Thinking of Going all Film. Am I crazy?

[Creagerj]

The title says it all really. Ever since I picked up an M2 and a Nikon film scanner I don't shoot digital anymore. Most of the time my D200 just collects dust. I've got a great kit too. Granted a D200 body can't be worth much now, but my glass is all prime glass, 4 AF and two AIS tele lenses. I think I could get some more awesome film gear for all of that, and plenty of film. Granted I could just ditch my D200 and get a good Nikon film body, but I don't really like the newer style SLRs, they are too bulky. I'd rather have an F3 and some more glass for my M2 and CL. Maybe a Hexar AF to boot (I just picked up a stylus epic, I'm hooked on P&S).

On another note, I can't really see myself shooting on a deadline for any reason, which would be the main advantage to digital. It seems like a strange thing to do though. All this time I wanted a digital SLR, now that I have one I never use it. I guess I was just born to love film.

So I guess what I'm wondering is has anyone else here cut the digital umbilical to go all film? How has it worked out for you? Do you miss it or kick yourself for getting rid of your digital gear, or did you do it and never look back.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

hi... keep your AF stuff, you never know when you need to sell your gear and you need a digital P&S to take pictures. But congrats on going film with a nice m2 too 🙂

raytoei
(ps. i do mainly film in 35 and 120format, my 40D EOS was the first camera when i started 2 years ago, i use it for selling gear 🙂 )

 

[Nomad Z]

I returned to photography two years ago, with an EOS 30D and a couple of lenses. After 6 months or so, I started feeling that I wanted something simple and mechanical (used a Minolta SRT back in the day), and I eventually found out about Leica rangefinders (wasn't even aware of them beforehand, but was aware of the Leica R SLRs). I sort of dithered between the two for another 6 months or so, picking up more film gear as I went. At a certain point, I just stopped usnig the digital and am now exclusively film (other than digi compact shots for web and the like). Last time I did a proper shoot with the DSLR was last November (musical event in a dark theatre), and I used it earlier this year to do some composition test shots as part of the planning for a project on large format film (I wanted to use the zooms to determine suitable focal length for the 5x4 stuff, so that I could buy the right lens).

I've considered selling the digital gear a few times recently, but haven't done anything about it yet. Part of me feels that it still has the potential to be useful in some situations, but I note that such situations either haven't come up, or I haven't been sufficiently attracted to them to actually take the kit out and use it. At the moment, I don't feel that there is much in the way of film gear that I need, such that liquidating the digital gear is worth doing.

Regarding film, I'd say that I'm happy with my hybrid workflow. At first, I was shooting colour negative, and getting them processed and scanned locally. Latterly, I'm back to doing my own B&W, and scanning on an Epson V700. I don't have a printer worth bothering with, and don't especially feel the need to make prints at present. I'm kinda holding back on that until I can set up a darkroom, or rent time in a community darkroom.

I had a few reasons for going back to film. The main ones were sensor dust and limited dynamic range with digital - using the DSLR was frustrating me, which is definitely not why I got back into photography. While the DSLR batteries seem to last well on a charge, I do like the idea of kit not being dependent on batteries. I also wanted something that was dead simple in operation - an aperture ring on the lens, a shutter speed dial on the top plate, and that's it. I'm perfectly capable of making electronic gadgets like digicams jump through hoops, but I found that I prefer not doing that when I'm taking pictures. The tangible aspect of negatives is something I like - they give me the option to rescan if I don't like my first attempts (or if I want to do a serious scan with judicious removal of dust beforehand, rather than the dusty proofs that I normally do). I can also wet print in the time-homoured fashion.

I can't see me giving up film any time soon. It's true that digital is more convenient but, for me, the frustrations outweighed that.

 

[tomalophicon]

It's not crazy. Film is better for you, do it.
Photographers were all film (essentially) for 150 years and look where it got them.

 

[julio1fer]

Is this a duplicate thread of this one?

 

[chikubi]

Photographers were all film (essentially) for 150 years and look where it got them.

To digital.

Seriously though, shoot whatever works for you if you enjoy it.

 

[semilog]

I find it very useful to have a decent DSLR available. Nothing fancy, mind. But there are times when the convenience and speed are just so nice. I'm currently shooting about 65:35 film:digital. Don't ditch your Nikon kit. Just get an F4 or F90 or F100 and use your existing Nikon lenses with that. You won't regret it.

 

[kshapero]

My NEX is my digital go to, but film still makes me smile.

 

[MCTuomey]

I like shooting film M's but not a lot of volume, so I keep one body for that purpose. I shoot more digital, so I keep a couple dSLRs and a dRF. I don't wake up and say "I'm going to shoot film today." I wake up deciding I'm going to shoot one thing or another in such-and-such light and then decide which medium I prefer to use.