gdi
Veteran
I still shoot a lot of slides for the same reasons - beautiful results and excellent scans.
Regarding blown highlights, the challenges with digital are far worse when compared to B&W film. With exposure guess-tamation I can get excellent shadows while preserving sky/cloud detail with B&W film - duplicating that with a single digital shot is often difficult or impossible.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
The desire to use a Leica or any other marque should not become an incentive to use film over digital ... that's placing a brand or an ideal above your real priorities which should be to produce images. Isn't that what photographers do after all?
Choose a particular tool that you're comfortable with by all means but to let it (the brand) become the reason you take photographs in the first place is folly IMO!
Choose a particular tool that you're comfortable with by all means but to let it (the brand) become the reason you take photographs in the first place is folly IMO!
bmasonoh
Established
There's no right or wrong answer. It's whatever works best for your given your needs/goals/desires. A camera is nothing more than a tool. Choose the right tool for the job and you'll be much happier.
For family snapshots or vacations I choose to shoot digital. Less time, less effort and happier family. For personal work where I have more time and am looking for a more artisitic outcome I choose film (sometimes 35mm sometimes medium format).
Do what works best for you and don't feel guilty about your choice.
For family snapshots or vacations I choose to shoot digital. Less time, less effort and happier family. For personal work where I have more time and am looking for a more artisitic outcome I choose film (sometimes 35mm sometimes medium format).
Do what works best for you and don't feel guilty about your choice.
I think the issue is that the film M cameras are the most comfortable cameras to use for a lot of us. However, digital has come a long way and offers an easier work flow for many of us. I don't like the M8 and will not spend the cash on a M9... that leaves me with a compromise... so I use the cameras in my sig to do what I have to do. You're right, it is about the images... but tools fascilitate wanting to go make photos at times.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Another happy D700 owner I see!
I agree that an M does feel very nice in the hands and everything is pretty much where it should be ... and I have yet to use a camera that has as nice a shutter release as an M3 ... it's just a caress. The M8 by comparison feels positively agricultural!
Jamie Pillers
Skeptic
Me too.
Me too.
David,
I'm with you all the way here. I'm constantly feeling torn between the two technologies. Reasons:
Money - I simply can't afford the quality I enjoy in both technologies.
Ergonomics - I hate the size and shape of dslr bodies.
Flexibility - Dslrs are just plain awesome in night/varying light conditions. Adjustable ISO and white balance is amazingly great!
Crop factor - I want to use ALL of my lens' character, not just the middle 75% of the glass.
Some people can ignore some or all of this stuff; I can't. Just the way my brain works.
Jamie
Me too.
David,
I'm with you all the way here. I'm constantly feeling torn between the two technologies. Reasons:
Money - I simply can't afford the quality I enjoy in both technologies.
Ergonomics - I hate the size and shape of dslr bodies.
Flexibility - Dslrs are just plain awesome in night/varying light conditions. Adjustable ISO and white balance is amazingly great!
Crop factor - I want to use ALL of my lens' character, not just the middle 75% of the glass.
Some people can ignore some or all of this stuff; I can't. Just the way my brain works.
Jamie
bmasonoh
Established
Why does it have to be an either/or proposition?
andredossantos
Well-known
Ive almost entirely phased out 35mm film in favor of a Canon 5D but still shoot 120 with my Rollei. I probably shoot with each roughly 50% of the time. I love composing at waistlevel with a square aspect ratio so as long as there is film Ill use a camera that offers that type of shooting. However, I'm also lucky in that where I live I can drop off 10 rolls of slide/negative film at the lab before work and pick it up when I get out later that afternoon. I also 75% color.
Anyway, after being away from digital for a couple years while I saved up for a full frame DSLR I am happy to have both film and digital back at my disposal. Both are fun, both have their uses and I use whichever I feel like on a particular day.
Keep you M6 even if you user you D700 more. Im sure you'll use it occasionally and love using it those times you do.
Anyway, after being away from digital for a couple years while I saved up for a full frame DSLR I am happy to have both film and digital back at my disposal. Both are fun, both have their uses and I use whichever I feel like on a particular day.
Keep you M6 even if you user you D700 more. Im sure you'll use it occasionally and love using it those times you do.
Last edited:
David Hegar
Established
What you wrote doesn't make any sense whatsoever, it's just Leica eliticism attitude.
I, as well as most of my colleagues, always use DSLR bodies in full manual mode with the exception of auto-focus.
And people who know how to properly expose with DSLR, most likely his/her exposure is very tight and controlled when he shoots film. But film shooter will often struggle with exposure when given DSLR especially if the person only knows how to expose with negative film.
I, as well as most of my colleagues, always use DSLR bodies in full manual mode with the exception of auto-focus.
And people who know how to properly expose with DSLR, most likely his/her exposure is very tight and controlled when he shoots film. But film shooter will often struggle with exposure when given DSLR especially if the person only knows how to expose with negative film.
Last edited:
cidereye
Film Freak
Totally agree, photography shouldn't and doesn't have to be restrictive especially when it comes down to what tool you do or don't use. Horses for courses and just enjoy whatever tool you decide upon for the job - use em' all and have fun shooting!
JoeV
Thin Air, Bright Sun
Well, first off, this thread is ridiculous because it's simply referencing an earlier thread of the same topic. Why start a new thread, when it would have provided better context to continue the first thread?
Regarding the choice of older camera technology verses newer, it's a simple fact that newer technology provides opportunity to do things not offered by the older; or, at least to do things easier, more conveniently. This is not to say that the aesthetic experience is better; usually it's the reverse - the older technology has better mechanical aesthetics.
Don't misunderstand my point: I'm the guy who's been shooting paper negatives in pinhole cameras for the last 15+ years, and maintain a B/W darkroom, and use manual typewriters and fountain pens for writing because the aesthetic experience is more pleasing. Writing via manual typewriter can sometimes get me in a frame of mind where the words come out better. But it's not nearly as convenient or expedient as word processing on a computer. The same goes for photography. We've got to drop all the false pretense and finally admit to ourselves that perhaps HCB would have been using a cell phone camera, or digi-point and shoot, were he a young man, just embarking on discovering photography after having had some training in the fine arts.
You know, as much as I enjoy B/W photography, especially the aesthetics of the silver gelatin fiber print, and as much as I like the aesthetics of handling manual cameras, the problems associated with processing and drying film while trying to avoid the inevitable dust and scratches, and printing each negative as finely as possible, where each one requires a test strip and perhaps some dodging and burning, I've come to the point where the time and convenience advantages of digital photography start to significantly impact my choice of which camera I take. Especially if, in the end, it's the image that counts. Someone once said (originally applied to small 35mm film cameras) that the best camera was the one you have with you. This still rings true, in this day and age of palm-sized cameras and cell-phones that take pictures every bit as good as the P/S of a few years ago.
I still drag out my 8x10 box camera and sheet film holders loaded with paper negatives (the type of camera considered standard when 35mm was first invented, was the new-fangled technology), in fact, I did so just this week. But I wouldn't take it on vacation to document the trip (although I did so a few years ago to Arches NP, 4x5 pinhole) without seriously considering bringing the digital along also. And I know which one is more convenient, and even delivers superior images.
We're pretty much living a fantasy, like those people that do medieval jousting in the local city parks, dressing up in period costume and making mead and personal body armor (SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism). That's what it's like, using a rangefinder and film this day and age. It's not about the image, or the photograph itself; if it were, there'd be better choices. It's about the rangefinder experience, the aesthetics.
But when it comes down to simply enjoying one's vacation and coming home with good pictures, it may not be the best tool for the job. Just like if I were to try and load my tripod and 8x10 box cameras and sheet film holders in my luggage when flying to a vacation spot. Back in the day, a caravan of pack mules was what was required.
And as a modern-day callitype photographer, to me it appears as if you rangefinder users have seriously compromised on tradition and have bought into the dark side of pursuing the latest and greatest for the sake of convenience, with your film rangefinders. Or so it could seem, placed in that context. Really; you aren't traditional enough, being caught in that interstitial between ancient and contemporary.
~Joe
Last edited:
gho
Well-known
I would like to add to my previous post, although I advised for using the digital camera, personally I am preferring the film rangefinder. I really tried hard to embrace the digital way, but I was never satisfied with my results.
And I found post processing in software as much as laborsome as developing my own film. That does not mean that film is better than digital, or that slrs are worse than rangefinders, etc. It is just a matter of personal match and preference. Why should someone, who is comfortable and happy with his digital point and shoot use a rangefinder and learn how to develop ones own film, if it is possible to get decent enough pictures with any of these digital devices?
And I found post processing in software as much as laborsome as developing my own film. That does not mean that film is better than digital, or that slrs are worse than rangefinders, etc. It is just a matter of personal match and preference. Why should someone, who is comfortable and happy with his digital point and shoot use a rangefinder and learn how to develop ones own film, if it is possible to get decent enough pictures with any of these digital devices?
Juan Valdenebro
Truth is beauty
Juan Valdenebro
Truth is beauty
My main reason for using film (99% B&W) is that I don't need any kind of digital output... I don't even share my photographs (too much) through internet... I prefer the wet prints. If I need to show an image, I scan the print.
If you don't do wet prints, you should be getting the best out of digital, IMO...
Cheers,
Juan
If you don't do wet prints, you should be getting the best out of digital, IMO...
Cheers,
Juan
israel_alanis
The Laugher
Hello David, as many RFF´s friends said, digital or film is just a choice, plus as filmfan said the enjoyment factor.
A good photographer and friend told me time ago a thing I think is true:
Does not matter the way or tool you use, the result is the most important.
Here in RFF you can browse in gallery and find many very good work of our friends, caught from stylus infiny 35mm, the good series M and the best actual digital SLR.
but we appreciate the shots not for camera they used, its just the photograph that moves our senses. Everyone use the camera that enjoy and care.
You read in this post some RFF´s friends use a specific camera for family, another for work and trip etc. so I recommend you use your cameras, look your results and keep the camera you enjoy use and results, digital or film you decide.
About slide is same thing, from digital you can print as slide your digital file or if you prefer shot with slide film, but you could not decide if you do not test everyone. I know when you test each one you will decide.
Regards.
A good photographer and friend told me time ago a thing I think is true:
Does not matter the way or tool you use, the result is the most important.
Here in RFF you can browse in gallery and find many very good work of our friends, caught from stylus infiny 35mm, the good series M and the best actual digital SLR.
but we appreciate the shots not for camera they used, its just the photograph that moves our senses. Everyone use the camera that enjoy and care.
You read in this post some RFF´s friends use a specific camera for family, another for work and trip etc. so I recommend you use your cameras, look your results and keep the camera you enjoy use and results, digital or film you decide.
About slide is same thing, from digital you can print as slide your digital file or if you prefer shot with slide film, but you could not decide if you do not test everyone. I know when you test each one you will decide.
Regards.
Last edited: