Younger film users?

I'm 30 and have been a digital junkie for many years, but started shooting just four years ago. Like many others here I became sick of the rat race and sitting in front of the computer all the time, so just for fun I bought a Zero Image pinhole camera and a Holga to play a bit.
The experience blew me away. It was much more satisfaction and fun than going out shooting with the Eos 5DmkII and the other digital cameras I have. With the Holga you just focus on the frame, no settings, and the pinhole is pure meditation when you sit and wait for exposure to be done.

I think digital is great for learning, and I would not have learnt 1/10 of what I know if I used film the 4 years, but now I feel ready to "make" pictures and think film is the way to go for me. I now "know" how the picture turns out before I press the shutter button.
I'm actually tempted to sell the new 5DII and some of the lenses and go medium or large format.
 
and like others have mentioned I love film for the physical aspect, and not just binary code. I do not trust computers either, and have always been insane protective about the digital cameras I've had. Afraid of dropping it, getting dust inside, getting wet and so on. I have a Zorki 6 and even though is a cheap crappy camera I know it can stand a dive in the river for example and still be working after dried.
 
Hello. Just turned 31 (not happy) and have been shooting film every year of it. Been a serious digital user for about 4 months, I like digital because the quality is great and like film because my very poor technique with chemicals means I can achieve 'artsy' plastic lens looking pics with much better gear! ;)

In all seriousness I don't think about which I prefer, film or digi, I just shoot with whatever I feel like at the time.

But I wanted to throw this into the ring, I think that (I have no basis for this btw) that if you are teaching/learning photography you should start with film. You should learn to develop, print, play with combinations of film, chemicals, times, experience things going wrong etc. That experience with screw ups and experimentation will do nothing but help, so I find it so sad that all my local educational places have ditched film in favor of leasing a shed load of cheap Canon DSLR's with even cheaper lenses. It's very very sad, and the lack of play means all the students produce the same pieces of sh1t.

Long live film, long live play.
 
hei, I'm Dragunov (not really) and I'm 16...

I wanted to learn all the steps of photography- y'know, the stuff that happens after you press and wait on your digital P&S? yeah. so I borrowed a whole Canon F-1 kit from a very kind friend of mine...

I used to think film was superior to digital, and that's why I shot it. or because it was so cost-effective- pro-caliber results for not much. but really, I shoot film because I'm too poor for a good dslr, and I like it. I don't need big enlargements, so all the image quality isn't really needed- I take my colour negatives to the local supermarket anyways, so some of those are crappy.
and besides, shutter lag is so @#$%ing annoying!

and I got to borrow a Leica M4-P recently. the magic wore off a few hours after I got it... the VF is not brighter than my Canon FTb's with a f/1.8 lens. the wind is not smoother than the Canon F-1's (but who cares?). it's not much smaller than my Kiev. it's not much quiter than my Kiev. not worthy of all the hype, but it's a great camera- why do they have to cost so much!?!?... (Kodachrome/slides too. but that I understand.)

cheers.
 
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Hi I'm 23 and started photography 4 year ago firstly with a ZENIT ET found in a closed, I really liked the process and part of the results ( probably only two shutter speeds accurate and a not align mirror or focus screen) then I begun searching for a camera. I wanted a digital at the beginning because is easier for learning and you are more independent (go to the shop buy film, go to lab, go to the lab again, etc) but i wanted a real camera, a small one and good quality, more and more I searched I discovered that my ideal digital camera didn't exist even at the hi end when I couldn't afford an used entry level, so I choosed the other way. searching for a film slr a really 'bad' thing happend i discovered rangefinders, it was on a national geographic book where i saw a beautiful picture of wild horses in south of Spain from David Allan Harvey and a Leica m6 was mentioned, so i did the only possible thing brought a Canonet on ebay, waiting for the camera to arrive I found a great deal on a olympus om4 that I couldn't let pas so it's film for me from then. But it has been more difficult that I initially though film is expensive specially if you don't have the money to by a lot at once and labs are even more expensive and difficult to find specially for color so I'm not sure I made the right choose I love my contact sheets but for now I have to stop at them and not print any thing and for the price of develop and contact I could have printed a lot more digital phtos (low quality but always prints). I really like very much the process of making photos with the cameras I have and I know then my negs are there for when I'll have the possibility to print them, but now I'm finishing the last film and is a pain to go to the shop and pay 5€for t-max or 6€ for neopan1600. In the end the biggest problem for film is its price and the lack of good and reasonable labs for all the people who cant do it them self. A long post sorry but if someone asked me for an advice today in my same conditions 4 years ago i will say him to save a little bit more and buy directly a digital(sorry).
Now I have to go back saving for the Leica.
Bye, Lukjan
 
I'm 25 and I started two years ago with a pentax K10D. I felt interrested in photography immediatly, but really disliked the digital look of my pics. And, as I was interrested in printing too, I bought a full darkroom kit + an olympus 35 dc for 200$. Two month after, I already had 4 russian cameras, and soon I sold my pentax and bought a leica m3.
Now I post pics weekly here : kmu-photo.blogspot.com ; and I don't look back on digital.
film is so much beautiful, warm, etc. And I love the process of using film, while I don't fell as much connected when I use digital.
too virtual for me I guess.
So yes, digital leads to film, for me at last.
 
Thanks, everyone. Wonderful stories.

There seems to be a lot of love in film. Maybe it appeals to people who think in a particular way. There are many ways of thinking, often equal in merit; but it's always cheering to share with people who think the same way as oneself.

Tashi delek,

R.
 
I'm a young 40 and relatively new to photography. Started with digital several years ago and quickly fell in love with the craft. But over time as my own work evolved and I studied the work of others I was drawn more and more towards film photography. I was given a Holga for my 40th birthday and more recently purchased a 35mm Zeiss Ikon rangefinder. I plan to continue further down the path of film and I hope that it remains available.
 
Roger Hicks said:
...'Young' in this context does indeed mean 'under 40 or even 50'. ...
Click to expand...

Hey, I qualify! Shooting FP4, TMX100 and TMX400 and Kodak E100G on a regular basis, even got some sixty rolls of Konica Impresa 100 in the fridge.

Have only just started to soup my b&w in Rodinal stand development, will expand that practise, great fun.
 
This is a good thread Roger. I've been reading it for a while but just never posted to it.

I, like some others here, started shooting during the booming digital age and started in digi P&S, moving into DSLR, but still noticed something was missing.

Just transferring pictures to a Hard-drive and calling it a day became kind of boring for me (I'm not much for spending endless hours in PS), so the missing step was ultimately developing film.

Since starting film I become more aware of what I'm going to shoot, and enjoy every process up to sleeving the negs. It's just like chemistry class in your bathroom! I don't turn to digital much anymore if I'm planning on spending a day shooting, just load up some rolls and hit the road.
 
Roger, I may not be young but I am immature as hell (so says my wife) and I have a film camera with me when I leave the house, even if I am doing a digital job.
 
Wow, I haven't been really active on here for a couple of years, and it is great to see the increased amount of 'younger' photographers here on RFF. I still remember being one of the youngest on the forum.

I started with film in high school, went through the digital phase the last couple of years, turned around and sold all my digital gear, and now back with shooting film. 35mm, and medium format.

I think lomography/toy cameras/hipster cameras has really kept the film business going. I'm constantly meeting new people getting into photography through lomo cameras. Its a great start to shepherd newbies into more film cameras!

Film lives.
 
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I suppose I'll contribute.

I'm 24. I've been shooting seirously for about a year and a half now, but I've been taking pictures all my life. I always shot film, and for some reason was never really attracted to digital. I baught a cheap point and shoot, and still have it, but it sits in my camera bag as a backup backup backup.

I am one of the folks that believes that for a combination of value and image quality, film cannot be beat. Period. The range of possibilities with film/format/developer/lens/camera combinations is astounding.

I also have a better grasp of the process behind making a good image using a film camera than with digital media. Photoshop is entirely foriegn to me. I feel I have a greater degree of control over a manual camera. I don't like having to outsmart my little dp&s to get it to do what I want.

As for "trendy-ness" of film and vintage film cameras, why not? A bigger market for film and film cameras is a good thing. Not to mention that I think an old rangefinder does indeed look cool hanging around a person's neck. I feel cool popping up on my tip toes and pretending I'm HCB while snapping a frame, and it wouldn't be the same with a digital p&s. "Oui, non, oui, non OUI! OOP!" as opposed to "oui.. le focus lag....non....oui...non...OUI...le focus lag BEEP...merde" At least that's how it tends to work for me.

I don't mean to digi-bash as it definately has its place in fast paced professional work, but I shoot for myself at the moment, and I enjoy the process of film photography.

Cheers,
Cluckey.
 
I'm 35 and I mix it up. I shot film when I was a kid and worked the darkroom in H.S. but then it got pricier. As digital moved-in, I was in limbo. Film processing wasn't cheap. Digital cams of any real quality were too pricey. Years went by, undocumented.....

Then I get a 20D and got back into it. But the thing just broke my back. So, by this time living in Japan, I looked around at all the rangefinders in the shops. Size was a factor. So was the draw to reconnect with the process I so enjoyed in school. I bought a Canon P and a 50/1.4.

I still shoot digital, on the R-D1, but I keep film in the fridge and in a couple of bodies. It looks different, qualitatively. It feels different to wait - for the processing as well as the shot. I also like being able to shoot concerts at ISO3200 without a crop factor. Irreplaceable.
 
Right now we have no water supply to the darkroom (burst pipe in winter waiting to be repaired). Yes, we can do some work there -- you don't need running water -- but soon I have to remove an 8x4 foot sheet of plasterboard to get to the pipe, and repair it.

Both Frances and I are getting withdrawal symptoms from lack of darkroom...

Aaaargh!

Tashi delek,

R.
 
well, I am 20 (is that young enough?) and I didn't really grow up digital, my first camera was a film one, my parents always used a film camera and still do. Digital fascinated me as everyone else when it started to be serious stuff and not just sci-fi producing crappy pictures. I got a 4mp digital point and shoot before I discovered my actual interest and passion for photography, but when that happened about 1 or 2 years later I learned to hate that thing and lusted for a DSLR. I bought an EOS 20D and became more and more passionate about the whole thing, shooting a lot, learning a lot, but somehow it wasn't enough and I ended up getting a nikon f-301 with 2 zoom lenses not even half a year later. not a great camera setup either but it got me into the film swing and I was looking for better alternatives, accidentally bought an analogue eos body so I could use my 20D lenses on it (thank god I never bought crop lenses) and some time later a Nikon F5, Minolta X-700, some Yashica Mat's yadda yadda and all of a sudden I found myself almost not using digital anymore except for work (I started working in a Studio in Potsdam in the meantime) it was so full of life and uniqueness compared to digital, and, and, and.
I had some little rangefinder cameras too (Kodak Retina stuff for example) and I liked the rangefinder system but the cameras itself didn't really blow me away. then some fellow RFFer lent me one of his M2 for a day during an RFF euromeet and, being sceptic about Leicas being worth all the money they seemed to cost, totally poisoned me. I bought a beautiful M4 for 480€ from the camera store/studio I had worked at by then (used it with a Jupiter-8 50mm f/2 first) and VC Nokton 50mm 1.5 for 350€ a little later. By now I have loads of film cameras, still have my 20D and an additional old EOS 1D (mark1 !!!), I also got me an M2 body and will buy a 35mm 1.2 nokton by the end of the week!
though shalt NEVAR get me away from film now!
it's not that I've become one of those anti-digital militants, I still use my digital bodies but if had to choose between either film or digital I wouldn't waste a second to say 'film, thank you.' :D
 
We worked all day today prepping the rooms, one will be the darkroom, 14 X 14 feet and the other will a mounting / framing / lounge room at 14 X 11 feet.

The ceilings are plaster so we are going to build a "Clean-Room" as the darkroom out of sheet plastic and 2x2's to fill the space, create positive air flow and a filtration system. We sealed the openings with foam today, so that ought to help buffer the nasty Colorado dust. I think we have three enlargers now, my 23C and 45MX and his durst.

The other photographer does 20x24 pinholes so we are going to make a loading area / contact printer for ULF.

All in all, about 340 Sq. feet to get going with in a full blown professional darkroom.
 
hi im 23... when i started photography.. all i had was a borrowed AF Nikon F60.. i got addicted to the look of film, and eventually bought my very first SLR.. a Nikon FM2n.. and then my passion and interest took off to new heights.. i love using film.. upon obtaining my first RF, Minolta Hi-[proble]Matic 7s.. another level of interest is brewing inside me.. and thanks to this forum.. ive learnt so much about it.. hehe
 
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.
 
I'm 26, originally learnt on film back when I was in high school. Which is about 10 or so years ago. Then I switched over to digital once I was out of school.

It's only in the last few months that i've picked up a film camera again, and realised how much I miss it.

It's so much more tactile and fun to use. Everything is mechanical and is directly controlled by my input. A beautifully machined set of cogs, gears, springs and sprockets that allows me to take photo's.
I then get to take my film through a process of development. Rinsing and washing to reveal the images I took weeks before, and only then will I find out if my choice of framing and subject were on target. No chance to revise, but in the process teaching me much more about what is going on behind the scenes than digital ever will.


Digital just feels so cold in comparison. It's such a cliche'd thing to say, but it does indeed lack soul.
 
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