ATTN All Film Shooters

Who here still shoots this wonderful medium? I was shooting an event yesterday and I had a lot of people give me the "surprised face" when I told them my body was film. They asked me why I shoot it, why I left digital, why I chose a harder path for photography [than digital]. My only response was "Ill always love film more than digital". Does anyone else here feel the same way? Digital has met the quality and standards that film can offer, but there's just something about film. I think its actually having your picture in a tangible form. Maybe its the feeling I get when I take a tough shot, and have to wait 2-3 days to see if I nailed the exposure/focus/etc. correctly. Maybe its the grain of the film that digital will never truly have. I dont know! Does anyone else here feel this way or am I just a fish out of water on a digital forum

I shoot film for school, but I have to admit I love the ease that comes with digital photography.

i shoot both. Im doing flim photography at school and acutally find it a bit of fun developing and printing and whatnot.

I acutally like the film class better then the digital but thats because there are acutal experienced shooters in the film class...

boucher.

As you have read on some other recent threads, just this week, I decided to go all film. I'm old enough to have had a 110 Instamatic, Pentax compact 35mm, and a Minolta SLR, which I used on up until 2002. However, they all served as point & shoots; no idea what f-stop meant, or for that matter, focal length, certainly no messing with aperture priority let alone manual.

When I decided to actually pursue photography as a serious hobby, I learned all of the fundamentals as a prerequisite to buying a 350D, which I have used since. The convenience of digital was so prevalent, that film suddenly seemed so anachronistic as to predate my existence. I never dismissed the quality, of course, but film suddenly seemed so costly and largely unforgiving, that is, no histogram to quickly check for correct exposure. The instant gratification of digital alone appeared indispensable.

However, as I convert all of my photos to monochrome and shoot mainly urban and street scenes, I was continually missing an affordable digital rangefinder. Plus, like you said, I just couldn't get the grain in Photoshop; and I felt increasingly awkward about adding it artificially. So just this month, I decided to give film a go, and picked up a Bessa R2M. For the past year, I've only been using manual focus primes on the 350D, so tossing out the automation was not an issue.

I also bought a Nikon Coolscan V ED, and while I'm still a novice at scanning, I was not only pleased to get that grain, but I was also impressed with the depth of some of the Bessa shots---and it's a depth that manifest in digital, not just on silver halide prints (though I realize the print's quality would be even better). So this week, I decided to go all film, and my EOS Elan 7NE is currently en route from B&H to Tokyo (for whatever reason, the camera here (EOS 7s) cost about US$400 more). I have three Zeiss manuals to use with it, and it's a very inexpensive way to go "full frame," which I was planning to do digitally later this year or next. Perhaps it was a sign that the 5D's upgrade did not appear earlier this year, as expected.

Now, I just need to learn how to develop negatives..and then the Holga….

I do both. I use film for scenics and portraits, I can't find any software that gives the portaits the look the film gives..my clients prefer the film look in portraits. and I like the way the film digs into the image in portraits and scenics. You take a digital image and then you have to sharpen it. Take it with film and no sharpening needed, it is so tick tack sharp out of the camera, more than any digital I have seen. I use digital for weddings just because I don't have to pay for film, film processing, etc.

I'm still shooting both... use an EOS 1n and Canon 40d, an Olympus OM-1n, a Yashica 124g TLR, a Kiev 60 MF SLR, and I'm in the middle of a building a Hasselbad kit. I specially love the look of film in medium format.

I used to be exclusively digital and now I'm exclusively film -- mostly large format (8x10 and 4x5) but some medium format (a hasselblad) for travel photography. The optical relationships between capture and enlargement, including tonal gradients and grain size, are so much better as you get to larger formats (including MF), that I'll NEVER feel that small format anything (film or digital) can produce the look I want. I also think that digital has boxed itself into the small format SLR design too irretrievably to give us alternative camera designs.

I shoot both digital and film - I quite regularly use my EOS30 with Kodak Ektachrome E100G or E100GX slide film.
I also have an old Canon AE-1 Program and a Nikon F100 that gets a roll or two put through them every so often.

I shoot film exclusively, but for me it's just a hobby. With film I was able to afford a camera (EOS3) with pro features for the price of an entry level DSLR and the unpretentious form factor of a prosumer model. I have learned to develop and scan color negatives in the meantime (ok, the scanner killed some of my cost savings). Since my camera is quite old, I can still use old Sigma lenses (another big cost saver).

People often argue that film is expensive, but if you carefully plan a picture before you hit the trigger it's not a big deal (I don't belong to the spray and pray camp).

Would I go digital if I were a pro? Almost certainly. Will I eventually go digital as a hobbyist? You never know. Right now I'm quite happy with my setup. It's a passion I guess ...

The vast majority of my shooting is digital, but I am shooting film sometimes also. I was planning on shooting a couple rolls of 1600 speed B&W this weekend in fact. Since all of my photography is for fun, it's a nice change of pace sometimes.

I stopped shooting MF film with a Hassy about two years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it and still think fondly of that gear sitting in its case.

My rationale was purely economic. I do primarly wedding and event work, and to remain competitive with other local shooters I would have gone broke from a service level. The workflow was also slower and I could never sustain that competitive level of shooting and remain competitive. My lab would scan the negs and I could further PP them, but I'd have to deal with back and forth UPS shipments. And then there were the scanning fees.....

I sold one of my old Hassy bodies to an art student, and applaud those folks who still use that medium. But quite honestly I'm having too much fun with digital right now.

In my heyday I did a lot of B/W darkroom work, but that was years ago. Now I have the instant and convenient pleasure of playing in CS3 almost every night, being more productive with my fine art work than in the past. I do know a core of people though in my area who embrace the old traditional methods going way back to Louis Daguerre in 1839. They have formed their own group and recently opened an exhibit. I wrote a blog article about their efforts:

http://pearlphoto.blog​spot.com/

My blog shots don't do their beautiful work justice, but I have provided some individual links to their respective sites. These are some extremely talented individuals.

I still shoot film occasionally with my AE-1 and LOVE it

Well Im glad to see Im not alone here. I am glad to see that a few people on here, like me, shoot exclusively film.

Hi Doc - since you're into field cameras, these are some folks that would probably interest you:

http://www.clevelandal​tphoto.com/

The members of this group pretty much embrace everything you've stated. Their "leader" Herb Ascherman has been doing B/W for decades and produces phenomenal platinum as well as silver gelatin prints.

DrPablo wrote in post #5012375
I used to be exclusively digital and now I'm exclusively film -- mostly large format (8x10 and 4x5) but some medium format (a hasselblad) for travel photography. The optical relationships between capture and enlargement, including tonal gradients and grain size, are so much better as you get to larger formats ........

I am seriously thinking about getting a 8*10 view camera here soon, It would complement my dark room well I think.