Is that a film camera??

Nice post and nice pics.

Besides the typical "Where do you buy film for that?" questions, I have a number of people state that they didn't know film was still being made!

Here's a quote from my own blog that sums up my reasoning for using film.

For me, there is no real digital vs. film debate. It is the same debate one might have over using 35mm or medium format or black and white vs. color, there is needless energy wasted on most debates of this nature. When you see an image that reaches into your soul, it could be taken with anything, the medium used becomes secondary to the artist's gift to the world.
Click to expand...
 
Great blog post, thanks! Funny that you as a professional photographer look to film as a hobby for one of the same reasons that we office jockeys do, the ability to complete the whole process without a computer. Now if only I could find the time to either process at home or mail out my backlog of exposed films. :)

Cheers,
Rob
 
Thanks. It's something that has been irking me lately. A couple of photogs in my area always give me (light) grief over using a film camera. I never see the reason. Sometimes you just like to go out and have fun! And for me there's no reasonable digital equivalent for my Leica.
 
"Is that a film camera??"

Heh. Got asked that question, in those exact words, by a very bright, very yummy hostess in a New York City tapas bar a few weeks ago. Unnaturally pleasant conversation ensued.

People seem increasingly curious about these weird, LCD-free black boxes I park on the bartop whenever I stop to refuel on vacation. And nobody has ever been the least bit stupid about it, either. Sincere, often bug-eyed, interest is the norm.

Some of these kids have never loaded a roll of film. Just like I've never stoked a coal stove, I guess. Our experiential ubiquity is ever-changing.
 
It's funny isn't it? I remember playing with typewriters and rotary phones as a kid because they had become outmoded. At a friends house the other day, her kid was playing with one of the cheap plastic point and shoots in the same manner. One of my nephews tried to hook a roll of film to the computer :D
 
The crazy thing is the speed of the switch:
from almost everything shot on film to "how do you spell film" in a decade or so...
 
I've been asked if my miniSpeed Graphic is a plate camera. More than one individual has refused to believe that it was made in the US.

yours
FPJ
 
My favorite was a fellow that thought the hasselblad I was using the other day was a leica and my friend that thought the hasselblad's viewfinder was an LCD screen. Wouldn't believe it was optical.
 
Mudman said:
My favorite was a fellow that thought the hasselblad I was using the other day was a leica and my friend that thought the hasselblad's viewfinder was an LCD screen. Wouldn't believe it was optical.
Click to expand...

In the large format community, it's well known that when you're out using your LF camera, you'll regularly get asked "Is that a Hasselblad?" I always wondered what Hasselblad users were asked, and now I know.
 
The other evening I was photographing a company at table with available light using my Hexar RF. From that few people I got first the following statements within a dozen of seconds:
a. Your flash didn't fire!
b. Did you already...?
c. Let me see the image!
d. Can I copy directly from the card?

a. started a rather technical RF explanation about the frozen window, which is not a flash window
b. was the almost quiet HRF shutter
c.+d. led to the clarification, that I'm using film

I better wouldn't have explained the latter :p, because after that we had a long discussion around film cameras (and have those enough megapix compared to the digital cameras? :eek:) film emulsion (really? you can still buy it?) and especially b/w which I had loaded (I don't believe it, since there is color film they don't produce b/w film anymore!). Then running to the scanning topic etc etc...
Well, I suppose you understand my very great amusement coupled with "oh, not again!"
 
My friends/coworkers are so used to seeing me with film cameras, I keep getting asked "that's digital?!" when they see me looking at the LCD of my X100. Granted, it does kinda look like my film cameras.. I guess that's kinda the opposite of this thread, but I thought it was still funny. :D

I still get "is that a film camera" from time to time when i'm shooting actual film, but people seem to keep to themselves these days so it's not that often.
 
I definitely get the "they still make film?" comments all the time. Even when I'm @ work with a big wall (and fridge) of film on either side of me!

Eric- the first thing I noticed on your blog post was the photo of you? w/ the rollei.... and the photo credit. I went to RIT w/ the photog (meaghan) and knew her from photo and the crew team.... It's a small world sometimes. Haven't seen her in a few years though. (me moving way out to california tends to do that I've noticed...)
Say hi for me if you see her. :)

-Brian
 
At our photographic club the other night a member was explaining the "unsharp mask" process using film and how the term was then translated to photoshop. He was doing well with the explanation until a younger member at the back asked, "What's a negative?"!

Happily using emulsion rather than pixels!

ft
 
bhop73 said:
My friends/coworkers are so used to seeing me with film cameras, I keep getting asked "that's digital?!" when they see me looking at the LCD of my X100. Granted, it does kinda look like my film cameras.. I guess that's kinda the opposite of this thread, but I thought it was still funny. :D

I still get "is that a film camera" from time to time when i'm shooting actual film, but people seem to keep to themselves these days so it's not that often.
Click to expand...

I've had this experience. My colleagues were astonished to see the LCD of one of my "old film cameras" and just as astonished when I used flash. Great camera the X100.

Look up the RFF thread, the worst words in photogrpahy. It has some good stuff.
 
I've only had a few people ask about me shooting film, the last time was when I had shot some underwater stuff using a Sea&Sea, it's usually just curiosity I get, I've never had anyone be remotely unpleasant about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom