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Film addiction/ digital dilemma..
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As I sit here typing, my digital camera kit sits gathering dust, as it has done for the last 6/ 7 months. I’ve found myself shooting nothing but film for the last 6 months, in the process developing my own film, acquiring a flatbed scanenr for negatives, and presently adapting a makeshift space for darkroom printing.
I’ve been strongly considering selling all my remaining digital kit; dslr, lenses, et al, yet something stays my hand. It galls me to have a kit lying idle that I have not used for at least 6 months, not least of which is reducing steadily decreasing in steadily decreasing in sale-able value.
I know a lot of you guys and gals have mixed film and digital successfully – has anyone gone film-only after having dabbled in digital? To be honest, I don’t see myself developing any interest in going back to a digital capture workflow, and am pretty much done with autofocus for what I shoot ..yet I have this nagging feeling selling of my digital kit that I will regret it..
Damien
damien.murphy wrote:
has anyone gone film-only after having dabbled in digital?
I shot slide film for years and projected it. Then moved over to digital. After two years of digital I went back to film over a 12 month period.
My Nikon D70 infrared camera has a load of dust on it now. My Nikon D200 is now only used to take pictures of darkroom prints that are too large to scan on my scanner…. My Nikon lenses are now used on Nikon film bodies so only the digital bodies are not getting much use…
I have no problem with Digital its just that film is like a trade I think, its hardwork but the rewards are great. Exposing, deving and printing yourself with your hands and chemicals is just class, a real sense of creating something…..
Enjoy
M
Thanks Martin, but probably enjoying it too much – would probably have to break my fingers to remove my M6 & 50mm from my grip :)
Really enjoying the simplicity of one camera, and one lens, not to mention the smell of fixer..
Damien
damien.murphy wrote:
has anyone gone film-only after having dabbled in digital?
I was 100% film, then 75%F / 25%D and now I am 100% film again. My D300 kit is gone. I’ll replace with a small point and shoot or a micro four thirds.
Since photography for me is all about self expression, it seems that the tools and creative process are important to me. It took me a while to figure this out and figure that it wasn’t a quality issue. I loved using Polaroid over the years and this has shown me that I have a preference for a medium thats more ‘organic’, less predictable in nature which I found I missed in digital files. LoFi and toy cameras are a great escape away from the sameness of digital capture imho, in film we have a quality that seems to be different enough and important enough to influence our gear choice.
I do also find that I become a passenger when using a modern DSLR and I dont like that. But thats I’m sure more my fault than the DSLRs fault.
So its film for me (and a little painting)
film and digital.
I don’t consider them mutually exclusive at any point,
though I will set out to use either one or the other.I use a hybrid workflow at the moment, plus a small bit of contact printing when I get around to it-
so most film will be digitized anyway.
That’s not to say that I won’t print directly from negs in the future-I like film, particularly my dwindling stock of Polaroid 55-
if I had to choose only one medium, that would be it-
if it was available, and if I could afford to-However, if a large format (not medium format) digital back became affordable,
and as portable as a few sheets of film,
then I might just as easily use that.
For the moment, that doesn’t seem to be an option.Again, to me, it’s not so much film v. digital,
it’s just that the digital sensors don’t exist for the type of images I enjoy making.I’d like to become organized enough to make good prints,
and perhaps I will at some point-
I just need some good negatives…That said, I do get good results with digital, when I need to, and when digital is expected.
Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them,
and there is the need to balance expectations with economy-
digital excels at that.I wouldn’t consider getting rid of it, not at the moment anyway.
But it doesn’t compare to the pleasure of using ridiculous film with bonkers cameras-
People have their own reasons for what they do.
I used my 35mm camera for many years and learned to process b&w film
and to print mono images from my mono and even colour negatives.
Over 20 years ago family and self employment came along which filled up
any available space and time in my life.
I continued to shoot colour negative, and the odd roll of slide, but I was often not satisfied by
the standard of prints I was getting back from the processors.Then digital came along.
Suddenly I could could do everything from shooting to printing again.
It has been fantastic.I understand perfectly the feelings that being involved in every step of the film process can bring.
There is a magic to watching an image appear on a piece of paper in a tray that is very special.
I think if I had a room where I could go and enage in this process whenever the mood struck me
it might be hard to resist.I am seriously thinking of putting some b&w through my Pentax K1000 and processing the film myself.
Part of this would be to see how it worked out and part would be due to the interest generated in me
by the various film discussions on this site lately.I love my digital camera and the freedom it has given me to be involved from capture to print.
I would suggest hanging on to your DSLR.
Apart from anything else it would probably cost a lot more to replace it than what you would get if you sold it.
It is also there available anytime should you decide to use it again.Good luck whatever you decide.
John.
Fintan – my own thoughts have followed the same line of thinking, coming to much the same conclusions. The tools definitely matter to me. With cameras, the small rangefinder comes everywhere with me (which my dslr didn’t), and next in line I think I’d like to experiment with the a tlr, in particular for the square image, and waist level viewing, which I want to see how effects my images.
Presently, I am really appreciating the simplicity of the Leica which has maybe 6/ 7 controls. I remember David Hurns words, that as a photographer you have two main controls – where you stand, and when you press the button. I find when shooting a dslr, or any other wonder-loaded camera, I get away from these fundamentals, and these I want to get closer to, not further from.
Joseph – your preference for Polaroid is quite interesting, and is something I would love to dabble with if film becomes readily available/ reasonably priced again. At the moment values are sky-rocketing, like Kodacahrome, so I hope the Impossible Project is successful.
Lofi seems to be great fun. I’ve resisted for the moment, but only because going B&W film only has been so much fun, and I am want to save Lofi for when I really need to refresh and revive myself – kind of like a magic pill in Alice :)
Re: film v digital, this is really not where I’m going, or which is ‘best’ :) Film just suits me better at present. Part of it is camera-related, the tools I want in a camera are mostly on the film side in adition to some other very interesting tools such as tlr’s, view cameras, and lofi being there to dabble with at some point too. Part of it is process-related, and the tactile experience of developing, and soon printing, my own images. I would also like to explore alternative processes in the future also,
Damien
5faythe wrote:
People have their own reasons for what they do.
Lol, that they do :)
It is a tempting argument to hang on to the DSLR alright, and one I find myself in a quandary over.
I’m starting, after a few distractions, to get back to shooting with one camera, one lens, and one film.
Maybe I just need to steel my nerve.. the proceeds can always go into the the Rollei fund :)
Damien
I dabble in both film and digital…
Each has it’s pros and cons…
Each has areas that it might be better suited for…
I find that it’s good to experience as many things photography related as you can… and maybe it’d be nice to feel that you’re well accomplished in both…
But when all is said and done… the content of a photo is typically the most significant thing… for me.
And I say all this is after I fixed a roll of film this morning… before developing it… you just don’t get fook ups like that with digital… but there you go.
Lol.. condolences NFL-Fan, had a few screw-ups developing film, but none of that nature, fortunately.. yet :)
Damien
I like working with film alot more then digital, its alot more hands on, working with a print especially rather then pixels on a screen. I think i only really use digital these days for when im photographing big events or something completely new to me. I wouldnt get rid of your digital stuff, i dont see the point as digitals convienience is really one of its strong points and you might see yourself picking it up for a small gig sometime in the future.
I take film as a second parallel hobby to digital. When I tire of digital I switch to playing around with film either 5×4 large format or 120 TLR which is a complete change.
When I end up exhausted and gassed on the darkroom floor I switch back to digital. Two hobbies in one!
Digital has it’s place with any photographer, it’s so quick.Pete
Good point Steve, I must admit one of my main apprehensions of having no digital camera at all is snaps of friends, and that one time you need a quick image. I have a digital compact aside from my Nikon D200, and had planned on keeping this, although I do find composing through the lcd irritating. I curse the first time I looked through a film slr viewfinder, and saw what is possible in terms of a massive and bright viewfinder. DSLRs and compacts just never seemed the same after.. kinda like the first time I viewed images from a prime lens, and saw how critically sharp they could be – an expensive experience!
Good point re: the odd gig also. Don’t have any intention of pursuing paying gigs, but you never know what can come your way.. although on the other hand might be a good way to fend off those friends seeking the odd portrait, or wedding shot :)
Pete – that is a great philosophy, and way of looking at things. I may still look at selling off the DSLR, as I never really got used to bulky slr kits, but think now I will not let it put me off digital/ picking up a fun, flexible digital shooter,
Damien
I shot film for years, only colour though and never dev’d meself.
Took a few years out from it and started back at digital about 5 years
ago, love it!now earlier this year I became interested in Lo-Fi photography
and bought a Holga . . . great fun and that has got me back into film
and particularly dev’ng b+w also. there definitely is a bigger sense
of creativity about that although I havnt got round to printing, which is
certainly a bigger step in the creative aspect.If I am commissioned to take pictures whether they are Landscapes
or Architectural it is only Digital, it is what I am comfortable with and
there is the practical end of being able to get feedback from the
camera setup there and then . . . for me of course!Im sure if I was working more with film and could control the colour
output of colour negs etc etc, film wouldnt seem as daunting that way.so Digital is my comfort work medium and film is my fun medium.
Don’t sell our gear Damien! Like someone said above, you won’t get the value for money out of selling it, I think you’d get more value out of having it sitting there unless your in need of the money.
Only if you fancy picking up a EP1 or the Panasonic GF1 or whatever those so called DMDs are called, they look quite interesting, although I’d give it a while and let them get better first.
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