cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Perhaps so for the way you're shooting now, but I see this as a BIG advantage. To each his own! For the record, it's been years since I shot film, but I still have a lot of respect for it and what one can learn from doing so. It IS possible to shoot without a motor drive and without an infinite shot limit. Best of luck.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Dwayne's Photo Parsons Kansas. You can google it or someone will probably send you a link.

Carusoswi

When I noticed this thread topic, I thought to myself, "oh boy, here we go again."
But I would like to thank everyone who posted, this thread was a great read.
Most of what I would say has already been thread, and, even the following may be somewhat redundant, but:

I scraped to obtain equipment back in the day with which I could take family/vacation photos that rivaled those "Kodak" moments shown in the TV commercials of the day.

I am pleased with the decisions I made back in the day, and my family appreciates the memorable photos I took back then. I appreciate the heartiness of the film medium, as, IMHO, none of my many film based captures (whether slide or negative) has deteriorated beyond the point where I can scan and retrieve a pleasing digital version for viewing, sharing, or printing (and, believe me, my storage methods were not always kind!).

When digital came along, I jumped for it, but I also was able to get some film equipment for which I had always yearned that originally sold at prices that no mere mortal or non-professional could justify.

Today's film, IMHO, is better than what I used back then (although I cannot complain about the films I used to use).

As important as anything else, I enjoy using my vintage equipment, especially equipped with the knowledge that I in no way compromise the quality of the images captured just because the medium is film.

Again, great thread.

Caruso

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

My local camera shop processes and scans film in high quality scans for fifteen bucks a roll. On 6cm film formats, that's more than 50 MP image size, more than 30 MP in 35mm. I can use my Lightroom and Photoshop to do things I couldn't even imagine back in film days.

For me, that's a worthwhile investment. Not for everything I shoot, but for quite a number of images that I've put a lot of effort into obtaining. Check out your local shop or "The Darkroom" online. You might find it worth the effort on occasion.

Andy

therwol Loc: USA

For me, it's "Why the extra step?" My Nikon D810 is no slouch and gives me 36 megapixels without having to scan anything. Again, this is for me and my needs. Once I'm finished scanning all of my negatives and slides and some prints, I'm done with film completely.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Diff'rent strokes and all that. I have no problem with it, and the vast majority of my shots these days are on my D7100.

But I get a different pleasure out of shooting film, especially medium format and larger. Expense-wise, I know it's a bit indulgent, but damn, I do love those great scanned images!

Andy

spaceytracey Loc: East Glacier Park, MT

I agree. It's good to go back in time & think about your shots, exposure etc. Haven't shot film in quite a while but I keep my old Pentax 6X7, just in case.

lrrp Loc: north east

I am 70 years old so you know I from the old school , I think all beginners should start with manual and learn what we did in the old days and know what and how the camera works . I have digital and us it if I go to one of my grand children's school games . When I go out to shoot wild life I take My Nikon 810 and my F 100 . This is only my thought and I do not try two change any one that doesn't agree with me .

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Alright- so they don't build cameras like the used to but there are still PHOTOGRAPHERS like the used to be! Cameras may have a different "feel", but so do cars nowadays- can't we all adapt. You're not gonna drive a 30-year-old car because you miss the size or weight. Well, you might if you are an antique car enthusiast or collector but that will not suffice for your current day to day transportation, fuel economy, and environmental issues. You can still be a good driver with a new car and you can be a great photographer with a modern digital camera.

Why does anyone need a film camera to slow them up- who is rushing you? You can be just as careful, pay as much attention to detail, compose and expose just as carefully with a modern DSLR as you could with a wooden 8x10 view camera. I know- I have used them both! There is nothing in a modern camera that makes you shoot carelessly. If you don't like the automation, shut it off! If you need the speedy operation- switch it back on! You are in control. You can shoot a landscape or a still life with a DSLR but you would have a hell of a time shooting a basketball game or a bird in flight with a view camera.

Just because of you cameras capable of shooting multiple frames per second, doesn't mean have to shoot that way. Even if you know how to operate a machine gun, you can still be a marksman with a single shot firearm. You can buy a driverless car but is there a photographer-less camera?

Y'all should stop blaming your gear. Of course, there are certain kinds of cameras and formats that are more appropriate for certain kinds of work. You can't use a view camera to shoot a sports event just like you can't use a sledgehammer to make fine cabinetry. For general photography, most tasks can be accomplished with an up-to-date digital camera.

If you put your mind to it, with decent digital equipment, you can easily replicate the quality of fine grain, high-resolution films. Even those super fine grain films with incredible resolution and color saturation depend on careful processing and printing to maximize their potential.

Back in the day, fine printing technique in the darkroom capitalized on capturing all the information on the negative. Printing papers were often chosen for surfaces that enhanced detail. A fine grain color negative printed on a high gloss paper or a super-gloss display printing material (Kodak Dura-Print for example) had incredible fidelity. Nowadays folks are going to metal prints from a good digital file for that effect. You can have a perfectly good fille but if you print it on a poor quality dull paper, you can easily lose shadow detail and the crispness you would get with a high-quality printing material.

Now, Y'all- what's with all these preconceived ideas that all professionals are in a hurry and all we are doing is chasing after money? Of course, we need to have time-management skills, meet deadlines and work efficiently but we are not all running around like headless chickens beating the clock. We don't shot everything the last minute. Not every assignment requires split-second shooting and some actually take days and weeks of carefully planned and executed work. They don't pay us the big bucks to come up with inept results. They even expect the top-quality result for small bucks. I realize that making money in photography seem crass to some artists, however, the money is also a good motivator for doing excellent work. If your stuff is not good you don't get work, you don't get paid, and you don't eat. That's gotta keep you on your toes!

In the olden days, we spent many hours in the darkroom and nowadays we still do precise and careful work in post-processing. All that is missing is some of the corrosive chemicals and toxic odors. Just because some of the work is more convenient, does not mean it is careless, sloppy or poorly crafted.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Fair points, even more impressive coming from one with your background.

And I, for one, absolutely love the advances in cameras and post processing technology of the past decade. I shoot the vast majority of images on my D7100 and process them in Lightroom and Photoshop instead of a smelly and poisonous darkroom environment. Progress is real.

But there is an appreciation and a forced deliberateness that can only be found with film, at least for us amateurs who make images solely for our own pleasure. If I were a pro, I would no doubt feel differently, but as a professional person whose world is constantly focused on the fastest and most efficient route to every destination, I enjoy forcing myself to take it slower and more deliberatly in my hobbies and interests. I also feel that there's something special about the ultimate evolutionary stages of "old" technology - fountain pens, steam locomotives, piston engined aircraft, etc. A sort of mechanical and technological beauty that feels good in the hand, the eye, and the mind.

Sorry if I'm getting a bit metaphorical here, but pushing the shutter button (left handed, of course) on a Hasselblad is a sensual pleasure I'm not ready to give up yet.

Andy

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I never had just one roll of film with me, when I went out shooting, say some sort of sports, I came home with a good 400 shots taken, much the same when I shoot digital!

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Some beginners don't take more than one or two rolls. My first travel trip was with 50 rolls of 36 and I still needed 20 more rolls before the trip was over.

Also, with my camera club at the time, we had a contest one month in the fall ever year that was tough. You signed up for the use of one roll of 24 slides and shot 24 subjects and not a single shot more was allowed. If you blew a shot, you had to figure out which 23 shots you did get and assign the blown shot to subject 24. And sometimes you blew more than one. Then you handed in the undeveloped roll and waited for that month's showing. Everyone got to see their shots for the first time that night and how they were rated. I managed to come in second or third a couple of times, but I could never seem to get quite enough shots to take first (it was a tough group of 25 to 35 photographers to shoot against depending on what year). It was very useful in teaching one how to shoot the "perfect" shot the first and only time. And you had better be creative with the subject or the others would "eat you alive". And much of the creativity (and failures) resulted in much laughter.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

That's the kind of self discipline that film imposes. Bravo to you for those achievements. Yes, it's possible to replicate the same self-discipline in digital, but how many of us really do?

Andy

dvdnj

Maybe it's buried here already - but I have a friend who only shoots film but is having trouble finding a reliable place to have it developed. Any recommendations? (for me, I'll never go back - lol!)

skywolf

There are some colors and tones that digital still can't get quite right, and they look much better on film. I prefer digital as it's faster to get results and you get an idea when you're on a shoot if you got what you wanted or not. But there will always be moods that film does better than digital.