Do you hate digital?

totifoto

totifoto

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Maybe hate is too strong of a word but lately I have beginning to dislike digital more and more.

I have worked as a professional photographer for some years shooting editorial and commercial work using all the big DSLR guns and fancy glasses. Then I sold everything and went back to school studying graphic design. At school I´m working on a lot of digital stuff and I love it as long as it is not my pictures I´m working on. When I shoot I looooooovvveeeee shooting film and now I shoot almost all film and if I have to pick up a digital camera for some work at school I get all "crap why cant we just shoot film"

Am I weird or are there anyone else here that has gotten sick of digital. ?
 
I got sick of it a while ago, now compromising a bit with a NEX-3 and old lenses and keeping hold of a LX-5 which I hardly use. I think nothing of shooting a couple of rolls (35mm, 6x6 or 6x9, b/w or colour) in an evening, processing and scanning before bed.

I love the tools, their feel, their weight, their precision and the whole look of it all. It is a rediscovered joy for which I am very grateful.

Only tonight I was thinking how cute my black Pentax MX was and relishing the big, bright viewfinder compared to staring down the narrow tunnel of a DSLR. I was pondering on the size of my Bessa II's negatives, the silky depth of images from my Rolleiflex Planar lens and how people come up to me in the street to ask about it.

Yeah, I love film and have no passion for digital.
 
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I neither love nor hate digital. It's a tool, it has its uses, and its limitations. I do, however, love film. The tactile sense of it, the way it captures light and color, the way it makes me slow down and make each shot count. I love film cameras, for their lightness and relatively uncomplicated construction, for the way they feel in my hand. When I come a job or some event inspiring photography, film camera in hand, I feel like an artist. When I arrive with a DSLR in hand, I feel like everyone else.
 
Yes and no.

My heart wants to live on HP5, Perceptol, and M's but reality is a different story. I just can't justify the day-in-day-out cost of film. I despise scanning with all my being and I don't have the time to do it anyway so rather than never get to print or see any of my images I've switched almost all to digital. I invested in a big Epson printer so I can do it all in house. Yes, there's a cost involved for paper and ink but even if I had the film processed and scanned I'd still be printing it anyway so in the long run I'm saving.

The kicker is that post processing is not a joyful thing for me but it's probably because I'm not that good at it so I'm going to try and take a class or two to get up to speed and then it'll probably be a different story on that front.

I won't ever stop shooting film completely. I've got a sweet Bessa R & 35 Elmar combo sitting next to me as I type and it'll get used for sure. I also have my Yashica D as well. Film will sort of become a hobby within an avocation. It's a shame though because all the cameras I lusted after in my youth are practically free these days so I flirt with them from time to time.

I've plans to buy an M8 next year when I get my check from Uncle Sam and that will no doubt become my main camera but I'm sure I'll still have an M film body around as well. I'm not 100% sold on digital black and white so I like to do a lot of that work with film still.

Sometimes I wish we were back a few years when digital wasn't an option and I could happily shoot film and accept the weekly drain on the budget and not have the Art Director (my wife the scrapbooker) breathing down my neck to make sure I got the shot and could print it that night. I'll admit I am a huge fan of knowing I got something. I don't chimp, but will glance down occasionally to be sure all is up to snuff. My youngest daughter's first visit to the doctor was supposed to be a triumph for the quietness and reportage abilities of the M6, it was, until I popped the plate off the bottom at the end of the roll and found it slipped out of the takeup fingers and had never advanced.

The Art Director was not pleased.

It's with a bit of melancholy that I admit film isn't my main squeeze anymore, but I still keep her around for the occasional tryst.

The reality is though, like it or not I can get a lot more done with digital and produce a lot more finished work and that's a big part of what it's all about. Some people say they'd stop photographing if they couldn't use film. That's not an option for me. I have to make pictures. Since I can't stop, I go on with my digipet by my side.

Jim
 
I've never owned a digital camera but have used photoshop extensively. I'm fine with spending time on other peoples images for web and graphics but I really don't like post processing my own images. They are never finished. There is always some other tweak you can try. The thing I find odd about most of the "I hate digital" or "I love film" statements is that they rarely seem to be connected with hand printing. That for me is a joy. To actually make a print in the darkroom. It just has something about it that a print from a machine doesn't. It's not a rational or objective thing. It's just a process thing and I value the result of the manual hand process more than the automated or semi automated process.
So to say I hate digital wouldn't make any sense because I don't hate it, I just don't do it unless I really have to.
 
No, I don't hate digital. I rather like it. Rather than lump digital and film into a single category of 'photography', I see them as two distinct media, each good for what it does best. While there is some overlap, I can tell right away if I would rather shoot something digitally, on film, sketch it with a pencil, or paint it in acrylics. The only media I hate using are charcoal, watercolors and bas-relief*.

* unless it's one of those things with all the pins, then it's kinda fun.
 
No, but I do hate computers. I like their convenience, when they work, but whenever I have to change anything - new computer, new software, new printer - it's a nightmare.

Cheers,

R.
 
i don't hate it.. i just don't like to use it for my own personal projects..
but for occasional and informal shots with family or friends, i don't mind using it, as they hate to wait for the results to come alive.. so, it's more of a side thing for me.. like marathoner doing 3km fun run..
 
I prefer film by a mile, but see digital work all the time that I think is amazing. I have a DSLR but dont like using it the same as my Ms. I think the solution is going to be a digital M for most of my work and a DSLR for portraits.... kinda how I have worked with film.

So, no, I dont hate it, but I do not get excited about it either. B&W film is still magic, but I can't justify that, only feel it.
 
To 'hate' a method is to be pathetic. It's a method, a tool, it's not a way of life, it's not a philosophy, it's not a religion.
 
Film is not a religion? True, though both film and digital afficiandos often sound like evangelists. I have to admit that the folks here on RFF frequently remind me of a group from one of the contemplative traditions, perhaps monasticism or Buddhism. Digital evangelists remind me more of the preachers I see on TV.

That aside. I do find digital useful, if not inspirational. If someone here says "post a picture of your xxx camera!" it's probably going to be a digital shot. For one-off needs, quick uploads and similar requirements, I wouldn't want to be without digital cameras.

However, for creating a new body of work on the fine art side, making portraits, or simply enjoying the color and light of the world, film is it for me. Perhaps someone else feels the same way about digital.
 
I've worked with Digital imaging for most of my life, started in 1981.

I prefer having source code for my digital cameras, make them work "my way". Getting used to not having it, "annoying" at worst.

But- the Leica M9, comes really close to my ideal digital camera. I'd like one with a Monochrome sensor without the IR abosrbing glass. I'll take care of the firmware if Leica needs help.
 
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