Why film? (Page 5): Fearing the void.

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DaveyDitzer wrote:

I shoot B/W film for archival purposes. I have 90 year old prints that are sharp and interesting from the perspective of seeing a different place in time. Hopefully my descendants will have this opportunity.

Fearing the void.

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therwol wrote:

I'm pretty sure that when I'm gone, all of my arch... (show quote)

No fear of the void.

MJPerini

I sometimes dream about being rich enough to have someone make me an 8x10 sensor, because the LOOK of those long lenses and their ability to draw an image at scale is something I do miss. But then I would soon begin complaining about carrying the thing..... Digital is just SO convenient, and amazingly good,...........
The Problem is, I KNOW I'm a hypocrite, I could order some 8x10 Tri-X and just do it, make contact prints or scan it.
I have all the stuff.... the spirit is willing, but the Knees are weak......

radiojohn

I was cleaning out a closet and found some CDs with images...jpgs from older digital cameras taken in 2004-2007. The CDs had edges that had delaminated and others had holes where the coating had failed.

Meanwhile black and white snapshots from my Polaroid Swinger from 1966 are intact.

A 1904 photo of my grandfather as a young man at Niagara Falls is pristine.

A roll of properly processed silver based black & white film stands a better chance of surviving 100 years than ANYTHING digital. And please don't give the garbage about serial copying to the new best thing every time the computer industry upgrades or trusting "the cloud." Don't be delusional.

As long as you can see a black & white negative, you can somehow copy it. Do you need to do this for everything? No. But are there things you might want family to see in 50-100 years? Possibly. Will they have the hardware and software to retrieve digital files? You must be joking.

srt101fan

Isn't it time to stop comparing film and digital in terms of pros and cons, better or worse? Can't we just accept film as a way of creating photographic images that appeals to some? Do we agonize over the relative merits of violin and piano music?

MSW

for me, it's a question of skillset ... i don't have the skillset to manipulate all that good software stuff, whereas i do have the skillset to get what i want with plain old silver halide film ... sort of like shooting a flintlock ... when it goes off, there's a certain magic to it you quietly say to yourself "wow, the darn thing actually worked"

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

radiojohn wrote:

I was cleaning out a closet and found some CDs wit... (show quote)

I have over 100 CDs I burned from 2000 to 2017. I haven't had any of them fail. They were all burned in an Apple Superdrive, on name brand CD–R blanks. Most are stored in paper sleeves at room temperature.

That said, I'm under no illusion they will last 100 years, or that they will be readable on available systems then. I do believe that SOMEONE will have systems to read archives made on media from the past.

That said, when I'm dead and gone, I won't care. I seriously doubt my kids will care, either.

I do still have thousands of negatives from the 1960s through 2005, most of which are printable or scannable in some way. The B&W ones are going to last another 50 years or more, if kept the way I've kept them. The color negs will fade, albeit far more slowly than the original sets of prints made with them.

BebuLamar

burkphoto wrote:

I have over 100 CDs I burned from 2000 to 2017. I ... (show quote)

I have a good number of CD-R that become not readable or very difficult to read. They are all name brand discs. But that's because I didn't care enough about them. I could have copied them to another medium before they went bad. Same thing with my photo. If I care for them I can preserve the digital photos for as long as I want. Not so with my negatives, slides and prints.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

srt101fan wrote:

Isn't it time to stop comparing film and digital in terms of pros and cons, better or worse? Can't we just accept film as a way of creating photographic images that appeals to some? Do we agonize over the relative merits of violin and piano music?

Obviously, your time table doesn't synch with those who enjoy discussing. Where do you see the agonizing in this thread?

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

MSW wrote:

for me, it's a question of skillset ... i don't have the skillset to manipulate all that good software stuff, whereas i do have the skillset to get what i want with plain old silver halide film ... sort of like shooting a flintlock ... when it goes off, there's a certain magic to it you quietly say to yourself "wow, the darn thing actually worked"

But you're capable of acquiring the skills if that interested you, right?

Many people prefer being out taking pictures over sitting at a computer, even those who've never shot with film

terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

Linda From Maine wrote:

Obviously, your time table doesn't synch with those who enjoy discussing. Where do you see the agonizing in this thread?

Linda, I think you've been around long enough to know that whatever subject is broached there will be those who are going to find no use for it other than to point out its irrelevance (to them). Some will tell us that since it's of no interest to them, it should be of no interest to anyone. I find that attitude curious, but rife.

Linda From Maine wrote:

Many people prefer being out taking pictures over sitting at a computer, even those who've never shot with film

I worked in a darkroom for years and enjoyed it, but I enjoy sitting in front of a computer far more.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

terryMc wrote:

...Some will tell us that since it's of no interest to them, it should be of no interest to anyone. I find that attitude curious, but rife.

Rife...perfect descriptive word, and satisfying to say out loud. We should use it more often

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DaveyDitzer Loc: Western PA

I missed any comment on the archival value of B/W film based prints. That's the only reason I use it occasionally. Digital is great for learning the "exposure triangle". I just inconvenience a few electrons.

DaveyDitzer Loc: Western PA

DaveyDitzer wrote:

I missed any comment on the archival value of B/W film based prints. That's the only reason I use it occasionally. Digital is great for learning the "exposure triangle". I just inconvenience a few electrons.

Sorry, I missed one edition of this thread. Kindly disregard this post.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

DaveyDitzer wrote:

Sorry, I missed one edition of this thread. Kindly disregard this post.

For future reference, you have an hour to edit any comments you make before they're set in stone