Coming back from Digital?

[kuzano]

No specific or tangible difference.

No specific or tangible difference.

Just curious what it is specifically that you don't like about digital color. Not film vs digital. Just digital specifically.

But when you've been looking at the results of various emulsions of film for decades, you know instinctively when you are looking at an image that is not film based. I'm not willing to say that if someone manipulated an image in Photoshop for some hours, using all the plug-ins and addons available from various sources, that they could not fool me on the final results. But processed film print vs. an image slightly tweaked in Photoshop, I believe I could still see the difference.

 

[literiter]

A while ago, a friend of mine who is a devout film user, like myself was approached by a sincere young woman who asked him how he could justify using film in the "digital age". All that stuff going down the drain etc.

His answer was appropriate, I thought: "Because I've got the stuff." "No one has to make it again." "When digital cameras are made, something has to be going down the drain too, then all the computers, and all the printers and ink etc."

This is part of why I like to stay with film, I think. I've got all the stuff, and I've had some of it pretty well for 50+ years. Digital could be an improvement over film, but certainly not a big enough improvement yet for me to justify switching.

I find digital worthy. Indeed I've seen some remarkable images coming from the medium. But I won't have it.

 

[edho]

Shooting with film makes me press the shutter less, and be more picky to what I shoot. I like it that way.

 

[literiter]

Shooting with film makes me press the shutter less, and be more picky to what I shoot. I like it that way.

Yeah! This too. I don't want a lot of files, just a few good negs.

 

[Trawlerman]

I shoot a mixture of both.

I started out at 14 years old with a Praktica BCA (AE only) and later BC1 (fully manual). Later on I went with a PK-mount camera and have had one ever since. I got my first Pentax dSLR in 2006 and have really learned a lot from it and it has allowed my 135 stuff improve too as it allows me to experiment much more and see instant results.

I guess my dSLR (a Pentax K10d) suits me for most applications and is better suited to my telephoto shots of shipping which most people know me for. I often shoot >500mm and sometimes more. My RFs cannot stand upto that sort of shooting. The 135 RFs are better suited to streetshooting and general photos of the town.

I use my camera's to suit the occasion. No one camera is the best at any particular area. Also part of the reason I like my RFs is the coolness/unusualness factor and historical interest. Call me vain but I just plain like cameras of all types.

 

[Henk]

Film

Film

Tried digital, tried to keep an open mind.
Conclusion : Digital is dead, long live Film.

Marketeers out there, here is a challange for you :
Get film back on nr 1 !

Thanks to the industry for still producing all of these wonderful analog
products. Keep up the good work.

 

[Carlo]

I use digital (Leica Digilux 3, and I hate the lens I have) like a notepad, to make a quick shot of something I want to go back later and take a real picture on film, with different formats from 35mm to 8x10" depending on the project. I dislike digital in total, as the whole process (or most part of it) is dictated by the camera-firmware/pc-software/printer-firmware. Also, nothing comes close to a good silver gelatine print ob fiber-base paper.


I just purchased a pre-war Contax II with the pre-war collapsible f2/50mm and I'm looking for a 85mm for it. Probably, after CLA now ongoing, this will become my "notepad" camera and I'll drop digital completely.

 

[giellaleafapmu]

Not all possibilities are listed. I never stopped shotting film but I now shot a lot (about 50%) digital (and, yep, if something is important and colour it is digital) but still use a lof of film (and most of the fun is there).

GLF

 

[bottley1]

face it, film is almost as dead as the dodo. I just went into my local photofinisher today, and he said his demand is now almost exclusively prints from digital, with one or two c-41 films a week. This is from a throughput of several hundred c-41 films per week just a couple of years ago. Whilst I was there his lovely assistant was stuffing a colour neg film into a scanner, and getting in a right mess. The writing is certainly on the wall for film.

 

[craygc]

You can argue this til the cows come home, but...

Obviously the world is dominated by digital and that isn't going to change. Information available tends to suggest a degree of stabilisation of the film/ digital ratio these days, as well as a reasonable supply of film types being maintained, if not newly introduced.

Processing is probably the bigger issue moving forward with transparencies suffering more so than C41s. Traditional b&w should be something you do yourself - so stop complaining on that point 🙂 Personally, my biggest issue is developer availability. I prefer XTOL exclusively and I find its not always readily available across Asia - and never in Singapore. But this is something I can live with picking up in travel or as mail order.

Stop worrying, film is surviving and will for the foreseeable future...

 

[italy74]

My case

My case

1974-11/2002
- 35mm yashica p/s
- polaroid

11/2002-02/2005
- Pentax MZ-60QD

02/2005-03/2005
- Pentax *ist: the worst camera I've ever had, it wasn't for me at all.

03/2005 - 09/2005
- Nikon F80

Till here = 100% film

09/2005 - 05/2006
- Nikon D70s

100% digital

05/2006 - up to now
- Nikon D200, PLUS

- 09/2006 - 10/2007: Nikon F80s (2/3 digital - 1/3 film)
- 10/2007 - up to now: Nikon F6 (1/3 digital - 2/3 film)

 

[Rayt]

I just traded my M8 and some other stuff for a really nice Hasselblad SWA from 1956. I like that old lens look - low contrast, subtle and smooth tones.

 

[kev.yong]

I moved to DSLR about 5 years ago. Now shooting film again as I find I am converting most of my photos to BW and not shooting as prolifically anymore.

Shooting film gives me the benefit of smaller cheaper cameras. Also very fun.
Still undecided about image quality especially with BW converters like Nik Silver efex which give me a very close match to film output especially for 35mm stuff. I prefer shooting with a digital SLR but it's the output quality that counts.

Film also allows me medium format which has definite benefits over digital 35mm.

 

[kuzano]

All well and good, and just your opinion

All well and good, and just your opinion

face it, film is almost as dead as the dodo. I just went into my local photofinisher today, and he said his demand is now almost exclusively prints from digital, with one or two c-41 films a week. This is from a throughput of several hundred c-41 films per week just a couple of years ago. Whilst I was there his lovely assistant was stuffing a colour neg film into a scanner, and getting in a right mess. The writing is certainly on the wall for film.

OK and your photofinishers.

But keep a film camera handy. We're not far away from the Big Blast and when the EMP pulse takes out all the satellites and computers.... It's film baby, and that's all she wrote!!

All the people who express the film is dead mantra don't take into consideration all those parts of the world where digital is not convenient. Comes from a perception that everybody lives in the big city and everyone has a computer.

Not at all.

Films here for the duration and will likely be a viable counterpart to digital forever.

 

[kuzano]

I'm living a lie...every day...

I'm living a lie...every day...

I teach digital camera classes, but I make just as much money buying and selling Film cameras on eBay.

I don't tell my students that I pretty much only shoot film, except for the digital pics for my eBay listings. One little P&S.

I shoot many formats of film from 110 and half frame(incidentally 110 is almost exactly the same aspect ratio and frame size as the 4/3rds sensor Olys and Panasonics), 35mm, MF and 4X5.

I pretty much dislike the output of digital being so obvious, and the whole post processing system, but teaching it pays well.

And digital is much better for the economy. We must keep selling people up and up and up every 6 months on new advances and technology. Digital cameras are the second biggest way to roll dollars through the economy after Microsoft and personal computers, now that the housing bubble has burst.

So, I've been doing my part for the economy, selling a product I really consider rubbish as long as it gets people to spend money over and over for the same thing, in quarterly or semi-annual cycles.

I make a killing on digital and computers, but I prefer film. I hoard film cameras and I sell some of them on eBay, but I have a vast inventory for when the digital wears off or goes bust and film cameras are in great demand. The rampup time for camera manufacturers will take a few years.

Yes on Film.

 

[Fred Burton]

Wow, kuzano. That's a bit cynical.

 

[kuzano]

As only the truth can be.

As only the truth can be.

Wow, kuzano. That's a bit cynical.

But hey, life is good for the most part.

 

[Faintandfuzzy]

I've been having fun with my rangefinder for a while. And now I just picked up an old Minolta X700 with 28, 35, 50 and 135 lenses for cheap! Same camera I used in high school.

Been a blast. Dying to get some Ektar100.

 

[Mcpengy]

Well, by any sensible measure, I never really shot film. Started taking photos a few years ago with a digital P+S, upgraded, then bought a DSLR about 6 months ago. It was interesting, and fun for a while, but I was worrying about gear, worrying about getting the shot perfectly, re-taking time and again, then having to spend ages staring at a screen to decide which one was better. Not many were good, out of a LOT of photos.

Picked up a Leica CL a couple of weeks ago, had a blast using it, getting to know it, and got my first film back today! I'm seeing how it goes, but I don't even think of the DSLR already, and it might just get sold one day.

Film's just... better!

 

[ccliffordd]

I switched to digital for a couple of years but have come back to film now almost exclusively. I still use the digital for selling stuff on ebay, etc.

After buying a nice nikon DSLR set-up, it was less than a year that my equipment was obsolete. I love the fact that my Leica and Canon A-1 will never be any more obsolete than they are today. As long as film is still being made, I can make awesome photos.

Another reason I went back to film is for its simplicity. Focus, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. I really got tired of drilling down thru so many menus to check/change all the different settings on the digital camera. I like computers and am very proficient with them, but do not enjoy the post processing or organizing of photos on the computer. And I cannot stand a digitally altered photograph. If someone has a wrinkle or blemish then I want it in the picture.

Lastly, just like everyone says, when using film, I naturally take fewer pictures but they always seem to be better ones.

This is when: Less is More.....

PS:
I also did the same thing with Electric vs. Acoustic Guitar. I went electric for a while but now pretty much just play Acoustic. It is just simpler and that suits me better.

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing Digital Cameras or Electric Guitars. I own both and am not planning on selling either one, I am just not playing with them as much as the others. 🙂