One of the things I'm interested in exploring is the digital vs. analogue debate among photographers. For many people this is a no-brainer: digital is here, so get over it. But, like most things in life, it's not that simple.
Some time ago, I was out with my daughter looking for a camera (digital, of course) as a graduation present. We found what we wanted and the sales clerk started to push the extended warranty which has become ubiquitous with any high-tech gadget you buy these days.
Sensing my hesitancy to get sucked in, she started talking about the complicated technology of digital cameras and how the warranty was sensible protection. "How long are you planning on owning the camera?" she asked. She said something to the effect that if you were planning on owning it for more than a few years it was an excellent investment as protection for the inevitable problems that would arise. I just about lost my self-control at that point.
It just so happened that they had a Leica M3 on a cloth draped pedestal standing all by itself in a glass showcase across the store. A dinosaur on display. It may be irrelevent that its list price was 3 times that of the digital camera we were about to buy. So I said to the clerk "You know, that camera over there has been taking photographs for 40 odd years and it will still be taking them 40 years from now. Why can't I expect the same service from a digital camera?"
She had no answer, of course, but she dropped the extended warranty pitch.
Don't worry about it. Don't fight it. Digital is the future. But don't give up on analogue either. It ain't dead yet.
This spectacular show opened at the VAG recently and runs through April 27. It includes over 150 images by some of the most important pictorial photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.