Digital Cameras - A Technical Marvel

I shot my first completely digital wedding today.

I'm still shaking my head a little in disbelief.

I'm on my second digital camera body, and have been quite pleased with it, but haven't really done much of anything professionally with it till today.

I used to shoot weddings with a Hasselblad 500 C/M. That camera is completely mechanical. It doesn't even have a battery. I'd use a handheld meter for exposure readings and an external flash that had its own sensor. I didn't have any 220 film backs for the camera, just 120 so I would have to reload film every 12 shots.

To contrast that with the 5D which has auto - focus that is faster than I could ever be with built in metering that's tied directly into the flash and 4GB memory cards that can hold ~250 shots.

I know it's been said before, but offloading a lot of the more mechanical parts of an exposure to the technology really does make it easier to focus on the image. I've know this conceptually for a long time and have had some practical experience with it, but shooting a wedding REALLY made the contrast stand out for me.

So, this is the future, huh?

I'm liking it.

An added bonus : I get to make lots of "Back when I was a young photographer..." comments.