Any film shooters getting the itch to shoot digital?

[tiefsinker]

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I had my times where I shot only on film and was not using the DSLR back then and a Oly OM2n, M6 or a Nikon FE2 were the stuff I carried around all the time. Currently I don't own a working film camera anymore and just shoot the M10-R. For 35mm I would say I can completely forget about film, if I want a compact camera to carry around the M10-R gives me everything I want I had with the M6. I only miss it for the joy of use.  One thing I could imagine is getting some kind of bulky camera like a RB67 again or even some larger format for some projects I have in mind because I liked spending time in the darkroom. 

[logan2z]

Does anyone else find it curious that the "I'll never go back to film" and "digital gives me all I need" people are hanging out on the analog M sub-forum?  You'll be back .. 😉

[Huss]

4 hours ago, tiefsinker said:

...M10-R gives me everything I want I had with the M6. I only miss it for the joy of use.  ..

Joy of use is a huge part of making you want to go out and take pics.  And is why I barely use my 10r vs film cameras.

[Greenhilltony]

15 hours ago, JoshuaRothman said:

I've taken the developing and scanning time and turned it into writing time, which feels like a sound trade.

I was getting very busy with my final thesis for PhD last month. At that moment, I still carried my camera on my way to school and home. I decided to take my M4 but not M10-P. I want to put my desire to review, edit and share my photos away for a while to be concentrated in my thesis. So I shot film and developed them all in once when I submitted my thesis. I enjoyed this feeling of sowing and harvesting very much.

[otto.f]

9 hours ago, logan2z said:

Does anyone else find it curious that the "I'll never go back to film" and "digital gives me all I need" people are hanging out on the analog M sub-forum?  You'll be back .. 😉

Good intelligence work

[hansvons]

12 hours ago, Huss said:

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.

This is an interesting point. But at this time, I can’t justify a digital M body because I don’t like digital images as much as film images. 

I shot uncountable projects with the best digital cine camera available. I got myself the SL2-S, which arguably sports the best sensor in terms of colour Leica ever offered, and I‘m still going back to analogue as much as possible - despite the price, despite the hassle (don’t enjoy dev and scanning much).

I don’t know what it is. I guess it’s the texture, the colours and the unpredictability of the outcome because analogue is not about WYSIWYG.
I had that back then when shooting films on film, it was thrilling. Obviously I miss that. Fearing a botched neg drives attentiveness on all levels, including content. Shooting analogue increases the keepers by a magnitude. But I already wrote that somewhere in this interesting thread.

When I print (pros do that for me on lambda/C-print paper, often relatively large 50x70 cm), things tilt even more to analogue. 35mm film maxes out at 4-5K or so. The resolution is limited. But when you look closely, you‘ll experience the beauty of texture, you will connect the missing dots that the medium didn’t capture, and in your mind, you’ll create an image that physically doesn’t exist, yet exists, similar to paintings. 

[JoshuaR]

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12 hours ago, logan2z said:

Does anyone else find it curious that the "I'll never go back to film" and "digital gives me all I need" people are hanging out on the analog M sub-forum?  You'll be back .. 😉

Honestly, reading this thread has been a terrible idea, and I just spent twenty minutes at 5 in the morning looking at M2s online.

[Borna]

8 minutes ago, JoshuaRothman said:

Honestly, reading this thread has been a terrible idea, and I just spent twenty minutes at 5 in the morning looking at M2s online.

I mean, you don't need to go hardcore back to film, I guess it is enough to have it in special occasions, handful of rolls per year. Film is fun, I think it is a great hobby to play around with.

[Huss]

7 hours ago, Borna said:

I mean, you don't need to go hardcore back to film, I guess it is enough to have it in special occasions, handful of rolls per year. Film is fun, I think it is a great hobby to play around with.

Just try it.  First one is on me...

[blackdot]

I was curious in 2020, and in preparation for an international move (which took almost another two years due to covid border closures), I overzealously schemed to simplify my life down to a suitcase, consolidating all of my numerous film cameras down to an M10 and M246 (and a Ricoh GRIII). I wouldn't go as far as to say I hated shooting digital, but I really missed the superior highlight handling of film. There is just something really off about digital highlights, even when correctly exposed. 

I recently sold the digital Ms and went back to the M2 and M6TTL 0.58. Same as before.

Edited September 19, 2023 by blackdot

[Bronco McBeast]

A thing that happens quite often is when I finish my last roll of film but the interesting action continues. Do I take out my iphone to continue shooting the good scenes unfolding in my face?

No.

I do not shoot digital. End of story.

I watch the scenes and learn my lesson, in silence. Next time, I don’t leave the house without at least 10 films in my Billingham. 

[ianman]

I enjoy taking pictures. I enjoy film. I enjoy digital. Although I prefer film for it's look, for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone who enjoys photography is ready to forgo that enjoyment based on which equipment is available to them. Each to their own.

Edited September 19, 2023 by ianman

[Bronco McBeast]

1 hour ago, ianman said:

I enjoy taking pictures. I enjoy film. I enjoy digital. Although I prefer film for it's look, for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone who enjoys photography is ready to forgo that enjoyment based on which equipment is available to them. Each to their own.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoy the Craft of photography.

And, to me, digital photography is not a craft.

Starting with a boring image and computerizing it with various presets until it becomes flavourized enough to be become a personal style… I don’t know… it will never sit well with me.

Important words to remember: “personally” and “to me”.

 

[ianman]

6 minutes ago, Bronco McBeast said:

And, to me, digital photography is not a craft.

Starting with a boring image and computerizing it with various presets until it becomes flavourized enough to be become a personal style… I don’t know… it will never sit well with me.

You are of course entitled to your opinion as much as anyone and I respect that. But you do seem to have a very strange view of digital photography.

A boring image is a boring image. Film or digital is irrelevant. The choice to post process a digital image or not is the same as for a negative… and if you choose to post process the same tools are available, again the fact the at the tools are digital or "real" they are the same and similar knowledge is required to use them properly.

I understand your use of the word "craft" and I too prefer film for its look and I enjoy developing but the beginning of the process (pushing the shutter button) and the end of the process (obtaining an image) are identical.

[Bronco McBeast]

5 minutes ago, ianman said:

You are of course entitled to your opinion as much as anyone and I respect that. But you do seem to have a very strange view of digital photography.

A boring image is a boring image. Film or digital is irrelevant. The choice to post process a digital image or not is the same as for a negative… and if you choose to post process the same tools are available, again the fact the at the tools are digital or "real" they are the same and similar knowledge is required to use them properly.

I understand your use of the word "craft" and I too prefer film for its look and I enjoy developing but the beginning of the process (pushing the shutter button) and the end of the process (obtaining an image) are identical.

Computerography can never fit in my process, which involves meditation. 

For even greater meditation, I use medium format. 

For greatest meditation, I use Large format. 

No one will understand, except those who will. It’s my Yoga, that’s all.

[Huss]

2 hours ago, Bronco McBeast said:

Computerography can never fit in my process, which involves meditation. 

For even greater meditation, I use medium format. 

For greatest meditation, I use Large format. 

No one will understand, except those who will. It’s my Yoga, that’s all.

One of the rare times I will agree with Bronco is that I find using film therapeutic.  I zen out on it, which may be why I hardly ever use my digital M because I just don't get that same sense of calmness and satisfaction.  Even if I totally bollox things up. Film is just a much more intimate process.

If that matters?  Well, that's a personal thing.

[lmans]

I shoot film 90% of the time...the other 10% is my Ricoh GR when I am grabbing candid quick shots on the street. But to get a M Digital or the like?...no. I can't seem to get in the zone/mood shooting digital. 

[aesop]

On 9/13/2023 at 12:24 AM, Huss said:

I shoot film 99.9999% of the time, using dozens of different film cameras, Leicas included of course.

But I am getting curious about digital - even though I have a couple of digi cams but never actually use them.  I keep thinking I'd wish I had instead taken a film camera with me.

Any film shooters thinking about trying digital?  And if so, why?

 

       ...I've got an iPhone to accompany my MPs and M6. Surely that counts.😬

 

[otto.f]

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Edited September 19, 2023 by otto.f

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Hallo,

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[ianman]

2 hours ago, Huss said:

One of the rare times I will agree with Bronco is that I find using film therapeutic.  I zen out on it, which may be why I hardly ever use my digital M because I just don't get that same sense of calmness and satisfaction.  Even if I totally bollox things up. Film is just a much more intimate process.

If that matters?  Well, that's a personal thing.

It is a personal thing and I agree with you both. What I failed to mention in my previous posts and is actually quite relevant is that, like many here,  I started taking pictures in the film only era. Mainly using Kodak high speed infrared B&W film. I use my M9 in the same way I use my film cameras… MP, Hassy or Zero Pinhole. In the almost 14 years I’ve owned it (I bought it the day it came out 09/09/09), I’ve not clocked up 10.000 frames on the M9 yet. So yes, once the film is in or the card is in, the only difference for me is the lever. I don’t use digital like it’s a machine gun. Looking, seeing, thinking about and then taking the pictures are all the same steps and are carried out with the same calmness and satisfaction.