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

[pippy]

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14 hours ago, atournas said:

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So this circle illustrates that for you shooting with a digital camera isn't enjoyable and what's more, mentally, is associated completely with experiencing financial problems?

Wow. What a pity.

P.

[madNbad]

11 minutes ago, pippy said:

So this circle illustrates that for you shooting with a digital camera isn't enjoyable and what's more, mentally, is associated completely with experiencing financial problems?

Wow. What a pity.

P.

I see it as someone who enjoys photography. If they have the time and money for film, that is what they'll use. If not, digital fills the desire. 

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[pippy]

1 minute ago, madNbad said:

I see it as someone who enjoys photography. If they have the time and money for film, that is what they'll use. If not, digital fills the desire. 

Truly I hope you are right.

P.

[atournas]

7 hours ago, madNbad said:

I see it as someone who enjoys photography. If they have the time and money for film, that is what they'll use. If not, digital fills the desire. 

My words exactly!

[Scott99]

I take better pictures with film and my M6. I find myself taking more time composing and waiting for the right moment. My M6 sits so well in my hands and for some reason I can see better through the viewfinder (compared to my M10). I have a stash of old Kodak films that my father in law left in his basement for a decade or two. This "abuse" adds another wrinkle to the look of the pictures.

[mpw]

I used to shoot film in the 70's, 80's and 90's. I still have 2 nice SLR cameras. If I shoot any film it would be B&W, I like the immediate feedback with digital cameras and the low cost or no cost of seeing a final image. But in the day I really enjoyed getting my prints or contact sheets back to see how good my images came out. I do listen to LP's (can't stand CD's). and drive a manual shift car. Like one of previous posters, I am a computer programmer and have been to the MIT AI labs having lived in the Boston area for a long time. In the end for me it is all about being creative when taking pictures whether shooting film or digital. It is interesting that there are so many 'classic type lens that are allow the user to get a more 'film type look which I tend to gravitate towards.

[mpw]

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I have been reading some of the above posts about how it seems complicated to use digital cameras with all the options. It seems with the Leica systems one can set the camera up to shoot in manual mode with the minimum amount of 'features to shoot like one would with a film camera. I have a Leica CL digital and use it in P-A-S-M mode controlling: focus, aperture, shutter, and ISO. So really one can operate the camera as one would an old film SLR to control the creative process. I adapt vintage/classic lens to the camera as well.

[Steve Ricoh]

6 hours ago, Scott99 said:

... I have a stash of old Kodak films that my father in law left in his basement for a decade or two. This "abuse" adds another wrinkle to the look of the pictures.

Film has to stand out from the super smooth output from digital, otherwise there’s no point. I’m all for abusing film in all sorts of ways, heat, chemically, light leaks, cross processing - the more the better. 
I’d say to the OP, what do you want from film, if it’s the same or similar to digital output then forget it, just use digital.

[Ouroboros]

On 5/29/2023 at 9:03 AM, Topsy said:

That would be the River Tavy then. I took the shots standing on the walls of the church grounds to get a bit of elevation.

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Past the Pannier Market and Costa and right next to the bridge immediately before you cross the river!

[materry566]

I have both M11 and M7 and enjoy using both equally.  I enjoy the concept of shooting film, developing and scanning myself.  Find myself using film for personal use and digital for more paid situations due to the speed of developing.  For me film is just more organic.  The anticipation of developing and scanning to see what you created is the reason I love photography. Both have a place in the world of photography but film makes me feel more of an artist because I think more about the shot and all that it takes to compose it correctly. 

[Kl@usW.]

Lencap,  

for me, after some expensive and lengthy meandering , it turned out to be a very simple decision:   

If you have to produce a result, whatever the situation: digital

If you like the process, the mechanical  tools,  the capriciousness  of analogue photography:  film

If you like both: polyamory might be your  solution....

btw: sorry about your visual problems and your wife's bad experience.   But ( and I say this as a former eye surgeon, now retired ) don't let your wife´s experience deter you from a well considered decision for Yourself. 

K. 

 

 

[earleygallery]

I have never stopped using film but rather added digital to my camera options.

That said, I haven't shot much film lately for a number of reasons. Cost is a factor, as well as convenience. I do process my own B&W but colour is farmed out and I don't do slides any more (which was my preference for colour photos back when I'd shoot Kodachrome). Colour neg film has been very difficult to buy recently due to global supply chain issues.

Ultimately I do still prefer film - the whole process, the cameras, the need for more thought/limit of frames and lack of instant preview etc. etc. It's just a shame that the infrastructure to support film use is ever decreasing and therefore it takes more effort and commitment.

If someone was 100% digital and thinking of going 100% film now, I would have to say I don't think that would be a good idea. Both have their place.

[rtai]

I am mostly into street photography and the ability to shoot at 1/2000 with unlimited iso has opened up new possibilities these two years since I purchased the M10M and Q2M. While I like the look of the M10M with certain lenses the ones that can give me a wide tonal range they still lack the texture of b/w film. The Q2M is too smooth and sterile but that 28mm if shot at f1.7 has some kind of magic. And I have the SL2 with the kit 24/90 zoom for color but it isn’t as good as my M8. If I shot color I would just shoot with a bunch of M8 bodies. However the SL2 and M10M both have that incredible perspective control which is indispensable for me. I would need to dig out my large format kit to do what they do effortlessly. When I shot film I mostly used Rolleiflex TLR and Hasselblad SWC cameras handheld and I still have them. Modern optics do not come close in aesthetics. And I just bought a second MP.

[jakontil]

On 5/28/2023 at 11:37 AM, CSGreene said:

I'm 72 so my time with film was back in those days (as well as today still) and I recall almost never shooting anything but Plus X and Pan X when it was what, 25 ASA?  Grain was the enemy if I recall my high school photo classes correctly.  Now, I mostly shoot 400 ISO B&W film but the grain seems better than it did in the mid-late 60's.  I might be completely wrong about that, however!

May be after all this digital fiasco how clean it shoots at high iso without noise, we all miss having some beautiful grains in our frames… 

[Huss]

19 hours ago, rtai said:

However the SL2 and M10M both have that incredible perspective control which is indispensable for me. I would need to dig out my large format kit to do what they do effortlessly. 

Isn’t that perspective control essentially an in camera crop?  If so, that is something that can be done very easily post with the same result.  Or does it maintain the full image size?

[rtai]

2 hours ago, Huss said:

Isn’t that perspective control essentially an in camera crop?  If so, that is something that can be done very easily post with the same result.  Or does it maintain the full image size?

Yes it’s just a crop and can be done at post even with scanned film. But being able to do it at the scene when it matters the most is certainly a benefit. Doing in post requires guessing how much room to leave for the crop and also it’s important for the camera to be horizontally level so angles don’t get skewed. The in camera PC frame functions as a leveller and with IBIS I can dispense with a tripod. Here’s an example of my first try handheld. The lines are perfectly straight. SL2 24/90

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[Huss]

19 hours ago, rtai said:

Yes it’s just a crop and can be done at post even with scanned film. But being able to do it at the scene when it matters the most is certainly a benefit. Doing in post requires guessing how much room to leave for the crop and also it’s important for the camera to be horizontally level so angles don’t get skewed. The in camera PC frame functions as a leveller and with IBIS I can dispense with a tripod. Here’s an example of my first try handheld. The lines are perfectly straight. SL2 24/90

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Nice!  Was the off center composition intentional?  I like the three lampposts on the right.

[Huss]

P.s gotta get back up to SF.  Love shooting in the China Beach area.  Plus every little bodega has It’s It ice cream cookie sandwiches! They don’t carry those in SoCal….

Edited June 4, 2023 by Huss

[rtai]

3 hours ago, Huss said:

Nice!  Was the off center composition intentional?  I like the three lampposts on the right.

Good catch. I took 5 or 6 shots and liked this one because of the lampposts. 

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[JoshuaRothman]

I'm a middle-aged hobbyist (43) who has boomeranged from digital to film and back to digital.

I moved to film at the beginning of the pandemic, when I started working remotely. It was fun to develop and scan the negatives at home, and I found learning about film photography fascinating. The look and process of film was a huge novelty after spending almost all of my photographic life post-college shooting digital, and I found myself getting pulled into the romantic world of analog photography. I liked film so much that I sold all my cameras and used an M2 exclusively with 35mm and 50mm, eventually adding an M4-P.

Then, earlier this year, things changed. My job got more intense, family life grew more crowded, and I could no longer find time to develop and scan myself. The rising cost of film made it less fun for me. But time was really the big issue. Also, going through my old photographs, I found that I didn't have a real preference for film over digital. In the end, for me, it was the content of the photograph that mattered most.

I now use an M10 and find that it gives me a lot of the joy I got from my film Ms. I still shoot 120 occasionally, but for the everyday documentary photography I tend to do, I think digital is a better choice for me at this point in my life.