Am I Crazy? Stop shooting 35mm film?

[Atom]

I'm from a unique educational background. I studied photography in college as digital was just entering the photography world. I studied with traditional film cameras and formats, 35mm, 120, 4x5. After I graduated and became an assistant I had to learn medium format digital, and on to digital slr's. I bought a Mamiya 7II on my way out of college and eventually, after learning digital I craved something a bit smaller and lighter. This leaves me with a desk full of beautifully crafted Leica M cameras. I love the size and the lenses available for them made me as happy as a photographer could be. Then, I bought a used Epson R-D1 and everything changed.

I stopped using my film M cameras as much. I found myself loving the digital process of processing RAW files more than I had before. Creatively I found a synergy with the workflow that I hadn't seen since I actually had access to a darkroom. At this point I see myself waiting for newer digital rangefinders, or buying a second R-D1. I know the idea of waiting for a new drf is not, shall I say, worth holding my breath for. I always have the M8 to go to if I ever run out of working R-D1's. I really can't afford to have such expensive cameras sitting around, I actually felt the need to buy one of them, an MP, recently thinking it was the M mount rangefinder of my dreams. It turns out the look and feel of a 6mp digital range finder is my choice over such an expensive, and wonderfully crafted Leica.

I always say that I will use all of the equipment that I have. I try to have nothing frivolous. So am I crazy? Should I stop shooting 35mm film rangefinders that I see myself barely shooting 10 rolls or film with a year? I know they are timeless cameras, but do they fit into my definition of time?

Do others feel this way? I would love to hear what others have gone through in this long thought process. Why not keep a film M as a back up? Sure, why not, but I hate having things waste away on my shelves, and that seems the direction things are heading.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Then sell the M stuff and put the cash in a savings account. Leica film cameras are as common as dirt on eBay and you can always buy another. A lot of people are moving to digital, but I think most just put the film stuff on a shelf in case the urge to use film returns.

 

[charjohncarter]

I try to run a roll of film though all my cameras one time per year. But I have 25+- so it is hard. I use certain films for certain cameras by experience and I also have 2 DSLRs and a D P&S. They all give me something I like, and many things I don't like. I especially don't like the digitals. I can't get any feeling out of them. No uniqueness, no soul, and I feel flat using them, I shoot too many shots without composing or even caring. But I will still use them and hope there is some future for digital in my philosophy.

Also, those DSLRs make a 6x6 folder seem like a VW Bug.

 

[Atom]

...I especially don't like the digitals. I can get any feeling out of them. No uniqueness, no soul, and I feel flat using them, I shoot too many shots without composing or even caring. But I will still use them and hope there is some future for digital in my philosophy.

The R-D1 created a workflow for me so similar to the way I use film, it has that soul again for me.

 

[kshapero]

Then go digital, young man.

 

[Chris101]

The R-D1 created a workflow for me so similar to the way I use film, it has that soul again for me.

Of course it does. However one chooses to work creatively, artistic soul can be employed. I began using digital in the second half of the 90's and was 100% digital by the end of the last millennium. It didn't last long though - I barely made it through three generations of digital cameras when I decided that I no longer wanted to share the same soul as so many other photographers. By 2005 I was solidly using film again for all of my personal work. However, for photography of commerce, digital rules. I maintain a part time foot in the digital world. I suspect that eventually you will need to invest in more shelves.

 

[Atom]

I still use the Mamiya 7II regularly when medium format is called for. I could easily use that instead of a film M if I got the itch for the "dust on the negs" again. 🙂

I suppose it's not that I am at all afraid to go digital in this particular niche of my photography, it's that I am almost a bit surprised after this long journey of trying out, and buying, and selling many Leicas I'd come to digital as the current chapter in my range finder book.

 

[mh2000]

if you are happier with digital, why not just go with it? I find the processed digital look lacking for what I shoot (b&w), so I went back to film for the near term...

 

[hans voralberg]

I went through the same period of dumping my M for the R-D1, now I dumped the R-D1 on the shelf and shoot with my M6 😉 But if you ever decide to sell your M gears, let me know, I'd love you PasOktik

 

[sojournerphoto]

Shoot what you like. I use both and the proportion varies. However, if Zeiss produced a digital Ikon I supsect I shoot a lot lot less film.

The digital workflow can be really good once you've got it down, althogh I still have bottle necks in each...

Mike

 

[LCT]

My feeling about people unhappy with digital is they don't like computers or P'shop or they don't want to spend their time with those electronic things. For my part, the results i get from digital (R-D1, 5D) and Leica lenses is by far better than all i've made with film previously. I refrain from selling my M bodies by nostalgy but they stay in a safe where my good old lenses have never worked that hard since the seventies. YMMV.

 

[Turtle]

you are crazy; however, that should not stop you doing whatever works for you. I hate digital workflow, but am I any more sane for staying with wet film? Whatever flicks your switch...

 

[Prosaic]

Am I Crazy? Stop shooting 35mm film?

You can always go back to film, go back to digital and go back to film again. So whats the point?

 

[John Lawrence]

Only you can decide what to do, but if you find you prefer using digital and / or are shooting more digital than film, then why not go with that? As to the redundant M cameras, well I've always sold any camera which I don't use regularly. The only exception to this rule are my Barnack Leicas. I've spent so much money having them serviced and "sorted out" properly that I've kept them. But even now I'm beginning to wonder whether I should sell one or two of them ......

 

[morgan]

If you have more than one film Leica, sell all but your favorite, just so you have it if the need calls. I play guitar, and like you, hate having stuff around that I don't use. So I sold off a large part of my collection when I moved a few years back. Now suddenly I find myself seriously missing and requiring the sounds of a rickenbacker. Sure I can go buy one (they've gone way up in price in the last few years), and i'm kicking myself for selling. That won't happen with film Leica's probably, but I'd say keep one around and sell the rest.

 

[iamzip]

I like the convenience of shooting digital, and the ability to switch iso on the fly, as well as being able to take hundreds of pitcures without wasting film, however I hate post processing so I've been shooting jpegs with my digital Rebel. Just make sure you back up your work, because my hard drive crashed yesterday, and I may have lost a couple months of pictures, so I'm thinking seriously about just pustting the dSLR down for now.

 

[Gid]

I don't think you are crazy, but that is probably because I did similar to what you are thinking of doing.

My first RF was the Epson RD1. That led to a Hexar RF, M6, MP (Bronica RF645 somewhere in there) ............. The Epson didn't get much of a work out for a while. I started getting a serious backlog of developing and scanning (scanning in particular) around the time the M8 came out, so I bought one. Images from the M8 and RD1 (which I also started using again) were/are far better than my film stuff (too hung up on gear?). So I sold all my film gear (except one old SLR). Eventually sold the M8 because I preferred the RD1 (ergonomics).

Every now and then I hanker after another film M (just this weekend, for example) so I check out my film shots and then look at my RD1 shots (and other digital stuff) and remember the developing and scanning and then ditch the idea. So, no,, I don't think you are crazy.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Through the many years I've shot film and developed and printed in in a wet darkroom, I was always frustrated by its limitations. The grain and lack of sharpness under the magnifier, even though I used the best lenses and cameras, just bugged me with 35mm. So I was a natural, and early adopter, for digital. My first digital, back in 2001, was the Olympus E-10 and it was a revelation. At low ISO (the real limitation of cameras back then), there was no grain and the sharpness just blew me away. Now when I look at transparencies and negatives, I'm amazed what a compromise they are because of the limitations of film.

Now, I realize most people here actually feel grain and the "look" of film is desirable, but like several above, my digital photos are far better than the thousands of rolls of film I've run through a 35mm. I still shoot film regularly because I like the cameras that shoot film. But I primarily shoot digital because I love its clean look.

YMMV, of course. But liking to shoot digital more than film is not a crime. 🙂

 

[MCTuomey]

crazy? i'd say RFF is not the place to ask for such an assessment 😉

but to the film v digi thing, i resonate with morgan's idea. consider keeping one favorite M body around on the chance the film urge bites you and as a kind of hedge against regret. sell the rest. shoot digi and enjoy the workflow since it seems to fit you well and you're getting the results you want.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I like the look of film, not just in B&W but in color as well. After four decades of essentially using the same kit of M bodies and lenses I know what I can do and what they can do. A few years ago I sold the 4x5 outfit, all the Leica R stuff, my Hasselblad kit, gave some Minolta SLR stuff to a local college student and my ex-wife, and picked up a 15mm Heliar. I use a Visoflex II for occasional macro with a 65/3.5 Elmar.

The big problem with using "the best lenses and cameras", or going digital because there's no grain, is that it doesn't factor in YOUR vision. Too many people wake up and think "Today is Sunday and the sun is shining. I think I'll go shoot some pictures!" Ask yourself "where?" Ask yourself "why?" Carry a camera on those other days as well. Don't feel like a failure if you spend the day without shooting frame one. I always carry a pen and some paper but I don't feel like a failure on the days nothing gets written. I sure would miss it when I want to write some notes, though! Shooting pictures with a fancy camera "just because" is merely exchanging passive fondling to active fondling. It's still fondling, not photography.