Very nice thread.
I don't think it's going backwards at all, I happen to think, for me, it's moving forwards when it comes to my craft and art.
After shooting some pretty niffty dSLR's and Med Format Digi backs I was finding the pictures just too clean, too sharp and too "digital" this of course works well for some (a lot) of applications but not for where I'm going.
I was also becoming very dismayed at what I was seeing in the digital community. There was a whole base of "photographers" grouping togeather and making a huge business on the Photoshop bandwagon. Yes, PS is a good thing, but it was bringing in photographers that were very good at marketing and esp. cross marketing between each other. One photographer, an outdoor and wild life photographer, had his Canon P6000 on top of his dSLR and would shoot videos at the same time as pointing and shooting 9 fps. It was clear that the scene was completely different then the Photograph in just so many ways. This person is an amazing Digital Artist but he touts himself as an amazing photographer. (yes, he'll be the first one to tell you that) When a new product was announced you can be sure they would review it and their links of course had their code in it to let the vendor know, hey, I get paid on this. Then they would and still do, tout the other guys site in their blog by saying "hey, Joe Blow did this amazing review on his blog, go check it out" There was no real photography at all being done. It's clear to me that these reviewers "never met a product they didn't like" I call this "The great Light Hype"
Anyway, I am just so glad to be back in the dark room. The results are amazing and what even more fun, is that it is forcing me to think more about my subject and camera.
There is room for everyone here, but I'm simply not liking the one's riding the digital train and not really being subjective.
t