Younger film users?

I consider myself "young film user", becouse I use film only for 2 years. I was digital snapshooter , but last 2 years changed everything in my life, and I switched totally to film . Now my only digital camera is a cell phone.
 
I started shooting film when i was 16 (I'm 19 now) because my dad had a Canon Rebel G that he wasn't using so he gave it to me. I wanted to buy a new camera a year ago. It was probably going to be a digital rebel, but I then discovered medium format. I bought a Mamiya RB67. No regrets there. I now use the digital cameras my work has, but I much prefer the processes of film. I'm about to start printing my negatives for the first time this summer. Can't wait!
 
I'm undoubtably a young film user. I do own a digital body, and try to convince myself to use, but it never seems to do much more than take photos of things I'm selling.

My original interest in photography came from a cheap M42 SLR I inherited from my dad. When that fell apart I bought a Spotmatic I still have to this day. Eventually, like many others, I succumbed to the lure of digital, after which my interest waned somewhat.

It was only my recent return to film that gave me a renewed passion in photography. I couldn't tell you why, but I simply enjoy it more. I prefer shooting my old film cameras, I prefer the results to be had from film, and I prefer crouching in a blacked out bathroom to sitting at my desk.

None of my serious photographer friends shoot film, however. Everybody seems to like my black and white photos, but nobody is interested in moving away from their dslrs.

I think there is somewhat of a movement among young people to shoot film though. Toy cameras like Holgas are incredibly popular among young people. I also saw a girl with a few of her friends buying a TLR the last time I was in the local classic camera shop.

I don't see too much around to encourage young people to shoot film cameras though. My high school had no darkroom or photography course. My university has one darkroom, but it is only available to architecture students as part of one of their courses. Walking into a major photo store you wouldn't even know that film photography existed; the entire store is dedicated to digital cameras and camcorders.

There are at least some of us young people shooting film, though. And as long as some of us are, there will be more.
 
I have never done a creative thing in my life! I grew up playing football and went on to play at Auburn University so I have been mostly a meat head as far back as I can remember!

I bought my first real digital camera(Nikon D90) in December as well as a couple thousand dollars in Nikon 2.8 lenses. I joined the local camera club about two months ago and they have a contest once a month. There was this old guy that beat the pants off everyone every time he entered a photo(which he doesn't do every time) and he was using Film! so I started to get to know him and he told me he developed his first roll of film when he was about 14yrs old and he just turned 75! He thought film photography at two local colleges here for 35yrs.

The next week he took me out and we shot some photos went back to his house developed the roll and went to the dark room to enlarge and when the first photo started to turn in the first tray I knew I was going to sell all my digital equipment the next week and I did!!!

He is a Nikon guy and does more scenic type stuff so I have learned almost everything I needed about rangefinders from this website! Thanks! He helped me get my own darkroom set up at my house and now after buying a Leica M7 and a couple lenses I am now on my way!
 
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Al Kaplan said:
Ifyour going to contact print 20x24 you should really make a vacuum frame to get perfect contact. If you can't find directions for making one I think that I can explain it. Let me know.
Click to expand...

Al, I had a friend in to printing and printing technology who needed a vacuum frame for his horizontal camera.

He essentially designed a base made of 1/4 or 3/8" composite, scribed a pattern, drilled rather small holes, created a box sealed with silicone, and hooked it up to a vacuum pump which held about anything he put on it. He may have routed small grooves in lines connecting the holes.

Worked first time.

Regards, John
 
I started seriously photographing in highschool when the digital SLR revolution for customers had just started. I bought a Nikon D50 with my summer job savings and after couple of years I began interested in film.

Now I feel like the film cameras attraction is the build quality and design. They just feel nicer to shoot with and more concrete as a way of capturing light. I don't know what it is about digital, but it just doesn't feel right. I can't understand it.

Anyways, now my only digital camera is the Sigma DP1 and I have a couple of film cameras: a Canon A-1, Petri 7S and Yashica GTN + 8 rolls waiting to be developed.
 
I was 15 years old when I started photographing exactly 30 years ago. Film, of course!
My son received his first camera at the age of five (a Lomo LC-A). Later he switched to a Canon Epoca, then he grabbed my Nikon F55, at 10 he received his own F65. One day he forgot his camera at home, so I lent him my A-1 for this afternoon. I never got it back! He likes the feel of the camera and lenses (his favourite is the FD 70-210) and the manual film advance. The pictures he makes now and the joy when I see him handle the camera compensate the payment for developing the rolls over rolls of badly blurred photos he produced in the beginning. (My nephew received a film camera kit from me when he was 10, but I lost him to video/digital when he was 14.)
 
Petronius, you're from southern Germany? Do you mind telling where exactly (roughly 😉 )? I live in Ulm for another week. I've looked at many of your pictures and really liked them, I never checked your location before though.

martin
 
A friend at work told me that her 14-year old daughter is very interested in Film photography, learning to shoot and Develop B&W, and taking a Film class this Summer. I'll be putting together a camera kit for her.
 
Mattikk said:
Now I feel like the film cameras attraction is the build quality and design. They just feel nicer to shoot with and more concrete as a way of capturing light. I don't know what it is about digital, but it just doesn't feel right. I can't understand it.
Click to expand...

A fascinating point: the tactile quality, the feeling of weight and connectedness. Thanks. I shall think a great deal about your words.

Tashi delek,

R.
 
What's the cut off age for a "young" film user?

It does seem like film is becoming more popular. Perhaps the people who got into photography with digital got curious about the analog method. That's how I got into film.

Kodak missed the boat yet again a few years ago when they updated their emulsions, they should have introduced eXtreme Tri-X!™ when extreme was all the rage.

That would have grabbed a bigger slice of a youth market...
 
I'm 24,

Started with a film point and shoot when i was 13 or so and soon after my dad gave me his canon AE-1 with a few lenses. From there, I used the camera I was given basically as currency at a used camera store where I would exchange, return, trade cameras constantly. During that few years i briefly handled the Canon A1; Nikon FM2n, F3hp, FE2; and Pentax LX.

I eventually settled on the FM2n, but grew tired of taking pictures and left it for skateboarding. Eventually go into digital, but now I am back to shooting film and the only digital I have is the GRDII. I've learned a lot about developers, developing, and techniques involved in processing film from this forum and in a way is the reason i started shooting film again (and collecting cameras :bang🙂
 
I just sold a Leica IIIa to a precocious 16 y/o in Canada who's a member here and he's out shooting and developing his own film with it! I worked with him to help him pay for it in installments. Hope he weighs in on this discussion.
 
My 'adopted daughter' Aditi (18 at the time, now 19) hated the M8 when she tried it but loves the Rollei 35AF-M (manual override for distance and aperture) that I gave her.

Tashi delek,

R.
 
Personally, I'm 33. Learned b/w film photography in high school and university, and got swept up myself in the antiquarian trend and learned a few 19th century techniques. I suppose it was inevitable, as I was interested in larger-format and generally manual gear from the get-go. Ended up with a large collection of 120 rollfilm cameras--box, folding, TLR, whatever. And I have a truly antique 4x5 box camera and a really rough old 8x10 sitting around still.

And I use some digital gear, too. But am now really enjoying being back into film after 10 years mostly away from it; I'm processing at home in a spare room and got my old scanner running. (I'd purchased it, then switched immediately to a DSLR once I realized the cost and time delay of shooting color slides as a very occasional mountain biking photographer...) And now that my DSLR is well and truly broken, I'm wondering whether to replace it or not.

As a traveler, though, I have to appreciate the photographic possibilities that my little Canon S70 brings to the table...metering, exposure control, flash options, focal length range...all simply amazing, in a relatively tiny package. On vacation, the camera bag with a Leica and maybe a 6x6 folder is fine to take along. When I'm traveling for work, I have enough other stuff to bring and very little time to worry about taking photos...the digital compact is perfect for me then.
 
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I'm 16 and started with digital then moved on to film. The the DSLR prices dropped and I got a good deal. Then, now I'm both and tend to use digital for colour and film for B&W.
The biggest downside of film for me as a young user is that I can't really afford it, even though i develop myself.
In my class I know only one person other than me that is a film shooter. And my class is a photo orientated class in on of Sweden's biggest art schools.
 
Cutting Film Costs

Cutting Film Costs

Digital seems to give a mind set of shoot lots of frames now and discard later. A similar thing happened back in the 1950's when photographers were making the switch from sheet film in Linhofs and Graphics to 35mm. With a 4X5 (9X12cm) camera you'd shoot maybe two or three shots. Suddenly you could shoot 20 for the same money!

You need to get into that film mind set. Be more careful as to when you push the button. Other ways to save money is by bulk loading the film yourself instead of buying loaded cassettes inside of plastic cannisters and individual boxes, both of which add to the price.

Motion picture film can be a lot cheaper than still camera film, but you might not be able to fit the rolls in a bulk film loader. A 400 foot roll of Eastman Double-X Negative Type 5222 (ISO 250) is a lot cheaper than buying four 100 ft. rolls of Tri-X. (Kodak uses the name Kodak for still camera films and Eastman for motion picture films.)

To cut your cost even more buy "ends" instead of full rolls. They load a 400 or 1000 foot roll into the movie camera magazine. When they start getting near the end, or it's just the end of the day, they unload the camera magazine, cut the film and process the exposed film. What's left on the spool is called an "end". "Long ends" are usually close to 200 feet while "short ends" might be as short as 50 feet. The short ends are a lot less expensive than the long ends.
 
We went to Calloway Gardens in Georgia today, and met a family with a teen-age son out with the Canon EOS and macro Zoom. He was well stocked with film. The parents had a Digital P&S with dead batteries, so he was taking all the vacation shots for them.

I had the Canon VI-T, and made sure Nikki's Digital P&S was charged. I'll post some of her shots with me and the Canon...
 
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