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Your last hurrah for film.


alan_zinn

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<p>I have two useable film cameras left, a Rollei 35 and a Voightlander Bessa R with a fast 1.5-50mm lens, and 25 ,and 35mm lenses. In my freezer are a dozen rolls of frozen Portra NC film - exp.'07. I'm mulling over the thought of a last binge of real film shootin'. Though I'm not particularly sentimental, I want it to be special. <br /> I'm thinking the fast lens might be a nice shallow DOF challenge - but of what? Or it could be some sort of personal test: Has my seeing been de-analoged? Will I slow down my trigger-happy ways? I have no illusions about getting better image quality. Even if that were to prove true its not what I'd like for my frozen film's swan song. What comes to mind for your last hurrah for film? Does it even have a special significance for you? Or, a "last frame" sort of commemoration thing?</p>
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<p>If you think film will be around for a long time, you don't plan to stop shooting, and don't have a terminal illness, it is pretty much impossible to know which roll of film will be your last.</p>

<p>I haven't shot film in 6 months but I'll some this spring. I'm sure I'll shoot some in the summer too. When I use all the film in my freezer I'll just buy more. No need for some special send off.</p>

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<p>I'll let you know when I load the last roll because I can't think that far into the future.<br /> I did shoot a last roll of Kodachrome two weeks before the last processing day but I didn't know what to shoot (winter) and pretty much wasted a perfectly good roll of film. I got it processed anyway.<br /> I would plan better next time if I knew I was shooting my last roll.</p>

<p>I bet this will be a long thread.</p>

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<p>If you mean the last roll I ever shoot, how on Earth am I supposed to know? That will be 30-40 years from now when it is my last dance with photography period. But if you mean what was the last thing I did on film, it was a few days ago towards this essay called "Mirror Us" that I started in San Fran, all medium format, all film, no digital allowed. It is mostly in black or white, but the color portion is all double and triple exposures all strategically planned out. <br>

Here is a double...</p><div>00Zx1n-438255584.jpg.8e0613d20e53f457ece6f1beafa7cd97.jpg</div>

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<p>My last rolls of Kodachrome went to shoot a 30 year reunion. If the rest of film and processing were to go the same way, I would use the rest of my stash for something significant. If, on the other hand, I were simply using up the last of my frozen stock and giving up film for digital I would either shoot whatever I usually shoot, or I would sell or give the film away.</p>

<p>However, I'm with Tim. I am 54, and believe film will outlive me. Which is a good thing; I can't swing a dead cat in my house without knocking over a working film camera. Which, I suppose, is why I always have them cremated.<br>

The dead cats, I mean.</p>

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<p>I think I will have time to think about my hast (film) hurrah - I have about 500 rolls to go through and that <em>should</em> last me quite some time. Im only 43 so Im hoping that I wont have to worry about it for at least a decade!</p>

<p>Good question tho Alan, I honestly couldnt come up with anything other than maybe photographing family members with my last roll/sheet of film. I think Stephen hit on the head as i agree with his comment which I read after I typed what i typed.</p>

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<p>Even though I was of the opinion that "some" film would outlast me, some of my favorites are gone, and I've always preferred 220. With the convenience and quality of digital, I knew that the benefits of digital outweighed the advantages of film for me. In addition, what had used to be a pleasant experience in scanning had become an undesirable chore. My last film was mixed with digital on a trip to the southwest, after which I sold all my film equipment and Nikon 9000 scanner.</p>

<p>If I were to have a special last session with film, it would be photos with the sun in the frame. That is one composition / subject in which digital usually fails miserably compared to film. Film provides very smooth tonal transitions around the sun, while digital usually looks like a series of distinct and ugly doughnuts of white and various shades of yellow. Only when the sun is low in the sky with lots of haze or thin clouds can digital seem to pull it off. That's how I'd use my last film -- getting those shots that I probably wouldn't be able to get with digital.</p>

<div>00Zx2W-438269584.jpg.74f19c3da10a1a3d9418198627278fae.jpg</div>

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<p>Portraits and friends might be celebratory and provide lots of memories. Shooting into the sun is a challenge with any camera. I'd like to see more film v. digital results.<br>

I didn't imply that there would be no more film anytime soon. Drugstore film labs ARE vanishing fast. Say, maybe portraits of film lab technicians would be appropriate!</p>

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<p>My film cameras live happily beside the digital ones. Commercial lab processed colour is of course harder to come by, so my last transparency film was processed some time ago. I may well go back to it in the future so for now at least the last hurrah was some time ago and the few rolls of colour film left in the freezer are dying a slow death under cosmic radiation (although some day I may shoot them for their mutated colour effects). In the meantime I will shoot colour with a good digital camera and I fully expect black and white film and photographic papers to linger as long as cyanotypes and Daguerrotypes have lasted, and I will therefore continue to shoot medium format film as the best way to get MF b&W quality without investing in either a top FF DSLR like the Nikon D3X or one of the pricey MF digital systems, both being beyond my reach. The pleasure of slow and methodical film shooting and the crafting of varying editions of prints of one subject in the darkrom is something that won't enjoy a last hurrah from me, at least not a planned one. </p>
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<p>What about using it to take a picture of your digital camera when:<br>

The electronics crap out and it's way too much to repair..<br>

You go to sell it to buy another D camera but it's worthless...<br>

You try to pound your tent stakes in but it shatters unlike a Canon F1<br>

You drop it and it's toast..or<br>

It tumbles down a hillside or mountain and it's burnt toast..or<br>

Your tripod falls over and the body cracks.. or<br>

Someone pulls a gun on you and wants your digital camera cause they think film cameras are worthless.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>My last roll of film will be used for the last client that hires me when I am still using film. I only work using MF/ film (I expect it to be available longer than I am) so no romanticized notions are involved. If I did suddenly decide to go digital then the last roll of film would be the last person I shot before the 645 D rig showed up. And that would be that. Although every storyboarded idea is not appropriate for every client's needs, every job is fun and every job I'm excited about and there is no instance of <em>saving</em> anything- a last roll of Agfa APX 100 120 included- for a worthier subject.</p>

<p><em>An aside: film from 07 ?...500 rolls ahead ?...lol I shoot regularly weather permitting and I'm rarely more than 50 rolls ahead allowing it to always be fresh. Even at the desert home 120 film from Calumet and B&H is only a few days away by mail eliminating the need for extensive backstock. When Agfa became inconvenient I forced myself to move on. Fortunately Fuji has been my trans film provider for decades and Neopan is lovely. </em></p><div>00Zx6I-438325584.jpg.e6e7f7de3199e6b0bc7d9091c996fabd.jpg</div>

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<p>Mr. Latchaw...</p>

<p>I think your comparison with Kodachrome is quite valid. For me it was the end of shooting 35mm film. You are 54. I am 92. I was not doing well in 2009 and wondered if I would outlive Kodachrome or not. Yes, silly thing but I did wonder and maybe even had a determination to do so. Well, Kodachrome beat me to the death, and now Kodak itself is in bankruptcy and I'm still here. Ten years ago there were three major camera stores and 35-50 film processors locally. Costco and Walgreens are the only film processors left in my area. You think that film will out live you. I'm not sure that common usage film will out live me, at least in my city. </p>

<p>A. T. Burke </p>

<p>A race to the finish...</p>

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<p>I expect it will be black and white film, from Europe, that I'll shoot using either my C220 or my SRT (because those will be the cameras that still work, even though they'll be 100+ years old) and I'll be taking pictures of my grandkids flying around with their My First Jetpacks.</p>

<p>Or maybe I'll be shooting Italian hill towns and saying "Where's my dangblasted jetpack?! It's the future! They said I'd have a jetpack by now, so I wouldn't have to walk up these cotton picking hills all day!" At this point I'll trip and fall off the hill, because I'm too busy complaining to see where I'm going, but my grandkids will develop my last roll of film, which will be fine because my SRT will withstand the fall.</p>

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