i see a lot of people here talking about using film for their photography and i'm curious about what people think about DSLRs. personally i have one and its the only thing i think i'll ever use. i know that there is a nostalgic attraction to film, and most say you can't recreate the vibe the finished products give off, which i'm sure is true if you're very familiar with it. but it seems so expensive now. also, it would be interesting to see if anyone has any comparisons between a photo shot with film, and a photo shot digitally that has been edited to look like it was shot on film.

(this is not meant to spark any arguments, i mostly just like to hear people talk about the things they're passionate about and it seems like film is a big one here)

After a few botched attempts with film, I didn't become a photographer until I picked up a digital camera for the first time, around 1999 or 2000. I want to deal with questions of composition, not development.

A fair number of my friends use film cameras, and as far as I can see, the biggest attraction is they can upload the scanned images to Instagram and label them with tags saying the images were developed from film.

Otherwise, it's expensive, harder to use, heavier, takes longer to develop, and so many other logistic reasons.

About a decade ago, a lot of clubs I know said they'd only allow DJs who spun vinyl, not anything else. I saw it as an artificially added barrier to joining the competition. Film over digital is no different.

Phew it has got expensive

I like it because I have to stop and compose differently and I feel like I am more there in general. Is it worth it ehh who knows. I do think Black and White looks a lot better in general on film, but just an opinion.

I shoot a lot of 120 film, which I shifted toward after decade of shooting digital and Polaroid film. I enjoy the mechanical aspect of creating images with little to no computer assistance, and for all the work involved find the end result more satisfying. Suppose it can be compared to how some appreciate classic cars.

That said... like classic cars, it's a hobby I'm being priced out of. I was gifted a Ricoh GRIII not long ago and have started moving back toward a hybrid workflow.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, circa mid-1970s. Spent around $1000 on a Canon EOS 650 & some lenses around 1988, my fist digital camera was a Konica Minolta DiMage bought in 2001, then a nice mid-level DSLR camera around 2005.

These days (less traveling/exploring), I just have my iPhone.

Anyway, as someone who has lugged about 30lbs worth of 35mm prints to various homes across the country & spent who knows how much $$$ buying 35mm film & then having prints/slides developed from it, and worst of all, being somewhat cool and having to limit the amount of photos I took due to the limited rolls of film I had with me, I do not at all miss the ancient times of just having a film camera!

I still have several hundred prints (most are 25+ years old and starting to fade) of cool old sites waiting to be scanned. Knowing that each image takes approximately a minute to scan at high resolution in my scanner, I delay sitting down to get cracking on the mundane project.

Yeah, I know some of you are into artsy photos and like the look of using film, but what's amusing to me is that you're very likely going to digitize the image at some point to share it, plus if you're then altering it with Photoshop or whatever, you may as well have just jumped to full digital in the first place!


/-/oolie