Do you Shoot Film or Digital?

Do you Shoot Film or Digital?

  • All Film

    Votes: 190 19.8%

  • Mostly Film, Some Digital

    Votes: 358 37.3%

  • All Digital

    Votes: 55 5.7%

  • Mostly Digital, Some Film

    Votes: 357 37.2%
  • Total voters
    960
With mixed feelings, I clicked on all digital. I made the switch after a year shooting mostly 120 film. There are many aspects of film photography that I preferred, both on the capture and on the output side. But, I gained respect for digital as a different, and in some ways quite satisfying, medium. Recognising that motivated me to rethink how I approach many aspects of the photographic process using digital cameras.
 
Now all digital

Now all digital

With mixed feelings, I clicked on all digital. I made the switch after a year shooting mostly 120 film. There are many aspects of film photography that I preferred, both on the capture side and on the output side. But, I gained respect for digital as a different, and in some ways quite satisfying, medium. Recognising that motivated me to rethink how I approach many aspects of the photographic process using digital cameras. I enjoy digital much more than I did before taking something of a hiatus from it.
 
I keep alternating between film and digital, and now tend to take both digital and film cameras (a Ricoh and Leica) when traveling.

If I am honest, there is really very little that I can do with film that could not be done with digital and some fairly straightforward post processing. However, I find the limitations of film useful as a way of learning. There is also a tactile pleasure to the Leica that is lacking from any digital camera that I have used.

But ironically I much prefer the Ricoh (digital) over the Leica for street photography. For one, I can use much higher ISOs to freeze movement, and I also think that the freedom to shoot numerous images allows for much less inhibited experimentation - I can see why some famous street photographers died while leaving thousands of unprocessed negatives...
 
I prefer to use my Retina cameras (IIIc and Automatic III) over my Kodak P880. The manual focus on the Retina cameras (especially the Automatic III) is a breeze, and the manual focus on the P880 is a pain. You're given a focusing screen on the P880, and I can't get a definite focus from it. I don't trust the autofocus; I think my pictures should have greater clarity than they do have, considering that the camera has a Schneider-Kreutznach Varigon lens. My Retina cameras deliver beautiful pictures. When I want high picture quality, I'll always resort to either one of my Retina cameras. Only when I'm out with someone and want to show them the immediate result of having their picture taken do I use the digital camera with autofocus.
 
dct said:
[...]I would guess 80 % film is my game.
Click to expand...
Nowadays I would poll for "Mostly Digital, Some Film". The game changer were the
Fuji X100 replacing the Ricoh 500GX (mechanically not perfect)
and
Fuji X-Pro1 system replacing the Minolta Vectis S-1 system (my APS film stock goes to end)

The Hexar RF for M lenses remains the main film camera today. I'm now in the opposite 80/20 distribution as four years ago.
 
Film is so much more pleasurable to shoot with so I've let most of my digital cameras collect dust. I don't know if I'm more concerned about the results or the process of shooting anymore. I'm leaning towards the shooting experience but I enjoy viewing the results sometime after the actual shooting. Even when I shoot digital now, I don't like looking at the images for a while. I feel like I just saw the photos when I took them so they need some time to be more interesting to look at. Film gives me the time because I'm always excited to see what that roll of film has on it and sometimes even forgot I took that picture. There was a time when it was almost 100% digital, but now film has made a major comeback in my photography.
 
BrooklyNYC said:
Film is so much more pleasurable to shoot with so I've let most of my digital cameras collect dust. I don't know if I'm more concerned about the results or the process of shooting anymore. I'm leaning towards the shooting experience but I enjoy viewing the results sometime after the actual shooting. Even when I shoot digital now, I don't like looking at the images for a while. I feel like I just saw the photos when I took them so they need some time to be more interesting to look at. Film gives me the time because I'm always excited to see what that roll of film has on it and sometimes even forgot I took that picture. There was a time when it was almost 100% digital, but now film has made a major comeback in my photography.
Click to expand...

This. A big +100 to this post!
 
I'm a 100% film shooter for one reason: it looks better to me.

In my opinion, digital is usually chosen for the wrong reason. I keep hearing the word 'convenience' when there is an internal struggle on which to shoot. Convenience? If you're dedicated to your craft, convenience should not dictate your process.

Case in point:
I see so many photographers shooting digital and post-processing to look as close to film as possible (silver efex, etc). The result, in my opinion, is well short of film. They probably realize this, but continue to shoot digital out of convenience.

You should shoot digital because you prefer the way it looks. There should be no other reason to do so.
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Do you Shoot Film or Digital?

A compendiun of both combined though for different uses.

I got a m43 mirrorless and the iPhone as digital cameras. The latter is a great snapshooter and like it or not it has become the main camera and the one that I do most work with. Obviously due to its absolute availability all the time.
The former I use for more serious snapshooting and low light. BUT I am not a good digital postprocesser and tend to linger on that (entertaining for long nights but tedious and time consuming). Infact, to an extent it is more inconvenient.

In film I have an OM1 and GW690. The former is more versatile and I took on a trip; the latter is for quite serious work and I should use it more.

I am currently a bit bounded by budget but prefer film and enjoy much more the process. The mirrorless I tend so shoot shoot shoot and then just leave the filed in the computer.
Film I have a closer relation with and even if it is scanned and kept as filed I feel a much warmer relation with the work, due to all the thoughtfulness I put into it.
And the iPhone has nice connectivity and fun PP through VSCOcam. Not the most orthodox workflow but I enjoy it a lot.
 
Just last week got a Fuji GW690 to get back into film. I think the Texas Leica will compliment my M8 (which I love) very well. Got back the first test roll, and boy it is astonishing. Those 6x9 negatives, it's almost like LF. Going out tomorrow with Velvia 50 and a tripod.
 
I wonder how many people answered this poll back in 2010 would have the same answer today? I know I was still using film in 2010 and I was still fairly new to digital at that time. It's been six years and lots has changed. The darkroom is gone, the film that was stored in the freezer was given away and my rudimentary computer has been replaced with a 27" iMac. The Leicas have been sold and I'm now shooting with Canon, Fujifilm and Olympus digital cameras without regret. I loved using film when I used it. But in 2016, I'm also loving digital.
 
I think the more we can bring our photographic work closer to a personal level the more we can benefit from it. Both digital & film cameras can help with this - they are just tools. We need to discover which tool works best for each one of us. Here is my personal discovery on what works best for my particular needs.

From 1981 to 2005 I was shooting only 35mm film. In 2005 I bought my first DSLR and my film usage eventually dropped to less than 5% over the first year, but it never completely went away.

Late 2011, I discovered how affordable used medium format (MF) film cameras had become. I did not expect my experimentation with a 645 film camera would enable me to discover my love for the challenge & process of creating MF images. Viewing the resulting captured images on physical medium format slides completely revived, changed & expanded my passion for photography. I was able to see a significant growth in my photographic skills. I now have 645, 6x6, and 690 format cameras (Mamiya RF & Fujifilm RF), 35mm (Nikon SLR & Olympus RF) and DSLR (Nikon).

Since 2012, I have been shooting more 120 & 35mm film along with my DSLR. My film usage has been pretty consistent each month. Depending on my mood, it ranges 4-8 rolls of 120 and 1-4 rolls of 35mm film per month. In summary, I use my film cameras to make images which embed a part of my passion, as a by product of this work-flow, and I use the DSLR's for family snapshots to capture fleeting moments with our children.
 
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