Do you shoot digital and film?

[hexar_hp5]

I'm considering making a foray into the serious digital world with a D700 and am thinking what will happen to my hexarAFs. I'd hate to sell them but hate even more to see them sitting on a shelf in a cupboard.

So the question for the people that have dipped your toes into the digital world, do you still shoot film, if so why?

I have to admit, developing film is a chore for me as is scanning, but I have to say I love the way the hexarAF are in use.

Thanks.

 

[gavinlg]

I shoot digital for most things serious, film for when I like to play around. It's all about the end product for me, and I'm gotten very good at being able to get it time and time again through digital. Film is more hit and miss for me - sometimes I get superb results and sometimes they're crappy. Just not consistent enough.

 

[payasam]

I continue to use film mainly because film is what existed when I got into photography a half century ago. I am also accustomed to "full frame" depth of field, not to be had with the "crop factor" sensors that are all I can afford. But, although I have just replaced an M2 with a CV Bessa, I am seriously thinking of an R-D1. Film processing is unreliable, often bad, and digital leaves nearly everything in my hands. If I were processing my own B&W, it would be another matter.

 

[robbo]

I think both media can sit side by side very successfully and that is how I use them. Informal/reportage works very well on film IMO and seems to offer what people want. Digital, for me, works when shooting fashion, wildlife or studio-based work.
I don't see that you have to choose between one or the other. Use both

 

[zenlibra]

I have the opposite dilemma. I started to get serious with a DSLR and fell in love with film and rangefinder cameras. Now my 2 DSLRs sit in the cupboard. Digital works best in my case for event type stuff and I'm thinking an RD-1 or an Olympus EP-1 might be a good idea.

 

[Haigh]

I shoot both analogue and digital. The more experimental stuff is all digital.

 

[Steve Karr]

Digital for money & when teching for others ... for myself, never ever.

Steve

 

[kitaanat]

my work is relate to digital back on both MF and LF but I alway carry my camera to every where I've been. In my opinion, for the work it would be digital but for arts and my pleasure film is my first choice.

 

[pvdhaar]

Currently I shoot both..

However, after I got my DSLR, I initially neglected my film cameras; I even sold most of them. But when I dug out the RF to shoot that last roll of film lying in the fridge, it occured to me how joyful shooting an RF is, and after I had the film processed and printed, how fine the results were in their own right. That experience got me back to shooting film again. The ratio is now about one quarter film, three quarters digital..

 

[hexar_hp5]

So I see that there's a definite trend of some people using digital for work and film for fun.

What about those that have photography as a hobby only?

 

[pvdhaar]

Currently I shoot both..

However, after I got my DSLR, I initially neglected my film cameras; I even sold most of them. But when I dug out the RF to shoot that last roll of film lying in the fridge, it occured to me how joyful shooting an RF is, and after I had the film processed and printed, how fine the results were in their own right. That experience got me back to shooting film again. The ratio is now about one quarter film, three quarters digital..

So I see that there's a definite trend of some people using digital for work and film for fun.

What about those that have photography as a hobby only?

I shoot as a hobby only..

 

[coelacanth]

I started with film, did some digital, came back to film. Now I use digital only for work related stuff and for taking pictures of things I'm going to sell. I enjoy film photography as my main hobby.

 

[Ezzie]

I shoot digital only, but with both RF and SLR (or should it be DRF and DSLR?). Only recently took up photography after a looong sojourn, film didn't seem to be the natural choice. I am however tempted to start with film also, but more because of the wonderful array of very attractive cameras available at a resonable price, and because I now have some lenses to use with them.

 

[craygc]

I have significant investments both Nikon and Leica glass and every so often have a "reasonably" serious look at the D700, and lately at the M9. I only ever consider these two as cameras for me it would have to be a full frame body as I acquired the lenses I have specifically for their field of view and I see a crop as either a complete compromise or an expensive repurchase of lenses.

...but every time I do the "search camera specific images on Flickr", read the reviews, etc I always end up with the same conclusions:

• 
  I (really) only shoot B&W and digital still just doesn't come close to what I can produce with B&W film

• 
  Film gives me very consistent results

• 
  Digital capture just places me on the very slippery technology slope which really ends up translating into me spending more over time

• 
  As a non-professional I'm not racing against the clock to deliver anything

• 
  As much as I currently have film Nikons (FM3A & F3HP) I find an SLR kit with fast glass to be a bulky and heavy kit at the best of times which always becomes my poison pill against the D700

• 
  ...and my final issue is that because I require glasses to read, using the controls or the display on a digicam becomes a big PITA.

...this is not supposed to be preaching, because I don't care what others do, but rather an account of my own personal psychological battles when it comes to digital :bang:

 

[BearCatCow]

hobbyist here. I shoot both. They're both fun in different ways. In your case your Hexar AF probably won't just sit on your shelf. There'll surely be times when you want something slightly more compact than a D700.

 

[Roger Warren]

I use a D700 along with my Leica MP, Mamiya 7II, and Nikon F3's. I love to use film whenever possible. For me the camera usage depends on the turnaround time and final result that is needed.

 

[shadowfox]

If you use film, but you don't progress to learn how to develop yourself, and then print in the darkroom, you're missing more than half the fun.

Might as well shoot digital exclusively.

 

[bmattock]

I shoot both. I have only ever sold a couple of prints that I created from film photographs. I have sold much more digital. I am a hobbyist who sometimes manages to sell a few photos.

 

[AJShepherd]

Amateur here, and I use both film and digital - sometimes I'll take a film camera and a digital camera out with me, but maybe the film camera will be loaded with black and white and I'll shoot colour with the digital, or I may just have a compact digital (my Ricoh GRD for example) and use that for a few reference shots.

I develop my own film, but then I scan the negatives as I don't have space for a darkroom (pity!).

 

[Gerry M]

Amateur/Hobbyist and I use both film and digital. About 70/30 in favor of film.
Film for b&w in MF and 35mm.
Digi for color

Gerry