For Those Who Recently Returned to Shooting Film - Are you Happy with the Switch?

[Smudgerer]

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Not a Leica story, but maybe apropos to this thread on film.........A few weekends ago a 19 year old/ish daughter of a close friend of mine was talking about a long weekend trip she was going to take with some friends, she's another of those who's totally and annoyingly "glued" to her crack-iPhone and even whilst talking about the trip she was texting out all the time too, ( God help us......please ). As I said this is behavior that annoys and aghasts me these days so on a whim I proposed that she didn't take snaps on her phone that weekend and that I'd give her a camera to take with her instead. No, crazy I may be, but I am not that stupid........the camera I gave her was a simple cheapo disposable P/S plastic / cardboard thing. Of course over her weekend trip the phone was in constant use, that and and occasional breathing seems to be ubiquitous these days, but it was really good to see her excitement in opening the package from the lab with the actual photo's from the disposable camera, she was thrilled with having the tactile memories in hand rather than boring the arse off anyone with sufficient life left to follow her scrolling through the thousands of hardly ever to be seen again iPhone snaps.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Smudgerer
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[Hans-Dieter Gülicher]

I have just bought a M3 together with 2 rolls (Kodak, Fuji) as this Leica was my first in 1955. But up to now I hasitate a little bit. Nevertheless the great event will start within the next two weeks. A friend of mine has just swithed over from R to SL 2 (his first digital). The two old boys have certain problems, now.

[blackdot]

I just picked up an M2 again after switching to digital not even two years ago. I do quite like my M10, but missed the ability to overexpose. I never liked slide film for the same reason. There is a certain magic you can inject into photos by using way too much light, especially with older optics. On the M10, I prefer modern asph optics, and obviously the exposure needs to be “coloring within the lines”.

Edited August 10, 2023 by blackdot

[Greenhilltony]

I bought a Minolta CLE and several lenses to return to photography early this year, and then decided to go to digital with an M10-P because I thought it would be too much to afford following my rhythm of shooting style. However, my dad has just retired recently and he picks up film development again for his interest. He keeps communicate with me about his experiment progress and I am glad he has something to be obsessed with atm, especially it’s also photography! So I decided to shoot more film now, and experiment with pushing some film stocks I like to see what actually happens to the films when they are underexposed and pushed back. The digital film emulation filters, though in most cases produce pleasing results, are nothing alike when I mess up the exposure and try to save it from the post-processing. They absolutely could not 100% emulate the under/overexposed reactions of the film stocks. Besides, I have stepped up many techniques during my digital hard practicing time: accurate zone-focus at large aperture, the FOV of 35mm, the holding posture at different height level to keep the lines as straight as possible when shoot without viewfinder, the manual exposure experiences with the common lighting conditions I come across everyday, etc.. So, I have more confidence to shoot with film, instead of worrying about if I am going to waste money at the next shot.