Why Do You Still Shoot Film?

Why not? That is what I say

I am a huge digital shooter ... but I always keep my GS and the Natura around just in case I need to be less obvious

the funny thing is many people think my Natura is Digital 🙂

Though personally I love the look of certain films.... Neopan for one and Velvia ... its almost impossible to get that kind of dynamic range without blowingout highlights with digital
 
... because it's there.

No seriously: Because all the cameras I like to handle are film-based.

I use digital for family-event-snap-shooting when good-enough results in print and on CD (digital-slideshow) are needed fast and reliable. 😱

When shooting for me - that is for fun - I like to go the hard way with my all manual heavy metal cameras I really have to work hard to get hardly usable results. 🙂
 
digi for most work, film for fun.
my 5D and 10D have no soul.
because it is magic ( if you doubt step back into the darkroom)
because it is supercool.
because there is no delete/trash button.
because grain is round and pixels are square.
because everyone else is shooting digital.
because it is solid (has matter), try holding a strip of digital files up to the light.
because it stores better.
because its an art.
 
Because I use computers at work apart from internet surfing, blogging, groups like this, etc. Using a digital camera is like using a computer peripheral ... it's not that fun for me. 😉
 
I shoot medium format. There is no digital camera out there (except maybe the very very exotic full frame backs) that come close to 645 neg image quality. That is why I shoot film - resolution, color accuracy, optical perfection of the RF645, no fringing, and much more stable medium (digital files are very mortal), and it never looks plasticine.

Also, the RF645 just feels so nice.
 
For myself, being able to use high quality precision equipment made in the heyday of engineering/build quality excellence - the 1950's (and thereabouts) is important. (It's the decade that iwas born in, by coincidence or not.)

If I had to choose between plastic film cameras and plastic digital cameras, i might just choose the digital.

That, and the lack of shutter lag on the older mechanical cameras.
 
Digital is great and still impresses me, but the cameras are souless.

I love using film and I especially love the cameras. Advancing the film on a Nikkormat and feeling the gears mesh (very addictive), seeing an image snap into focus through the viewfinder of a rangefinder, composing a photograph on the expanse of the ground glass screen of a Rolleiflex, carefully metering a scene with a Pentax spotmeter (so you get the shadow detail and the best tonal range...) Need I say any more?
 
...because i want to keep this thread going!! 😛 :dance: 😛

...and for the tactile sensation of holding that delicate silver-coated cellulose ribbon in my hands as i thread it onto a stainless steel reel.

for a moment or two (or three or four.... you know how that goes sometimes) i hold the stuff of dreams and inspiration and aspiration and a bit of perspiration at the always challenging next step of the creative process.

for the familiar aromas of developer, stop bath and fixer...reminding me of the magic that is yet to come. recalling the first time i saw an image come up in the developer tray.

i still enjoy the process of printing. trying to remember and use the bits and pieces of experience that make it all come together (usually). 🙄

like quite a few folks here, i imagine, i have one foot in the past and one in the here and now...one digital p&s, several different formats, some auto-focus, auto exposure cameras, some manual exposure and manual focus cameras, a couple of things for polaroid. i guess the phrase
"different horses for different courses" comes to mind.

alright, that's enough for now. thank you all for your indulgence and for wading through, yet another, stream of consciousness of mine.

hasta la vista, adieu, dazvidanya, fino al prossimo tempo, auf wiedersehen, and later y’all

kenneth 😛 :dance: 😛
_______________________________________
"...patience and shuffle the cards" miguel cervantes
"nothing can be learned" herman hesse
"everybody knows everything" jack kerouac
"some memories are realities and better than anything" willa cather
" doo-wacka doo, wacka doo" roger miller
"we have met the enemy and they is us !" walt kelly (pogo)
“a mans cartilage is his fate” phillip roth
 
IMHO , nothing can compare to:
Exerting all the skills you have to get a decent picture,
Using the finest mechanical and optical marvels of an almost bygone era,
Seeing the image coming from a white sheet of paper in a wet tray,
Doing all this by MYSELF, with almost no electronics nor any f****** software to decide by myself....

Oh...that´s heaven...

Is there any other reason valid to avoid doing it??

Ernesto
 
There are many reasons why I still use film:

1. That is what is in my refrigerator.
2. My film cameras are unable to use digital media.
3. I have not found a digital camera that can produce slides.
4. I prefer battery independence.
5. Leica has not yet produced a digital M6 rangefinder.
6. Nikon has not yet produced the digital SLR that I need (an F2, F3, F4, or F5 with a 24x36mm digital sensor).
7. Canon digital SLRs do not accept my Nikon lenses.
 
I shoot film because I feel that film based photography "is warm and has a soul", whereas digital photography [to me, the amateur] is cold and lifeless.
The rest of the factors are nuisance factors such as film in the regrigerator, no wish to work on digital files, ... etc.

Raid
 
I'm 21 years old. I've come to terms with the fact that, barring a miracle or some massive hording on my part, I will not be able to shoot film for the rest of my life. I enjoy the process of the medium, and I love taking my time. I don't burn through roll after roll, so buying digital for 'convenience' would be a waste. I've got the rest of my life to go digital, in the mean time I'll enjoy film while I still have it.
 
I get better results with my Leica than my Canon 20D. I often say with chagrin,
"I use film for art, and digital for money." Sadly, my clients seem to agree....

Chris
canonetc
 
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