[APML] To All: About the Good Byes

["Devon Graham" <devon@dgcomputers.com>]

This is really too bad. People here need to "grow" up. CCD is just an
extension of astrophotography (and most likely the future of it!). So I
guess all of the people speaking out against CCD would also say that the
pictures I take with my digital camera and print out on my Epson 2200 are
'inferior' because they were not done on film and taken to a lab. What is
the difference? I shoot both digital and film and love both. I haven't been
active in astrophotography for the last couple of years due to some time
constraints, but I shoot mainly film as I can't afford a CCD with a wide
enough FOV for my tastes. Maybe I just need to be 'enlightened'. I have
enjoyed this list and hopefully will continue to enjoy this list for some
time to come, but with so many people leaving, I don't think that this list
will make it. What is the big deal? As I see it, astrophotography is
pictures of objects in the sky. This ranges from deep sky objects to the
moon, planets, our sun, star trails, etc. Whether the final image is taken
via film or by digital means seems less important to me. They still are nice
images. Like it or not, in 20 years, I don't think we will be taken ANY
(astro or otherwise) pictures on film anymore. Canon already has an 11
megapixel camera which they are saying is equivalent to film. In 5 years,
that should be 50 or 100 megapixels. Is that enough resolution for the
'purists' here? I would suggest that maybe those people who should be
leaving this group are the ones who don't want to embrace the future and
should go back to pencils and paper and throw their computers away, becuase
it is not really 'mailing list' unless you actually write it down and send
it with a stamp.

To those of you who are thinking of leaving......PLEASE STAY.

I am sure that I am one of many who don't chime in on the list (I haven't
done anything in astrophotography in a couple years so I really have nothing
to add at this time), but I still like to read and keep up with what others
are doing (its how you learn) and I hope to get back in to it this winter.
At least please post where you are going because there are many of us who
would like to still see what you are doing and learn from it.

To those of you who started this mess.......THINK BEFORE YOU TYPE!

This is an astrophotography list. I know that 'purist' think that that means
film, but it should be open to both film and ccd. A lot of the basic
principles of taking a picture through a telescope are the same whether you
have film or a ccd capturing the image.  Even in photography, digital is
becoming accepted and is used many people. Not because it is better, but
because in some cases some people prefer it. If you don't like ccds.....you
don't have to read the thread. The world is a changing place and technology
makes advances all of the time. Like it or not, technology is going to push
film into history. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually it
will. It is easier to process digitally. Anyone with a computer can do it.
And printers today are able to make excellent prints. Any 11 X 14 print done
on my Epson 2200 from a 3 megapixel RAW image from my Canon D30 is had to
tell that it was done digitally (IMHO). This will only improve in time and
that is a fact no one can deny. If you don't believe it....what a closed
mind you must have. I used to be a computer salesman and this reminds me of
the person who would come in the store every month to purchase a computer.
Every month they would put off buying becuase there was always some article
saying how next month something better would be available and they would
wait for that. Next month, they would come in again and again not purchase.
What they wanted was for technology to 'stand still' so the computer system
they purchase wouldn't become obsolete. This will never happen. I know that
most people don't like change, but it is a fact of life. Either go with the
flow or get left behind.

Sorry for this rant.......I really wish I was contributing a nice picture of
M42 instead.....

Happy Holidays!

Devon Graham
devon@dgcomputers.com


_______________________________________________
Astro-Photo mailing list
Astro-Photo@seds.org
http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo