colmac Posted March 28, 2014 Share #61 Posted March 28, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) Digital is fine for instant images when I’m in a snappy mood but IMHO lacks soul. For me buying a 6-pack of B&W film is still an unforgettable event whereas buying a 64 GB card is a non-event. The same applies to camera bodies. A Leica film camera usually outlives its owner. Best regards, Colmac Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 28, 2014 Posted March 28, 2014 Hi colmac, Take a look here what are the reasons we shoot film today?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Guest Ansel_Adams Posted March 28, 2014 Share #62 Posted March 28, 2014 Quite simply because of how it looks. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 28, 2014 Share #63 Posted March 28, 2014 Sometimes the digital M is used like a Polaroid camera to try out the correct setting of distance, time and aperture and to take the photo one wants on film afterwards, which saves a lot of film. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StS Posted March 28, 2014 Share #64 Posted March 28, 2014 Well, I use film for the convenience (although not exclusively). The reason is, that I enjoy photography more than post-processing. Film images typically need very little post-processing, whereas it can take some time to breath life in a digital image. With film, I get a look out of the box, with a digital image, I have no look at the start, because digital sensors need to be neutral to be suitable for all situations. Stefan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasticman Posted March 29, 2014 Share #65 Posted March 29, 2014 I came to film photography pretty much by accident six or seven years ago, and abandoned it a couple times because the results weren't always what I hoped for. But there were a few images that kept drawing me back (much to my partner’s exasperation) and I bought and then sold film cameras a few times trying to work out what was so special about just those images. Now I love photographing with film: the simplicity and mechanical purity of the cameras is one factor; the way I need to concentrate and visualize the image before pressing the shutter instead of just taking a few shots and seeing if anything is any good; the final results of scanned images - especially the organic way that color film handles things like bright sunshine on skin - that most of all means almost all my photography is on film these days. Definitely as others have said, I find myself more ’in the zone’ - concentrated, focused, visualizing - when I have a film camera in my hands. Paradoxically, it also means that I'm more ’present’ to those around me at the same time: I’m immersed in the image for the split seconds of seeing and taking, but then the camera swings back onto my hip and I'm with my kids or friends again, not staring at a screen anxiously trying to see whether one of the fifteen shots I just mindlessly fired off actually ’nailed it’. I also find there's so little post-processing necessary with film compared to digital. Unlike others I don't find scanning a chore - I don't over-complicate it: I've never ’sampled film-base color’ or tweaked the channel input for each individual image. I just batch-scan a set of positive thumbnails and judge which images I want to negative-scan at highest resolution and widest possible linear capture. Then I just leave the scanner ticking along while I go cook dinner or play with the kids. The anticipating excitement of actually needing to wait for the results feels like a virtue of the process, rather than something I worry about. There are other things about film - the way that half-frame looks really different to 35mm, and then how 120 images look totally different again, with another richness and tonality - the differences are so much more striking than the minor changes from digital's APS-H to ’full-frame’ and so on. Finally, I like the thought of keeping 50-year old cameras in use, instead of constantly buying and discarding new cameras according to some Venture Capital-planned commodity revenue stream model. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalArts 99 Posted March 29, 2014 Share #66 Posted March 29, 2014 When will we be seeing you getting into sheet film? In addition to an even more contemplative approach, 4x5 transparencies are pretty yummy looking....... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KM-25 Posted March 30, 2014 Share #67 Posted March 30, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) A photograph is a testament to a vision realized, a moment, an emotion & expression. The power or weakness of a viewed photograph is as diverse as all life it self, even in an age where we seem to be overwhelmed by them. But photography, the act of making the photograph, is how one arrives at the photograph. The journey of photography directly affects how I feel about what I am doing and how that photograph looks to me and everyone else. I find I do my very best work on film because of how deeply rooted I am in the life I get to live because of it. And I strongly believe that in a day and age where it is all too easy to get caught up in a life that can be overly "digitized", it is good to have a balanced diet....not everything needs to be done with a computer nor should it. I use film because I can, I love it, I love the journey and I love the result. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pklein Posted March 31, 2014 Share #68 Posted March 31, 2014 When I bought my M8 several years ago, I did not sell my M6. I had a feeling that I would want to use it again someday. That day may have arrived. Personally, I don't see much reason to shoot color film anymore (and if you do, more power to you and no argument from me). But for me, black and white is the reason to shoot film again. B&W film has its own aesthetic. It is made of random-sized grains whose texture reaches into the near-highlights. Digital is a grid of same-size pixels where the superimposed noise is smeared by Bayer interpolation and intrudes more apparently the darker things get. Film highlights roll off beautifully rather than going "splat" when you hit 255. Film looks like photography rather than video. This opinion may be a function of my age--I grew up reading old LIFE magazines, "The Americans," "The Decisive Moment," etc. Film Leicas are quiet and have smooth shutter releases, whereas the digital Leicas are loud and have notchy releases. For me, another reason to shoot film is that I can use my 50mm lenses as normal lenses again. I have several "fifties" that I love, from a Dual-Range Summicron to a really good "Russian Sonnar" Jupiter-8, to a Voigtlander Notkon 50/1.5. I haven't been shooting them as much because they are medium telephotos on my M8. The M9 and the ME don't seem worthwhile enough upgrades, and the MM and M240 are hideously expensive. I already own an M6. So why not? I'd love to have an M-Monochrom and an M240, but the price is a barrier. So I thought, why not give good old Tri-X a try again? I can scan it and have all the advantages of the digital darkroom, but from a baseline of a film negative. I bought the film, now all I have to do is shoot it. And then, we'll see. --Peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tookaphotoof Posted March 31, 2014 Share #69 Posted March 31, 2014 Love HP5+ myself, but I also shoot color from time to time. Love Ektar and Portra. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Henry Posted March 31, 2014 Share #70 Posted March 31, 2014 I continue to shoot film because color is "perfect" (don't need LR) and for b&w you can find a scale of black and grey vs digital ... and like Hi-Fi of sound , Hi-Fi for image it's film ! Thanks to look at the last two pages and you will know why I keep film : http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/other/286747-i-like-film-open-thread-46.html http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/other/286747-i-like-film-open-thread-47.html "Film is not dead" Best Henry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torontoamateur Posted April 1, 2014 Share #71 Posted April 1, 2014 Film remains. I just had diner with a friend who lost three years of family pictures when her iphone,"blew up" ,the battery had a catastrophic end. And three years of pictures, travel and family , were GONE. Then last week a photographer was asked for an old picture to be printed again. He used one the first Nikon digitalis and when he went back to the digital file he could not open it . It was only eight years old. So I am happy that my film will endure. I do have digital and I do print every picture. But for the most serious work that needs to be archived I insist on film Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tookaphotoof Posted April 1, 2014 Share #72 Posted April 1, 2014 What happens with film when your house / office / studio / etc. burns down? Wouldn't that mean you've lost your memories also? Sorry to say, but the risk of losing all of your digital captured memories is much smaller than losing your film. With the price of of harddrives and 'cloud' services one should spend some time and little money investing in those... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicaphilia Posted April 1, 2014 Share #73 Posted April 1, 2014 I shoot film because I'm a hoary, stubborn old man with no imagination. I'm smart enough to realize I'm not smart enough to manage the fabulous technology the world offers today so I continue to plod along with my miserable high ASA performance and my child and nature-endangering chemicals. Leica sees me as easy pickings so they humor me with an archaic line of over-priced cameras that I've bought. Cameras that will never, ever produce a decent HDR photograph, and often lack even the colors of the rainbow. I'll be out of your way soon enough, thanks for giving me a little room to work here before I shoot and breathe my last. You're too kind. Thanks Leica for helping me delude myself about my abilities. Maybe I'll take up painting. I love this. Well done! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicaphilia Posted April 1, 2014 Share #74 Posted April 1, 2014 Film remains. I just had diner with a friend who lost three years of family pictures when her iphone,"blew up" ,the battery had a catastrophic end. And three years of pictures, travel and family , were GONE. Then last week a photographer was asked for an old picture to be printed again. He used one the first Nikon digitalis and when he went back to the digital file he could not open it . It was only eight years old. So I am happy that my film will endure. I do have digital and I do print every picture. But for the most serious work that needs to be archived I insist on film Yes. Exactly. I have every negative I've ever taken since I started photographing in 1971. Conversely, I lived for two years in Paris at the beginning of the digital age and EVERY digital file I had of the period is gone, all once resident on two hard drives that both got some crazy russian virus and are no longer readable. Oh well, my memories of Paris will always be Tri-x based, as they should be! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Henry Posted April 1, 2014 Share #75 Posted April 1, 2014 What happens with film when your house / office / studio / etc. burns down? Wouldn't that mean you've lost your memories also?Sorry to say, but the risk of losing all of your digital captured memories is much smaller than losing your film. With the price of of harddrives and 'cloud' services one should spend some time and little money investing in those... Tooka you watch too much TV About digital, the images on your card Sandisk or saved on your hard drive they will last 40 years? look at these links (date of my Agfa negatives (film) 1970): Thank you click in the top, middle and right icon to enlarge timgalg agfa EpsAnr3200899htred600.jpg timgalg agfa EpsAnr3200897htred1200.jpg timgalg agfa EpsAnr3200895-2htred1200.jpg The ruins of Timgad (Algeria) .... everything is kept undamaged as the first day Best Henry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tookaphotoof Posted April 1, 2014 Share #76 Posted April 1, 2014 Real life experience Henry, fortunately not my own house. Your harddrive / memory card might not survive 40 years, neither will your file format of the photo. I replaced my computers many times and in the run I've switched to Mac. Yet I'm still able to open the very first text document. All one needs are good backups. As with the iPhone story, if I take a photo it appears on my iPad's photo stream and the other way round. It can be synced with my computer and in the cloud. I dropped my iPhone 5, got a new one which happened to be a faulty one. Again a new phone. Didn't lose a single photo. I love the 'old' technology, but I'm not blinded by some of the pro's of our new world. This morning I've enjoyed an LP of Charles Aznavour, but I'm glad I also have it on Spotify. Makes listening music in cars much more easy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Henry Posted April 1, 2014 Share #77 Posted April 1, 2014 Tooka....great singer at 39 mns 20 , the welknown "les comédiens" Enjoy Best Henry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick_S Posted April 2, 2014 Share #78 Posted April 2, 2014 All the small compact digital cameras that I have tried were too slow to use and had shutter lag. Therefore, I continue to use Ilford XP2 Super film in my Olympus XA as a pocket camera, plus it has a rangefinder and optical viewfinder which I prefer to use. Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikej Posted April 2, 2014 Share #79 Posted April 2, 2014 Because I love the anticipation of the results, and watching the magic happen in the (wet) darkroom. Cheers, Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrh68uk Posted April 5, 2014 Share #80 Posted April 5, 2014 My favourite images that I've taken are the film ones. I don't know why; maybe it's the look or perhaps it's how I've captured them. Probably a combination of the two. As I was brought up with film I tend to use digital more like a film shooter, i.e., as though each frame costs, yet now I've racked up more digital images than film ones. I'm extremely critical of my own work and there are very few I keep coming back to - I would say it's around 2/3 film. I've just bought some Portra 160 because I've not yet tried it. A brand new sensor Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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