I've said it before: film sucks and I love it.

[kshapero]

It is inconvenient, it costs to develop, it uses only one ISO at a time, blah, blah, blah.
Then why do I just plain enjoy shooting with film? Just do.;)

[zvos1]

That's exactly why I like film. Inconvenience!! With digital it is just to easy...I don't get the feeling of accomplishment as much as I get with film.

[bobby_novatron]

I never realized how little I really knew about photography until I put down my dSLR and picked up a film camera and did my own developing. I feel like I've learned more in the past year (with film) than in the past 10 years with my digital camera.

[NLewis]

I think this opinion is about right. Film is irrational, but I like it.

[dleyva2]

The title of this thread really hit home with me. It's like you all were reading my brain......

[pvdhaar]

It's the taste of that glue on the strip of sealing paper on a 120 rollfilm that's so hard to beat. Licking SD-cards just isn't the same..

[totifoto]

you
just
cant
smell
digital.

[arunrajmohan]

It is inconvenient, it costs to develop, it uses only one ISO at a time, blah, blah, blah.
Then why do I just plain enjoy shooting with film? Just do.;)

Imagine someone selling a SD card
that can hold 32-36 shots,
that card cannot be reused, and
costs about $5 each card.

But, every shot taken on it is 'priceless'.

[tom.w.bn]

Imagine someone selling a SD card
that can hold 32-36 shots,
that card cannot be reused, and
costs about $5 each card.

But, every shot taken on it is 'priceless'.

Yes. And the photos are encrypted. To decrypt the card you have to insert the card into a device that looks like a development tank and then you have to agitate the tank in a specific manner. If you did it right, you can download the photos on your computer :D

[rxmd]

That's exactly why I like film. Inconvenience!! With digital it is just to easy...I don't get the feeling of accomplishment as much as I get with film.

Why stop with using film? Add inconvenience for that extra feeling of accomplishment! Here's a couple of possible suggestions:

- After every frame, take another frame of a slate with the exposure parameters on it (manual EXIF)
- Only shoot slide film, for less exposure latitude
- Develop the slide film yourself, start printing Cibachromes
- Always use the zone system and a spot meter
- Always shoot wide open, use ND filters if it's too bright (depth of field is for wimps)
- Stop using rangefinders, learn to guess focus 100% of the time
- Stop using meters, learn to guess exposure 100% of the time


(As a side effect, some of these may actually be quite enjoyable and/or lead to better pictures... :angel:)

[mob81]

I never realized how little I really knew about photography until I put down my dSLR and picked up a film camera and did my own developing. I feel like I've learned more in the past year (with film) than in the past 10 years with my digital camera.

Exactly the same here! however, less than 10 years with digital (Way less) :D


Well Said bobby_novatron.

[Benjamin Marks]

Over on the Online Photographer, Mike Johnson has some interesting ruminations on the meaning of taking a photograph back when a 10-12 shot roll was expensive and there was a premium on choosing which moments would be captured.

See http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

Personally, I am anachronistically attached to the idea of producing an "original" thing -- that is: the negative. But I am stocking up on film in a chest freezer because I don't see this as being the view of even of an economically viable minority of, say,5x7 film users.

Go Neopan.

[charjohncarter]

I never realized how little I really knew about photography until I put down my dSLR and picked up a film camera and did my own developing. I feel like I've learned more in the past year (with film) than in the past 10 years with my digital camera.

That's a good one. You leaned photography when using film, but you learned how run buttons and knobs with a DSLR. And how to read a 100+ page manual that tells you zero about photography.

[rxmd]

Over on the Online Photographer, Mike Johnson has some interesting ruminations on the meaning of taking a photograph back when a 10-12 shot roll was expensive and there was a premium on choosing which moments would be captured.

See http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

Well if people think this kind of limitation makes their photography better, there's nothing stopping them from doing that with their digital cameras, too, except their own inertia and lack of discipline.

Shoot with a small memory card. On my 5D, a 256 MB card will come pretty close to using roll film. It's not exactly the same (because you can delete pictures) but it gets pretty close. The card is full? No more shooting. This gets you a little more consciousness in your approach to what you shoot.

Or even better, for every shot you take, take $1 and put it into a piggy bank. This is the $1 you would have paid for film, development and scanning. Call it your GAS fund. This has two advantages - more conscious shooting, and some money towards new lenses by the end of the year, or a few high-end prints, or a piece of jewellery for the lady. Everyone wins.

Really (and actually I'm serious), if people think this limitation is important and that without it photography is getting worse, nothing stops them from imposing the limitation on themselves. If they do follow through on it, their photography will profit.

[jsrockit]

With digital it is just to easy...I don't get the feeling of accomplishment as much as I get with film.

I don't understand this at all. Sure perhaps you can like the process better, but ultimately you are trying to make great photos... which, if accomplished, is equally hard in digital and film.

[Spleenrippa]

I don't understand this at all. Sure perhaps you can like the process better, but ultimately you are trying to make great photos... which, if accomplished, is equally hard in digital and film.

You are definitely right in terms of composition, lighting, and the other technical prerequisites for a 'great photo.' However, one can also feel a sense of accomplishment from the developing and printing processes associated with film. Not that you couldn't with photoshop, but analog methods are tangible and people enjoy being able to hold the fruits of their labor.

[lorriman]

I don't understand this at all. Sure perhaps you can like the process better, but ultimately you are trying to make great photos... which, if accomplished, is equally hard in digital and film.

With the cost of each frame one is more likely to carefully take the photo. Much more likely. For a pro it would be the same, I imagine, but not for us amateurs.

[Ronald M]

sheet film will educate you fast.

Now I use digital the same way, judiciously because I don`t know how to do it any other way.

[Stuart John]

Yep I love it too. Anything else is just computer graphics.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/rffgallery/gallery/3357/U3357I1304608930.SEQ.0.jpg

[Stuart John]

And another...

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/rffgallery/gallery/3357/U3357I1304608936.SEQ.0.jpg

[shadowfox]

I never realized how little I really knew about photography until I put down my dSLR and picked up a film camera and did my own developing. I feel like I've learned more in the past year (with film) than in the past 10 years with my digital camera.

Mine was 7 years.

Wait until you begin printing in the darkroom. You'll learn (and hopefully enjoy) a lot more.

[dave lackey]

Damn. As a Harley rider up and down the East coast for years, some people just could not understand when I told them I rode for the ride, not the destination.

As a film and digital photographer, I am mystified that the same lack of understanding is still there with some people who do not understand that the process is more important than the final image.

In fact, the process of film photography yields the final (and different) image. If you have not experienced the process and enjoyed it, fine, but we do.:angel:

Inconvenient? No. Not anymore than my MGTD ever was. If all I want to do is just get there as fast as possible, any crap car will do, preferably with a/c. Otherwise, give me the TD any day!

[_larky]

As a rider myself, I undertand you totally. I love riding in the rain, feeling the back end squirling about as it spins up and you're going slightly sideways, then the back grips a little and the front lifts with the rear still spinning. No matter how great the destination, it will never compare with that feeling.

Film is the same, but with the added bonus that you sometimes, every 100 films or so, get that magical moment when the image is good, if not great. Loading the film, feeling it wind on, listening to the shutter, you can't beat it. I love rewinding the film and dropping it into my bag wondering what's on it. Then the wait makes you a better editor.

As a trained physicist I could go on and on about it, much of what I'd say would be equally correct with a sensor, but it 'feels' correct when adding that discussion to one about film.

I'm going to order more film now.

That's another thing, ordering it, it being delivered. Putting a brick of film into the freezer, it's tangible. Digital is so very instant, it's like no chase before getting the girl.

[lorriman]

I do agree with Dave that process can be a lot of the experience. In my case I'm really a bogus photographer as I don't do it for the image at all. I do it for the pleasure it gives the parents of my nieces and nephews and my Dad and my stepmother (another 7 kids on top of my Dad's oldest 3). Getting a good photo gives me a lot of satisfaction from both the victory of getting it and the admiration of my relatives. But the other side of it is the pleasure of handling older cameras and the fun of using them, and then the enjoyment of developing and postprocessing. There's a lot of enjoyment in hunting lenses also. So for me it is definitely the ride.


If I were blasting away with a digi cam much of the pleasure and satisfaction would be undermined and I probably wouldn't bother; at least not as much. I've even resisted my brother's offer to get me a Canon dSLR as I believe it would be the end of my hobby.

[shadowfox]

Damn. As a Harley rider up and down the East coast for years, some people just could not understand when I told them I rode for the ride, not the destination.

As a film and digital photographer, I am mystified that the same lack of understanding is still there with some people who do not understand that the process is more important than the final image.

In fact, the process of film photography yields the final (and different) image. If you have not experienced the process and enjoyed it, fine, but we do.:angel:


Wow, there!
Dave. Well said, you put the emphasis on what I've been trying to convey for some time.
Except I would say that the process is just as important as the result, not necessarily more important.

Now watch for the "It's *all* about the final image" -brigade coming in .... anytime now :)

[shaunmlavery]

Damn. As a Harley rider up and down the East coast for years, some people just could not understand when I told them I rode for the ride, not the destination.

As a film and digital photographer, I am mystified that the same lack of understanding is still there with some people who do not understand that the process is more important than the final image.

In fact, the process of film photography yields the final (and different) image. If you have not experienced the process and enjoyed it, fine, but we do.:angel:

Inconvenient? No. Not anymore than my MGTD ever was. If all I want to do is just get there as fast as possible, any crap car will do, preferably with a/c. Otherwise, give me the TD any day!

I shouldn't have started a new topic about streamlining a film workflow in a digital age. I feel the same way, hate film but I can't stay away from it. From the smell opening the package, to loading my leica, to advancing the next shot....There is something about it.

It is just like riding a bike, driving an old car, etc. My first car was a '67 camaro. I just sold it a week ago and it messed me up a little. It did that because it was more than a car, the same with film. It is more than an image. The same with a harley, bobber, classic car...A straight razor shave.

None of them are necessary in todays modern world but it helps to remind us were we came from. Walden Pond anyone?

If you have never seen a print made in the darkroom, you must! It is magic. Developing your own film is magic but printing is magic in front of your eyes.

If film didn't require so much baggage, I would definitely shoot nothing but film, regardless.

[LTN]

you
just
cant
smell
digital.

Indeed! Glacial Acetic acid....smells like art!