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How many people here use film?


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<p>Up until 3 years ago, I was shooting film exclusively. I made the jump in 2005 to a Digital SLR, and upgraded to a Canon 5d recently. But after shooting with that for a year, I've decided I am going to buy a Hasselblad and split my time between my DSLR and a Hasselblad.</p>

<p><br />Although the ease of shooting all-digital has been wonderful, I feel as though my work is less deliberate. If I don't like what I see in the LCD, I can just delete and fire off another shot until I get it right. There's nothing wrong with that, as you are almost certain to get the shot you want. But if you are pursuing photography more as an artform, I find it helpful to slow down your process and envision what you want to capture, rather than just capturing everything and then selecting the pictures you like.</p>

<p><br />I also feel that while digital can undoubtedly lead to high quality images these days, it is more comforting knowing that you're capturing your work on the best gear available. I'd rather capture the shot of my life on medium format film than on a sensor that will be outdated in 6 months. For the best quality, it doesn't seem like you can beat film just yet...</p>

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<p>There seems to be a consensus that for professionals, digital must be a major part of their business. But for the art form where speed and large numbers of images are not required or desired, film still holds an interest for many pros and non-pros alike. It is my belief that film sales will, or perhaps already have, stabilized to a relatively small market. Stability meaning that sales aren't dropping like a cliff. If there comes a point where all camera manufacturers abandon film cameras, then yes, over a few decades as more and more used cameras are retired, we might see the end of film. But that hasn't happened yet...although unfortunately there are now very few manufacturers of high quality 35mm cameras, and at least one MF manufacturer, Bronica, has bit the dust a few years back.</p>
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<p>Like Luca's freind said "film is A LOT MORE FUN!". I think that we should encourage people to take that vintage film camera and slide projector out of their closet and shoot a few rolls here and there at family gatherings and what not just for fun. That would certainly help films sales a bit.</p>
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<p>Dan,</p>

<p>Clyde Butcher, James Whitlow Delano, Bruce Barnbaum, Charles Cramer, George Dewolfe, etc, etc prefer film. That of course, doesn't mean one is better than the other.....but very different. Annie can use what she likes....but I don't consider the resolution and latitude needs for portraiture to be very demanding.</p>

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<p>To be honest, I don't care what the others use. Until it disappeared from the market, I had been using an old slide film emulsion sold in Italy only. Why? Because it had those nice '60s colors that made my urban landscape more real. Everybody was telling me that Velvia was the way to go, brilliant colors, high resolution, no grain. And then everybody was astonished at the slides. To me there are only two things that matter, the fun in taking the picture and the result, the picture itself. The picture of Prague has been taken with 200 ISO slide film, required to shoot from a boat in the sunset light. It's grainy, and I am sure that somebody with a digital camera would had obtained a better technical result. But I had real fun shooting this picture and I like the result. For me this is more than enough.</p><div>00Rter-100465584.jpg.3bc02919b4db3ce5c34a5beedc445323.jpg</div>
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<p>I'm a film guy for many yrs. I do have a digi but I love the developing and printing variation to make an outstanding pictures. It is an adventure selecting the proper film and what it should be shot @ next what to develop it with. Then comes the exciting part, Printing your negs, The different things I can do with my Beseler and then after toning the print. I feel cheated out of my hard selecting and use to turn it into a print that comes out of a printer.</p>
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<p>Sure I use film... a lot of it; when I'm after something special.<br>

Otherwise, I'll tote a Canon EOS 20D (yea, I know... two generations old!... but it still works great), and use it when I'm in a big hurry, like recording progress during opera rehearsals, for example. I've got it set for automatic bracketing (three RAW images PLUS three sepia-toned black-and whites). Very little I need to do here, and at times I'm grateful for that; the quality of the images is great and the speed with which I can work is amazing.<br>

However... I'll use Leica M6 or Nikon F3T-HD (and even Canon A-1) for capturing the magic; espcially on quality films such as Ilford HP5-plus or Kodak Tri-X, or Fuji Provia. Right now, I'm after the sparkle mostly... the images obtainable are drop-dead gorgeous, and the extra effort and planning are well worth it. But I know I'll be picking up the digital again when I must. Supplies and processing? Never a problem!... Freestyle Photo and Swan Photolabs are top-notch.</p>

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