The transition from film to digital by John Hodgson

In his address to the gathering at the Gala opening of the 60th SAPF Annual Exhibition, our patron, John Hodgson OAM, EFIAP/b, AV-EFIAP, FAPS, AV-MAPS, ESFIAP, SAPS, Hon. FAPS, reflected upon his experience of the transition from film cameras to digital cameras and the initial resistance digital received from some APS members.

I’ve been the patron of the SAPF since 2006, but I first became involved with the federation in 1980, running the annual print exhibition for several years. Since that time, I’ve remained involved with the SAPF as a judge, the first judging coordinator, which I did for 12 years, from time to time, a member of the management committee, a member of the Mullins fund committee, and a presenter at clubs.

The transition from film to digital, which began around 2001, has given us a massive increase in our capacity to assess and improve images. I became a member of the Australian Photographic Society executive in October 2000 and remained a member of the executive for 12 years, including two as president.

In the early days of my involvement, I was supportive of the society creating a new division for digital photography, but there was a massive conflict within the society, with those committed to film arguing that digital photography was nowhere near the quality of film.

That may have been the case for a couple of years. I bought my wife her first digital camera in 2002, and like most digital cameras at that time, it had a capacity of 1 megapixel. clearly, printing A3-sized images was not an option with that kind of camera, but the following year, I bought my first digital camera, a D5700 Nikon, which had a capacity of 5 megapixels, and printing A3 images became possible. within another year or two, digital became a much stronger source of images than film, with digital cameras having a typical capacity of 12 megapixels.

The only source of higher-quality film was to have a medium format film camera, which most APS members didn’t have. By 2009, most members of APS had moved to digital cameras, and the society did away with film exhibitions and competitions.

With the progressive increase in the complexity of digital cameras, there has been a massive change from the days of film. when I shot film, I had no idea whether I’d got the exposure, depth of field, and focus right. I didn’t find out until I’d processed monochrome film or had slide film processed commercially. By way of comparison, shooting a first image in a particular location allows you to inspect that image on the back of the camera, and you can then decide whether further adjustments are required to create a stronger image.

I’m delighted with the progressive improvement in digital photography technology over the last twenty years and hope that more and more people will become involved in digital photography, albeit some may rely on their phones rather than a camera. Enjoy the exhibition presentation!