Any film shooters getting the itch to shoot digital?

[logan2z]

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8 minutes ago, johnwolf said:

I miss the camera, the BW film aesthetic, and the whole workflow. Digital has many benefits, but for me it’s missing the feeling of craft.

Then why wouldn't you go back?

[oldwino]

10 minutes ago, johnwolf said:

Digital has many benefits, but for me it’s missing the feeling of craft.

John

This is exactly why I just cannot quit film. By most objective measures, and a few subjective ones (dust!), digital wins, but…

[Greenhilltony]

1 hour ago, logan2z said:

Then why wouldn't you go back?

Because he’s a vegan. Film uses gelatin which sources to animals. I’d better say no more on the internet though…

[logan2z]

2 hours ago, Greenhilltony said:

Because he’s a vegan. Film uses gelatin which sources to animals. I’d better say no more on the internet though…

Ah, I missed that.  Thanks.

[raizans]

I’ll go digital when there’s a Panasonic GX10 and Leica 35-100mm f/2 in Micro 4/3 mount. A small portrait kit with decently shallow DOF in 4:3 aspect ratio. 👌

[Aryel]

I bought my first digital camera in 7 years a couple of days ago (an SL 601). I intend to use it for scanning and occasional shooting (was also feeling the itch). Few days of shooting it and I already know that 'occasional' shooting is going to remain occasional... I am happy to have it though, will put it to good use for scanning and occasional shooting whenever the itch comes back!

One thing I really love with film is how it encourage us to anticipate. Choosing a film stock (and developer combination) is committing to a certain look and I believe that in turns, this impact the subjects we look. If this was not enough, there is also delta 3200 in DD-X, SFX 200 in FX39-II and an infinite combination of look and feel!

Edited September 16, 2023 by Aryel

[hansvons]

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17 hours ago, johnwolf said:

I just went all digital, but not because of an itch. I’ve been a lifelong vegetarian/vegan and always overlooked the gelatin issue as minor, but recently decided to no longer do that.

 

I can relate to that very well. I‘m enjoying a similar lifestyle. Only I allow myself to shoot on film. Good reason to shoot digital!!

[Huss]

16 hours ago, Greenhilltony said:

Because he’s a vegan. Film uses gelatin which sources to animals. I’d better say no more on the internet though…

Not all film uses gelatin.  Quite a few are polyester based and those are easy to tell when you handle them as they are very thin.  Downside is you have to load your camera in very dim conditions due to light piping through the cassette seals.

[Huss]

18 hours ago, johnwolf said:

I just went all digital, but not because of an itch. I’ve been a lifelong vegetarian/vegan and always overlooked the gelatin issue as minor, but recently decided to no longer do that. Replaced my M6 with an M10 and gave my Rollei 3.5f to a relative. 

I miss the camera, the BW film aesthetic, and the whole workflow. Digital has many benefits, but for me it’s missing the feeling of craft. Still, I’m not going back. 

John

The M10 usually comes with a very nice leather Leica strap.  If yours came with one, I'd be happy to trade it for one or two of my genuine Leica vegan (nylon w rubber pad) straps.

[Huss]

For example, the excellent Kodak Aerocolor IV is a vegan film.  It is rebranded and sold per roll as Elektra, SantaColor and Luminaire 100.

You can find similar in B&W.

[johnwolf]

37 minutes ago, Huss said:

The M10 usually comes with a very nice leather Leica strap.  If yours came with one, I'd be happy to trade it for one or two of my genuine Leica vegan (nylon w rubber pad) straps.

@Huss, I’ll PM you so as not to sidetrack the OP’s intent. 

[oldwino]

3 hours ago, Huss said:

Not all film uses gelatin.  Quite a few are polyester based and those are easy to tell when you handle them as they are very thin.  Downside is you have to load your camera in very dim conditions due to light piping through the cassette seals.

You're talking about the base here. All emulsions use gelatin as the carrier. 

[madNbad]

This thread has inspired me! So much that I bought a Kodak Retina 1 (Type 013). No fancy rangefinder gizmo, solid knobs for advance and rewind, a little lever to push on the shutter to cock it plus a super fast, uncoated 3.5 Schneider lens. I did spend thirty bucks for an accessory sportsfinder. 

Now I just have to figure out where the card slot is...

[Huss]

5 hours ago, oldwino said:

You're talking about the base here. All emulsions use gelatin as the carrier. 

I do indeed stand corrected.  From Kodak’s info on Aerocolor iv:

BASE
3.9-mil (0.10 mm) ESTAR Base with a gel backing.

[Huss]

33 minutes ago, madNbad said:

 

Now I just have to figure out where the card slot is...

In your wallet.

[madNbad]

31 minutes ago, Huss said:

In your wallet.

Maybe if I left my credit card in there, I wouldn’t be buying seventy five year old cameras. 

[otto.f]

I do digital since 2007 and did neglect film for quite some time. At the moment I prefer my M10-R for color and film for B&W. Portra is very nice, especially the 800, but digital gives me more different ways of colorgrading than color films do as a whole, considering the time it costs. 

[JoshuaR]

Well, I'm not too proud to say that I've quit film entirely this year. I sold my film Ms and bought a very used M10M to try out. I'm now using M10 and M10M. I'm not sure if I'll keep on with the M10M; I'm going to give it six months, and if I'm not getting value out of it I'll sell it and upgrade to an M10-R or M11.

A few things led to the move; film prices weren't one of them. The biggest is that I got a lot busier at work and have a huge writing project due in a year's time. I decided that I wanted to take as much time as I could to focus on the writing—it's also creative work, and it's more important to me than shooting film over digital. I've taken the developing and scanning time and turned it into writing time, which feels like a sound trade.

Also, looking back at my photos from the past many years, I concluded that I didn't generally prefer the film images over the digital ones. I preferred *taking* the film pictures, I think, but in retrospect I love my best digital pictures just as much. So I felt okay putting film on the back burner, at least for now. (The one exception was medium-format film: the pictures I made with my Pentax 67ii have a special look that I *do* prefer over digital. I still have that camera, and will start using it again when I have time.)

Probably the last factor was that I came to feel that my MP was overkill. I'd been just as happy with my M2. I figure that, when I want to get back into a film M, I'll just buy an M2.

All of this is just my experience, of course. I have great respect for film and film shooters. I did find, however, that I had to deprogram myself somewhat from the 'ideology" of film in order to make the switch back to all digital. I had sort of convinced myself that my MP was a camera I’d have for the rest of my life, that film was more tangible (of course I have many prints of digital images), and so on. Eventually I decided that, for my purposes, none of this mattered that much and I was overthinking.

Edited September 17, 2023 by JoshuaRothman

[Topsy]

I am a bit like @JoshuaRothman in so much as I have recently sold my MP (a camera I too thought woould be my forever camera). I still have an M2 (and MP-4 which I will possibly sell at some point). 

I started photography before digital and in those days shot Canon F1-ns and Bronica SQ-A1 both for personal and for additional income. I moved to digital when the IQ (IMO) surpassed 35mm film around the time the Nikon D100 came out (2002). I sold most of my filn kit to fund an ever increasing search for better digital outputs and have gone full circle from 4/3rds to APSC to FF back to APSC and I am happy with the general output of my APSC (Fuji X-T2s). For more serious landscape stuff I have the old Fuji GFX 50S which is excellet and does all I need. I also decided to move away from WYSIWYG mirrorless digital to get back to a more basic workflow where I had to think more about my shots so I bought an M9, then another 2 for my personal work, travel, urban etc.

Jump forward to my early retirement a couple of years ago (my choice) when I decided I wanted to do a couple of photo projects around Dartmoor (UK National Park) which I decided I wold do on film so I bought my M4-P then my M2 and some Bronica SQ-Ai MF kit for those projects and finally added my MP. Having heavily invested I set off on my projects and came to the conclusion that 6x6 film is what I like and I can do my projects on that but as for 35mm I can't love it, I feel the output from my digital is better and TBH I enjoy using my M9s just as much as I did my MP. There is of course the quick turnaround of digital which I also like plus if I only shoot a dozen or so shots on an puting I can have them as soon as I get back to my computer.

So after going around the Buoys a couple of times I am set with my M9s for "35mm" and my Bronicas for 6x6 with the Fuji X-T2s as my scouting kit and my GFX for proper landscape trips.

Sorry for the War and Peace, I suppose I could sum it up as there is room in my life for both.

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[Huss]

4 hours ago, JoshuaRothman said:

Well, I'm not too proud to say that I've quit film entirely this year. I sold my film Ms and bought a very used M10M to try out. I'm now using M10 and M10M. I'm not sure if I'll keep on with the M10M; I'm going to give it six months, and if I'm not getting value out of it I'll sell it and upgrade to an M10-R or M11.

A few things led to the move; film prices weren't one of them. The biggest is that I got a lot busier at work and have a huge writing project due in a year's time. I decided that I wanted to take as much time as I could to focus on the writing—it's also creative work, and it's more important to me than shooting film over digital. I've taken the developing and scanning time and turned it into writing time, which feels like a sound trade.

Also, looking back at my photos from the past many years, I concluded that I didn't generally prefer the film images over the digital ones. I preferred *taking* the film pictures, I think, but in retrospect I love my best digital pictures just as much. So I felt okay putting film on the back burner, at least for now. (The one exception was medium-format film: the pictures I made with my Pentax 67ii have a special look that I *do* prefer over digital. I still have that camera, and will start using it again when I have time.)

Probably the last factor was that I came to feel that my MP was overkill. I'd been just as happy with my M2. I figure that, when I want to get back into a film M, I'll just buy an M2.

All of this is just my experience, of course. I have great respect for film and film shooters. I did find, however, that I had to deprogram myself somewhat from the 'ideology" of film in order to make the switch back to all digital. I had sort of convinced myself that my MP was a camera I’d have for the rest of my life, that film was more tangible (of course I have many prints of digital images), and so on. Eventually I decided that, for my purposes, none of this mattered that much and I was overthinking.

I think that's the truth for many but some don't want to admit it!

You just gotta do what is right by you, and ignore all those hysterical cries of  'I will die in my darkroom before I will shoot digital!'.  I'll admit I absolutely love the film process - the haptics, mechanics and results - but the few times I do shoot digital I think 'dang that's good! And painless...'

What I do love about Leica, and what brought me in, is the M product allows you to alternate, and use concurrently, film and digital cameras seamlessly.