When I was backpacking around Europe in the late 1980s, I used a Contax 139 Quartz with Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.7 lens, a small bag full of Fujifilm ASA 100 film rolls and a Yashica flash.  I probably took some of my best photos in my life then as the camera was light and great for candid and very sharp shots.  And I always remembered my zoom, i.e. my legs!  Just a matter of walking closer or further from your target. 

I used to shoot with primes then, namely, a Zeiss Distagon 35mm F 1.4 lens, Zeiss Sonnar 85/2.8 and Zeiss Sonnar 135/2.8.  They were very heavy and it was not often I would bring the whole set for travelling.  But for sharp, beautiful bokeh and generally lovely warm shots, they could not be beat, even up to now.  Zooms at that time were bloody expensive and not as good quality as primes then.  The only exception being the legendary Angénieux zoom lens which costs the price of a Leica to buy and were so much more superior to Carl Zeiss zoom lenses.

I also had a Nikon F3Ti with a 35-70mm F3.5 lens but it seldom saw much service because it was heavy and the lens was not as sharp as the Zeiss lens.  I would only bring it when I needed a camera for quick general use.  It was built like a tank and weight like one too with the zoom attached.

Fast forward to the present, and I was late convert to Digital SLRs, with my first being a Canon 500D.  After getting used to it, I moved on to my present travelling kit of a Canon 7D with Canon 24-105L lens and a 70-200L F4 lens.  The zoom lens kit is relatively light and takes sharp photos and I've  taken some great photos but in terms of almost 3D look, I still treasure the photos that I took with my Contax and Zeiss prime lenses.

However, I'm now feeling the weight of carrying the gear that comes with using Digital SLR cameras.  When I was backpacking with my Contax 139, all I needed to carry was that and film rolls.  Spare battery which consisted of 2 watch size batteries, a polarising filter, flash and some AA batteries.  Quite a small and light kit, which I squeezed into a small carry bag which did not look like a camera bag at all.  Could use it in almost any situation without attracting much attention.  The F1.7 helped a lot in places like musuems which forbade flash photography.

Now, I have to carry a full camera backpack for my Canon 7D, 2 zoom lenses, spare canon battery, battery charger, cable for charging and connecting to a tablet, backup drive to duplicate my shots, spare memory cards, tablet or small laptop, flash unit and batteries for it.  Total weight more than double than my old travelling kit.

Small wonder, I've recently started moving towards using a Pentax K-01 with 40mm XS lens and Tamron 28-75 F2.8 zoom lens.  Much lighter and capable enough of producing some good shots.

But sometimes, I dig out my old Contax gear and sling them into a small camera bag, get a few fujifilm 100 ASA rolls and just go out shooting with them.  I miss the Fujifilm Velvia film and also Kodachrome 64ASA films.  Really beautiful grain and colours that I can't seem to obtain nowadays from my digital files.  However, with the growing scarcity of good film stock and its increasing prices, I will probably fully stop using them one day.

I try but you don't get the variety or fresh stock anymore.  That's the problem.  Actually, I find that I've grown more lazier in terms of technique but busier in terms of appreciating my work.

When I was taking film, I used to go on Manual mode and take time to compose my photo and check the lighting situation.  I knew that once I snapped that photo, there was no going back and what I took was what was going to be developed.  I developed my photographic skills, ranging from learning how to hold a lens still up to using spot metering for accurate light metering.  But I did not have do anything after I snapped the photo, all that was left was to get the film processed.

Now, because I have a computer in my digital camera which more or less takes care of most lighting situations and shake reduction, I've become lazy in composing my photo, knowing that on review, I can always delete the photo and shoot again and again until I get it right.  I've gone to Aperture priority now, more or less use evaluative metering or centre metering most of the time, and take less time composing my photo.  I've even stop carrying a tripod around because you can push ASA up to crazy levels and still get acceptable photos compared to grainy Ektar 800 ASA or 1600 ASA film.

Further, I do so much more post processing now with my lightroom software.  Checking the photos and editing them until they turn out the way I wanted them.  I've estimated that what probably took me about 1 to 2 mins to take a film photo and forget about it, will now take about 15 secs to take a photo and about 5 mins checking and processing it after taking a digital photo.

Sometimes, I wonder if its really progress.  At the end of the day, although there's so much more bells and whistles that comes with digital photography, I sometimes wonder if its more about the machine and less about photography technique?  Oh, at the end of it all, I still send my digital photos to be developed into prints.  Yes, digital photos are good for sending to others but when you actually want someone to really appreciate your photo, nothing beats a print which you can hold and look at.  Physical touch is still important!