Allow me to rein-in this rooster! I am 57 years old fully retired professional industrial photographer who has spent over 40 years in photography and I still shoot film. I shoot 4x5 and 8x10 sheet film. Sheet film costs about $3.00 a sheet, that's one image not 36 exposures! There is a lab in NY that processes my work for $7.00 a sheet, just b/w. Sometimes I'll process my own black and white in trays and I even still do my own printing of b/w. I won't shoot color chromes or even color neg 4x5 sheet film unless it's for a client and they are paying me up front for the costs. The 4x5 camera I carry is a Calumet monorail view and a Wista Field View. Still have and use a Crown Graflex, too!
If I shoot any weddings, now I charge bucks pard! Ya can't hirer me for a couple of Benjamin s, I'm shoot medium format(6cmx7cm) Mamiya RZ film cameras. Why? Film gives me that hard copy that digital can't! Medium format film 220 rls, cost about $15 a roll and there are 5 rolls in a box and doing the course of a wedding I would normally shoot a 1/2 case, plus have back-up film cameras just in case something went wrong with what I'm using, and that is a Kowa.
I also shoot 35mm for fun and profit too! For b/w I shoot film 36 exposures but I only expose for 33 frames because I want a good leader when processing. I haven't yet found a great way to convert a digital color image to b/w. So I still shoot film. My little 35mm film cameras include 2 each Nikon F2AS; Nikkormat FTB, FTN, an F5 & F6. My Cannon film camera is an EOS. For 35mm chromes I shoot Kodachrome 64 only and I still have in my freezer 3 cases of Kodachrome 25 that you can't buy anywhere...there is only one lab in the US that'll process K-14 any longer! I also don't buy my film at a cheap Walmart either....Kodachrome 64 runs about $12 per roll w/processing! So get off your dinosaur and contribute your images and be respectful of the constructive criticism you may earn!
LONG LIVE DIGITAL!
As for your glass it's okay! But if you want to get close without losing speed(w/your 2x converter you'll loose at least 2 stops) you should try and get a 600mm f/4.5. I have two 600mm primes one for the Nikon gear and one for the Cannon. Birds at feeders and at baths are common sights. Set your sights on branches and limbs and you'll have a better photograph!
As to getting film images to the 'puter I use an Epson 4870 Perfection scan which will handle any format to 8x10. My printer is an old Cannon i9100 that uses six inks at $10.95 each. My 'puter is a Dell XPS 420 w/8GB RAM and a hard drive of 160 GB. Backup is by Western Digital Imagery External Hard Drives and Gold Plated DVDs(ain't cheap)! My lens collection is like walkin' into a museum and they all work, cameras too, they are in mint condition...cause I may not as old as you but I take care of what I got! I shoot film and I love digital!
Pardon me for writing a thesis, but I ain't done....in the world of photography ya gotta spend money to make money...this is for fun and I'm havin' the time of my life. Film is still the cheapest part of it all! Digital that's just a little time and it's fun. My monitors are 2 each LCD panels. 24" for imagery only and a 17" panel for storing PS CS4 & PSE 7 & 8 tools. Film too is fun if ya know what you are doing! Just because you rutted yourself into film doesn't mean you can't break the chains that bind ya! Digital is da bomb! Thanks for allowing me to interject!
