Shooting film again

[a_tang1]

Do many of you still shoot film? I've been using digital now for

years but I've just recently sold my Nikon F3hp to a guy and I'm

now thinking of dusting off one of my old film slrs and shooting

some film. Used to shoot Kodak tri-x but was thinking of one of

the c41 films like Ilford etc.

[wogears]

<p>A lot of people, including me, shoot film. There are as many reasons as there are film shooters. Local labs are now difficult to find, but there are good "mail-order" options. Film has some qualities which, IMO, are hard to reproduce from digital originals. The converse is also true. I love film cameras, with their lack of menus, autofocus points, and electronic do-dads which <strong>FOR ME</strong> are more of an annoyance than a benefit.</p>

<p>Ilford does not make color film. </p>

[donald_miller5]

<p>I use both. If I want a picture I probably use digital. If I want to enjoy taking a picture I use film. I do a lot more film.</p>

[SCL]

<p>+1 for both Donald & Les. For me it is also driven by my stock of bulk film vs my age....I want to beat it to the end since my family would just throw it way and donate my film bodies to some charity.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<blockquote>

<p>Do many of you still shoot film?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>All the film cameras I find in thrift stores smell of musty attic and give me sinus headaches. Film smells of chemicals when I used to take it out of the tiny black canisters which would always give me a chemical cold or plugged up sinuses. When I earned a living as a prepress technician for commercial printers I had to breath these processing chemicals working in a darkroom.</p>

<p>Since there was no decent processing labs that gave me what I wanted back when I shot film in the mid '80's and still no labs today, I've tortured myself long enough and now reward myself by shooting digital and can create spectacular images that I could never get shooting film.</p>

<p>Now, what was the question?</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>If you like film, why did you sell your F3? That's a great film camera. What other film cameras do you have?<br /><br />I use digital most of the time now but agree that I get more pleasure out of working with film.</p>

[Colin O]

<blockquote><p>Ilford does not make color film.</p></blockquote>

<p>That's right, but the OP wrote, "Used to shoot Kodak tri-x but was thinking of one of the c41 films like Ilford etc", which I take to mean he/she is considering shooting C-41 B&W film instead of Tri-X.</p>

[bethe_fisher]

<p>I use both. I am one of those weird ones who likes spending time in the darkroom. There's a feeling of having made something with my own hands that I don't get from a computer print. I also like doing alt process stuff like Mordançage (which only works on a silver gelatin print). <br>

I usually process my own B&W, but I send out color film. With both, I can also scan it and have both worlds.<br>

Out in the woods, my bag frequently has a 4x5 and a dSLR.</p>

[rossb]

<p>I am shooting Illford Delta 400 and HP5 and process at home. I just decided to go back to film lately and it's been a lot of fun. </p>

[AlanKlein]

<p>I shoot Kodak Tmax 100 in medium format. It's a very fine grain (T grain actually) BW film that scans pretty easily. It has a nice range. Should work well in 35mm format which I no longer shoot. <br>

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/tags/tmax100/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/tags/tmax100/</a> (Tmax 100 6x7)</p>

[Greg M]

<p>Ditto re: Ross's comments. Using a couple of classic 35mm rangefinder outfits (Zeiss Contax and Leica) to shoot primarily Ilford Pan F 35mm black & white. Process and scan at home. The combination is so different from the digital process, shooting and processing, I have been using exclusively since 2004 and it's quite fun.</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>I'd see no point in shooting film unless you're going to enlarge the prints yourself using a wet process. Giving away that control to a lab is like relying on a digital camera's exposure automation and JPEG processing completely. It's just aim and hope.</p>

<p>And even worse, if you're going to scan the film to end up with a digital file. Why bother?</p>

<p>Get a darkroom and do the job properly, or not at all!</p>

[steve_mareno1]

<p>Film is all I've ever shot, and probably all I ever will. Had a brief foray w/ a DSLR Nikon, but didn't appreciate the hit in image quality, nor the way you get only one look. Not a big fan of blown highlights, reduced tonality, and shadows w/ no details. I might suffer that w/ color but not w/ B&W. With film, I have tons of choices in not only films but in different developers too. Being able to push or pull the emulsions also allows me to customize the images. It usually takes only a couple of rolls to get something new dialed in if I make different exposures on test rolls. I get to use all these wonderful cameras and the different film formats too.</p>

<p>While I love Tri-X, especially in D76 (fantastic tonality), the price has gotten too dear, so I switched to Arista Ultra EDU 100 souped in Microdol-X full strength. Amazingly, those decades old tins of Mic-X are still good, and you get a really tight grain if you can afford the 1 stop of exposure you lose at full strength. Nothing wrong w/ scanning and inkjet printing if that's what someone wants to do. You still capture the film's native look. That's why film makers shoot w/ film and transfer it to digital for post. Still, you get great blacks w/ wet prints on fiber, and wet printing was a breeze after learning and experimenting w/ developing.</p>

[DB_Gallery]

<p>I shoot both, enjoy film the most by far.</p>

[ryanjoseph]

<p>I used to shoot both, but over time I managed to get rid of film from my workflow. If you are willing to put up with the difficulties and cost of shooting film, my favorite film is Kodak Ektar 100.</p>

[pmind]

<p>Ever since I started scanning my entire film archive a few months back, I've had the urge to load up a my FTbn with a roll of Provia. I find one of the things that I like, but never considered much in the past, is the way that rolled film lends itself naturally to an easy-to-manage organization system.</p>

[a_tang1]

I still have another F3hp, F100, Fm2n and a Pentax Craig. I'll

definitely keep the F3

[d_ponce]

<p>It is amazing to hear from so many 'purists' in the group -- my hat is off to you all! I gave up on film when lab after lab would loose my film and send me someone else's. Went PnS digital for years -- then started to realize DSLR was actually getting better than what film was. Since that time, it has renewed my passion for photography to no end!! The instant gratification is a plus, but the quality is beyond my wildest dreams. I do a lot of event photography and often times will 'polish' up a blemish or two before giving to the client -- when I zoom in, the things that the camera can see at the distance that I am just blows my mind. But what is even more amazing is the post-processing -- for the first time, I 'feel' like an artist. Most of the time, my post is minor, but I can bring out what my heart felt at the time that the shot was taken, like a painter just putting the smallest of dabs on his canvas...it's exhilarating! But, again, I have a ton of respect for your film shooters -- thank you for keeping the art alive.<br>

Someday, I'll pull out the old Pentax Spotmatic II and Nikon 90s and offer it for sale -- get my $10 and move on. :-) </p>

[DB_Gallery]

<p>To be completely honest, things are about to change in a big way for me in photography.<br /> <br /> I have had such an amazing life though exploring the world with my cameras, a *very* rewarding career with it for almost 30 years, 21 years using digital. But 12 years ago, I told my self that I wanted to move toward both creating silver gelatin fine art prints and teaching my love of film and the darkroom & have the proper space and equipment to do that. I have the very best of everything I need in terms of equipment but the space and the prospect of me getting anything larger than the storage closet outside of my condo is shrinking fast. No matter how ingenious I get at overcoming having an impossibly small space, I am just not able to do this like I want to, certainly not teach.<br /> <br /> So I am faced with two options. One is to bail on the idea of using film and printing in a darkroom and just continue on with digital. The other is to bail on it all and move on to another career and life. After several long talks with my wife and following her advice to sleep on it, 2016 will be my last year as a photographer. It will no longer be a career or even a hobby, I will divest my self of the hardware, archive the images and in 2017, move to a new life. My wife and I will move out of the wonderful town I have lived in for 18 years and start fresh somewhere new. She has a great job so I can take my time within reason in finding a new path.<br /> <br /> I just can't bear the thought of not doing black and white film and darkroom work and being stuck with just digital the rest of my life so this year marks the conclusion of my involvement in photography.<br /> <br /> Here is to a great last year!</p>

[d_ponce]

<p>@Daniel: or you could look into getting a job as a photography teacher in a college. I recently met a professor at a community college who not only teaches only the art of film photography but only uses film himself. Although I would have thought the kids now-a-days would have no part in a class like that, he states the kids like it -- and, personally, I think it's great that there is a venue like this for them -- learning and thoroughly understanding photography from a manual SLR is really the way to go. Although I don't miss film at the least (see last post) I definitely am grateful to have used a manual film camera for 20+ years; I love my D3s and D810, but use them only in manual mode -- and still use many lenses purchased back in the 90's -- and love the results. <br>

Ok -- come back next year, Daniel -- I'm curious if you are able to go cold-turkey and not look back! wow -- can't even imagine if that was possible for me -- but I hope you find what you were looking for and all the very best in your new life!!</p>

[rossb]

<p>Daniel a lot of folks change lanes in mid life. It's not unusual but just the same you will need a camera for family photos, trips and such. </p>

[DB_Gallery]

<blockquote>

<p>Daniel a lot of folks change lanes in mid life. It's not unusual but just the same you will need a camera for family photos, trips and such.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I'll let my wife take over the family / vacation snaps duty, she likes to do that anyway. Once I am done...I am *really* done, for good and completely.</p>

<p>Just for kicks I fired up my small closet darkroom last night for the first time in 10 months. I printed a 35mm neg of Tmax 400 shot with a Leica M6 and the peerless 35mm 1.4 Aspheric FLE lens. I used my Saunders LPL 4550 XLG / VCCE enlarger with the impossible to find hybrid diffuser / condenser mixing box and my 50mm 2.8 Apo Rodagon N lens. I took one baseboard meter reading of the highlights and shadows and that fed the proper exposure for the paper directly into the timer, grade 2.5. I did one test strip, looked fine, did one print and came out with the attached 8x10. The print in my hand...that is why I refuse to only shoot digital for the rest of my life, no freaking way man.<br /> <br />Making that print felt great, the way I felt for most of this morning from having vastly inadequate ventilation can only be described as, well...crap. So I am headed to the hardware store to see if I can get materials to better seal off the tray stacker in feeding the exhaust to my fan, a 93mm variable speed computer fan that at best, moves 36.5 CF/M or 2100 CF/H. My so called "Darkroom" contains about 170 cubic feet of air so in theory I should be able to move the needed amount ( 170 x 10 times per hour ) in order to keep from killing my self. But thus far, it is not working right. I would go with a bigger fan but I simply can not move anymore air than that above and below the door to the storage closet.</p>

<p>12 years I have been trying my damnedest to come up with a good working darkroom, because people pay for the prints and every other aspect of my business is great. But the problem is if I move away to an area where I can afford either a home with good darkroom prospects or rent an industrial space....I lose the bulk of my business. Damned if I do and damned if I don't...pretty frustrating as I hit the peak of my vision / career...<br /> <br /> Off I go to the hardware store and to check my lottery ticket. If chance favors the prepared, then maybe luck will befall the tenacious...</p><div></div>

[rossb]

<p>I can hear what you are saying Daniel. Your work is very good and it's to bad actually. My kids are not really trying for darkroom space but are just trying to find a place to live. They are all educated and have what you would think of as good careers but the housing cost are so immense they are just out of luck. The same thing is move to a lower cost area and lose many things or stay where they are. Each will find their way however. </p>

<p>From a hobby standpoint I decided to bust out my F100 and shoot some B/W and bought a film developing kit and using my old scanner. My photos just took a dramatic increase for the better because of it and the digital rig is packed away probably for good. Next year I will just get rid of it if I still feel the same way. I have 6 kids and somebody always wants good quality stuff for free. I cannot imagine how much fun a darkroom would be however I cannot take on the expense of it for a hobby. I am better off riding my bicycle instead of sucking up fumes anyway. I hope to ride about 100miles a week all year for a grand total of 5000 miles. </p>

<p>I hope it works out for you. You know I just watched the Clyde Butcher video on you-tube and that guy has a 2200sq ft darkroom with an enlarger which is far bigger then I would have imagined one could be. I would love to see some of his prints in life. </p>

<p> </p>

[AlanKlein]

Ross. Coincidentally, my wife and I are on vacation

and just visited Clyde Butcher's gallery and lab two

hours ago in Venice, Florida. Nothing's like looking at

a six foot wide bw print. He's got about six enlargers.

There is one that aims horizontally for the really large

prints. Went to his dark room that shows on the

video. I didn't buy any of his prints but did get one of

his books and some other stuff. Intetesting is that he's

started to use digital because he can't handle the

weight of some of his larger film cameras any longer. He's using a SonyA7ii with a Cambo Arbus bellows tilt and uses Mamiya Rz lenses. He maybe stitching multiple shots to get the sharpest pictures using the center of the lenses. He's got other setups as well. He still does silver prints as well as Glicee.

[rossb]

<p>Hi Allen, I am a bit jealous of not being there myself. I would like to visit also but the chances of a trip to Florida are not that good. More then likely I would walk out with a book and stuff the same as you as I am sure his prints are expensive. Seems like I saw on the net someplace that he was using digital for some stuff and I would like to see how that looks as well. Enjoy your vacation! </p>