Why do all we film guys keep holding on?

If film was $25.00 per roll ... would we still use it?

That's the only real question I ask myself occasionally ... I don't doubt that I prefer it to digital but this possible aspect of it's predicted 'niche' future does concern me a little.
 
batey_1020 said:
I am 24. Just this week i sold all my digital equipment (canon 60D and a bunch of L glass).
The reason?

a) Well ive learnt more from shooting film in the last 12 months.
b) I havent picked up my digital equipment for anything other then doing favours for people
c)I inheritated my Grandads M4 and his darkroom equipment. Something about holding onto a camera that i know he did everything he could to buy.

Weather i will stay in film completly time will tell. Im just hoping im going to lear a lot more over the next year about what i want form this hobby i guess.
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Nice thought, would love to work a rig from a grandparent past.
 
Film ,

Film ,

With the film there is no looking at the playback to see that you got it .
You just keep shooting , so the consentration is on what is happening in front of you not on the computer .
If you shoot with the same camera and lens a lot the simplicity of the film camera becomes second nature .
Still there is the mystery of developing the negatives and to see what you have sometime later .
The mystery of seeing it then is what gets me .
 
1. Grain
2. i like the process better (shoot, take film to lab, talk with lab, pick up proof sheets, talk with lab, pick up prints)
3. the results are better (see #2 - I'm using experts in the field to print my work)
4. the cameras are better (i use Leica MPs, Rolleiflex, Ebony 45SU)
 
back alley said:
people still smoke...
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That's true ... and film is better for your health!

When I see people forking out well over a hundred dollars for a carton of cigarettes at the local supermarket I do a double take ... when I see someone who is obviously a pensioner doing it I'm horrified!

I read somewhere recently that New Zealand plans to make tobacco an illegal product by 2023.
 
enasniearth said:
With the film there is no looking at the playback to see that you got it .
You just keep shooting , so the consentration is on what is happening in front of you not on the computer .
If you shoot with the same camera and lens a lot the simplicity of the film camera becomes second nature .
Still there is the mystery of developing the negatives and to see what you have sometime later .
The mystery of seeing it then is what gets me .
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I love not knowing what to expect. Also the whole mechanical feel of using film cameras gets me. Lets face it most film cameras are rather pleasing to the eye and thats why the digital market is begining to replicate them again i think.
 
For my needs film and a mechanical camera are sufficient, investing into digital equipment means spending lots of money and thinking about some kind of image-files back-up strategy ..
 
I stick with film because photography with it becomes an act of reification. The testimony a photograph brings with, unreliable and mute as it is, is indexed in space and time with this little piece of physical evidence. This makes the whole process more resonant to me.

.
 
Keith said:
I like the new avatar Akiva. 🙂

'Mysticism?' ... I think with the constant, relentless roll out of new digital gear the stability of film and the cameras that use it is reassuring. I'm finding this constant barrage of new digital cameras pretty tedious personally ... it's de-valuing what I regard as a legitimate art form and turning it into more twenty first century consumer driven crap to amuse the masses.
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That is probably the same things photographers said when Kodak invented the Instamatic camera the Polaroid and send out film and put photography in the hands of millions.
 
cosmonaut said:
That is probably the same things photographers said when Kodak invented the Instamatic camera the Polaroid and send out film and put photography in the hands of millions.
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That's probably very true ... though the millions of photographers have survived but maybe not Kodak? 😀

It's amazing that the company that created the 'wave' has finally slipped off the back of it.
 
Keith said:
If film was $25.00 per roll ... would we still use it?

That's the only real question I ask myself occasionally ... I don't doubt that I prefer it to digital but this possible aspect of it's predicted 'niche' future does concern me a little.
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Yes. I can afford that. I use about 100 rolls a year, meaning that It would still take several yrs of film use to cover the cost of a camera like the Leica monochrome. Besides, coming up with $25 is easy, even for someone with a very low income like me. Coming up with several thousand is near impossible.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Yes. I can afford that. I use about 100 rolls a year, meaning that It would still take several yrs of film use to cover the cost of a camera like the Leica monochrome. Besides, coming up with $25 is easy, even for someone with a very low income like me. Coming up with several thousand is near impossible.
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When you put it like that it doesn't sound so bad Chris.

So you're not in line for the Monochrom then? 😀
 
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