocked me ever taking a foot self-portrait again.

[Bob Nichol]

I can relate to Toto's comment about no longer being able to see my feet.

[Fabian]

I’m glad to see in the other comments I’m not the only one still doing these silly things. Last week somewhere at the Spree river, taken with my trusty D50: http://www.friendlyanarchist.com/wp-content/uploads/feet_in_berlin.jpg

[Paco]

Very good and witty.

[David Boyce]

For me it's the book case and the speaker beside it. Use it for all sorts of tests and just simple playing about with cameras.

[Michael]

I like film the best but I can't see my feet, sitting or standing. However, I do have some great shots of my refrigerator!

[thomas hobbes]

i take pictures of my feet all the time on digital, very rarely my keyboard. maybe this is because i exclusively use old manual focus lenses on digital though. on film i never took pictures of my feet except to start out a roll, film is too expensive and one can always just shoot an empty camera if they are just fooling about.

[Paul Hermann]

I try to shoot film as much as possible. Yes, digital is convenient, but to my eyes, you still can see a difference. And finally, a video that explains visually some of the problems with digital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98FZ8C6HneE&feature=player_embedded

thanks Mike,
love the blog.