Help...Former Anti-digital guy..now I cant go back to film..

I had the same problem. I bought a Nikon FM3a kit and shortly after discovered that digital had gotten good enough to keep me satisfied. That lasted about a year. Now I am back to shooting film/digital about 50/50 and have more film gear than I ever had before. Keep your film equipment. You will get back to it. Plus - pass it around - film is the new digital!

T.
 
Meleica said:
ok, up until 6 months ago, I was completely anti-digital, preferring the quality of 6x4.5 ( Fuji Zi ) and 6x7 ( Pentax ). Then I bought a Canon Xti ( 400D ), a few lenses and Photoshop Elements. Kick in a $ 150 printer and I am producing superb 8.5x11.5 inch prints - better than my lab was - and my costs are less.

Now, I picked up a few Leica toys ( 35/1.4Asph, Tri-Elmar, M7 ) and I just cant seem to get up the desire to run film through it.. I wont get my instant exposure and composition feedback...and I'll have to get prints and high priced scans just to get the same point I could with my Canon in a nano-second.

Help me...I want to put a roll in that M7, but I almost feel, whats the point ?

help...I'm sinking...

Dan

PS - dont suggest an M8, a divorce would soon follow..
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I fear you'll have to find a good attorney for that divorce....
 
Today I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who shoots portraits, weddings, etc, professionally. About 3 years ago he jumped into the digital workflow and was loving it! He had purchased a 500GB external drive for storage and to keep his images safe. He is quite busy and hadn’t backed up to DVDs in a bit (he was having trouble with his computer working well with his DVD drive) when the external hard drive crashed! He didn’t mention how many images were lost but as of today he has just about forsaken pure digital capture. He said if only he’d shot film, at least he would have negatives to scan. He plans to go back to shooting film and getting a good scanner for the negatives. He also mentioned photographing a civil war map found behind a wall during renovations in a local business and ended up having to use medium format to get the quality needed, the digital capture wasn’t good enough for the print size required.
Personally I've been doing digital capture for a lot of the work I've done (except portraits then it's 6x7 and TRI-X, people are now seeking me out for it!) but I've also been using film and having it scanned when I have to use my M4-P and 15 Heliar for really tight areas. I believe I'll be shooting more film in the future.
So I wouldn’t give up the film equipment just yet, who knows what the future holds!
Good Luck!
 
I won't claim I've gone full cirlce, but in the last six month I shot more B/W film than digital.

I'm quite satisfied with my old Canon D60, it does what I need, but developing film is fun too.

Deciding in advance what I want to get, deciding on an emulsion and if I wan't to push, pull or shoot at box speed, compensating or grain accentuating developer and then living with this decision for 36 frames.

So don't despair, you'll get over it and the dSLR will become a valuable tool besides the other valuable tools you have.
 
Bob T said:
He had purchased a 500GB external drive for storage and to keep his images safe. He is quite busy and hadn’t backed up to DVDs in a bit (he was having trouble with his computer working well with his DVD drive) when the external hard drive crashed!
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So he started with a computer that didn't work?

I had a lab cutting my slides 1/3 into the frame, I had a lab developing my Delta100 in c41, I have C41 negs from the mid eighties falling apart probably due to bad processing in 24hour labs.

That didn't stop me from using film!
 
In reference to the malfunctioning DVD drive, he didn't go into detail about his computer but I believe the DVD drive he was trying to use was an upgrade and there was some sort of software issue.
A good trustwothy lab is worth it's weight in gold!
 
Bob T said:
Today I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who shoots portraits, weddings, etc, professionally. About 3 years ago he jumped into the digital workflow and was loving it! He had purchased a 500GB external drive for storage and to keep his images safe. He is quite busy and hadn’t backed up to DVDs in a bit (he was having trouble with his computer working well with his DVD drive) when the external hard drive crashed! He didn’t mention how many images were lost but as of today he has just about forsaken pure digital capture. He said if only he’d shot film, at least he would have negatives to scan. He plans to go back to shooting film and getting a good scanner for the negatives. He also mentioned photographing a civil war map found behind a wall during renovations in a local business and ended up having to use medium format to get the quality needed, the digital capture wasn’t good enough for the print size required.
Personally I've been doing digital capture for a lot of the work I've done (except portraits then it's 6x7 and TRI-X, people are now seeking me out for it!) but I've also been using film and having it scanned when I have to use my M4-P and 15 Heliar for really tight areas. I believe I'll be shooting more film in the future.
So I wouldn’t give up the film equipment just yet, who knows what the future holds!
Good Luck!
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Trusting a dodgy computer and backing up your files in just one place is about the same as keeping your box of negatives in a damp cellar - an invitation for disaster. If he had used a decent protocol his photographs would have been safer than any negative or slide collection. After all, it takes just one fire or flood to wipe those out, and if digital files are stored in separate places, there is always a copy to fall back on.
 
Okay Meleica, I can give you a serious case of GAS. Shoot your Canon XTi with Leica R lenses. Many pros have switched out of Canon "L" glass and use the Leica R glass with a Leica to Canon adapter. Guy Mancuso is a serious shooter with this combo. CameraQuest makes a great adapter and I use my Summiluxes (50 and 80) with the Canon 1N. Yeah, the 1N is film. I don't like futzing around on Photoshop for hours on end when I was using the Canon D60.:bang:
 
I say use either medium whenever you feel the need/want to.

I started off with film, switched to digital for convenience sake, and switched back to film half a year ago. I'm also planning to buy a dSLR in the future - purely for journalism reasons. However, I'm going to shoot film as much as I can for as long as I can : )

I enjoy both. Each excel for their own reasons and I'll probably always be using them side-by-side.
 
Dan, just keep your film gear. You're in the honeymoon stage and we all know it because it comes immediately after some kind of change in our path. At least that's all I can say to explain your elation because that's how I felt when I picked up a rangefinder. My SLRs went unused for months. I even thougt about selling all my SLR stuff! 😱

On the other hand, I'm not going to be a fuddhead and demonize digital photography. If it were as bad as some people insist on saying, it would have disappeared like the disc cameras and the APS format... but it's still going on, and it won't stop. Come to think about it, digital has spawned a great interest in photography and now I see a fairly large number of people (many of them young women) for whom a digital camera is like another accessory.

So, if it's promoting photography, it can't be too bad, can it?

In sum, Dan, just enjoy your discovery now, but don't act on impulse or feel guilty about abandoning temporarily your film gear. God only knows too well that I'd do the same... and probably wouldn't admit it here because I'd be too busy taking pictures! 🙂
 
I agree with the above post about honeymoon. When I started with digital SLR - all my film cameras were sitting on a shelf for a long time. About a year long. But after that I just felt that something was missing. I did get good photos from My Canon EOS 10D, I had all L glass and yet , after a while I felt that I didn't always wanted to take camera with me whenever I went out. And I hated that. I love photography and yet - something just was not there anymore. So, I got me a Voigtlander Bessa R with 35mm Ultron. And I felt alive again. Not really just because its film, but more so because its a compact, comfortable combination that delivered a very high quality photos and most importantly - joy to use. I really enjoyed having camera with me all the time again. Shortly after, Leica and other RF gear followed. I own and use many different cameras, but no more DSLRs. I have a small digital Casio that does a good job when I need it to, but its mostly Leica that I use. Just the other day I had my M3 and Rigid Cron out at a party, and it felt wonderful, while everybody had their little Digicams. Got some funny looks, but - I don't care.
I think that digital photography is a good thing - as an alternative. As someone already said - it brings a lot more people into photography. But film, be that Leica or any other film camera - is a lot of fun too.
Another factor for me - is holding actual photos. I know, I know, you can have photos printed from your memory card. But in my experience, I was just mostly putting them in a hard drive and looking at them on a PC screen. Not the same. And I have a good scanner/printer if I need to print something on my own.
I think all cameras are or can be great - in one condition - if you use it. So, use your new digital Canon, enjoy, and keep the Leica just in case you want to use film. Bottom line (for me) is that - camera that you take with you, love to use - is the best camera. Everything else is secondary. It just has to feel right. Now - all that , of course applies to photography as a hobby. If it's your work, some things will or may force you to use a specific camera/medium. If you lucky - its the same as you enjoy already, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Best of luck with whatever road you take, as long as you enjoy the ride.
 
film...

film...

up until a week ago i was super pro film. shot rolls and rolls of b+w on what i think is one of the best 35mm rigs ever (m6ttl, 35mm 'cron, 50mm 'cron). every second thursday i'd go buy my d-76... have a wee chat with the old fella at the shop. however over the past week MY OWN reality has set in. 2 children aged 7 and 9... a new born baby girl, 3 dogs and a kitchen renovation 3/4's done. in my fridge is about 30 rolls of film to be processed. if only the children were grown, if only i could afford a contractor to finish the kitchen, if only the dogs would walk themselves, if only scanning didn't take so damn long... epson rd-1s on it's way from the uk. out comes the d2x. sigh.
 
You are probably still feeling the "shock of the new". Use both formats for what each is best at and you will be able to embrace both. The best thing about digital for me is not convenience, but the control it affords in post when shooting indoors under tungsten. For everything else, I still prefer film.
 
I've never been anti-digital, but something similar has happened to me.

Last october I had a roll of Neopan 1600 developed and printed, and the result wasn't really stellar. Come to think of it, the last couple of colour print films developed and printed weren't stellar either. Basically every exposure choice I make is negated by the lab to a muddy 18% grey/green/brown. And that roll of Neopan 1600 was the last roll I shot..

I've taken out the RF numerous times since then, but haven't pressed the shutter button once. I'm completely blocked when I carry it. Why pay for mediocre results?

In contrast, whenever I take the D50 along, shooting comes so easy, and the results are just as I want them to be. I can evaluate exposure on the spot, and make my own decisions.

Somehow it's saddening, as the RF experience itself is a great one, but I can not justify the expense of the current digital RF offerings..

I can only hope that prices will come down in the long term (which I very much doubt given the low sales volumes), or that a digital P&S that has that RF feel emerges..
 
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