appeal of film over digital?

[Muggins]

So bottom line: I'm thrilled and in love with film. But I'm also thrilled and in love with digital. I don't see either being mutually exclusive, and instead I just pick up whatever camera I'm in the mood for at a given time (which I'm constantly doing).

Best, Irwin

That's a dangerously sensible idea, Irwin.

I love playing with my collection of film relics (I've spent a fair about of time fettling a bunch of knackered old cameras I was literally given by a bloke in a pub), and shoooting them - I seem to have spent half this summer respooling onto 620 spools as so many are post-1932 Kodaks, and have bought some 127 as well - but sometimes you just need to shoot something and get it dealt with there and then.

 

[35photo]

Whatever is fun at the given time shoot that... HAVE FUN! If you can't do this.... You might have to rethink things as to, "Why am I doing this in the first place?"

 

[joe bosak]

We sure spend a lot of time agonising over decisions, legitimising purchases or sales, trying to convince ourselves or others that one medium or type of camera or method is better than another... best thing is to USE IT and if you don't like it get something else and use that.

 

[JohnGellings]

The only film I use is Instax and even then I cheat... I use the Evo model which allows you to print only the photos that you want to, not ever single photo.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

What artists are using is up to them. They can also say what they want but it doesn't make it true.

As long as you can capture more information (with digital), you can recreate any film look. The only exceptions are specialised film-stocks such as Aerochrome that can capture information outside of the most digital sensors sensitivity.

You can't recreate film look . You could only imitate it.

And depending on how good is your level of determining the IQ, those simulation will look as good to primitive.

But most of digital film lookers don't understand what film is for analog looking.
All you emulate is nothing but scans.
While the real look comes from prints and projectors.

Fred Herzog's prints of scans are OK.
But regular optical prints from.regular negatives, which were made in earlier nineties labs are unsurpassef by inkjets from digital.

It also depends how cheap is your look.
If you look at the images on phones or tiny macs - all looks the same.

Most simple way to see real film look on digital is motion pictures.
Well 🙂.If you look at Hollywood movie from fifties on master tape via broadcasting monitor all of those HDRs are utter garbage.
But even clean copy of Soviet time bw movies on YouTube will show how bw film is superior to Monochrome.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

The only film I use is Instax and even then I cheat... I use the Evo model which allows you to print only the photos that you want to, not ever single photo.

I dunno... I think that in the world of art, there is no cheating. If it works, it's good!

 

[Bill Clark]

I have negatives from the 1950's.
And my darkroom is still set up.

I wonder if my digital files will last as long and still able to be used?

 

[Mark240590]

I find the “it slows me down” motto to be futile. I probably shoot nearly as much film as I did on digital.

I bought a fuJI XT3 new during the pandemic and since the world opened back up again. All it’s done is digitise negatives. It’s hard to explain but I think boiling the p**s off it…

I just like using the old cameras.

 

[santino]

Since I come from film I use(d) my digital camera in a similar way: no burst mode 😁
I‘m slow with both media but whenever I took a nice picture with s digital camera I speak to myself „I wish it was on film“.
No medium is better but as Mark mentioned above, I like to use old cameras.

 

[Mark240590]

Since I come from film I use(d) my digital camera in a similar way: no burst mode 😁
I‘m slow with both media but whenever I took a nice picture with s digital camera I speak to myself „I wish it was on film“.
No medium is better but as Mark mentioned above, I like to use old cameras.

See I’m a digital kid. Grew up on it. Being a millenial despite the bad press we get, we’re also often described as being of two worlds. I distinctly remember taking my mother and father’s rolls of film to the pharmacy to be developed. But then the only cameras I had ever owned until my mid 20’s were digital.

It wasn’t until I had my first child and realised the sterile but brilliant Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens just didn’t do enough for me I discovered vintage lenses with some “character” then moved onto using the bodies they come with.

Either way. I take as many photos as I want whether using digital or film and some turn out good. Sometimes the best part of my pictures is the format it was shot on which is sad. But Ho hey. It’s all about enjoying myself while out and about

 

[Muggins]

I'm so glad it's not just me who just enjoys using old cameras...

Says the geezer currently refurbishing a Kodak Brownie Model 1

And a Bencini Comet S


With the intent of shooting both of them. I should probably get out more...

 

[Bill Blackwell]

I generally can't achieve the same output from 35mm film as with digital (35mm format). For the most part, I've found slide film comes closest. The images below are of a similar subject, one shot with Kodachrome 64 (Leica M2) and the other with a Leica M-P 240 (both converted to B&W). I chose these two because I have enlargements of both in my home (24x36 and 32x48 top and bottom, respectively). Note that I could get these results form a drum-scanned 35mm slide and a 24MP DNG file - both converted to large TIF files. Both enlargements look comparatively good - excellent, in fact.


The pic on top is Kodachrome.

 

[Ddbowdoin]

The only appeal to digital for me is for the very small niche of client work I do. I’m still very much unknown but in a world of very standard and typical golf Photohraphy, I’ve tried to separate myself with more creative style. However, I don’t have enough chops for analog in a high pressure situation where focus and exposure really really matter. I am spoiled with EVF exposure and focus check. I have shot film steadily for 20 years, however, mainly stayed away from 35 and shot a lot of large format. Now I’m looking at used M10m (or what can I sell to buy the m11m) and asking why?! I HATE the idea of having to back up files and all that jazz, to me, that isn’t photography when your required workflow is the same for some biochemist Saving lab results digitally somewhere.

But man, digital files from the high end machines are medium format rivals these days.

 

[Muggins]

The only appeal to digital for me is for the very small niche of client work I do. I’m still very much unknown but in a world of very standard and typical golf Photohraphy, I’ve tried to separate myself with more creative style. *snip*

I HATE the idea of having to back up files and all that jazz, to me, that isn’t photography when your required workflow is the same for some biochemist Saving lab results digitally somewhere.

But man, digital files from the high end machines are medium format rivals these days.

I believe G W Beldam shot golf on large format circa 1905, though as I have no interest in golf I've never gone further than his cricket photography, which interests me very much. That would get you noticed on the course!

As a biochemist, I can assure you that we have IT bods who set everything up to auto-backup. But surely it's just like storing your negs properly? - and not having to re-print from scratch if you ever go back to one?

 

[PaulDalex]

Hi Muggins,
the Bencini Comet II was my first camera. I was 8 years old. I made very fashinating photos in Naples and the Solfatara. Alas! they went lost. They had a narvelous antique character.
I have bought all the camera I had until the first pro camera and I now have two Bencini Comet II (because one came unexpectedly with Santa many years ago).
I cannot post because I have a broken PC (which I hope to recover soon).
I have tried to return to film, honestly with poor results.
Frankly I am very interested to understand better the character of film and to be motivated, but I guess digital has spoiled me by now too much. And the process is laborious, I have to mail film to Germany and then there is scanning, which is time consuming and painful.

 

[JohnGellings]

I dunno... I think that in the world of art, there is no cheating. If it works, it's good!

I agree completely. I just meant that my particular instax camera is a digital camera that can print to instax. I'm probably one of the few who has no issue with the banana taped to the wall selling for millions. 😉

 

[santino]

Hi Muggins,
the Bencini Comet II was my first camera. I was 8 years old. I made very fashinating photos in Naples and the Solfatara. Alas! they went lost. They had a narvelous antique character.
I have bought all the camera I had until the first pro camera and I now have two Bencini Comet II (because one came unexpectedly with Santa many years ago).
I cannot post because I have a broken PC (which I hope to recover soon).
I have tried to return to film, honestly with poor results.
Frankly I am very interested to understand better the character of film and to be motivated, but I guess digital has spoiled me by now too much. And the process is laborious, I have to mail film to Germany and then there is scanning, which is time consuming and painful.

May I ask where you live that you got to mail film abroad in order to get it developed?
Digital is more comfortable and if I had to mail my film abroad I probably would switch to digital completely.
I had to mail Kodachrome to Switzerland but the processing was already included.

 

[Muggins]

Hi Muggins,
the Bencini Comet II was my first camera. I was 8 years old. I made very fashinating photos in Naples and the Solfatara. Alas! they went lost. They had a narvelous antique character.
I have bought all the camera I had until the first pro camera and I now have two Bencini Comet II (because one came unexpectedly with Santa many years ago).
I cannot post because I have a broken PC (which I hope to recover soon).
I have tried to return to film, honestly with poor results.
Frankly I am very interested to understand better the character of film and to be motivated, but I guess digital has spoiled me by now too much. And the process is laborious, I have to mail film to Germany and then there is scanning, which is time consuming and painful.

I'm glad I bought memories back. I guess my first camera was probably the equivalent as it came from the same chain of Chemists shops in the UK that had sold the Comets three decades before, and was made in Italy, though mine was 126 film, and I'm pretty sure most of my pictures were rubbish!

I guess I am lucky. I can develop and scan my own b&w, and there is a chain locally who will develop, scan and print colour. To me much of the appeal is getting a usable image from something as simple as a box camera (that's not to say I don't use SLRs or rangefinders if I feel in the mood, of course).

 

[Dogman]

I love the look of B&W film images, both printed on paper and projected on a movie screen. It's pretty sweet on a computer screen as well. My first camera was a Brownie Hawkeye, my first "real" camera was a Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL. I then started using Nikon F. I sometimes like to browse the online stores for older film cameras for sale. Lovely things. And, man, I do love those old cars. They had class. Much nicer than the cookie cutter cars of today. Stick shifts were cool. Big V8 engines had such a great rumble and exhaust sound. Like Jimmy Buffett, I had a crush on Sky's niece Penny. And Donna Reed. And....

But I don't wanna go back to any of that. I'm old. I'm okay with anything anybody wants to do but I'll just shoot zeros and ones and drive a Toyota SUV these days. But women...they're all still beautiful and I still get crushes.

 

[Dervla]

I love the look of B&W film images, both printed on paper and projected on a movie screen. It's pretty sweet on a computer screen as well. My first camera was a Brownie Hawkeye, my first "real" camera was a Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL. I then started using Nikon F. I sometimes like to browse the online stores for older film cameras for sale. Lovely things. And, man, I do love those old cars. They had class. Much nicer than the cookie cutter cars of today. Stick shifts were cool. Big V8 engines had such a great rumble and exhaust sound. Like Jimmy Buffett, I had a crush on Sky's niece Penny. And Donna Reed. And....

But I don't wanna go back to any of that. I'm old. I'm okay with anything anybody wants to do but I'll just shoot zeros and ones and drive a Toyota SUV these days. But women...they're all still beautiful and I still get crushes.

Sky King?