My first topic was suggested by a conversation I had with a friend of mine, just back from a working holiday in Northern BC, Yukon and Alaska. David had purchased a Nikon D70s prior to going, after all but ruining over 200 rolls of film due to a faulty camera on his last trip which was to the Antarctic. This time he was going to use the D70s to ensure he brought back something.

David has had Nikon gear for years. We had discussed my purchase of the D70 last year and it seemed a natural for him to get one too. The D70s is the newer version with a couple of minor physical changes and new software - which of course I can download from Nikon for mine too.

David related meeting a father/son duo with similar equipment. They were trading experiences with the digitals when the father noticed a towhee (bird) sitting nearby. Aiming at the bird with his long lens, the father proceeded to fill a 2Gig CF card with images, all shot on aperture priority at f22 so the shutter speed was down below 1 second. He explained that since the towhee tends to move in jerks and then sit still for a period, taking lots meant there was a likelihood that one or more of the shots would catch the bird still for the whole exposure, compensating for the long exposure and getting excellent depth of field via the high f-stop.

Shooting over 200 frames on a single subject was something that David had not even thought of. This difference in the mindset between his long film background and the new digital economics took him by surprise. In my article series  here I'll explore some of these major differences between the film mindset and the digital mindset.