Young people turning to film

Hmmm, well it could be because film is trendy but perhaps the quality of the phone cameras (dreadful) is turning them to film without going through the digital camera phase?

And film cameras can be so simple and straight forward; so ideal to learn with. And perhaps they just like the feel of the things and the prices. And a lot of people like the wait and reward when you get the prints or slides back.

Regards, David

PS Anyway, I'll really believe it when we get an APS forum here...
 
Dave Wilkinson said:
I'm just glad to see youngsters getting interested in photography!, recently for old tmes sake - I shot a roll in a camera from my fifty plus year collection, sent it away for dev. then scanned and printed a few images, afterwards I sat down and said to my self - 'what the f#*k am I doing this again - for!', then I got my wife to give my ass a good kick, and get my DSLR out of the cabinet!.....your mileage not only may vary, of course! - but vehemently will!, but this old codger's in the twentyfirst century:D;)
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Dave, I am laughing with you. :)

I'm not young anymore, but not old either, I am comfortable with digital because that's where I started to learn photography. But I sure am glad that I discover film before it's dead.

Having said that, I am going to do what I can to make sure that film will still be alive and experience a re-birth in my daughter's generation.
 
Wes. said:
Going to Japan is what got me into photography. I went on a family vacation and prior to leaving, I wanted to buy a nice camera so I could take some nice pictures. Long story short, I bought a Nikon D60.

Now that I look back, I get depressed when I think of the tons of camera shops that I didn't walk into. I was impressed by all the new stuff at the big electronic stores, but none of that matters to me now. I wonder what kind of gems I could have found at the smaller places, used places. :(
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countless gems.. I'm in Osaka now and totally gobsmacked by these second hand camera stores. Even the electronics giant Yodobashi has a HUGE selection of films readily available. My wallet has been emptied.
 
That's one sweet freezer!

gnuyork said:
I feel much the same way. I spent a small fortune on my first and only DSLR back around 2004 (Canon 1D MkII). I have used a few before then including the Canon D30 (?), the 10D, and the original 1D. I embraced Digital pretty heavily and learned how to shoot with those cameras, edit in Photoshop, and make very nice Epson prints. Shortly before that I bought a used 4x5 filed camera and an old Kodak lens. I dabbled with that a little, but the newness of digital still had me seduced and that's what I mainly concentrated on.

After a while, this started to be less of a challenge and I found myself wanting to go back to shooting film. I have several film cameras, but wanted a rangefinder. I bought a couple of used Canonnets on Ebay. Then I purchased a couple of Diana cameras, and a modified Holga, then some pinhole cameras. Then 2 years ago I found a great deal on an M6 on Ebay, and then purchased a used Summicron 50 at KEH.

A friend of mine (my retired photo professor) gave me a freezer full of film recently, as well as two top notch enlargers - a Bessler that does 4x5, and a Leica Focomat with auto focus as well as enough paper and chemistry to last me quite a while (even Ilfochrome chemicals and paper).

So needless to say I have a lot of film, plenty of film cameras, some nice darkroom equipment and no excuses.

My goal is to get this set up in the new year and make some traditional darkroom prints. I used to do this in college and it was a pure joy for me.

Some snaps of my freezer - incidentally shot with a digital P&S...

filmfreezer2.jpg


filmfreezer3.jpg


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filmfreezer5.jpg
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Jon
in the case I ever visit Japan, I want a guide telling me where such stores are !!! :) :) :)
You know you're envied by lot of people here ???
 
Since we are showing our stashes...

I recently got married to a wonderful woman, she has a really nice stainless steel LG fridge and freezer that won't fit in the kitchen in my apartment and she does not want to sell just yet. So I gave my little 24" x 24" x 34" freezer to a friend and will move my stock of film to it along with having room for paper. So I took all my stock out today, took inventory and then moved it in, 830 rolls of film including hundreds of rolls of Techpan, nearly 100 rolls of the last batch of HIE.

Glad I bought all this when I could afford it, that is at least two book projects in there...:)
 
Griffin said:
countless gems.. I'm in Osaka now and totally gobsmacked by these second hand camera stores. Even the electronics giant Yodobashi has a HUGE selection of films readily available. My wallet has been emptied.
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So sad... when I was in Japan, I had no idea that the Japanese are so crazy about photography. I wish that I could have visited all of the cool camera shops. :(
 
Neare said:
End of the day, film photography is something that is physical, Digital is not.
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One only has to recall the D-Day images shot by Capa that were lost to a Life Magazine darkroom mishap to know that film is just as susceptible to destruction than digital images on a hard drive. After all, film is really nothing more than a few chemicals turned into sheets with some silver bromide sandwiched in between. An image on film isn't any more "real" than a digital one. A film image still requires "interpretation" of a scene by the light sensitivity of a chemical reaction. Is that any more real than a semiconductor that records lights electronically? I thought electrons were real and had mass, no?
 
With all due respect for technology, good or bad, interpolation is more of an estimation using complex algorithms rather than a chemical reaction. Who would make a better photographer? A Chemist or Mathematition? Who cares? We're all geeks and should stand together !!!
 
I started on film because of the huge expense of a decent digital system. It's inconvenient but I had a good time so I decided to purchase a 40D thinking I would get the good times without the preposterous cost of getting film scanned (ugh) but oh was I wrong.

Once the newness of the dSLR wore off I found that I didnt really enjoy using it so I pushed it off onto my parents and went back to film. The only way I could be convinced to go back to digital is if someone gave me an M8 or M9 (seeing as I cant afford them lol).

I dont really care about the trendy kids with (especially those with lomos and holgas). Their photography is almost always terrible and their cameras definitely are. I tagged along with the photography club at my university and I spent more time laughing at these kids than taking pictures. A bunch of rich kids with no taste taking pictures of stop signs and adding vignetting to the pictures in photoshop. I like to pretend Im not one of them, after all my lenses vignette because of physical limitations lol. I may hate every photo Ive ever taken because it's not good enough, but if I was doing what these kids were I would quit. They are the same as the kids who play guitar with a library of about 7 chords, or the kids who badly try to draw manga. If they have a good time doing it, then I wont begrudge them that. I will laugh at them though.

I cant argue about whether film or digital is better from a technical standpoint. I absolutely believe that digital is better if you wish to look at your pictures on a monitor (which I do almost all of the time). But I dont really care. Ill stick to my manual focus cameras and my 160NC/neopan 400, probably until kodak/fuji pries them out of my hands.

I am young, at least by the standards of this type of internet forum; being 22. Do understand though that I've got a lot of hobbies and most of them are similarly old fashioned. I use fountain pens, love pocket knives, piddle away on my mechanical keyboard and collect books from the golden age of illustration. I only do so because I am inclined towards things that are well made and mechanical. I suppose it is natural that if I was to ever find photography, it would be in the realm of chrome boxes.
 
I'm sorry to say, but I really don't get what's the big deal about people "turning back to film." Most people who use digital are awful photographers. Most people who use film are also awful photographers. These days, I see a lot of people talking about the superior "look" of film and yet, their composition and choice of subject matter is utter cr*p.

I used to shoot film. Now I shoot digital. To me, my digital work is much better than my film stuff, not because the mediums are so different, but because I feel that I have, with time and effort, grown as a photographer. I am now adding a medium format film camera to complement my existing setup. Will that in itself make me a better photographer? No, probably not. But experience and dedication hopefully will.

I don't really care when I see young people turn to film
I don't despair when I see old people turn to digital :D
But I'm happy when I see that people make great photographs.
 
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