As a stock photographer shooting film from 1988 to 2005 I was constantly trying to maximize image quality. I always knew that medium and large format had an advantage over 35mm and it still does today. Nevertheless I was in constant pursuit of the best image quality in my photography endeavors and after accumulating nearly 8,000 slides and several good Canon SLR cameras, it was time for a change. However, as the digital cameras began to invade the film side of photography, not only has the technology improved the image output but the cost of a digital camera is much more affordable these days. I was only curious of this new medium and by 2002 I invested in my first point and shoot digital camera. It was a 2.0 meg Canon Powershot and after some print experiments I was quite dissatisfied with the quality. The pixelation was terrible as was the white balance. Maybe I simply needed to learn about it more. I decided to remain a "film" photographer and continue shooting 35mm Fujichrome Velvia, though I still had a curious appetite for all the digital hype.

By 2005, I saw a drastic price reduction in the digital point and shoot cameras and noticed the Canon family was not only growing but the price of a 5 meg camera was the same cost of my 2 meg purchased just three years earlier. I was once again curious to see if there was a quality difference compared to slide film so I purchased a second digital camera. This time it was a 5 meg Canon Powershot A610. I took some shots of the scenic Clarno Palisades near Fossil and was surprised at how sharp the image was just on the camera preview screen. I was then anxious to make prints and after I made a 5 x 7 print, I was immediately blown away with the detail and color saturation. I compared the prints to a slide of the same location and after scanning the slide to its maximum potential then making the same size print, the difference was like night and day as you can see a noticeable difference in the images to the left. The slide enlargement was noisy, lacked detail and some of the famous hues and tones that Velvia is known for was nothing compared to the RAW output from a little digital camera. I am not alone either. There are many other landscape photographers out there that have converted to digital in the same fashion as I did.

By the spring of 2006, I was hooked on digital and upgraded again to an 8 megapixel Canon Digital Rebel. My first digital SLR which may have cost more than two 35mm film SLRs but the results continued to amaze me. Plus with the cost of film, it nearly paid for itself with the volume of shooting I do. However that was still not enough to fulfill my quest for quality until my last upgrade to a Canon 5D, a powerhouse professional 12.8( lets call it 13 meg) camera that has been compared to medium format camera quality by many camera forums and product reviews. Just go to a local arts show and you'll likely meet a photographer in a booth showing off images as if they were taken with a Hassleblad or Pentax 6X7. It again was a large purchase but well worth it. Several of the images on the site are with the 5D and there will be many more to come. In fact the background image on your monitor throughout this site was taken with the 5D and was printed at 30x20 inches. Just look at the detail!

I have therefore retired my film camera for good and am now convinced that digital is the way to go. We are in a new age folks and it is just a matter of time before everyone will want to purchase a digital SLR and see the difference.