JD750 Loc: SoCal

Yeah!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The OP said what he didn't like about digital is that the camera does all the work. It seems to me that film cameras can also do all the work if you want them to, so of course I knew film camera have auto modes. That was my point.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Ah. Ok. Got it. Thank you for clarifying.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I do find it interesting that OP said that because in my experience my digital camera does not do all the work. My phone camera does all the work, but not my interchangeable lens camera. Maybe I have the wrong camera?

But for whatever reason OP has rediscovered something fun and that’s what mattters.

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

Gee thats an awful lot of Canon digital cameras - did you leave any for anyone else??

BebuLamar

I wish you didn't buy into digital so that film is still alive and well.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Yes Obeone, "It was no longer me creating the image, but the camera doing all the work."
The magic of brain fingertips on-camera adjustments and the meter exposure needle in the viewfinder were a fine quartet making photo music.

My first hate of modern cameras I was lusting for and obtained the famed 1985 Minlota i7000. I lost a shot I can see in my mind, fighting the camera that refused to do what I told it without multi-menu-layer adjustments. The sun at the top edge of a waterfall going down, a root wad in the water, and me laying in that cold mountain water to get the right aim and I got nothing the moment disappeared. I went back to my manual setting 35mm camera.. with all the adjustments by me, quickly suing my in-brain computer.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Those of us who have been involved with film know how gratifying it is to hold the negatives in our hands and examine them carefully for a good idea on exposure and showing the details. This involves the use of a magnifier.
Indeed the experience of seeing a print come alive in the darkroom is something that brings lots of fun and joy to the person working in the darkroom. We feel connected to the photographic process.

A camera that "does everything" is not photography, photographing starts with us manipulating the camera to do what we want and see the world the way we feel it. Digital is very convenient and using a mirrorless is even more convenient since those cameras have more technologies than dSLR bodies.
We learn more photography using digital but the actual feeling of making a photograph is more vivid using film. As Steve McCurry put it when he said that with film we have "something that we can hold in our hands" and that something is missing with digital.

I have discussed this in the past and it comes to mind once again, there is something special about a print from a negative, more revealing if it is from a b&w negative. In spite of the millions of tonalities that can be represented in a digital file the tonalities of a good, properly exposed b&w negative are very hard to beat. I will never forget the images I obtained using my favorite Agfa fiber base paper. No matter what, I have been unable to simulate with digital the beauty I saw in those prints. Look at Ansel Adams work, there is no digital print that can come close.

Senility? I am wishing to be as senile as you are...but I no longer have a darkroom.

ELNikkor

There are some good film cameras from the '90's which have AF and AE modes, they even look like our digital cameras. I still prefer shooting with my FM2, even more so since its (very basic) light meter broke.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I never left film. I just added digital to it. I worked out how exposing digital differs from film. So, now, I enjoy both. Yeah, I paid for a lot of features on the digitals that I never use but so be it. I definitely enjoy the time and pace of shooting film, especially large format.
--Bob

obeone

I agree - senile, but having fun.

obeone

I still carry a Canon Ti7 but film has its place. I just got burned out on digital. When you shoot for fun you should do what you like.

obeone

One of the things about film is - if stored properly - is that I can go back to negatives that I shot forty years ago, scan them and have a fresh print. I was looking at some of the slides I shot back in the day and I'm still amazed at the color and feeling of depth.
I can't find digital files I shot three years ago, due to computer failures lost CDs and just plain old miss filed.

expilot37 Loc: Oak Ridge, TN

I agree, would still be using my Rollicord, Speedgrafic 4X5, and 2.25X3.25 Press cameras if I could find the roll and cut film. I enjoyed processing my own and printing it ( Dodging and burning prints) and got better results than digital.