Film is fringe

[kully]

Thinking about it, I've never seen anyone using a rangefinder either. Apart from myself in the mirror.

There was a press photographer at a beer festival I went to a couple of weeks back with his Canon DSLR, he asked what my rangefinder was.... 😀

 

[ch1]

When out on my bike I often cycle up to an observation deck along the seafront. Through the summer it will be busy with tourists etc. all taking pictures of the promenade and pier with their p&s cameras, some film, mostly digital... what I have noticed is that when they want a picture of themselves, although they are surrounded by other people with cameras like theirs, they will always approach the guy with a camera bag and slr or rangefinder around his neck (me) and ask for their picture taken. It happens so much I am considering charging.

Yes, I agree. FWIW, a lot of people still seem to equate film camera users with "competent" picture taker! They may well be thinking that this guy is really out of touch - but at least they recognize "talent"! 😀

 

[Kim Coxon]

Bearing in mind the reputation of "The Fringe" in Edinburgh, I am quite happy to be considered on the fringe.

Kim

 

[Al Patterson]

Not where I hang out ...

Not where I hang out ...

Darkkavenger: It's in Antigua, Guatemala

Simon: No, I don't mean it as a joke. Out of all the people in my circle, nobody, I mean NOBODY uses film. Not in school, not in my family, and rarely on the street. For every film camera I see, I find 20 digital Point and shoots. Hence the use of the term "fringe."

The funny thing is, I see more film cameras than digital.. Then again, most of my friends are over 50 and computer phobic.

I have both BTW.

 

[kmack]

When out on my bike I often cycle up to an observation deck along the seafront. Through the summer it will be busy with tourists etc. all taking pictures of the promenade and pier with their p&s cameras, some film, mostly digital... what I have noticed is that when they want a picture of themselves, although they are surrounded by other people with cameras like theirs, they will always approach the guy with a camera bag and slr or rangefinder around his neck (me) and ask for their picture taken. It happens so much I am considering charging.

If you really want to draw a crowd, drag out a large format camera and tripod.
It's a real traffic stopper. I borrowed a Crown Graphic and large heavy tripod and went down to Harpers Ferry to see if I really wanted to get into large format. Some of the folks thought I was some kind of living history display.

 

[ch1]

If you really want to draw a crowd, drag out a large format camera and tripod.
It's a real traffic stopper. I borrowed a Crown Graphic and large heavy tripod and went down to Harpers Ferry to see if I really wanted to get into large format. Some of the folks thought I was some kind of living history display.

ROTFLMAO 😀 😀

 

[markinlondon]

Strangely I'd agree with Andy's experience. I often get asked to take people's pictures in front of tourist sites. I'm then handed a digital P&S I have no idea how to operate. I wonder if they like the results?

Mark

 

[FrankS]

If you really want to draw a crowd, drag out a large format camera and tripod.
It's a real traffic stopper. I borrowed a Crown Graphic and large heavy tripod and went down to Harpers Ferry to see if I really wanted to get into large format. Some of the folks thought I was some kind of living history display.

That's what we are, that's what it's come down to: we are living history displays!

(Great observation, Kmack!)

 

[bmattock]

Actually, what I have been enjoying lately is to pull out an inexpensive RF of the 'small but capable' variety (think Oly RC) and use that. I get ignored by the digicam crowd (they assume I have a digicam too) and looked down upon by the snobs with both SLR and DSLRs who think my little camera is not very capable. Hehehehe. OK with me.

I went to a train exhibit recently, took my Oly 35 ECR, a rangefinder even smaller than an RC, but with the same lens (no manual override, though). I noticed a lot of guys with older film SLRs, which was nice - one guy even had a Vivitar 285 mounted and a piece of white foamcore taped to the top of it to create an ad hoc bounce / diffuser - not many know what that's for anymore. But they all kind of 'sneered' at my little camera. Well, a couple of those shots are in my gallery. I don't consider them awful as far as the camera's technical ability goes. My composition skills...well...but that's not the camera's fault.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[planetjoe]

"I'm Not Dead Yet!"

"I'm Not Dead Yet!"

This is a great thread.

A couple weekends ago, I was hired by a friend of mine to shoot a wedding. He's a digital-only shooter, and he and his second camera guy covered the wedding like they normally do, producing around 12GB of images for the day. But since he knew me as the B&W RF shooter I am, he contracted me as a film consultant for the day. Weird - but don't get me wrong, it was a lot a fun. Plus-X, Tri-X, and some D3200 thrown in for good measure, and my Canon P complimenting his 20D.

So, ten rolls of film (and a lot of scanning) later, he's got some images (and good ones, IMHO) he felt he couldn't get any other way. Now, whether that's true or not I can't really say, nor would I want to speculate here. Desaturation, Channel Mixing, or any preferred digital process aside, of course.

But what was interesting was our discussion of this new "service" being a novel addition to his work, as far as his typical clients were concerned. Clients, that is, who maybe wouldn't otherwise be able to find it from another photographer, I guess...now, that's some message to digest, especially in light of what we're talking about here.

...oh, and a guest from the wedding cornered me in the parking lot before I left, asking, "...is that a rangefinder you're shooting with?" The conversation that followed was great.


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[Ash]

Swindon has so many camera shops, and I see so few people taking photo's. This is not a very big town centre, but at the top of the high street theres a mainly digital camera shop, plus another solely digital shop a hundred yards away, down the bottom is my favourite 'Peter Gilberts' vintage camera shop, and almost next to each other there is Great Western Camera's and also T4 Camera's. Then further down there is a Jessops. This doesnt include all the shops like Dixons that are also in the high street!

For all these shops you'd expect the town to be full of people taking snapshots.

Today for the first time in months I saw someone taking photos; a man with an SLR. Nikon.


As he stood in the middle of a main road to photograph us all waiting on the bus, I couldnt help but photograph him on my cameraphone.

No-one battered an eyelid at his chunky SLR, but when I had my Zorki out a week ago I got more than a few scowls and questions on it!

 

[bmattock]

And in the 'everything old is new again' department, you can get a PS plugin that simulates film grain. I'm sure that in due time, there will be one that simulates scratches and dust, naff exposure, and focusing errors. Maybe tilt horizons as well.

And as far as music goes, there are already plenty of digitally-recorded music files that have simulated pop and scratch noises.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Andy K]

And as far as music goes, there are already plenty of digitally-recorded music files that have simulated pop and scratch noises.

That has been par for the course in RnB for over ten years, bands like Blackstreet and Jodeci spring to mind.

 

[kully]

No-one battered an eyelid at his chunky SLR, but when I had my Zorki out a week ago I got more than a few scowls and questions on it!

What kind of scowls did you get in Swindon? I'm wondering whether their the same scowls I get in Reading...

 

[Ash]

By scowls I mean general dirty looks. The Zorki shutter is quite loud (maybe it's just me) and it makes those closer to me look around occasionally.. I also had a lady see it in my hand (about waist level) and give me a dirty look, obviously not wishing herself photographed


This is much in contrast to a guy who came over and asked me all about it (while i was looking at a zippo display at a key-cutters) and seemed really interested

 

[bmattock]

oh, by the way, today a classmate talked to me about my camera. I told him I was shooting b&w 100 iso and he went "What, you can't change the iso? Then how can you shoot when it's dark or light? Can you only shoot at midday outside?"

I started to compare my f1.7 to the average aperture of a digital p&s, but figured why even bother, so used the excuse that my Chinese wasn't good enough to explain the details to get the hull out of that discussion 😀

I took a photo of my neighbor recently, using a 150mm as a portrait lens on a 35mm SLR, shooting at f2.7 (wide open for that lens). DOF was so shallow that his whole face wasn't even in focus (as I intended) and the background was blown completely out of focus. He found that interesting and asked me how I did that - some Photoshop trick?

I found that I was at a loss to explain - he has no basis, so we could not have the conversation that would have explained it. Not that he's a dumb guy - on the contrary, he's a school teacher and quite smart. But he has nothing in his head about cameras - except that they 'take pictures'.

It is getting increasingly hard to have a conversation about photography with anyone who is not an active FILM photographer. I love film and digital, but I have to admit - most digicam users know nothing about photography. That doesn't mean they can't take a good photograph, just that they neither know nor do they care about such niceties as aperture, shuter speed, etc - just as you said.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[kully]

Yeah, I get the same - a look akin to one crossed between one I might get if I was about to wee on the pavement and holding a small bomb.

oh well...

As for film vs. digital, I'm not emotionally attached to spending my time developing B&W &c. Once digital capture has matured and you can get random grain rather than horrid bands (or the digital sheen that noise reduction gives you) and build quality on a par with film cameras £ for £ I'll be happy to sell or put in a closet my film cameras and go completely digital.

 

[Ash]

In regards to Bill's comments, that has reminded me of something.

A good female friend of mine, fellow student/artist/photographer has pretty bad money problems, and her cousin was bought a brand new 350D dslr. Her cousin uses it as a point and shoot, and admitted to not having any idea what aperture is. This enraged her, considering she would (hopefully) use it to a fuller extent.

The same happened with a girl in my photography class (before she dropped the subject). Her parents bought her a new dSLR, and she said "oh, I mainly use it for my MySpace photo's, but I have to hold it arms length to get my face in focus".

Turns out this is the same for a lot of 350D users. Its a new toy, and many don't have a clue about DoF or shutter speed or ISO.

It's a pity

 

[StuartR]

I had kind of a weird experience the other day. I was at the local photo shop and a younger father came in with his young son (probably about 35 and 5 respectively). He asked the girl at the counter for a good general film for his son's first roll. She gave him superia 400, and he gave the kid the film and said "Now this will be your first roll of film..."
He wasn't a photographer, as he didn't know anything about film, yet he was still giving film to his son for a first roll. I thought it pretty unusual. And I will say that film is very much a fringe phenomenon everywhere I have lived in the last couple years (CA, NY, CT, Japan...)

 

[kully]

DOF was so shallow that his whole face wasn't even in focus (as I intended) and the background was blown completely out of focus. He found that interesting and asked me how I did that - some Photoshop trick?

he he, I had the same thing with a roll that caught a light leak in my changing bag and which I also underdeveloped. I was asked whether it was some funky Photoshop effect... 😀 The bloke liked it.

Here's an example: