Why do you use film?

[larrydressler]

<p>The internet did not kill Shortwave radio it made the bands clearer for those of us who use it. :)</p>

[bruce_erickson1]

<p>My answer is almost the same as Dave's except I have no problem getting C-41 processing done locally so I see no reason ever to get a digital. (My last roll of C-41 cost me $2 and change to get developed.) Also I don't know any better. I'm 70 yrs old and soon the death panels will be after me and I'll be selling all my equipment anyway to go into hiding. </p>

[dogbert]

<p>er what exactly is film?</p>

[dogbert]

<p>On a more serious note, I think I still shoot the occaissional roll because I am a masochist or a nostalgist.</p>

<p>I love the look of slides under a loop, but these days I find it hard to get a scan and then print that approaches what I can do on digital (I am not saying others can't, I am just saying I can't, so please don't start a film versus digital war please).</p>

<p>On the masochist side, I have just witnessed the closure of the last local 35 mm E6 processer in Canberra (a city of 350 000 people) and will now have to go through the further tedium and expense of mailing out my films for processing. Unfortunately I think what happened to Kodachrome is just a for-runner of what is happening to film more generally. It will only remain economic in big cities where there are enough enthusiasts. </p>

[larrydressler]

<p>There is no Rollei 80s on my digital camera. There is no Rodinol and PanF+ dial or button. There is no Tri-X in different dilutions and lighting conditions for the subjects button.<br>

I understand those who want an average what I do know is I prefer not to be average.</p>

[ronald_peters]

<p>I use film because it is a more deliberate medium than digital. It slows me down, makes me think. Ultimately, I think that I am more creative with film.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>When I started, film was the only game in town. My favorite photographers were shooting slide film, particularly Velvia. I wanted to emulate what they were doing.</p>

<p>Learning to shoot a high contrast film was tricky, but on those occasions when the light is kinds and you manage to nail the exposure, the look is unlike anything else. Stanley Kubrick said that the world looks most real when it's captured on film. Gazing at sheets of 4x5 Velvia on a light table is like looking at the world in its optimal form: rich, luscious, magical.</p>

[dried_squid]

I like slides. To me, slides are easy to troubleshoot.

 

SMUE, stupid moron user errors, occur, and with a slide, it's simpler to figure out.

 

Sometimes the gods favor me, and the slide sits there on the light table, and all I can do is wonder.

 

As a computer guy for over twenty years, I suggest that epiphany requires something organic, like film.

 

And yes, I will miss Kodachrome on blue sky days.

[cj8281]

<p>Because I can't find the f#&% SD slot on my K1000. I like going on shoots with digi peeps. Watching them do the spray and pray. Watching them watch me as I set everything up and then Click the shutter ONE time. The fun of loading your camera with film, then cussing at it because the leader pops out 90% of the time (Pentax Me Super (how do you get that #%$*@^$% thing to stay in there the first time)). Loading the film and the developing it. Looking over the wet negatives as they dry seeing if that one or two shots turned out like I wanted (you know you can't chimp a K1000 (ok well you can, you just look stupid doing it)) ;) Just started LF and finding the fun with that. My keeper rate with that right now is incredibly high. I think others have said it, it is what I grew up with. It seems to be a bit simpler than a digi camera. Cheaper too.</p>

<p>(Joker, pour me a shot of fixer wouldya?)</p>

[holger]

<p>- I like the look of film (b/w, Portra, Ektar)<br>

- I like the effect of large formats (MF, LF), little DOF, long lenses<br>

- I like the physical backup film provides</p>

 

[larrydressler]

<p>Not Digital</p>

<p><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5287/5331812925_45f8189838_z.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="395" /></p>

[Craig_Cooper11664875449]

<p>Because I find it a lot cheaper than digital. I primarily shoot Leica M and given what film costs me here, an M9 would represent around 1,500 rolls of colour film and a lot more in B&W. The scanners are a sunk cost already, and as its not business critical, time doesn't really come into it.<br>

As well, Im not caught up in the continuous cycle of upgrade camera -> upgrade software - > then eventually need to upgrade hardware. I still run a 2004 Apple G5 that works perfectly fine to process images but as its not an Intel machine I don't have access to the more recent RAW converters...<br>

...and, most importantly, I just love the look of film :)</p>

[robert lee]

<p>Because I have no idea where my early digital images are. I know exactly which cabinet holds my Kodachromes from 20 years ago, where my parent's B&W negatives from half a century ago, etc...</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>I know where my first early Digital image is... it always pops up when I am on a forum here. I hate the damn thing. LOL</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1906626-lg.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="240" /></p>

[ty_mickan]

1.) I prefer the exposure latitude and dynamic range of film.

2.) I personally like the "look" of film images.

3.) I like having the option of a parallel workflow (analog and digital).

4.) I like the analog backup of film.

5.) When the right subject matter is printed in black and white from a true b/w negative, I can't think of anything better.

How about you?

 

 

 

 

Yep that about sums it up for me too

[chris_waller]

<p>I like the tactility of film: I can handle it, I feel more involved in its processing, I feel I am actually 'doing' something in a way that digital can never approach. Digital is remote, it is 'in the box' and I can't touch it. I can't hold a digital file up to the light to assess it. Digital for me is sterile. </p>

[fredwelch531]

<p>I like using my medium format cameras, I like that I only have 3 main initial things to concentrate on - aperture, shutter speed and focus. I love working in my darkroom, I like not being able to instantly check what I've taken, I like the way film makes me take my time and think more, I like that when I hold an image in my hand that I did it using the box between my ears and not the electronic one in my hands. Finally, I really don't like sitting in front of my P.C. monitor endlessly editing and correcting via an electronic medium.<br>

Yes, I did try digital a couple of years ago and decided that it just wasn't for me so went back to film. Maybe at 57 I'm just too old or not interested enough in changing.</p>

[jose_angel]

<p>From what I see, I`m not different from others...</p>

<p><em>Hard to break a 55-year habit.</em> Leigh B.</p>

<p><em>Few things are more exiting than to drop a seemingly blank piece of paper into developer and see nothing till the 30sec mark, then see the density build and the image unfold.</em> Christopher Ward.</p>

<p><em>I only shoot B+W film and I print silver gelatin prints. I do my own processing. I love the camera I shoot, and I like to have a physical master, ie, the negative.</em> John Elder.</p>

<p><em>I got caught up thinking that I was behind the times and tried to go all-digital in 2006, but it didn't change my approach to photography like some folks.</em> Eric Sande.</p>

<p><em>There is something physical, organic, and demanding about the whole process. There's a time and a place for digital, but there are also days when I just want to get out and shoot some film. I don't know. I just finished a two hour printing session. Maybe I'm high on photo chemicals.</em> Mark Schott.</p>

<p><em>I like the tactility of film: I can handle it, I feel more involved in its processing, I feel I am actually 'doing' something in a way that digital can never approach. Digital is remote, it is 'in the box' and I can't touch it. I can't hold a digital file up to the light to assess it.</em> Chris Waller.</p>

<p><em>...and, most importantly, I just love the look of film </em>:) Craig Cooper.</p>

[john_reynolds10]

<p>I got interested in film because Kodachrome developing was ending on December 30 and I had some sitting in an old film camera for nine years. After finishing the roll and sending it in, just for kicks I got some Tri-X and shot the roll. I love the special look it has! I can't see abandoning digital in favour of film but it will definately have a place in my image making arsenal. I might try developing my own film but making my own prints seems like such an arcane art and science that would take a long time to master that I think I will stay with digitizing and Photoshop.</p>

[bonnici]

<p>Why do I shoot film? My friends ask me that all the time. The first answer that comes to mind is "Because there was Polaroid Type 55". Yes, I know that Type 55 has been discontinued, but the tones and grains rendered by a master using that medium would make one stop in awe. I strive for that 'perfection' but fall short. It is that pursuit of excellence when the process is full of externalities (age and type of film/chemistry) that has the Kendo Masters striving for excellence although it may never be achieved.</p>

[john_layton]

<p>I have to wonder if we are related...as our last names share the "other" (much less common) spelling.</p>

<p>For me, the use of film...followed up with wet developing and printing in my darkroom, provides perfect continuity of process. My enlarger is simply another camera...and I am responding to and adjusting light - something visible and palpable. Magical...yes. Mysterious...no.</p>

<p>For me, the use of film cameras facilitates my connection with my subject. I use very simple cameras (view camera, Rolleiflex, Leica) - which means I concentrate on essentials, and put my subject first.... where it belongs. And it is my subject that is perfect...not me. It is my subject that deserves as sensitive and honest a rendering as possible - and for me it is the continuity of process afforded by utilizing "traditional" methods that facilitates this honesty and sensitivity.</p>

<p>A personal opinion? Yes. But as one who also chairs a photography department at a community college, where it is my responsibility to help students become competitive in their future marketplace (which means they learn digital), it is also my responsibility to give them the "traditional" experience. And as a bonus, relative to what I mentioned above, it is this experience which so thoroughly promotes the instillment of foundational principles. </p>

<p>Of course, the even better bonus is that these students...each one of them, regardless that they might never have held a film camera previous to this, embrace these traditions as their own. And ultimately, this makes me wonder....about the power of the currents of industry and commerce to sway opinion.</p>

[jakenorcross]

<p>Originally, for me, it was less expensive (buying a darkroom for $70 + inheriting a camera + $3 a roll for Tri-X) and besides, my school had film as a requirement at the time. As I've learned more about digital imaging, photoshop, and hybrid processes, the tactility and tangibility came as something of a relief to me, and the archival permanence reassuring. The 'necessity' part is not as paramount (I'm a biologist now) but one of the microscopes still takes film only, so this past semester I got to teach a few new people the joys of sheet development.<br>

Nowdays, though, it's because not deep inside me lives a crotchety victorian scientist who wants to build his own experiments and this often means building his own cameras. Tinkering a brownie or pinhole camera is easy; try tinkering a point and shoot digital sometime.</p>

[dan_wolfgang]

<blockquote>

<p>4.) I like the analog backup of film.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I choose digital specifically for this reason. If my house burns down and all my slides are destroyed, I still know that my digital photos are safe because they are backed-up off-site. (Sure, I could have the slides duped and stored elsewhere, but that's nowhere near as easy as copying a file to one more location.)</p>

 

[brian_m.1]

<p>Because I like to wait.</p>

[rossb]

<p> I enjoy film so much I just bought a LN- F100 from KEH. Now I like my new camera that will help me burn some film. I like Kodak film.</p>