There is also http://www.theonlinedarkroom.com/ and http://www.apug.org/forums/home.php as well as several others.

Not only is film here to stay, the surviving color films are still here because they are the best and most popular of all the color films that were available before digital. They are better than any color films that were available in the 20th century. Only Kodachrome is missing.

There are more and better B&W films and manufacturers now than ever. Kodak and Ilford are still the biggest but others are very popular and easy to find.

Well we shot film for (me) fifty years. Since 1960's.

Two things... we did not change camera's and in some cases film, as often as we changed our underwear (digital), and we had rather simple gear changes for exposure. Shutter Speed, Film ASA (film speed) and Aperture. With luck we had a meter either in the camera or in hand. Many of us used the Sunny 16 rule. Stay within the film latitude and look at the sky. Use the little sheet that came in the roll of film.

Eventually, avid film users annotated on a log the settings they used.

They got to the point where they could look at the surroundings, the subject, out of and in the viewfinder and set the exposure "Spot On" almost every time.

If you could find a digital shooter who used a digital camera for more than two years (same camera), you might possibly find someone who could set the camera manually and get it right.

Film photography users often know more about a scene and a varied set of manual positions, by familiarity with the tools, than many digital photographers will EVER know.

EXIF is nice, but unnecessary after a point in time, if you become familiar with the tools and not always looking for the next best camera that's going to make a real photographer out of you. Real photographers are NOT made by camera advances.

Well we shot film for (me) fifty years. Since 1960's.

Two things... we did not change camera's and in some cases film, as often as we changed our underwear (digital), and we had rather simple gear changes for exposure. Shutter Speed, Film ASA (film speed) and Aperture. With luck we had a meter either in the camera or in hand. Many of us used the Sunny 16 rule. Stay within the film latitude and look at the sky. Use the little sheet that came in the roll of film.

Eventually, avid film users annotated on a log the settings they used.

They got to the point where they could look at the surroundings, the subject, out of and in the viewfinder and set the exposure "Spot On" almost every time.

If you could find a digital shooter who used a digital camera for more than two years (same camera), you might possibly find someone who could set the camera manually and get it right.

Film photography users often know more about a scene and a varied set of manual positions, by familiarity with the tools, than many digital photographers will EVER know.

EXIF is nice, but unnecessary after a point in time, if you become familiar with the tools and not always looking for the next best camera that's going to make a real photographer out of you. Real photographers are NOT made by camera advances.

You will occasionally run into "pharmacy film processors" who still return negatives, having used wet process to develop.

The trend is to the process that does not return negatives. I will not use a processor who does not return negs. I want the flexibility to stay "wet" and process negatives to prints with an enlarger, projecting the image onto Photo Enlargement Paper and making prints.

Three options (not the total list) are:

1)Process one hour or pharmacy labs. Find out the latitude of what you get back... Negatives? What options on digital? High Res, or just one resolution at what Mp and file size. I suspect you may need to quiz Walgreen's.

Also, Walgreens is one of the last holdouts trying to return negatives to customers, as well as digital files. The change to no negs is coming about at the "pharmacy processors" as the older machine maintenance gets more expensive. Most are not fixing old wet equipment (by wet, we mean running film through chemicals to develop)

2) Use a dedicated film processor, which all communities do not have. You will get a full range of services and be able to order the resolutions you want, negs will be available, and prints as well. I am positive dedicated film labs will continue to be available. One such relatively close to Detroit area is Duane's labs... may be Dwayne's. Full service and a major film lab in the Midwest. Process for big companies.

In my area, I choose Walmart Send Out for medium format film. I get negs back and it's dirt cheap, because they pay the freight to FujiFilm labs, ten day turnaround. No digital. I have to scan my own. But quality is primo excellent.

For other more complete service I use ProPhoto Supply in Portland Oregon... 140 mile drive or mail in. Mega amount of services... not cheap, but worth it to me.

3) DIY.. all the equipment and chemistry is still available. Watch Craigslist in the bigger cities and you will find incredible deals.. whole darkroom equipment setups for next to nothing. Take a pickup. What fools.

DIY includes all wet process from the unprocessed but shot film roll to Negs or Transparencies and on to enlargement and print.

You do NOT need a darkroom. We have been processing film with daylight equipment (tanks and such) for years now. Long before digital. The only real need for dark is loading tanks or processor tubes in the dark, which can be done in a bathroom with the windows and door sealed for dark for a few minutes.

I am having great fun with a process called Caffenol, or processing with Folgers Instant Coffee. NO, it's not brown or sepia. You can process every effect, even color, just like the normal chemicals would produce. You can look up some very extensive blogs and forums on Caffenol if that interests you.

The plus there is that you can brew a coffee break drink, because all the stuff is handy.

No EXIF information... big deal. When I took the NYIP Photo course (mail correspondence), they provided logs for jotting down shot numbers and pertinent exposure information and extras.

You can still buy notebooks and sheets for logging image information... Be Your Own EXIF... in fact you will learn more about exposure, because you will be writing it down.

Film is here to stay. There are sites that cater to film people. one is FrugalPhotographer.com.

Prophoto supply in Portland just relocated and built a new processing facility 5 or 6 years ago (commitment). Here is a link to their site. Drop down to the Photo Lab link and examine a list of services. I use them primarily on one image needs.

A friend shoots professional 4X5, does not self process and does no Post Processing. He does what he does best, shoot images and pays to have processing, printing and framing done. I have seen him visit a subject numerous times over days in different light before setting up the camera and snapping the shutter. The payoff... look at what he gets for his prints. Also, he is an avid hiker and outdoorsman. He is in his element.

His last trip to the Four Corners area of the SouthWest, he drove his small camper, and was there for over a month, camping the desert. As I recall he came back with 45-50 images total... ALL keepers. Some listed here on his web site.

http://www.brucejackson.com/

I buy most of my film on eBay... I buy only from high volume sellers, who always refrigerate film. I shoot 35mm (The original Full Frame) 120 roll film (which smokes digital) and 4X5, which has a frame size 13 times greater than Full Frame.

My 4X5 inch film camera, uses film with light sensing emulsions in various ASA (ISO) that is THIRTEEN TIME GREATER THAN FULL FRAME.

My 4X5 camera is lighter than the average Full Frame digital (about 75% the weight, with the lens) Lenses are smaller and lighter than Digital lenses.

Image quality is the decisive victory over digital in the larger medium and large format.

While it's true that the cost factor and processing would not be reasonable in a professional environment, The FUN Factor of film can be so much more rewarding.

I've been selling film camera's and gear on eBay for fifteen years. Prices pretty must bottomed out about five years ago, and yet some of the more expensive and/or exotic film camera's are actually rising in price. Medium and Large Format camera's are producing quite a bit of income for me. Business in those formats is brisk for me, when I want it to be.

I consider scanning to be the HUGEST PITA I have ever attempted, and I have purchased over time 3 new flatbed scanners.

Flatbeds are worthless if your goal is image quality. Using flatbeds means shooting film for high quality, and then compromising that quality with cheap scanning equipment. When I have an image I want to scan, I have it professionally done.

Every time I hear someone say "I get excellent scans with my this or that affordable flatbed", then I know exactly where their standards lie on flatbed scanning. Let the professionals have that business. It's vastly time consuming and disappointing. Particularly when done by someone who has shot high quality digital, or pixel peekers.

But welcome to film, the "REAL JOY OF PHOTOGRAPHY!"

I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that has so many people that "shot film", I should get with it and do some work in that area so I have some experience to draw from when looking at the film shots people have posted. I have shot up a roll and have had it developed. Now I have a few questions.

When I had my film developed I got a CD with the pictures and the negatives. Do you get more detail if you scan the negatives yourself? Is scanning the negatives like getting a RAW file on a digital?

Has anyone compared the light metering on their digital to the light metering on a SLR camera of the same brand? Is the way that the light metering works pretty much the same?

Is 35mm the same as full frame? Do you get bigger prints from a full frame camera, or does that depend on how many megapixels it is?

Do you get more out of your film if you develop it yourself?

I actually found a Walgreens that does the "wet" processing so I can get negatives. I was informed that all Walgreens are going "dry" though, and there will come a day where I can only get my pictures on a CD. Does anyone have a favorite online place to get their pics developed?

I have viewed my pictures on the CD, but I don't know how to scan my negatives yet. It seems like they get a little pixelated if i zoom way in ... is this because the files on the CD are small?

One more question My settings aren't listed in lightroom on my film pics ... how the heck am I suppose to remember what my settings were? I mean, I know I used 400 film, so thats' my ISO, but how do I know what my shutter speed and aperture were set at?

Excellent information. It reminds me of the years when you could buy film with pre-paid processing envelopes. Shoot your film and drop it in the mail, then sit back and wait patiently for a few days - typically a week or so - until the mail man came. If you got impatient you could pass the time while humming "Some day my prints will come..." quietly to yourself.

It seems that this option is still available from various suppliers, and this one could be worth checking out...

http://www.ilfordlab-us.com/page/57/Black-and-White-Prints-from-Film.htm

It seems to offer a good range of options and who better to trust than the film manufacturer!

Cheers

Nightski--

There is a certain freedom about going back to film. One is that I understand the operation of mechanical cameras. My DSLR would not do what I wanted and I would, at my rate of saving, take 30 months to afford a Nikon Df. I walked downstairs and acquired three Nikon F2s and an F3 which are free and clear, amortized out years ago. The F3 has a shot electrical system, but I can pick one up at KEH with a motor for less than three hundred.

The drawback is waiting for the slides. I plan to reacquaint myself with Dwayne's in Parsons. They will do the slides and send me a CD for each roll. If I need a tif file for prints I can use my scanner.

An artist friend of my daughter has shifted back to silver because she can now afford the gear she wanted.

You may also come to the realization that this is too much work. I grew up painting so I am used to work. Good luck,