Most people seem to stress Adams' technical bent in such discussions, but if you read his books and speak with people that studied/taught under him directly, he really stressed the importance of the process of previsualization of the final photographic print product... the Zone System was apparently devised as much as a method of improving the accuracy of previsualization as for any other reason. Adams was a pragmatist. Since a digital system shortens the cycle between observation/reaction to a scene/event and the ability to view output, I am CERTAIN he would have adopted the new technology as rapidly as any other.
Don't forget that he bequethed his negatives to the University of Arizona - one of his stated reasons for this was that they had one of the earliest digital imaging research programs in that part of the country - he seemed to love the concept of future generations reinterpreting his negatives in the same way musicians interpret musical scores - Adams actively participated in the production process for one of his last books (Yosemite and the Range of Light) and was very positive regarding the quality of the laser-scan halftones produced for that piece. If I recall correctly this was one of the first books produced using that process.
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Most people seem to stress Adams' technical bent in such discussions, but if you read his books and speak with people that studied/taught under him directly, he really stressed the importance of the process of previsualization of the final photographic print product... the Zone System was apparently devised as much as a method of improving the accuracy of previsualization as for any other reason. Adams was a pragmatist. Since a digital system shortens the cycle between observation/reaction to a scene/event and the ability to view output, I am CERTAIN he would have adopted the new technology as rapidly as any other. Don't forget that he bequethed his negatives to the University of Arizona - one of his stated reasons for this was that they had one of the earliest digital imaging research programs in that part of the country - he seemed to love the concept of future generations reinterpreting his negatives in the same way musicians interpret musical scores - Adams actively participated in the production process for one of his last books (Yosemite and the Range of Light) and was very positive regarding the quality of the laser-scan halftones produced for that piece. If I recall correctly this was one of the first books produced using that process.