Why Do You Still Shoot Film?

Film vs. Digital

Film vs. Digital

Well, I have 31 cameras, 2 are digital. I like the digital for the have it right now aspect and for easy macro shots. BUT, film has a depth to it that I like. Actually, I have a $60 camera that takes as sharp a photograph as any. The 'art' of photography is better found with film, I think, and understanding the camera and the process is satisfying to me. As a matter of fact, just getting back on this forum has caused me to load up some film in my Konica S2 and my Petri s and my old Nikon 35mm. I will take some film shots tomorrow.
My Petri 7s and my Petri Blue Magic Scope need no batteries, no menus, etc.... great.
 
While I tend to prefer my DSLR over film, I don't find digital a good substitute when it comes to panoramic photography. The xpan and a couple of other MF pano cams still have a place in my collection. I'll be the first in line if there ever were a digital xpan on the market.
 
FrankS said:
That, and the lack of shutter lag on the older mechanical cameras.
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Same here. With the Leica, I'm in command.

The Minolta DSLR takes the picture when it pleases, and generally seems to want to do things its way (and has a much higher failure rate than even myself, whether it comes from AF, flash or even ambient light measurement). The Dynax 9 is somewhere in between (not much plastic, short shutter lag, gorgeous finder, totally reliable), but it is so huge and noisy!

And hard disks crash and controllers go berzerk. Superia and Velvia don't.

I hope good amateur labs will live on...
 
Blast the amatuer lab!

Blast the amatuer lab!

Alec said:
S
And hard disks crash and controllers go berzerk. Superia and Velvia don't.

I hope good amateur labs will live on...
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Just got two rolls Elitechrome back, guess what, they cut it into strips of five and started in the middle of the first frame!


I had that four years ago with another lab which I didn't use after they developed my Delta100 in the C41 bath.
Now I'm out of labs, Eurocolor and CeWe color are the only players on the market.
 
Socke said:
Just got two rolls Elitechrome back, guess what, they cut it into strips of five and started in the middle of the first frame!


I had that four years ago with another lab which I didn't use after they developed my Delta100 in the C41 bath.
Now I'm out of labs, Eurocolor and CeWe color are the only players on the market.
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Sorry about that Volker.
These are digging their own grave. Still I believe there is room for good labs... 🙁
 
kyle said:
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.
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I believe film still has a long healthy life.. In part because there are just too many film cameras floating around being used to stop making film.
 
Cos I am a helpless romantic...???

I dont need to explain the difference between wandering around my city melting with the smoke and light with my Leica M7 and doing it my my Canon 20D,do I?

Because it gives me pleasure??

Because i feel those buterflies in my stomach everytime I load the film in the reel in complete darkness, awaiting for the silver-magic to happen and inmortalise my myseries and joys in something a bit more tangible than zeros and ones...??

Because the impossibility of "chimping" slows me down to a pleassurable state of mind and empowers my(weak) vision...??

OK,Ok enough BS, I know...

Erik.
 
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Digital images from small sensor cameras look great on a 20" monitor, but have you ever blown one up to a 24x36" poster print?

I think I will stick with my MF film gear for a while longer thanks.

Besides, the average digital camera has a technological life expectancy of eighteen months. I have superb quality (better than the current best digital), out of date film older than that!

Jon
 
I also shave with a Dovo straight razor which need stropping and sharpening...
Somebody has to do the dirty works...

Seriously, I could not find a reasonable alternative to a 4x5 sheet film enlarged at 80x100cm
and toned and once there are chemicals and films around why should I stop using films in smaller formats?

Finally, I like the idea that someone is carrying on the old traditions and it makes me even proud that my father (around 70 y.o. now) once asked me to explain him how is it to be sharpened my razor... Maybe some day someone will call me to show kids at school how people used to do things waaaay waaaay back...

Giella lea Fapmu
 
Digital is nice. I shoot a lot of it at work. For my own purposes, film (primarily Kodachrome) gives me great results and a very tangible product that isn't a chain of 1's and 0's on a CD or flash card. And it is mine forever.
 
the pleasure and emotion of opening one or more boxes of slides back from laboratory, put them on the (large) light tables, takemy lens and start to look each one, thinking this is ok, s..t this one not really good, oh look at is something I cannot describe. But foe sure much, much better than switching on a computer and look at images on the monitor screen. And projecting them? Wow, too much...
At least for me ! of course I'm an amateur, do not need to show my work in a short time, etc etc. I m the client of myself !
 
Because it protects me from taking a hundred of all-automatic pictures on each ocasion - which at the end result in much less keepers than when shooting just a few ones

Because the old optics and classic films put some limits to sharpness etc and thus I don't feel forced to concentrate too much on at least those technical issues

Because I appreciate the craftmanship / simplicity of the gear which might never come back again and it just feels good to make that 'hardware' picture

Because I don't like running with the herd and the M8 is out of my budget
 
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still shooting film

and after some unpleasantness with my digicam, I am moving back to 100% film.

Anyone want to buy a Canon SD700IS in user condition for a good price?
 
The longevity and permanence of negatives, and I still think that nothing can honestly duplicate the look of HP5, Photoshop be damned. Even more, if you're trying to replicate film with digital, isn't that a waste of time?

Admittedly, I also love the smell of stop bath 🙂
 
you can't have the simplicity (and hence beauty) of a camera with only focus, apperture and shutter speed controls with a digital sensor. digishooters need to deal with menu driven controls and settings and lcd displays and all kinds of automation, each with various override options.

as i learned it, the fundamentals of photography are focus, apperture and shutter speed. if that's where you want to be and you prefer the beauty of a camera that keeps it that simple and then an RF (or an old pre-autofocus SLR) with film in it is the place to go.

not to say that digital cameras aren't wonderful -- they are -- they are utterly amazing and i own some. but they are complex. the pure experience of manual focusing, metering, selecting apperture and shutter and then shooting while attempting not to waste a frame of film is something different.
 

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Two reasons. First because I like it and second, because I have 25 year-old negs and chromes that I can still print. I have serious doubts that I'll be able to open up the CD that I just burned in the year 2032. Same thing with cameras. I have a 40 yearl old Pentax Spotmatic that will give me state of the art results from 35mm. In 40 years if a Nikon D-200 is still sittling on the shelf, you won't be able to find a battery for it, you won't be able to load the images into your computer because there won't be any usb ports, there won't be anything that'll read the memory card and JPEG and RAW images from the camera will be obsolete. I can take a picture from any film camera and the process of the negative is the same anywhere in the world. Digital equipment is so proprietary that it will all be obsolete in a few years.
 
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