M246 replacing film?

[williamgm]

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As a professional photographer I spent many years shooting thousands of rolls of film, mainly using (& carrying around the world!) a Hasselblad outfit and Nikon for 35mm. The colour film was mainly transparency for printing in brochures etc., but the B&W I processed and printed myself. I now use digital, but still feel tempted by film from time to time, however even after using a first-class Imacon/Hasselblad scanner to transfer film images to the computer, I feel if I were ever to return to film for purely personal use I would have to commit to the whole process, including printing (most important!). Handing rolls of film to a lab would not work for me as I would need to rely on someone else to interpret in the final print what I had in mind when I took the photograph. Unless and until you were able to build up a very close working relationship with one particular printer (as I believe Henri Cartier-Bresson did in Paris) then hoping someone in a distant lab will achieve what you want in the final print first time (or even second or third time) will be virtually impossible as the printing process is capable of so many subtle interpretations. Having said all that, although as I said film still tempts me from time to time (I miss the 'look' of film and also the solid feel of the purely mechanical Hasselblad & Leica film cameras) I've probably spent over a lifetime of professional work far too much time working in darkrooms and the thought of constructing another, then actually using it, will probably mean I stay with digital....and I must say I've been tempted by a Monochrom on more that one occasion, but even that's unlikely as I have no lenses and the total cost is hard to justify.