It's 2014, are you still using film?

It's 2014, are you still using film?

  • Yes 100%

    Votes: 198 35.6%

  • Yes 75%

    Votes: 116 20.9%

  • Half and half

    Votes: 112 20.1%

  • Only about 25%

    Votes: 90 16.2%

  • All digital baby!

    Votes: 40 7.2%
  • Total voters
    556
  • Poll closed .
I voted 100% film although I have some digital so probably 90% is a better figure.

Despite being a digital camera user for over 16 years (sounds a long time) I have never really warmed to the way digital cameras render a scene, sure you can work hard to approximate it but while it film exists and is cheap (although not as plentiful as 10 years ago) in the country I live—why bother?

Where I currently stand
Recently I sold the unloved D700 and all the lenses and decided to concentrate on mainly medium format with two Rolleiflex cameras, 35mm with the old M4P and Nikons F2 and Nikkormat EL.
EDIT: Forgot about the Sinar 4x5!
Film is cheap where I live, the Nikons are mainly fed a diet of colour negative film from Poundland (£1 a roll) with the occasional slide film (about £5 a roll) these prices are way cheaper than when I started photography in 1978.
I have kept three digital cameras an old Nikon D2x which I use with manual Nikon lenses, A pocket snap camera the Fuji F10 and a Polaroid POGO camera that prints 2x3" instant images.

The Future
I'm like most film users happy with the quality and price I pay for being able to continue using my chosen medium but have half an eye on the future.
I think the next 2-3 years will be critical for the future of film particularly the infrastructure of labs and processing options at the moment its good, however the amount of doom and gloom spread by an increasingly large demographic can get to you.
Like most people B&W looks at least safe and you can develop it in pretty much any organic phenol with an alkaline base, Ilford seem to be committed and that will keep me using their materials.

As much as I dislike digital colour, I try out many different cameras the most recent being the Fuji X1 pro which has had a few great offers like free lenses, but I'm afraid the camera felt too clunky and the output was disappointing, a shame because I really wanted to like it and it is small, stylish and reasonably priced.

I think possibly the digital camera for me has yet to be made, so I keep using film as long as possible.
 
It's 2014 are you still drinking wine, or have you been seduced by all the new flavors of alcohol-soda?

- I just mix some pure alcohol into grape juice - absolutely no-one can tell the difference.

- It's not about the drink, it's about getting drunk.

- +1

- Are we still having these same discussions? Come on guys, alcopop or wine, who cares?

- None of the kids I know have even tried wine. When this generation of wine-drinkers die off then it's all over for the wine-producers. Fact.

- I still prefer wine, but alcohol-soda is the future, so last year I switched. No going back.

- It's been getting harder and harder for me to find decent vintages in my local stores these days, and prices are just going higher and higher. I'm also tired of all the time spent in the dark cellar choosing the right bottle, so in 2014 I'll be going over 100% to alcopops. I don't think the quality is the same, but I can drink much more for the same price, and just opening a can is way more convenient than messing around uncorking bottles.
 
Since discovering the foveon sensor I think I've shot one roll of film.
 
I am 100% b/w film now but might get a Monochrom if prices ever drop for when it gets too dark for TMY pushed to 800. Someone is going to tell me to push it to 1600 but I don't like the look of film pushed beyond 800. Under the circumstances I would rather have a digital image than no image.
 
I sometimes wonder if buying a fuji 100s or a M9 (wow). then I think that I am one, and that the photos taken with a digital camera I would not have made with the film. and then do not buy it nor fuji nor M9😆the unique advantages of digital for me are the ability to quickly share images and the ability to have color and black and white and any sensitivity without film changing; no others. for me the pictures are printed. monitors or screens of mobile phones are not a result. where is the photo? and then digital cameras bore me, while the film cameras excite me. so why should I shoot in digital, if then I don't have fun? the only digital I have is iphone. my film cameras range from 135 to 4x5 inch.
 
I'm 100% film at the moment, just recently got into wet printing and for me its much more fun than the scanning and digital process.
But I have an XT-1 on the way, so I guess I will be at around 50/50 when that arrives.

Its kind of funny I started in digital and then got a little bit into film,
then I shot more and more film until I realised I wasnt using my DSLR any more
and sold my 5D and all my EF lenses and bought an M6 ttl with for the proceeds, never regretted it.
 
I would like to use film but I can't.
For health reasons I cannot process myself.
Last time I took a film to a lab here in Italy they returned it scratched stained and badly cut.
End of film in this crappy country
 
when bought my m9 i made 75 film 25 digital, i was about to sell the m9 but i gave it another try since then film is in the fridge...with the dp merrill arrival film has just been used only to test some cameras i trade...

Have to say that the foveon sensor rivals film and exceeds it in many ways...
 
So far in 2014 about 500-600 frames with the M8 and zero sheets of film with Crown Graphic. Not much around here the inspires me enough to want to use 4x5 film to capture it. Hope to be able to do few shoots with models over the spring and summer in which case I will be using the Crown Graphic and some HP5 or FP4.
 
Film. Only film.
And for now almost all 100 ISO colour slide.
And when I run out of that, I've still got a ton of Fuji 50 colour slide to go through.
Have had brief thoughts about getting a Nikon Df, but so far have resisted buying one.
 
100 % film

Just this morning the postman brought my first online order of film
20 boxes/rolls of different colour and B&W 135 film - now to put them in the cameras and the remainder in the fridge.

The only reason bought online was a recommendation of a fellow RFF - when he heard that the 2 types of film I like to use are not available here in Ireland anymore.
 
I would use 100% film except I still shoot events and clients want results yesterday. No local labs so it is a 2 week wait on film (I stopped doing my own soup years ago), so I will shoot digital for that. Have an event today, case in point. Not that I am anti-digital, I just seemed to really enjoy shooting film more.
 
Film 75, digital 25. (was 25/75 in 2013).

I've recently acquired 6x7 and 6x4,5 film cameras and I'm almost done building my own darkroom (yeah!).

I find it harder and harder to get excited with digital photography.


regards,
J
 
I stopped shooting film entirely in 2002 and sold all my film gear and went with Olympus 4/3 digital. Early last year, I sold all my Olympus gear and after a brief fling with the X-Pro1, paid the price of admission to Leica again. Later last year, I bought an M4-P to go with my digi-Ms to use up the forty or so roles of expired TMax I have lying about. I just finished re-acquiring a two-body, seven lens, six back MF system for shooting B&W film commercially again. I expect I'll be shooting more film again soon.
 
100 % film because film is still available for reasonable prices and enough types. However, I won't buy any color-film in 135 anymore, when the stock in the freezer is gone I give up on that (cost of developing).

A M9 would be a good substitution for color-photography but given the reliability problems and high prices for used bodies I will wait.
 
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