Film

i started with film, moved to digital 10+ years ago…and got bored with digital, i found it too easy, if that can be a thing…

With film i feel like i create an image while with digital i feel i captured an image. When i take a great film shot, i feel more rewarded given the work that went into it.

In my digital journey, i was chasing lower noise, faster AF and more MP, none of which really improved my images.
With film I focus more on composition, light, and am much more selective with what I choose to photograph.

I also love using beautiful all metal and glass lenses and cameras, these older products were built to a different standard and are a joy to get the best from.
In digital, i tried to recreate the same enjoyment with Fuji gear (close but no cigar) and Leica M (closer still but still no cigar)…with Leica, i think part of it is just feeling uncomfortable with the cost of the gear that i walk around with, if something should happen.

I still use digital for some applications, and i use my digital cameras to digitize my film shots.

I also enjoy the process involved in developing the film.
 
I love the way my film cameras don't get old.
I am used to fall in love with my gear and things (cameras, guitars, clothes too...), so I'm happy when I can continue to use them for many years.
film cameras let me do this, unlike digital ones (example my m9...)
 
Perhaps after nearly two centuries, we've become habituated to the magic. But every time I go out to shoot, I remind myself of the wonder creating an image out of silver and light. It's like some strange fever dream of a medieval alchemist! What a joy and mystery film photography is...
 
While I shoot digital for my commercial work, for my personal work I still enjoy B&W film. I've been shooting vintage Contax RF w/various Zeiss and Nikkor lenses for the last 8 years after shooting lots of 4x5 for many years. If my back was stronger, sheet film was cheaper and I still had my darkroom set up the way I used to I would probably be shooting more 4x5. As for why: as good as my DSLRs are I don't enjoy the experience of working with them the way I do with my Contaxes, Rolleis and 4x5 Toyos. It isn't strictly rational, but there it is.
 
All these film posts have left me feeling nostalgic. Here are a couple things that I enjoyed about film back when I was toting around a couple of Canon F1 bodies with various lenses and when digital photography was a rumor on the distant horizon.

I loved to go shopping for film. In the late ‘80s - early ‘90s my photo buddy and I would take the train to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku. Back then the film section was massive. The refrigerated film cooler stretched from one side of the store to the other and it was stocked with so many different types and brands of film. There were posters everywhere showing example photos of the various films. In those days I was strictly shooting color reversal film and I’d always buy 2 or three bricks of 50 and 100 ASA film. Enough to last a few months of our weekend photo excursions. After shopping we’d head over to the Pentax Gallery. I’m not sure if the gallery is still there but at that time it was a real treat to see all the photographs on display; very inspirational.

And, another thing: I never developed my own film, the corner camera store did that for me; and back then in Yokosuka there was a camera store on almost every street corner. I’d get the slide film developed and instead of being mounted in plastic slide holders I get it in clear plastic sleeves. I’d rush home and put the sleeve on my light table and scrutinize each image with a big Pentax loupe. If I wanted something to be printed I’d mark the sleeve with a grease pencil (do they still make grease pencils?) and take it back to the camera shop to have it printed to whatever size I specified. My house was too small to hang pictures on the wall but my office walls were covered with my framed photographs. People used to visit my office just to see the pictures on the wall… it was terrific fun!

I’m retired now, all the corner camera shops are gone, I don’t have a photo buddy anymore and all my film cameras have been replaced with digital. I have lots of free time now and I shoot more than ever before, life is very good (knock on wood). I’m not going back to film but I can say that my memories of the good old days of shopping for film and our weekend photo trips are the best!

Oh, one last nostalgic thing; back then I used to go to the bookstore and buy photography magazines, lots of photography magazines. That was the only way we had to know what was going on in the photo world. The bookstore is gone now and the internet has replaced the magazines. Oh well.


All the best,

Mike
 
Like most, I really enjoy using an old classic film camera. Hard to beat the look and feel of a good old fashioned mechanical camera. Plus, there's something about B&W film that just looks right to me (as ambiguous as they may sound). But the majority of my photography is now digital. We're taking a brief trip this week and I'll be packing light, my cell phone for color, and a Canon IVSb with a collapsible 50/3.5, and several rolls of Eastman 5222-XX for B&W. Never trusted my color photography to a phone before. We'll see how that works.

Jim B.
 
I don't take many photos any more; a combination of things including a very bad back, and other health issues. I do have a P&S digital of 6MP that I sometimes use for family photos. And of course, my cell phone can be used for unexpected photo opportunities since I always have it.

But I miss film. I liked using it and printing, mostly B&W. It was just fun and I felt I was creating something. I have never felt that way with the digital I have. That may be because I don't have a "proper" digital camera, but I don't think so. If I were able to get around carrying more weight, in camera gear, I would gladly do it with film.
 
My reasons have shifted over time. Originally I just liked the atmosphere I could get in film. Then I had my son and like much I do these days, I want to leave things to pass down to him. I prefer tangible files vs digital ones. That reason still holds true, but now I have built a darkroom and enjoy the craft/process far more than digital. Same reason I still oil paint rather than digital art.
 
Blame it on Lomography: Years after abandoning it the first time, I took another look at film. And while film still only accounts for maybe 5% of my work tops, it's a fun change of pace, and I try nutty things which I wouldn't have tried before, like higher-speed films in pursuit of fist-sized grain. Film's characteristic curve is also less linear than digital, and occasionally that also works to my advantage.
 
Erik van Straten said:
I would like to hear why people don't like film!

Erik.
Click to expand...

or don't like using it? The reason I say that is because most of my favorite photographers from the past and present use film. For me, I'm a color photographer mostly. I truly feel digital does it better. Also, I love the ability to use high ISOs.
 
jsrockit said:
I'm a color photographer mostly. I truly feel digital does it better.
Click to expand...

I agree that digital is better for color than film, but actually I don't think digital is now good enough for color shooting. Then it should get a little better still, a little more realistic.

Erik.
 
Can't quite afford (ahem..justify) a Monochrom and I won't sell off all my film bodies. It's hard to reconcile film these days, having 50 binders of if my kids won't know what to do with. What survives is either already printed or archived in a famous collection...I have a few digital files and prints in museum collections so I suppose they will survive. The prints on my wall? All the negatives? The chances they will survive 20 years after I'm dead is slim. So what does it matter, if you want your work to survive the best thing you can do is become either famous or very wealthy.
 
Don't really wanna get into the digital vs film discussions these days. I'll just say, that for me personally, I can make better photos and print better prints with digital than I ever could with light sensitive materials and chemicals. And I had over 30 years of practice with film and darkroom and I never could make the quality of prints I can today. Besides, I'm old, fat and lazy and I don't give a damn about process anymore. I just wanna take pictures and make prints.

Silver based B&W is beautiful, I agree. And most of my favorite photographers shoot/shot film. Of course most of those photographers are all dead now and lived at a time when digital wasn't a Thing. Yet digital prints are beautiful as well, especially B&W printed on matte art papers. I just wish more people would make prints today instead of having their photos exist solely in cyberspace.
 
I wasn't going to join in because I had just started using film again and hadn't really gotten enough experience to say why. Turns out several others have the same reason I started using it again, the cameras. I miss the shutter advance, my R-D1 cameras had it and I love them for it. There's something in the using the older stuff that just seems to be so satisfying. Though my eyes are getting too old for manual focus, I still enjoy using it. Why I don't like film? I was a computer nerd before I reacquainted myself with photography and I took to the digital method easily and I love the ability to process everything I shot that day at home and quickly, not to mention the ability to share online easily too.
 
I still shoot film for many of the same reasons as others have mentioned.

And also because I am better at making film photos than I am at making digital photos.
I have several decades more experience with film and it shows in my negatives and prints.

That I also just like cameras as interesting mechanical objects is a nice bonus to the world having mostly gone digital; I've been able to own and use almost every film camera I want to.

There is also something to like about the medium(film) not changing very much while the tools(cameras/lenses) seemed to just get better over time. With digital cameras, it seems that with every sensor or editing program advancement, I am learning a new medium.

I do not dislike digital even though I tend to think of digital photography as an analog for film photography. But, really that isn't quite correct. Digital is becoming more of it's own thing which is, I think, a positive thing.

Rob
 
I grew up with film, learnt to use it and enjoy the whole process...since my film use is now just a hobby and not to earn money with then its shortcomings do not matter to me.

And like many others here I enjoy using old vintage cameras...from RF Leica M models , many LTM Canons to Prakticas and OM 1 or a Canon F1N or a Hasselblad 500CM to a Mamiya C330 TLR or a Zorki 4 or a Kiev 4a to a Nicca made Tower 3. copy of a Leica III. I have little need for digital cameras.
 
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