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Who shoots only film?


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23 hours ago, a.noctilux said:

😇 I have thousands of crap pictures that I would not show,

I keep my crap pics on slides and even view them from time to time,

other crap pics with time got better status being "improved" by passing time, strange thing.

Best thing, I'm happy that I took those crap pics when I could.

 

Any chance we can see those Kodachrome ?

Here’s a link… there’s more in the timeline. 

 

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Thanks Ian,

Nice to see Kodachrome "hues" even at night.

We (with my wife very good photographer) have made over decades only on Kodachrome ( "II", 25, 64, 200 ) tens of  thousands pics.

When I planned to scan them, many years ago with Nikon Coolscan V ED, not bad but not as nice as when seen on Pradovit projected wide screen.

 

We are quite happy to have done those Kodachrome and not b&w or color negatives.

 

Some interesting discussions in this thread "Kodachrome Project"

 

 

 

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I seem to be in good company!

I use Leica M3 and M4 for the pleasure of taking pictures and particularly for the joy of using M-mount lenses. I also like my Minolta X500 and Rolleiflex 3.5f. And whilst I do love shooting film I do expect to give up some space in my camera bag to digital again one day.

Nevertheless, I’m coming to realize that modern digital Leica cameras have very little appeal for me, especially when compared with the competition who offer drastically better price/perf. ratio.

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On 3/26/2022 at 1:52 PM, Mr.Prime said:

I seem to be in good company!

I use Leica M3 and M4 for the pleasure of taking pictures and particularly for the joy of using M-mount lenses. I also like my Minolta X500 and Rolleiflex 3.5f. And whilst I do love shooting film I do expect to give up some space in my camera bag to digital again one day.

Nevertheless, I’m coming to realize that modern digital Leica cameras have very little appeal for me, especially when compared with the competition who offer drastically better price/perf. ratio.

Leica always ( M or for some decades ) have "low" price/perf. ratio.

This is not new but choice of Leica M can NOT be done with another brand, I fear.

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I just shoot an M6 with a Ricoh GR and Konica Auto S3 as compacts. 

I have an Olympus OMD EM1 and Ricoh digital from 2013 which got a lot of use back then but now just get use to check exposures or when I need research photos. 

Honestly I do get tempted by digital from time to time but then that's what marketing is all about. Thing is I've had an SL2, a Q, a CL, an M9, I just kept coming back to film. I like not having the instant feedback or resisting the urge to chimp, I like the tones of film, I like not having an insane amount of photos to go through after a shoot. It's a nice feeling to finish a roll too, there's a sense of completion and progress. Anticipation is a nice feeling too. It's pretty rare today. 

I actually think it's almost a privileged position to be able to use film, digital is so practical as necessary and I'm sure if I need it again I'll use it but for now my work allows me to embrace all these nuances which I really appreciate. 

 

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Reading all your comments, I understand that digital is more practical and for professionals , people that make a living with photography (not my case) makes sense to use digital, because all the pros that digital gives, faster feedback,  client demands, post processing, etc. Digital is faster and makes sense to use that in our culture as a tool to make money.

And film, for me, feels more an escape from the real world, film is more demanding, time consuming. More like a painting, where you spend weekends, hours,..with the smell of chemicals, etc..  If we decided to shoot film is because we love " the path" to get the results, instead of the results themselves.

But wouldn't fall in the digital or film, in terms of what's best...

Photoshop can do real good paintings too

 

Also we can discuss, while we love shooting film, why most of us., prefer mechanical cameras, where we have to decide everything, and manual focus, and miss so many shots, etc...

 

Have a nice day all!

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I do both - film and digital - depending on the situation. But it is in the majority film what I have used in the past few years, mostly B&W film. As mentioned earlier, I also shoot medium format which is all film for me to make most of it with the larger image size. Same with large format 4x5' which is also all film. But when shooting film, it is not totally hindering me on a digital workflow. I sometimes scan a negative and make a new digital negative from it which I use in one of my enlargers in my darkroom to make prints from it. This method is very useful when a negative has scratches or other marks on it which would be hard or impossible to get rid of with a pure analog workflow. Making a digital negative, I can post-process the scanned original negative and remove artifacts before printing this processed image on Pictorico foil to yield the digital negative after adjusting for development which is being used to develop the photosensitive paper later. Normally I print the digital negatives on 4x5' size to allow better resolution. 

With 35 mm format, I use often a Leica film camera and my M-E 240 digital camera in parallel. About three M/LTM lenses and both cameras nicely fit in my Ona messenger bag. With such setup, I cover easily 90% of all shooting situations for 35 mm where AF is no requirement. 

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I do both film and digital but for shear enjoyment I have to go with film.  I am sure it is my age as I learned to shoot and print using a 4x5 Graflex back in 1966 as a freshman in high school.  Then I paid my way through Indiana University with a couple Nikon F's and a lot of TriX.  I got my first Leica, a CL in 1974 and have not been without a film M since then.  I moved to Alaska last October with a mint black M4 but have to admit it sat in the closet through the winter while I played with a Fuji X100F and XT-4 which are certainly nice cameras and their images are certainly convient to process.  And the mirrorless viewfinder is making photography fun again.

Sping is here and I pulled the M4 out of the closet and shoved in a roll of film.  And I found the only lab in Alaska for film so things are looking up.  I have a month long motorcycle trip in May and I swear the M4 will be the only camera.  In fact, I am pretty sure I will be riding a motorcycle from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego next autumn and I may only carry my M4 (with 35 and 90) and a cellular phone for photos.

Technically, the Fuji's bring home the bacon more often than a manual exposure/focus Leica but the process is not the same.  I have come to realize I will never be great at this but I do make images that I enjoy using the film process that I also enjoy more.

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On 4/5/2022 at 12:54 AM, cesc said:

And film, for me, feels more an escape from the real world, film is more demanding, time consuming. More like a painting, where you spend weekends, hours,..with the smell of chemicals, etc..  If we decided to shoot film is because we love " the path" to get the results, instead of the results themselves.

It’s interesting you say that film is an escape from the real world; it makes me sad that the real world seems to be digital (which isn’t real in many senses), and doing an analog craft that requires you to remain present in the real world (quite literally) is an escape from “the real world.” Don’t get me wrong, I know what you’re saying here and I’m not trying to misconstrue the meaning of what you were saying to something else (and certainly not criticizing you either!); just noting that it seems I keep hearing this talking to different people and I keep feeling like somehow we got something wrong and we’re now going backwards. It makes me sad that many people are feeling like, whether they want to or not, they are stuck behind a screen and that IS their real world. I find film freeing from my digital life as a software developer so I can be present in the moment (trust me, the irony of what I’m saying right now is not lost given my career path).

Edited by 28framelines
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1 minute ago, 28framelines said:

It’s interesting you say that film is an escape from the real world; it makes me sad that the real world seems to be digital (which isn’t real in many senses), and doing an analog craft that requires you to remain present in the real world (quite literally) is an escape from “the real world.” Don’t get me wrong, I know what you’re saying here and I’m not trying to misconstrue the meaning of what you were saying to something else (and certainly not criticizing you either!); just noting that it seems I keep hearing this talking to different people and I keep feeling like somehow we got something wrong and we’re now going backwards. It makes me sad that many people are feeling like, whether they want to or not, they are stuck behind a screen and that IS their real world. I find film freeing from my digital life as a software developer so I can be present in the moment (trust me, the irony of what I’m saying right now is not lost given my career path).

I totally understand what you mean, I am a 3D character animator, so I spent 10 hours in front of a screen... Then father of two kids, si working from home with that environment, escaping from real world, for me it's doing that film thing, you enjoy the calm, slow down and make something with my hands, as a painting or a sculpture

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My girlfriend is very patient with me with me and my film. I used to take digital (Leica CL) photos of her which she liked but I sold that camera and am now all-film again. When it's time to scan the film she will join me and note how the exposure is wrong in too many shots because they are looking bad (I am a habitual under exposer so I have some work to do on my technique), have drying marks, have little white spots or other defects etc. And why am I using B&W when colour is so much more interesting. After getting through a roll of 35mm film with very few acceptable frames I'm pretty sure she's wondering what the hell am I doing...... 🙂

Yet, I can't wait to get back out with one of my cameras and a fresh roll of film to see if I can do better next time around. I remember my dad getting frustrated with his golf shots, telling me it's a difficult game, but he's as addicted to his golf as I am to my film cameras. Because it's not easy, because it requires skill, attention, learning, technique, then it's rewarding. 

Edited by Mr.Prime
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  • 1 month later...

I started with film. As a professional I was using Kodachrome almost exclusively. Then with it's demise Fuji Velvia, 50 and 100. I only reluctantly went to digital when clients began requesting it. I continued film for those clients who preferred the "look". Retired now, and shooting for my pleasure, it's film.

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I sold my M10-P Reporter and picked up my second M10-D as part of the trade because I missed the analog experience, supplemented with my Q2 for my auto-focus needs. 

However, even the M10-D couldn't reliable scratch my itch, therefore I traded in my Q2 for store credit at a local authorized dealer and picked up a brand new silver chrome M-A. Immediately the whole vibe came back and I could feel the connection come back to me. This is my first brand new analog Leica and there is special feeling of owning a brand new film camera that I plan to keep for years. 

The M10-D may have to go eventually, even if I adore that camera, and then entirely dedicate myself to film.

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1 hour ago, CosmoM3 said:

I sold my M10-P Reporter and picked up my second M10-D as part of the trade because I missed the analog experience, supplemented with my Q2 for my auto-focus needs. 

However, even the M10-D couldn't reliable scratch my itch, therefore I traded in my Q2 for store credit at a local authorized dealer and picked up a brand new silver chrome M-A. Immediately the whole vibe came back and I could feel the connection come back to me. This is my first brand new analog Leica and there is special feeling of owning a brand new film camera that I plan to keep for years. 

The M10-D may have to go eventually, even if I adore that camera, and then entirely dedicate myself to film.

I might do the same thing. Although I enjoy my m10-d a lot. The m-a’s I have are seeing much more usage. Just traveling with film is kind of holding me off to sell the m10-d. 

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6 hours ago, CosmoM3 said:

I sold my M10-P Reporter and picked up my second M10-D as part of the trade because I missed the analog experience, supplemented with my Q2 for my auto-focus needs. 

However, even the M10-D couldn't reliable scratch my itch, therefore I traded in my Q2 for store credit at a local authorized dealer and picked up a brand new silver chrome M-A. Immediately the whole vibe came back and I could feel the connection come back to me. This is my first brand new analog Leica and there is special feeling of owning a brand new film camera that I plan to keep for years. 

The M10-D may have to go eventually, even if I adore that camera, and then entirely dedicate myself to film.

I bought a Q2 a while ago—it was immediately my favorite camera ever. Then I got an M2. Since the M2 arrived, I’ve barely used the Q2. I can’t quite convince myself to sell it, because there are situations when it just makes sense to use a digital camera….. but I’m sorely tempted to sell the Q2 and M2, get an M-A, and go film only.

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5 hours ago, JoshuaRothman said:

I bought a Q2 a while ago—it was immediately my favorite camera ever. Then I got an M2. Since the M2 arrived, I’ve barely used the Q2. I can’t quite convince myself to sell it, because there are situations when it just makes sense to use a digital camera….. but I’m sorely tempted to sell the Q2 and M2, get an M-A, and go film only.

Yeah I don't regret trading in the Q2 towards a new M-A, but I might regret selling my M10-D.

The common theme here is that I enjoying shooting my M bodies more so than the Q/Q2.

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