Dear 35mm film

f16sunshine

f16sunshine

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Dear 35mm film

It's time I think. Not that we will never see each other again. You have to admit the very best has passed.
I still love all the same things about you. How available you are still today as the rest of the "normal" people in this world barely remember their time with you.
Those cute little cans you have. They are so functional for so many things. I store everything from SD cards to Pot in them and if they loose their lid I can recycle them now.
Your diminutive size yet ability to hold so many frames in a roll. The fact that two of you easily fit not only in my pocket but also in the canister when you are being developed.
It was that small size that helped me get that cute girl in photography class to move closer to me. I held you up to the light to point out a nearly invisible detail. She dated me for 2 years. All those frames you had in a loading that helped my young unrefined eye bring home more keepers through the bracketing I could do for each scene if needed. At long last it is those two things that now push us apart. Your size although convenient no longer satisfies my desire for refinement. As my scanner takes over for the enlarger. You will never scan as well on a machine that I can afford as your larger sister 120 and 4x5 will do. The lenses that used to make you shine. Perform as well or better on M8 or 5Dii. Using you for color has long been left behind for the convenience and cost effectiveness of your digital cousins. The 24 or 36 frames have become a nuisance to burn through compared to the 8, 10, 12 frames of the 120. I have you loaded in a camera for up to a week compared to just a day now that I see better and shoot less. Yes, you helped me get there and I'm forever grateful. Don't despair you will still be my date for Burning man. I'll load you into one of your favorite bodies and run out into the desert with confidence that you will deliver in that hostile environment. Absent the fear of damage to expensive digital sensors from dust and rugged use. In the end though are time will be much diminished if not done. I would like to say it's not you it's me but the reality is. It's not me... It's you.
 
They say that breaking up is hard to do Now I know, I know that it's true Don't say that this is the end Instead of breaking up I wish that we were making up again (thanks Sedaka)
 
I dunno, I've gotten to where I shoot film for events or happenings that I want to be sure and remember, and digital for quick-hit stuff.

I was just digging through a box of old photos last night, dating back 20 years or so. It was much easier than trying to sort through old JPEGs. Once I found the shots I wanted, I scanned them for a planned photo gift book.

So, like for so many of us, both have a place in my bag.
 
To each their own. I still prefer film as my primary medium, and 35mm is still useful to me, even if I am leaning more to MF and LF.
 
Film is like my many old friends, familiar, comfortable, have shared my many experiences. But all my old friends are dead, now. So I've made some new ones.

While I still shoot film fairly regularly, it's somehow just not the same. Life moves on. :)
 
Film dead - probably not not mater what size. Exhibition quality images can still be made and probably with digital technology still end up as big as you will ever need. If you have to worry about what film can't do then Magnum must be your employer.

Waiting for M7 to arrive and next year the M9. Not because one will be more capable per se just more convenient.

Then again - making images with wet plate camera up to 10x10 with home made film has a certain edge and quality :)
 
f16sunshine said:
Dear 35mm film

It's time I think. Not that we will never see each other again. You have to admit the very best has passed.
I still love all the same things about you. How available you are still today as the rest of the "normal" people in this world barely remember their time with you.
Those cute little cans you have. They are so functional for so many things. I store everything from SD cards to Pot in them and if they loose their lid I can recycle them now.
Your diminutive size yet ability to hold so many frames in a roll. The fact that two of you easily fit not only in my pocket but also in the canister when you are being developed.
It was that small size that helped me get that cute girl in photography class to move closer to me. I held you up to the light to point out a nearly invisible detail. She dated me for 2 years. All those frames you had in a loading that helped my young unrefined eye bring home more keepers through the bracketing I could do for each scene if needed. At long last it is those two things that now push us apart. Your size although convenient no longer satisfies my desire for refinement. As my scanner takes over for the enlarger. You will never scan as well on a machine that I can afford as your larger sister 120 and 4x5 will do. The lenses that used to make you shine. Perform as well or better on M8 or 5Dii. Using you for color has long been left behind for the convenience and cost effectiveness of your digital cousins. The 24 or 36 frames have become a nuisance to burn through compared to the 8, 10, 12 frames of the 120. I have you loaded in a camera for up to a week compared to just a day now that I see better and shoot less. Yes, you helped me get there and I'm forever grateful. Don't despair you will still be my date for Burning man. I'll load you into one of your favorite bodies and run out into the desert with confidence that you will deliver in that hostile environment. Absent the fear of damage to expensive digital sensors from dust and rugged use. In the end though are time will be much diminished if not done. I would like to say it's not you it's me but the reality is. It's not me... It's you.
Click to expand...

Just wish I had the 'nuts' to be as honest with myself as that about 35mm. MF I have and love. LF - love to give it a go.

Steve.
 
I'm almost exclusively shooting 35mm film, but then again I don't make my living from photography. If I was, then I'm sure I would shoot either MF or digital much more.

My sincere wish is that 135 as a format stays on for years to come ... at least until I can get a second hand M10 at an affordable price :)
 
I don't usually comment on threads like this usually because it ends up partisan and I have no time for that.

But I get where you're coming from.

Oddly enough though, it's the imperfections of 35mm that keep me shooting it (that and slides, I like doing slideshows with a projector) -- compared to digital 35mm/APS it's been matched and then some in technical specs and all the rest.

But there is something about the look of 35mm I love.

I could buy an M8 tomorrow (wouldn't be wise, but it would be with money I've earnt, not a credit card), but I'd not get the look I want.

It's truly horses for courses!

Of course depending how the colour 35mm world goes, that could do more to determine what I end up using than anything else. I just hope there is at least one Kodak E6 film (not a fan of Fuji E6), Ektar and Portra.

Vicky
 
I actually only got into 35mm film again recenty (normally it's only medium format and a bit of 35mm digital) with P&S cameras. The image quality I can get from my Olympus mjuII (epic) far surpasses what I can get of a comparably sized digital.
 
I hadn't really thought about the disadvantages of 35mm compared to MF, but now that you bring it up, it's a really good point. I have a different problem than you, however: I burn through a roll of 35mm film in a day and have it processed and scanned to a disc in one hour--my XA has basically become a digital camera without the convenient features.

I've only shot MF once, when I borrowed my professor's Lubitel 166+, but the process of framing the image, figuring out exposure, distance, aperture, then taking the photo back to the darkroom for developing, enlarging, and eventually printing was far more enjoyable (authentic? rewarding?)...

You've got me thinking now...
 
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