Mark,
I couldn't pass up this opportunity to help you in this NOW 3 weeks+!! thread. I was an E10 and digital newbie when I purchased my FIRST E10 in Dec '01. I bought it in anticipation of using it in my ski photography business here in VT. The marketing director at Ascutney was really hoping I would go digital for my 2nd season there, partly so that they could give me the resort logo in a Tiff file to add to the prints I sold. I bought the camera a week before Christmas, and figured I would use film until I got up to speed on the workflow. But on the first day out, the 27th of December, the 1-hour lab did a hack job on my prints - too light and very green. I told them I had to have remakes RIGHT NOW, but they said, sorry, we're doing APS film right now. The remakes I did get were not much better, and over an hour late. This same lab, which provided excellent service my first season, with an experienced printer operator, had all-new help and new APS film handling.
12/27/01 was the last day I shot film. The next day I started using the E10, brought my new computer in, and never looked back. The E10 colors, especially when I started using fill-flash (f/6.3 @ 1/640th and Be There!) with a Vivitar 283, were so PURE. I started adding the resort logo to the photos, and by the President's Week vacation, my digital images were consistently superior to anything I had done with 35mm. The E10 also held up great in the cold, and with a tethered Digipower 8000 tucked inside my jacket, i was getting 300-400 photos per charge, with constant reviewing (Hook the customer with the close-up of the kids!).
My experience with the E10 led me to go all-digital for my wedding/portrait business. The camera had paid for itself and my new computer ($2,200)with the additional sales I made in only 90 days. Staying out on the mountain 1 1/2 hours longer than I could shooting film made it happen. But I felt that the E10 couldn't work for weddings and shallow-DOF outdoor senior portraits, so I sold it, as well as all my Bronica ETRSi equipment, and bought a D60 and D30 and lenses.
I missed my E10, though, so after digital saved me about $5K in lab expenses through Thanksgiving, I decided to get another E10. It's perfect for ski photography, with the 1/640 flash sync and tethered battery pack options. I also like the 4/3 aspect ratio better than the 3/2 of the D60, as it's much closer to an 8x10 crop.
So that's my story - a newbie but an oldie! It's great to be back in the famil-E again!
Dave
How about some of you last minute newbies post your story, so this
thread can be laid to rest?
If I can't make it to 100, maybe this thread at least can! ;-)
maybe someday but for now my e-10 goes whereever I go.