Younger film users?

there was a discussion on a music forum i read recently about teenagers haunting goodwill and salvation army stores looking for vinyl records. i guess people are getting tired of the cold quality of the digital age.

i live in a tourist destination town and very rarely see anyone, much less younger people, with film cameras. in fact i can't remember the last time i saw a tourist around here with a film camera, and no one has ever started up the old 'i used to have a leica like that...' conversation with me. our local film processor just closed up shop too...

bob
 
outforalaska said:
Throw me in - 21 years old. I wanted top notch equipment and couldn't afford digital. While I might not exactly deserve the quality of a Leica in terms of my skill level I really do enjoy using it and I guess that's all that really matters to me.
The first day of my photo class at school I got a double take from the professor on my camera and then a "whoa...". It put a smile on my face.
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I'm a firm believer in living up to your camera. Use junk, and you can blame failures on your camera (or automation). Use a Leica, and if you get it wrong (or right) it's down to you. So maybe you do 'deserve' it, merely as a result of being prepared to use one (and being willing to learn -- Teach Thyself).

Cheers,

R.
 
Muggins said:
You must have a better cashflow, or more dedication (or both!) than me. I reckon I'm more likely to be spotted with a Werra, a Welta Perle (I'm going to get a decent roll out of it if it kills me!), a Trip 35 or perhaps a box camera. I rarely take the SLRs (F3, OM10, Nikkormat) into town.

Now we can avoid annhilation! 😀

Adrian
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Heh, I probably don't have a better cashflow. The Flexaret was my father-in-law's, and the Fuji rangefinder belonged to a friend who kindly gave it to me [on the condition that if I no longer want it, I can't sell, I have to give it away to someone else in need].

The other things, I've been very lucky with prices, and wheeled and dealed a bit on ebay. Selling off some stuff I got cheap and trading up. The Leica is the most expensive film camera I've ever bought and I paid about 120 quid for it.

I do have more stuff than I need, though. Little cheap M42 lenses bought from Oxfam, another K-mount film body that I never use. Have been ruthlessly clearing out for a while but still have a while to go.

Having had the digital now for a year or so, I'm pleased with it, but it hasn't made me want to stop shooting film. I just shoot different subjects with film.
 
I just hit 18 the other week so I guess that makes me the only actual young person here 🙂

One thing that bugs me a little about the popularity of film among us kids these days is how it's often portrayed as some kind of automatic muse that makes bad pictures good. Sure, film looks different, but it won't rescue the same stupid fisheye portraits of your friends from the scrapheap, if not raise it to gallery level like it seems is often hoped for. Lots of otherwise horrible photos get tons of praise (in my experience) because "oh cool you used an old camera? can you get still get film for it? woooow i didn't know anyone still used FILM"
 
breathstealer said:
I just hit 18 the other week so I guess that makes me the only actual young person here 🙂

One thing that bugs me a little about the popularity of film among us kids these days is how it's often portrayed as some kind of automatic muse that makes bad pictures good. Sure, film looks different, but it won't rescue the same stupid fisheye portraits of your friends from the scrapheap, if not raise it to gallery level like it seems is often hoped for. Lots of otherwise horrible photos get tons of praise (in my experience) because "oh cool you used an old camera?
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YES!!

We all shot lousy pictures of our friends in bands, sometime between the age of 16 and 26, and we ALL think we're original with extreme wide angle/fish eye/high contrast/lousy colour balance/huge grain/whatever.

Which is part of learning how to use the medium.

(And from where I'm standing, 18 is REALLY young. I have a friend who was born on my 40th birthday and therefore is now your age. Then again, both you and she are now legally adults!)

Cheers,

R.
 
I'll try a psychological remark, although I am no psychologist.
There is something in the human soul that keeps people wanting certain things over more advanced and theoretically better ones:
1- I hate plastic plants. Why? it is decorative in the same sense and much more practicle....and believe me I am no gardener...
2- I love my all mechanical watch. It is no luxury Item. It is simple, clear, functional, and much less precise than any next quartzwonder I could have bought for one fourth of the price.
3- people around continue to prefer leather and wood over other materials...
4- I love to handle books. Even more old, smelly books.

Does all that make sense?
'caus if it does, we could have some hope concerning film...😉
 
it's a physical thing

it's a physical thing

i'm 29.

what I like about film is that it is physical - as opposed to the evermore virtual stuff. It's physical and the results are mine, not some software's.

Its also slow. In an ever increasing pace, ever more instant fullfillment, it is nice to have to wait, to have to do effort.

It away from computers. I live in front of screens 10h a day (pc at work, tv at home, cellphone all day). It is nice to look at the physical world (through a viewfinder or at a print or negative).
That is the one thing I don't like about this forum (and why I don't post often): it is again being in front of a screen.

At last it is emotional. I can be proud of a nice looking print from a digital shot, but I cherish and baby that one unique negative, or those unique prints that took me hours of darkroom effort.

d
 
I was in Prague this summer, toting my Yashica Electro 35 and rolls of HP5.

Only recently (i.e. after I got the entire vacation worth of rolls developed) that the camera has a light leak and 95% of my photos were ruined.

I started with a digital SLR, sold it, quit photography, then came back and learned film. Now, after seeing that film and older rangefinders are so dainty and fallible, I'm thinking of quitting the game again.


PS. I'm 22.
 
you can definitely call me young. At 18, I bought my first Leica due to the amazing shots I had seen from some of the Austrian street shooters and chris weeks and what not. Their snobby elitist demeanor is what drew me to film; "you gotta have lots of skill to shoot like us" is the vibe I got, and they were right.

Then I picked up color film and have fallen completely in love.
 
I'm a 19 year old film user, and other than a few friends who shoot Polaroids I'm the only film-user in my circle.
I started out using my father's S1 Pro dSLR, loved messing around with it, and might still be using it had it not broken. I'm thankful that it did, though, as it forced me to pick up some of my parent's old film equipment and discover how much I like using film. Now I develop my own B/W negs, have a bevy of film cameras I love and use, and try to remind my friends that there is more than digital.

mknawabi- Chris' street stuff is what got me into RFs and B/W as well.
 
I'm 25 and have been shooting film for about 12 years. I have a darkroom, develop my own film, print my own prints. I've owned a couple of digital cameras I.e. D100 and currently an RD1 which are both great cameras in there own way. If I have the option I will always shoot film.
 
ElectroWNED said:
I was in Prague this summer, toting my Yashica Electro 35 and rolls of HP5.

Only recently (i.e. after I got the entire vacation worth of rolls developed) that the camera has a light leak and 95% of my photos were ruined.>>>>>



Not a mistake no one else has not made, and I know several people who shot an entire vacation only to have their camera and single flash card stolen.

After we do this once, then we back up, and if we are not dead sure of a film camera, we shoot a roll of test film.

I took two new Nikons on a 5 week road trip, one with negative color, and the other with slide.

One overexposed (slides) and one underexposed (negative) I lost 30 rolls, and I did have some film developed while I was traveling, but thought it was the camera I gave my friend, so I overexposed her film, which for negative is OK.

I saved the slides with pull processing.

Nikon crawfished on the warranty as I put a scratch on the camera.

It happens.

A thief in Europe will often pass on stealing a film P&S, even one with a Red Dot.

Regards, and it gives you an excuse to go back to Prague, which might just work out for you. ;-) John
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I'm 24, started off with film in high school but kinda lost interest in photography in university. In the last two years I've been trying to catch up, and now I'm back to film. Took 3 rangefinders and a F100 on my trip to Europe this summer instead of a D3.
 
It's entertaining to watch this from a number of places.

I have a local lab I stop at regularly. I bring in a few rolls of C41 120 (usually 6x6) every now and then. The one guy there I get on with and I were ragging on the idiot holga & lomo shooters that make up 90% of that young "film resurgance" that's out there. It's a bunch of young idiots being stupid because, thanks to no real wet darkroom experience, they have no clue how stupid they are. No, there is no reason, yet, to believe that there is any kind of preference for film. Come back in a decade. If I can still buy a roll of Reala (or, I'll grant, an equivalent emulsion) for less than $20 USD for 36 exposures then I'll believe that film has found it's niche.

In the meantime, I'll burn film like there is no tomorrow... because in my mind there isn't any...

William
 
Its funny... I dont like those holga/urbanoutfitter cameras, but you have to admit, they cant hate on the kids that give them money to do their business.
 
I'm 26. used film all through college. And even then when I started working professionally. The only time I use digital is if asked specifically or on a tight deadline. otherwise it's film for me.

I like the quality that film provides me. I like that I can't be bothered while I'm working to show people my pictures on the back of the camera. I like that it requires more skill. Sometimes I get asked "How do you know how the pictures turned out?" And i say I've been doing it for so long, that I just know. I know what the photo looks like when I hit the shutter. I like that it's tangible. I like that it requires working with my hands. I like that I don't have to be afraid of a hard drive failure that will destroy my life's' work.

oh yeah. This is probably a "youngish" thing to do. My tattoo. I got it back during my senior year of college when I became a Teaching Assistant and instructed the photo 1 and 2 classes by myself while my professor was away on assignment. I knew right then that this would be the rest of my life. So I got the tattoo.

Film_tattoo_by_kmnyc.jpg
 
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Film based photography is still very affordable compared to equivalent digital set ups. On a per use basis they seem expensive but the up front cost is a tenth or even less than a digital set up.

Holgas, c'mon I like them! They're different. Is that a bad thing? I don't have a beef with owners of Noctilux lenses, what is the issue with plastic lens cameras? It's a decision that is all.

Young or new entrants using film is good news. Like Bill Pierce noticed no reason for not using both film and digital. I think that is the way of the future.
 
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