Seven Years of Digital

by Steve Eshom

April 20 marks seven years for me of using a digital camera to capture railfan photos.   Seven years seems like an odd milestone doesn’t it?  As I thought this through I realized seven years represents about one third of the time I’ve photographed trains.  When you do something the same way one third of the time you get used to it and it becomes natural.

The morning of April 21, 2001 was quite busy on the Lakeside Sub.  The plethora of trains would later come in handy for the 700 and crew.

I purchased a Kodak DC4800 3.1MP camera as a Christmas present for my wife in November of 2000.  After Christmas I used the camera a little bit for railfanning around Vancouver but I hadn’t yet taken it on a week long trip.  I stole the camera away from her for my trip to Spokane and back to chase the ill-fated Homecoming Excursion.   With that bit of thievery this trip became my first time using digital to capture railroad images on a road trip.

April 22, 2001.  Still on the rails.  This day would be the last relatively good day of the excursion.

What did I think?  Well, unlike some, I didn’t waffle back and forth between film and digital.  My experience on this trip convinced me digital is where it is.   Despite being a point and shoot, the 3.1 MP camera did a fine job and captured some great memories for me.  Its ease of use, instant feedback, and ability to correct photos really sold me!   On top of that I was still used to prints so I did print some photos…but only the ones I felt were worth the cost.   These advantages were too great to ignore and I never looked back. 

Seven years later digital imaging seems so natural that I feel like I’ve been doing it all my life.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 6:32 pm and is filed under photo gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.