What was the final straw that made you switch/lean to digital?

[Archiver]

I came into photography late in the film cycle, even though I had played with cameras during the 80's and 90's. My first digital camera came in 2002 and everything changed. Instant results and very reasonable image quality.

It wasn't until about 2005 or 2006 that I rediscovered film, and shot a fair bit until I bought the Sigma DP1 in 2008. Almost everything about it gave me a 'film experience' without having to shoot it, and film fell by the wayside.

Now I hardly shoot film, maybe only a few rolls a years, depending on what I'm doing.

 

[Ben Z]

For me the switch was precipitated by three things.

The first was one by one all the decent pro labs in my area went out of business. I never liked the idea of sending film away (as it was usually from an expensive, once-in-a-lifetime trip) or trusting mass-production processers. I've done my own b&w processing and scanning and find it unenjoyable and tedious. Color seems like it would be much moreso. Darkroom was never my cup of tea.

The second was digital photography quickly became accepted as a communication means between me and clients, so I had to invest in high-end digital gear anyway, thus making moot the whole discussion about the cost of digital cameras and depreciation vs shooting film and processing.

The third was the advent of large, flat-screen HDTV's. That along with software allowed me to make creative and interesting presentations and display them any time easily. Setting up a screen and projector gave people enough time to come up with an excuse why they needed to leave 😀

 

[noisycheese]

What was the final straw that made you switch/lean to digital?

It was a combination of straws, such as -

1: Traveling to Mongolia and back with 60 rolls of film in two Domke lead film bags;
2: The weight, bulk and hassle of traveling with the above;
3: The untold hours consumed by developing those 60 rolls of film myself when I returned home;
4: The enormous value of ISO variability that digital offers;
5: The ability to shoot at ISO 3200 with next to no image quality penalty;
6: The realization that shooting film hobbles a documentary photographer due to the time lost shooting while changing film;
7: The realization that I was missing shots that I wanted while I was working the film advance lever;
8: The realization that one 32 GB memory card will store 1000+ images vs. 36 exposures on a roll of 35mm film;
9: The realization that the LeicaM240 would produce color prints that are at minimum equal to 120/220 color prints at a given print size;
10: The realization that in several ways, shooting film was hamstringing my documentary photography.

I swore I'd never go digital - but when I finally could see all the above, I at long last took the plunge and invested in a Leica M240 camera; I have not regretted making the jump even once (however, I will still shoot B&W film in my M4-P for specific smaller projects where I want B&W prints as the end product).

 

[rbsinto]

The last straw hasn't happened yet.
Not even close.

 

[Fadedsun]

I think it really depends on the type of photographer you are, doesn't it? It's more of a hobby for me, and I don't go out every day to take photos, so film works for me. Plus, I just really love the click of a film camera shutter. It's addicting in a way. There's no rush on when I need to see or get my images. If I was trying to make a business out of my photography, then I might have to switch over to digital for the faster image turnaround.

 

[Alberti]

Like noisycheese I was annoyed with the films, having changing results from color negative film to another, even in same batch. Color cast? X-rays? Developer depleted but used anyway?
Sure, many older prints were fine but the market started to get smaller. I converted in 2007 to the 2007. I thought myself a late adopter.

So that was a slow push towards the edge.
Then one day I was walking downtown, crossed the path of a Leica shop.
It was instant love with the M8.


----
And that M8 gave me so much fun. Such an incredible quality. I never looked back in frustration what film could do - except one thing:
- in early days I developed hard and had a point-light enlarger (got stolen) and after that I was never able to get as good a rig back, so I went to another style film/developing/enlarging - focussed on small instead of large grain.

It is now that I have LR + SEP that I start to be able to get my results from years ago. Now I need a B&W printer to do what I want: print micro-grain 🙄

 

[narsuitus]

So- what factors made you switch ?

I did not switch.

I still shoot film.

 

[Stanton]

Digital when I fly because it is much easier and the quality is comparable. If I am not flying somewhere, film, although the expense is an inhibiting factor.

 

[agoglanian]

I started with film and I love the process behind it. I first switched to digital in 2005, but I quickly missed having some analog options and got right back into film the next year. I was shooting mostly 35mm with some 120 (I stopped shooting large format a long time ago) but this year I decided to stop shooting 35mm all together, sold all my small format gear and focused my film efforts on my Mamiya 7II and Hasselblad 500CM kits. I love the look of 120 film and thankfully I have access to a great lab for processing, and they will scan if I need them to (I usually save this for special images).

I shoot some color film, but mostly black and white these days. I'll shoot it as long as it's around, but I don't ignore the convenience of digital, though I still treat my digital cameras like film cameras in the way I operate them.

To quote myself. Is this a meta post?

I know I said I stopped shooting 35mm, even sold my film scanner, then I had to go and buy a Leica M2 to keep my M240 company. I knew I'd be back.

 

[GoodPhotos]

The Nikon D100 placed a professional (then) 6MP APS-C sensor that took my (then) Nikkor lenses below the $2500 mark. (256MB CF cards were still almost $300 though.)

I bought one in late 2002 and haven't shot a roll of film professionally since. (and precious few rolls at all.)

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

So- what factors made you switch ?

I got bored of the instant gratification of digital.

Oh wait, you meant switching the other way? 😀

 

[ColColt]

I fought going to digital for years. Film and darkroom supplies all but dried up around here and it was getting harder to even find a place locally that would develop any sort of film. Time was I could go into any camera store, even the drug store and get Tri-X. That stopped, unfortunately. I couldn't easily get the chemicals I used to make specific developers, like Benzotriazole and Metol(Elon) and Agfapan 400 was gone(one of my favorites) as was Rodinal at the time.

I finally bowed the knee to digital and at the time bought a new Nikon D80. It was ok and the only thing good about it was being able to see immediately what I had shot and any focus or exposure errors. That was and still is the best thing about digital over film.

I graduated from the D80 to D200 and finally the D7000. That will be my last digital camera. I've gotten back into film recently and had a longing to develop my own again. I bought several rolls of Tri-X and all the chemistry I needed from Freestyle. Digital has it's place and I use both. I've gotten some good looking photos with digital after they passed through post processing but I miss the dark room.

 

[telenous]

This is the first time I am contemp**ting a switch. I source film/chemicals from local mom and pop stores in Athens but their shelves are quickly drying up. The recently imposed capital controls do not leave much room for optimism. Imports are getting harder to get and it might be some time before the market normalizes. This may be the straw that brakes the camel's back for me.

.

 

[-fp]

For me it was the hassle of scanning. I bought and tried various scanners and was not impressed by any. If/when I go back to film for the third time it'll be with the knowledge that it's for the pleasure of the process rather than the results. I'll be scanning by digitally photographing the negs.

 

[Contarama]

The internet.

Ask me the same question a few years back when I sold my best film camera I would have said because film is getting expensive and hard to get processed.

But now I know it was the damn internet and being able to upload my crummy images as quick as possible that made me do it...

Now I have to rebuy that camera again...

 

[JChrome]

I began in the digital age. So I first picked up a digital camera.

I never switched from film to digital but only from digital to film.


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[Mudman]

When digital started to get inexpensive enough with good enough quality to replace print film. Pentax K10d on sale was my gateway into digital. After that I started working professionally and followed up with a D300 for sports work (I had far more AF Nikon lenses than Pentax just because the used market is larger. Otherwise I probably would have figured out a way with Pentax). I kept shooting film for personal work until 2013, when I bought my 2nd (and keeper this time) M8. I pretty much didn't shoot a single roll of film until this year because of the M8. I've done quite a few lately for fun, and because a client had me out for a shoot with my Hassy. Kind of kickstarted things for me. It's been a shock to see what has been discontinued in the last two years though, and the increase in prices 🙁.

 

[chickentender]

Theft. Back in the year 2000. From my car was stolen my kit bag with nearly all my best stuff, two nikon bodies and my best glass that my dad had given me. I wasn't much of a photog at the time and was still learning but was definitely headed down the road. I was 3 years out of college at the time and didn't have close to the knowledge, money or wherewithal to replace. I basically didn't photograph much for a few years when I bought a fuji digicam (after a few snapshot type film cams and 2 crappy digitals) and then started to get more heavily into it. In 2005 I bought a Pentax K100D and invested in Pentax glass slowly (and a number of other bodies) slowly over the years (slapping the dirt cheap, at the time, but endlessly fantastic k-mounts from the 70s onward onto digital bodies was amazing). Eventually I bought a K1000, then a number of other Pentax film bodies and finally switched back completely to film. I shoot digital for event work and fast turnaround but nearly all my personal work is done once again on film. So I guess my film-digital-film journey has been a bell curve. I won't be leaving film now. Not a chance.
I spend less than a 1/4 the time sitting behind a computer screen in digital post with film than I do with digital RAW files. Just a better experience through and through. Not only that, but when I hold/scan a slide or negative, particularly and older one I'm struck by the fact that this piece of emulsion was THERE, at the scene, struck by the photons that actually make up the genuine image. A first-hand report. 🙂
Anyhow.... Yeah - sort of a there-and-back-again story.

 

[drec]

I would like to learn to wet print, but the time to put into it is not worth it for me. The M-M black and white is good enough to totally supplant film for me, and is way more convenient. I've generally rolled this way since my first dslr in 2003, with film fits throughout the intervening time. This time, film's gone for good for me.

 

[franco]

The last straw hasn't happened yet.
Not even close.

Same here.!!!

~f


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