Around Formosa with Fuji S1 Pro

At the end of 2001 three former classmates descended onto Taipei and in about one week managed to make complete circle around the island.



The visual report was taken with Fuji S1 Pro digital SLR. Although made by Fujifilm the camera bears Nikon mount and completely compatible with all Nikon lens and accessories. It was my first experience with digital SLRs and by the end of trip I completely fell in love with the beast. The camera has been discontinued since long time ago (or time moves too fast in digital age?) and replaced by Fuji S2 Pro, which is functionally similar to my Nikon D100.
I just wanted to contemplate a bit on paradigm shift when moving to digital SLR. I retroactively look at my photos and I see that they are different. More precisely, with digital SLR I started taking subjects I wouldn’t consider worth spending film, especially slide-film. That’s it! And it’s not only about money. Professional slide film plus it’s processing will cost you at least 15$ in Tokyo which means 50c per pic. Being money conscious I never shoot more then 2-3 rolls per day. I noticed that with digital SLR, it jumped to more then 150 shots per average travel/shooting day, which is double.
You also less susceptible and not penalized for mistakes which mean you can shoot faster and encounter more serendipitous moments. If framing is messed-up or image is overexposed, all you have to do is to delete it. This opens up various techniques and opportunities usually not available with film camera. Let’s look e.g. at the following photos:

Yes it was shot with kind of hidden camera technique. I was walking in luxurious Sogo department store holding camera to my chest and relaxingly pushing release button. Until reviewing photos back at hotel I didn’t know whether I had taken single properly framed shot. Since I couldn’t use viewfinder, I just guessed the direction. However after some training one can easily get sense of direction and manage to frame photos more or less precisely.
Since it’s just an album made for my travel companions I didn’t really go thru rigid selection and filtering, something I usually do with my photos. Otherwise it would probably be reduced to 5-10 shots I consider worth exhibiting.

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