Going analogue

[spookly]

Anyone else shooting film?

I've not ditched my digital camera, but my older boy bought himself an old Olympus 35mm and turned our spare room into a darkroom. So I decided to buy a Hasselblad 500cm, a camera I owned almost two decades ago, to shoot some film. He just developed the first roll last night.

Quite enjoying the more methodical and slow shooting with a full manual film camera. Makes you a bit more considered when you're burning ~£1 a shot.

About to buy an enlarger head and some paper to go full analogue from shot to paper.

[Elderly]

No - I’d never go back to film,
but I still have a couple of 35mm & medium format film cameras in a cupboard, and a few black & white enlargers in the loft.

Edited by Elderly on Tuesday 20th February 09:56

[satans worm]

Yep, about 4 years ago, found digital just too easy and not involving enough, snap snap snap,

Turned to film and fell back in love with photography, slowed down, loved the participation you have, the tactile feel, the film stocks to choose from, getting great shots have now become very challenging which i want as a hobby (obviously not if it's your business!)

For me its a bit like (or at least i imagine, not done either ) driving a modern Ferrari with flappy paddles (digital) V driving a Cobra (film), Ferrari would be much better as an everyday car, much easier to get the speed and handling out of it but the Cobra would be much more special , if not more slower and tiring to drive, but for the occasional blast , more rewarding.

probably a crap analogy

Its not all roses, hate the scanning side and still have to use light room, dislike it so much i have not looked scanned half of what i have taken, just keep telling myself one weekend ill just do a massive scanning session.

To be honest i just enjoy being outside and hunting the composition, the process of taking the photograph and then getting the negatives back, i don't care about the rest too much (i don't do social media, hate the feeling of 'showing off' aspect of it all)

Still have my old Canon 6D, for pictures of my son, can't be beat, take 20 picts in a few seconds and chose the one you like the most, cant do that with a film camera!


OP, what camera/s do you use?

[satans worm]

Elderly said:

No - I’d never go back to film,
but I still have a couple of 35mm & medium format film cameras in a cupboard, and a few black & white enlargers in the loft.

Edited by Elderly on Tuesday 20th February 09:56

Film cameras are still worth quite a bit of cash, what, medium format ones do you have out of interest? could be worth an eBay listing if you'd never go back.

[Derek Smith]

satans worm said:

Yep, about 4 years ago, found digital just too easy and not involving enough, snap snap snap,

Have you considered not just snapping? It takes me as long, sometimes longer, to shoot one frame since I've gone digital.

There are some things you can do with digital that are all but impossible for film. Involving? The menus in my camera, a mid range one, are such that I have to 'revise' the settings specific to the shoot for that day. I love the fact that I can take top quality video and 20meg images with the same camera. I can take 80meg images if I want, although I don't generally want. I can focus stack in camera, or, if I prefer, I can stack a dozen images and get everything in focus at the optimum aperture. Such images still seem spooky to me.

Cameras are just tools. Mine allows my imagination greater freedom, but the image is the ultimate test. Every camera should have a pre-burst mode.

My son is teaching his daughters developing and printing of monochrome images, using cheap film cameras. He remembers me using my twin-lens reflex, a Yashicamat 24G, lovely camera, and he's buying one for them. I liked the way it settled the mind, with the ground-glass screen, and the dividing thirds etched in. The lever advance was just too cool. But that was 50 years ago.

I'll probably ask for a play when he buys it. But go back? If you'd offered something similar back in the days of FP4, everyone would have jumped at digital.

But if that's what you want, go for it. Your preferences bewilder me though.

[craig1912]

Just sold a Canon AE1 and Voightlander Vito B, both one owner cameras. Just too expensive and too much hassle for me.
Bought a Fujifilm Xpro3 as it’s probably the nearest experience to using a film camera and the “film recipes” a great way to get jpegs which look like film.

[Turtle Shed]

I can see the appeal, there is something wonderful about physical film, but equally I can't think of anything more tedious.

A bit like the Vinyl/CD thing perhaps.

Also... when you've shot you £1 per go photo what do you do with it? I assume print and hang on the wall, print gand give to someone, or stick it in an album, because in my opinion, once you scan something and turn it into a digital file, you might as well have shot digital in the first place.

[Derek Smith]

craig1912 said:

Just sold a Canon AE1 and Voightlander Vito B, both one owner cameras. Just too expensive and too much hassle for me.
Bought a Fujifilm Xpro3 as it’s probably the nearest experience to using a film camera and the “film recipes” a great way to get jpegs which look like film.

My first 35mm camera, a Voightlander Vito B. I kept it after buying my twin-lens, but eventually had to sell it. Excellent quality.

[satans worm]

Derek Smith said:

satans worm said:

Yep, about 4 years ago, found digital just too easy and not involving enough, snap snap snap,

Have you considered not just snapping? It takes me as long, sometimes longer, to shoot one frame since I've gone digital.

There are some things you can do with digital that are all but impossible for film. Involving? The menus in my camera, a mid range one, are such that I have to 'revise' the settings specific to the shoot for that day. I love the fact that I can take top quality video and 20meg images with the same camera. I can take 80meg images if I want, although I don't generally want. I can focus stack in camera, or, if I prefer, I can stack a dozen images and get everything in focus at the optimum aperture. Such images still seem spooky to me.

Cameras are just tools. Mine allows my imagination greater freedom, but the image is the ultimate test. Every camera should have a pre-burst mode.

My son is teaching his daughters developing and printing of monochrome images, using cheap film cameras. He remembers me using my twin-lens reflex, a Yashicamat 24G, lovely camera, and he's buying one for them. I liked the way it settled the mind, with the ground-glass screen, and the dividing thirds etched in. The lever advance was just too cool. But that was 50 years ago.

I'll probably ask for a play when he buys it. But go back? If you'd offered something similar back in the days of FP4, everyone would have jumped at digital.

But if that's what you want, go for it. Your preferences bewilder me though.

A strange reply, I'm not putting digital down, indeed as I said I use it still as it certainly has many advantages in certain situations even for me.

The diversity within the hobby is what I love about photography with so many different interests within it, sports, wildlife, still, fashion, landscapes, street, underwater and of course holiday photos and many more flavours im sure.

Then its further dissected by how one approaches the subject of choice, with so many cameras and accessories available to help each person go further down their niche that they love, we should not be all the same!

For me its film, simply holding my Hasselblad inspires me, if im shooting 6x6, 6x8 or 6x17 it will make me look at my subject in different ways.

Ill go back on my analogy about a modern flappy paddle Ferrari and a Cobra, for most people im sure they would chose the Ferrari, its new, quicker, more comfortable, easy to drive fast and look good in with all the electronic controls that it has, you still need to know how to point it in the right direction of course and I take nothing away from the fact its an amazing thing, but just not my thing, I prefer to arrive at my destination a bit sweaty, heart racing and needing to check if I have to change my underpants due to an over enthusiastic slide that may well of been on the verge of a crash (all fantasy, I drive a truck but would love to build a Cobra, one day...)

Point is its horses for courses, I love film and the process it provides, you have no interest in it, that's fine, I was just responding to the OP on if anyone had gone back to film...

[Elderly]

satans worm said:

Elderly said:

No - I’d never go back to film,
but I still have a couple of 35mm & medium format film cameras in a cupboard, and a few black & white enlargers in the loft.

Edited by Elderly on Tuesday 20th February 09:56

Film cameras are still worth quite a bit of cash, what, medium format ones do you have out of interest? could be worth an eBay listing if you'd never go back.

A few year ago I sold a huge number of film cameras and lenses accumulated over 30 years as a working pro,
it was very cathartic.

I've just kept 2 for nostalgic reasons; the Robot Royal ( a sort of Leica but with a built in motor drive )
which was my first ever camera, and the Linhof Technika Press.

[Derek Smith]

Elderly said:

A few year ago I sold a huge number of film cameras and lenses accumulated over 30 years as a working pro,
it was very cathartic.

I've just kept 2 for nostalgic reasons; the Robot Royal ( a sort of Leica but with a built in motor drive )
which was my first ever camera, and the Linhof Technika Press.

Nice. Thanks for posting the images. It must have felt like an event every time you used the Technika.

[satans worm]

Elderly said:

satans worm said:

Elderly said:

No - I’d never go back to film,
but I still have a couple of 35mm & medium format film cameras in a cupboard, and a few black & white enlargers in the loft.

Edited by Elderly on Tuesday 20th February 09:56

Film cameras are still worth quite a bit of cash, what, medium format ones do you have out of interest? could be worth an eBay listing if you'd never go back.

A few year ago I sold a huge number of film cameras and lenses accumulated over 30 years as a working pro,
it was very cathartic.

I've just kept 2 for nostalgic reasons; the Robot Royal ( a sort of Leica but with a built in motor drive )
which was my first ever camera, and the Linhof Technika Press.

Damn, that Technica is a thing of great beauty!

[some bloke]

I've bought a couple of old 60s cameras in the last couple of years and run some film through them but I found with the tiny numbers on dials I was struggling to see what I was doing. Also I felt like a hipster pulling them out...
I have recently got a battery for my old Canon EF-M and stuck a 28-300 zoom on it, I have taken a few shots but will finish the roll soon. I'll probably get a developing kit and see how I enjoy that - got a friend with an enlarger too so I will either use that or just scan the negs.
It's something I've wanted to do for a while and it will be nice to cross it off the list.