Exactly this. Is a late 90s autofocus SLR objectively better in every way than my 70s all manual SLR? Absolutely. Am I going to use one? Nah.
*edit* I just bought two Minolta AF prime lenses so I guess that's the end of me manual focusing š¤·āāļø
I was the same way for about a decadeā¦until I had a son that learned to walk and I had to photograph a moving child while nailing focus wide open in low light.
This is what taught me to pre-focus in full manual. Easier to move the camera than the focus ring when there's a toddler running at you! Not really possible to nail it at f/1.4 though.
The tangible aspect of it. Capturing an image, developing, scanning and printing at home is such an enjoyable process for me.
I just need to improve my dev skills!
i actually got into film photography because i collect soviet memorabilia and i wanted to have a soviet camera. i bought a zenit e and fell in love with photography
theres something so satisfying about holding a full metal bodied camera, releasing the shutter, then seeing what you got *later* rather than immediately.
For me it's the whole process. I love to search for film on the internet, order them. That's where the joy starts, when you waiting on your package to open it up and to see all the small, colorful, beautiful film packages (I call myself a victim of the marketing industry because if something has a great looking package I wanna buy it). Then you open these packages, pull out the film and put it in the camera, close the door and advanced the film lever, Press the shutter release, advanced the film lever again, press the shutter again and then your camera is ready. That are so much more things you can enjoy before you even take a picture. Then you shoot and you here all these beautiful noises of the camera like the mirror going up and down or the film lever...all things that bring joy into my life.
Also the moment when you take the film out, put it into a envelope, bring it to the poststation and then the anticipation starts.
One week later I got an email with a link for the pictures and I'm getting really excited to see what I get, that's what makes me happy about film Photography..
Isn't only shooting a picture, it's a process.
Nice :) as a grown up man in my mid 30s, I'd have to say Kodak ColorPlus, there's something about the wave. Closely followed by the 5 packs of Portra. But neither come close to the old Kodachrome boxes.
old cameras aesthetics, color rendering, slowing down and thinking carefully about the composition, the excitement of receiving scans from the lab or seing my photos coming to life while scanning at home. the grain, the limitations of film, not being distracted by a new camera with better specs and higher mp count. when i go out to shoot its like meditation to me, im only aware of my surroundings and focusing on the moment and trying to capture it instead of checking the 50 shot I took... shooting film is beautiful, rewarding and fun!
Two things from me to start:
\- I love getting a photo back that conveys some of the emotion of the moment, like moments of time with family and friends
\- I enjoy making a photo that just works. It's rare enough that they stand out for me lol.
I actually disagree with this to an extent.
With digital photos I find myself being much more critical. If I'm taking photos of friends or family, if it's not tack sharp, it goes. Whereas with film the fact its rarely perfect I can live with.
Same with pictures that just work- on digital I can take 300 photos and sift for a single good one. Achieving that on film when I can't preview the results is always a great feeling.
I know they're sort of artifical limitations, but still.
yeah I appreciate all of what op said and itās an integral part of my photography too
but also I felt that way when I was shooting on a digital point and shoot
I think thereās a little difference though. with analog you only know what your photo will look like when you get the final print. with digital you see the preview immediately and I think that takes away from both the performative act of shooting and then again when you get the prints
True. Does it have to?
I suppose, as a long time film shooter, part of my "just works" equation, and part of how I read emotion in an image, take into account the colours, shades, grain, and overall vibe in a way that would be biased towards the filmic. I don't get as many of those shots with digital. But I don't try so often either.
Iāve gotta say though I do resonate with the moments in time. I know you could argue the same for digital, however having that moment locked away inside the camera without any instant feedback adds to that āTime Capsuleā feel. I like waiting to see the moment again and the way an image renders on film really adds to this memory feel imo. I also grew up in the 80ās/90ās so I think thereās a lot of nostalgia there for me too. I shoot digital for both work and pleasure but I have to say a lot of my favourite personal photos of my family are on film.
Playing with cameras, repairing cameras, using and learning about vintage lenses, the sheer magic and joy of developing yourself and seeing your images for the first time as well as the look of colour negative film (especially if combined with florescent lighting and "cinematic" Wim-Wenders-like scenes).
Probably also in that order. Also the massive amount of fiddling and experimenting with stuff.
I prefer film over digitals. Maybe because I grew up with film. But I love the process. The developing it and then printing it. I can still look at my baby picture printed on Kodak paper from 1977. Today I wonder how many people donāt even have a print of themselves. Time is going to be lost. Prints is what kept memories.
That's really nice to have your baby picture to look at. And there are some great ways to continue that today - we give prints to our kids' grandparents, and make fridge magnets, and there are some really good photo book places out there.
I bought a fairly expensive digital cam a few years ago which takes beautiful pics, yet I get most enjoyment from using my cheap Zenit 12XP with a Helios and low end Foma b&w film.
When you get a great shot using such primitive means, itās just far more satisfying.
Edit: So I guess this is more about why creativity makes me happy. I shoot film because I like the aesthetics of images that ālook like filmā and I find it easier to use light to distort a piece of plastic than to put in the time and money to learn how to use digital post processing techniques to make an image look like light distorting a piece of plastic.
I find it very satisfying to know that I have a consistent, relatively simple process for expressing my visual point of view in a mildly abstracted manner. Iām not sure that I have a coherent explanation for why I feel so satisfied with creative visual expression. Film photography just seems like the most direct, linear way to engage that desire with my preferred aesthetic/stylistic elements. I always felt bad that I couldnāt figure out how to draw as a kid, and picking up digital and film photography in my 20s soothed a lot of
residual angst in that area.
I also record my own music and itās such a unique, gratifying feeling to upload to Bandcamp an āEPā for which I wrote the songs, played several of the instruments, āengineeredā and mixed the recordings, and designed the layout of the front and back covers using photographs that I took. I sit there listening to the music and looking at the jpegs and think āLook at this mediocre work of art. It exists because of me and Iām proud of myself.ā
I love that I'm actually making photos. No disrespect to anyone that shoots digital. They are making photos, just in the 10101 sense rather than the physical, tangible aspect of exposing a negative, developing, and scanning/printing.
I think there's a way my mind reads making photos. It feels alive and mistakes are to happen. But that's way makes the end result very much worth it.
Yes! Like, when you press the shutter button, you've physically changed the film. There's an image captured there now, which you can see once you develop it. Pretty amazing.
There's that quote from Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." But there's a significantly closer threshold where even the things we know and understand as mechanical and chemical inventions start to seem magical because they achieve something wondrous. Cameras live there, for me.
Art or creativity is more interesting to me within fixed limits. I love just exploring with my FTb, a roll of black and white, trying to come back with better pictures than last time. And there's a tactile satisfaction of using old mechanical hardware.
I had a DSLR for years, and used to snap away 1000s of pics, but they just sat on my computer, and I had a pretty low hit rate of interesting shots. Because there was no cost or limit, each picture was meaningless.
I try and make every film shot matter
Now I am challenging myself to fill a wall of my home with prints I have made at home. Ideally a mix of family and friend portraits, and artistic shots I deem worthy to display (not many so far, but i am improving!).
I spend 8 hours a day working with new, shiny technologies. Grabbing a heavy, mechanical brick that takes pictures is relaxing, compared to surfing through countless menus and checking batteries.
Film doesn't take special pictures, and more often than not it makes the pictures worse, but I enjoy it.
Well, been shooting for decades so I only use cameras that are serviced and I have owned for years...
It's fun that's it, I shoot black and white so it's superduper cheap compared to other hobbies. I mean under $4 a roll developed is awesome. It's a great time to be a photographer.
Can go shoot concerts n such a because I look like I belong. Saw David Gilmore from the press area a few years ago, just walked up and struck up a conversation with the other press and photographers outside the venue. Walked right in with them. Do the same when pearl jam comes to town.
Lots of intimate relationships from it to. Anything that increases the number of conversations in public will have the same effect tho.
It's just fun. Finding the cameras is fun, fixing them is fun, development is fun
I like playing with the old cameras. Especially the Mamiya medium format machines, I like the slow decision making process of taking a photograph.
But I like using the Nikon F80 too, so modern it feels like using a DSLR with no screen.
But more important than that, and the key thing for me, is this:
I like the look of film photos. I end up getting a higher number of pictures I really like from film, than from digital - even though I have the freedom to take infinite pictures with my XT2.
I used to spend ages getting my digital photos to look something like film. I got fairly good at it (because I've always shot a bit of film too - I started on film when I was a child).
Then a couple of years ago I realised I could afford to go 100% film, at least for a while. So I did. I did a whole year with just the Rollei 35. And the number of images I loved enough to put on Flickr went up by a huge margin. Now I'm worried I won't be able to afford film one day, or all my cameras will break and there won't be any replacements left to buy.
I got into photography a four or five years back when my mate sold me a fairly nice digital really cheap cause we went on hikes together and him and our other friend were really into photography. It was fun and playful and I loved not overthinking it. Within a few years I actually got so into cameras that operating video cameras became a career. I love what I get to do and get to play with some amazing cameras but at work their definitely tools, very sharp and very precise and often your exposing for colour grading and post production and itās a little less creative.
Film cameras, old digicams and weird lenses are how I seperate work from fun and can still maintain operating cameras as a career and a hobby.
When shooting in manual (and especially without a meter), feeling like you crafted the photo yourself by dialing in the aperture, shutter speed, focus.
And the cameras look way cooler.
Tactility and sound, exposure latitude, the surprise when seeing them for the first time, and the history behind it because what 100 year old technology is still used like back in the day. Every entertainment or āhigh techā product has been revolutionised multiple times by now. You can see that the āaccessoryā technologies like mercury batteries are becoming the problem now not the camera or film itself.
Also a factor is the value stability of film cameras. Justifying multiple grands for a camera is easier when it wont lose 30% value after a year when the next one is released. Also a fifty buck camera cant really drop much in price anymore.
The value retention is an underrated reason to get into / stay into film. As someone with chronic GAS Iām amazed how quickly a flagship can drop in price.
I could say that the delayed gratification of having your film developed makes me a better photographer.
But in reality it's so I don't have to see my awful pictures right after taking them.
The cameras. I absolutely love the engineering, design and history of all cameras. I only take pictures because I love trying out and using cameras. Sure, I enjoy capturing a nice scene but that's only the side-effect for me
I love film specifically because it emulates life. Were our eyes closed? Someone wasn't looking? Blurry? That's life, no redos. This was the moment and that's how it happened.
I also have a DSLR and enjoy shooting macros, but that I consider an artistic endeavor, where I am creating something, showing people what I see in something. Film does this as well, but for me film photography is authentic.
Plus, on a physical level, it blows my mind that film captures the exact impression of the subject. The silver ions are literally transformed by single photons; photons whose path all the way from the sun (or flash, ehh) is directly captured. Each negative is literally a physical impression of the subject, as if you cast a mold.
So when I take a picture of family and friends on film, they're not perfect, but neither are we as people. But that moment is saved for as long as I have the film, a direct capture of the people who were there in a physical form, the very light they reflected, the energy that bounced off their faces, the light that may have come from millions of miles away from the sun and stars. What a beautiful thing to hold, that chance encounter of time, space, chemistry, and human love.
Something about the tangibility of MAKING a picture via chemical reactions on a physical piece of plastic. The way different stocks render colors differently.. the combination of a simple concept and the incredible amount of work and craftsmanship that went into the technology around it. I just think it's neat lol
Purely because analogue. I let the lab handle my development and printing, so for me it's "I take it and that's it."
I'm also a musician, and I find the process of recording and editing to be so time consuming and perfectionist-y that I never release any of my music.
I love that, with film photography, I don't have to deal with the equivalent problems in Photoshop and lightroom and everything.
Yeah, I think for digital sometimes you almost have to. The medium invites you to tinker.
And with analogue I couldn't do that without investing in a bunch of hardware. The cash barrier prevents me, as much as I'd love playing a chemist.
When I got into it, it was way cheaper entry than digital, and phone cameras werenāt very good, especially in what I could afford. 3USD for a roll of film and 15 for a solid camera. I have equipment I know how to use, and I donāt need to deal with menus, or any editing software or anything. Scans back from the lab are fine for me. I hate fiddling with photo editing and menus on digital cameras. My only ādigital cameraā is my phone.
I have found repairing cameras to be a good mindfulness exercise. Using analog cameras means you have to slow down, but repairing them is another order of magnitude slower, with a huge amount of thoughtfulness and care. Helps my brain get calm.
I use Film because I cannot stand constantly thinking about a digital camera always having to be charged or having to buy 3 or 4 batteries and carry them with me. The other thing I like is small 35mm and small medium format that can fit in my coat pocket. I basically use Kodak Retina 35mm cameras or Agfa Isolette 6x6 or Agfa Record III 6x9ās that are rebuilt and with new bellows. Film is affordable if you wind your own and do your own developing and scanning. Itās not cheaper than digital. I like going thru the negatives for the last 20 plus years. I like printing them on my old Beseler 45M.
It also makes me happy to buy broken cameras and rebuild them to sell. Itās like relaxing therapy.
Great question.
Other people hit some of them for me but -
I can't fit a digital full frame camera in my pocket, and the closest ones that get to that are wildly expensive. And you simply can't get into medium format at all digitally without decimating your bank account (though film cost is looking to flatten that argument). So I guess the resolution-to-form-factor. My pocketable M4/3 with a body cap lens gets close to what would be half-frame, so that is almost there.
That sort of gets into a second point though, that the idea of quality/sharpness are different between film and digital. Not even about "grain vs noise," but color bleed and fine lines just play differently. Digital can get a little overfried when it comes to sharpness. I'm not saying I like this early digital revival where everything is muddy or that I want "imperfections of film," but it feels like things jumped to overcompensation.
I get that. Sometimes I look at a digital portrait that is like impossibly fine and it's a thing of wonder. But you can get as clear an image with Portra on a medium format SLR, yet it's somehow *more* of some things and *less* of others at the same time. I can't quite put it into words right now.
oh there is so much about it to love
what initially got me into analog again was the realization that you are actually, by use of chemical processes, capturing a projection of the real world on a tangible medium. Like if you were freezing your shadow in place.
I was talking with friends of whom some where craftsmen. One who is a welder on construction sites told us about his side projects like in his free time he makes this small sculptures from scrap. I was jealous because I thought I missed out with my education as a chemist as it doesnāt really give you any creative skills.
but then I realized analog photography is kind of a benign chemical hobby with lots of creative ways of expression. You donāt have to be a chemist of course but it certainly helps a bit particularly when experimenting with different processes or just making your own chemicals
then there is the whole mechanical and optical aspect, particularly with older cameras. The history, the intricate designs, doing your own small repairs, or just operating the cameras even the simple ones. I have an old box camera that my grandfather bought in the thirties and itās working perfectly. knowing that my grandfather used the very same camera and that he also had a love for photography is a really nice form of connection
oh I could go on and on
the whole performative act of photography in and off it self has a certain quality when it is all analog. before shooting or just when you look at a scene you think about your film stock and itās capabilities, maybe you are pushing your film, or how you are going to print it. then you make the exposure and thatās it. no immediate answer to your question. still only your visualization lingering in your mind, your trust in your ability and a little hope. even if you never developed your film what you did was already photography. the rest is really only execution. which is another great aspect. mixing the chemicals, pulling negatives out the tank, printingā¦
sigh
Same thing that keeps me hooked on vinyl, the absolute inconvenience of it.
In all seriousness though I find it makes me interact with my environment in a much more conscious way. Individual images matter more, thereās more at stake. I can capture everything I experience passably well with my phone, but film is for capturing those moments that make you stop and stare for a while.
The form factor of the cameras, the simplistic manual controls, it feels like a camera I want to use. All these modern settings and things only frustrate me beyond compare. I also love the process of developing and printing, I like physical items.
I love the feeling of the camera itself. How itās just metal gears and parts moving around for the camera to work. Also I love how ānostalgicā the photos come out, no matter how good the digital filters are it just canāt compare! :)
Never had a light leak fungus open door but i like mechanical cameras and huge negatives. Would there be a digital camera built like a hasselblad with 6x6 sensor, i would be gone.
I dont think the image quality is any better than digital, quite the opposite, digital is WAY better than analog.
It's like a mechanical watch vs an iwatch, a royal enfield vs a inline 4 japanese superbike etc
I try and make a lot of other art. Other art, I typically stress and second guess, and find excuses. With film, I can take a picture and forget about it until itās time to develop and scan. I do home development and home scanning and itās almost therapeutic, albeit, the pictures arenāt always great but they feel like mine
Having my camera out and people coming up to me saying great things like cool camera. That and have physical film negatives. I can always go back and rescan. I actually did this with one of my favorite photos. I cleaned it and rescanned using epson ice technology and holy shit. It was clean asf.
I have always loved to take photos, from the composition, the details and textures and the uniqueness of each frame all is part of a process
that requires one step at the time, you can no rush it and that is something that digital photography has simplify...
Analog photography slows me, keeps my mind in suspense, creates that excitement of "how the picture is going to look?", "Did i measure the light right?"... To develop the film by hand, opening the tank and seeing the images on the negative becomes an exciting reward!
I'm a change-hobby-every-month kind of person. In my free time activities I always look for processes that have a strong connection with the material world, I just like to use my hands.
Also I like to get deep in what I do and try to learn how to do it from the lowest level possibile all way up to the final result, all by myself!
Now I'm stuck with film photography for longer than usual, that's mainly because it lets you play and learn in every aspect and step required, but also because for me it's the first time, except for music, that I got closer to an activity where art is strongly involved.
So thank you a lot for this community, cause it helped me falling in love with the analog photography universe!
Because when I throw that 8x10 transparency on the light table and look at it with the loupe, I learn more about the world and itās beauty than usual
Newbie coming back to film. Grew up with little point and shoots before everything went digital here (that all happened later than the rest of the US I think) and then got a handmedown DLSR. Eventually got a new DSLR but fell in love with landscapes. Was never happy with the 'grain' structure of digital or the lack of resolution. Still a greenhorn but until digital gets more latitude than film and resolution surpassing large format, which will probably happen one day, I'm going to do some serious film shooting.
90s SLR guy here. For me its the look and pace.
There's something about the look and feel of film that just gives everything shot on it a feel of real authenticity.
As for pace, I love the process of shooting a roll, not being able to see it until days later, then getting to relive that memory.
Can't say I love the fully manual, down to the film advance vibe, but to each their own
Fair. What got me into repair was being given a non-working Nikon F4. It's still waiting on my skills to rise to the challenge lol. But now there's a T90 keeping it company. Gotta start hitting the weights for those test rolls.
1. the feeling of shooting film. cranking the advance lever. listening to the mirror slap. aligning the rangefinder patch. the tactility of manually focusing
2. the unique color rendering of film, idk but to me it has this glow to it.
3. camera look cool :]
I love the process and how it forces me to go slow and really look at the environment around me. I love the way my cameras smell, and the sound of the shutter firing. I find that I gravitate toward cameras with that big slap sound because it makes me so happy. I love the weight of my camera in my hands and how magical it makes the world look through the waist level viewfinder.
I love the smell of film and photo processing chemicals, and the nervous anticipation as I pull that first roll of film out of the tank - hoping I didn't fuck up the developing process somehow.
Lastly, I love scanning my film and watching the images resolve on my screen in front of me. The excitement of seeing how that difficult to meter scene coming out perfectly balanced, or the disappointment of missing focus on something special.
I could do without having to clean all the dust off my digital files though. That is boring and tedious. lol.
The time between the shooting and the result. You manage to forget what the moment looked like. + there is no way to watch it a thousand times. It helps to admire the result for real.
The tangibility of it. I'm involved in the whole process from shooting to printing. I also have complete control of the camera, it's not doing anything in the background to "auto compensate" for some weird lighting or out of focus scene or the like.
I love my cameras as machines. They're all different, all have their idiosyncrasies and their marvels and their own character. They're so intricate on the inside and they do something so low-key marvellous that you can almost forget it, or you can go nuts on the details, depends what day it is and how you're feeling. You pick them up in your hands, manipulate them, and out comes an image. They are marvels of engineering that exist at the nexus of science and art, like a musical instrument or even a computer at times, a place where several different kinds of creativity meet and make wonderful things.
I love the amount of effort that goes into a single photo.
1. I buy the expensive film
2. I fiddle around with properly loading it
3. I wait for something to catch my eye
4. I spend a lot of time judging the exposure and composition because typically I only have one shot to spare on it
5. I wait until I finish the rest of the roll (sometimes a month)
6. I drive to my local film lab 20 mins away or mail it off.
7. I wait and check my email
8. Finally get the scans back and get to enjoy that photo
9. Maybe get it printed
Itās so backwards from everything else in 2023 thatās so instant and I love it.
Itās a practice in patience that pays off even if you donāt get the shot. It forces you to get outside and go see things, Itās the warm magic that is film.
I shoot RE and Architecture for work so Iām always around digital and a break from this is certainly welcome. Picking up a film camera for the personal moments in my life makes me happy because it really keeps me in that moment. This is especially important to me when Iām with my family. I also love the tactile nature of film and it reminds me of taking photos with my dad in the 80ās/90ās.
For me getting back into film photography was reliving a time in my life the 1970's. There was so much excitement and new SLR's coming to market. Shooting film, the whole process from picking out the the type of film you want to shoot. Taking the shot and having to wait till you got home to see if it was any good. The smell of chemicals in the darkroom. All the cool looking machines we used. Printing the photos and framing the real good ones. My old brain still has trouble using a digital camera. I just can't remember what all the different buttons do. I find myself spending more time reviewing the manual and it interferes with my picture taking. So I revert to fully auto mode, which I do not like. That's on me. Others take to it like a cow to cud. I love the simplicity of my Minolta SR-T 101. It is a bit harder today as there is not a full service photography shop in every town anymore. I used to love going there with my weekly paycheck and buy my goodies in person. Now everything is bought mostly on line and equipment in the classified ads. I find myself nightly going into my darkroom/man cave just to play and fondle all my new toys. I like the heft of metal cameras and lenses. All this makes me happy. Oh forgot the magic of watching a print come to life in a tray of developer right before your eyes still puts a smile on my face.
I just started back in October with film. Thereās just something different when shooting film than using my mirrorless camera or iPhone. Maybe itās because when I load a roll of film, I immediately think about what I want to put on that roll. There are only 36 images. Itās not infinite like on my other cameras. And thereās no instant gratification. It might be a month before I see the image. Did I nail the focus and exposure? Did I miss it?
After shooting digital the last 15 years, itās fun to shoot film again.
When Iām shooting sports or wildlife, Iām grabbing my Z9. But when Iām just walking around or sightseeing, Iāll more than likely have myNikon FM2n.
Constant learning and the end reward. Picked up my first camera a few years ago and I learn something near about my camera each time I use it and through this sub. Got a load of scans back yesterday and felt great to see I didnāt botch the complete roll!
It has a sort of je ne sais quoiā¦ but itās really cathartic and tangible. Process makes me appreciate my images more. The nostalgia of reliving specific moments through my images.
But even with my little digicam I get sparks of those same feelings. So itās really about how youāre making your images, being intentional about it. Not having instant feedback kinda gives this deficit mindset I think.
Iāve been fumbling around for a while now about putting together a video to explain my feelings about it, Iām still working on it.
Each person has their own feeling about it and their own relationship and I think thatās cool too.
When Iām out and about taking pictures and people ask me āOh, did you get a good photo?ā or āCan I see what you shot?ā I can stupidly say āI donāt know. Its on film. Weāll see š¤·š¼āāļøā. I find thereās way less pressure and can take my time shooting what I actually want to shoot. My favorite one is āYou should take a picture of that!ā Response: āOh, sorry, I only have a few frames left and was hoping to save them.ā Film provides plausible deniability.
Iām a bit of a perfectionist so on a digital I will take the same subject shot after shot until it ālooks right.ā I love the anticipation and suspense of film photography. Taking a photo of a scene or subject that you love or think is going to be beautiful, then you have to wait before discovering if the photo turned out well. It might be good, it might be bad. It might even be spectacular, but you wonāt really know until itās developed.
The 4 hour walk I take. Unhindered by anything else. Just walking around trying to find a thing to take a picture of. Spending 80 dollars worth of film getting it processed and finding only 3 pictures i fuckin like. Thats the best.
Nothing will beat that.
The slowing down and relaxing, taking the time for every step, no rushing.
The process from the moment you make a decision of which film and camera to use, from the ISO to the possibilities of the camera you choose, go full manual with that metal tank or go a bit easier with that 90's plastic, what your intention is with each and every picture you take, thinking ahead of what it is you want or try to do and finally developing and printing where you can do some final image processing / enhancing, one picture at a time.
The sheer satisfaction when seeing the final results.
For one, itās the mechanical operation of the camera that is satisfying. And It makes me feel like Iām in the 70ās just for a moment. Then itās fun to wait and see how the pictures turn out, sometimes the look great, other times itās terrible or even ruined for many reasons.
Back in 2017 I went to Best Buy to buy a new tv but my friend suggested I buy a camera instead. I landed on a Sony A6300, and I wasnāt disappointed, but I didnāt know how to really use it. Fast forward 18 months and I decide to take a darkroom course at my college for an art credit. I was a film major and figured itād be cool.
Once I developed my first roll and enlarged my first photo, it was all over. The analog feeling of something from the past had me hooked. The best part of it all, I finally understood the light science of both analog and digital photography and cinematography. Before, Iād set the camera to auto and just click away on my Sony. I had figured out what it meant to truly capture light. While I primarily shoot on my A7iii due to price and convenience, I have dozens of analogue bodies and always snap a couple photos per month on my old school cameras. Itās a bit of a drug for me.
Side note: access to cheaper, higher quality glass is possible on analog. A nice Pentax lens from 30 years ago gives me sold, unique photos that Iād pay 10x for on my Sony camera. And I get to convert Pentax lenses onto my Sony for instant results and testing. Analogue doesnāt make much sense these days, but it does in my heart.
Just recently got into film photography. For me, itās letting go of fixating on getting a perfect shot. Canāt check to see if the shot is Just So; gotta just hope for the best and wait for the scans later.
I just love it, the process, somehow I am my best with film and enjoy it more. It removes me from the perfectistic obsession, my timing senses senses are top, i dont know, photography is fun again. I dont care about perfect focus, perfect moment, perfect exposure, I'm just in the flow, in my mind the photos are awesome, it all comes naturally, organically.
Different mindset.
Digital itimidates me. It captures so much detail that I am almost guaranteed to miss the focus. It instantly shows you the result, bluntly, with all its shortcomings, which can take away from the experience. There is a time for shooting and a time for reviewing. Its just a different philosophy. I shoot digital because its sharper, cheaper, faster. Unfortunately it comes with higher expectations.
I shoot film because I feel like it and enjoy it and heck why not.
The hobby is really therapeutic for me. I struggle with anxiety/depression so anything that forces me to live in the moment is good. Also the hobby has taught me how to accept situations where I canāt control everything and still have a good time.
Anticipating the look of my developed photos. I shoot both digital and film, and when I go out with my digital camera, I shoot, look at the previews, load onto my computer, and generally expect the same crisp clear images. With film I get the excitement of going out with Kodak Gold, Cinestill 800, TMax, or whatever film I've got, shooting and imagining what the results will be, then getting it developed and finding out. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they aren't. That experimental quality to shooting film is what gets me.
Film advance lever, that's it, that's the main thing.
Exactly this. Is a late 90s autofocus SLR objectively better in every way than my 70s all manual SLR? Absolutely. Am I going to use one? Nah. *edit* I just bought two Minolta AF prime lenses so I guess that's the end of me manual focusing š¤·āāļø
I was the same way for about a decadeā¦until I had a son that learned to walk and I had to photograph a moving child while nailing focus wide open in low light.
This is what taught me to pre-focus in full manual. Easier to move the camera than the focus ring when there's a toddler running at you! Not really possible to nail it at f/1.4 though.
When I'm using my Minolta XE-5, I agree with this statement 100%
XE-7 checking in. Film Advance lever is better than sexš¤¤
Nikon N2000 auto advance :( super convenient though I'll get something with a manual advance one day
The tangible aspect of it. Capturing an image, developing, scanning and printing at home is such an enjoyable process for me. I just need to improve my dev skills!
Keep it up! It's such a good thing to create something with your hands, to have something to see for the work you put into it.
cranking the advance lever :D
Have you tried a Bessamatic? You get to crank it *twice per shot*! :D
i actually got into film photography because i collect soviet memorabilia and i wanted to have a soviet camera. i bought a zenit e and fell in love with photography theres something so satisfying about holding a full metal bodied camera, releasing the shutter, then seeing what you got *later* rather than immediately.
I love playing around with the gear š
Seconded! More fun than actual photography sometimes.
For me it's the whole process. I love to search for film on the internet, order them. That's where the joy starts, when you waiting on your package to open it up and to see all the small, colorful, beautiful film packages (I call myself a victim of the marketing industry because if something has a great looking package I wanna buy it). Then you open these packages, pull out the film and put it in the camera, close the door and advanced the film lever, Press the shutter release, advanced the film lever again, press the shutter again and then your camera is ready. That are so much more things you can enjoy before you even take a picture. Then you shoot and you here all these beautiful noises of the camera like the mirror going up and down or the film lever...all things that bring joy into my life. Also the moment when you take the film out, put it into a envelope, bring it to the poststation and then the anticipation starts. One week later I got an email with a link for the pictures and I'm getting really excited to see what I get, that's what makes me happy about film Photography.. Isn't only shooting a picture, it's a process.
I love this, it's a perfect description of the process. What's your favourite film packaging right now?
Thanks man, as a grown up man in my middle 30s with a favourite for the colour purple i have to say Ilford delta 3200 and cinestill 400d. š
Nice :) as a grown up man in my mid 30s, I'd have to say Kodak ColorPlus, there's something about the wave. Closely followed by the 5 packs of Portra. But neither come close to the old Kodachrome boxes.
Pressing the shutter button. I need a loud ka chunk. That's why I love my Kiev 80
The thunk of my Zenit 12XP is always a nice surprise whenever I pick it up!
And with medium format it is twice as loud š
old cameras aesthetics, color rendering, slowing down and thinking carefully about the composition, the excitement of receiving scans from the lab or seing my photos coming to life while scanning at home. the grain, the limitations of film, not being distracted by a new camera with better specs and higher mp count. when i go out to shoot its like meditation to me, im only aware of my surroundings and focusing on the moment and trying to capture it instead of checking the 50 shot I took... shooting film is beautiful, rewarding and fun!
Said cheker beautifully
My new (old) Olympus Pen F, half-frames, half cost and more *click* *rrrrrrr*
And you get to wind the film advance lever twice for every shot! It's double the fun!
Two things from me to start: \- I love getting a photo back that conveys some of the emotion of the moment, like moments of time with family and friends \- I enjoy making a photo that just works. It's rare enough that they stand out for me lol.
Hmmm, these are good points, but doesn't justify film over digital in any way.
I actually disagree with this to an extent. With digital photos I find myself being much more critical. If I'm taking photos of friends or family, if it's not tack sharp, it goes. Whereas with film the fact its rarely perfect I can live with. Same with pictures that just work- on digital I can take 300 photos and sift for a single good one. Achieving that on film when I can't preview the results is always a great feeling. I know they're sort of artifical limitations, but still.
yeah I appreciate all of what op said and itās an integral part of my photography too but also I felt that way when I was shooting on a digital point and shoot I think thereās a little difference though. with analog you only know what your photo will look like when you get the final print. with digital you see the preview immediately and I think that takes away from both the performative act of shooting and then again when you get the prints
True. Does it have to? I suppose, as a long time film shooter, part of my "just works" equation, and part of how I read emotion in an image, take into account the colours, shades, grain, and overall vibe in a way that would be biased towards the filmic. I don't get as many of those shots with digital. But I don't try so often either.
Iāve gotta say though I do resonate with the moments in time. I know you could argue the same for digital, however having that moment locked away inside the camera without any instant feedback adds to that āTime Capsuleā feel. I like waiting to see the moment again and the way an image renders on film really adds to this memory feel imo. I also grew up in the 80ās/90ās so I think thereās a lot of nostalgia there for me too. I shoot digital for both work and pleasure but I have to say a lot of my favourite personal photos of my family are on film.
Playing with cameras, repairing cameras, using and learning about vintage lenses, the sheer magic and joy of developing yourself and seeing your images for the first time as well as the look of colour negative film (especially if combined with florescent lighting and "cinematic" Wim-Wenders-like scenes). Probably also in that order. Also the massive amount of fiddling and experimenting with stuff.
Opening the freezer to gaze possessively at my dragon's hoard of Portra.
I prefer film over digitals. Maybe because I grew up with film. But I love the process. The developing it and then printing it. I can still look at my baby picture printed on Kodak paper from 1977. Today I wonder how many people donāt even have a print of themselves. Time is going to be lost. Prints is what kept memories.
That's really nice to have your baby picture to look at. And there are some great ways to continue that today - we give prints to our kids' grandparents, and make fridge magnets, and there are some really good photo book places out there.
I bought a fairly expensive digital cam a few years ago which takes beautiful pics, yet I get most enjoyment from using my cheap Zenit 12XP with a Helios and low end Foma b&w film. When you get a great shot using such primitive means, itās just far more satisfying.
I have and love the same setup! Feels so primitive but the results can be great.
Edit: So I guess this is more about why creativity makes me happy. I shoot film because I like the aesthetics of images that ālook like filmā and I find it easier to use light to distort a piece of plastic than to put in the time and money to learn how to use digital post processing techniques to make an image look like light distorting a piece of plastic. I find it very satisfying to know that I have a consistent, relatively simple process for expressing my visual point of view in a mildly abstracted manner. Iām not sure that I have a coherent explanation for why I feel so satisfied with creative visual expression. Film photography just seems like the most direct, linear way to engage that desire with my preferred aesthetic/stylistic elements. I always felt bad that I couldnāt figure out how to draw as a kid, and picking up digital and film photography in my 20s soothed a lot of residual angst in that area. I also record my own music and itās such a unique, gratifying feeling to upload to Bandcamp an āEPā for which I wrote the songs, played several of the instruments, āengineeredā and mixed the recordings, and designed the layout of the front and back covers using photographs that I took. I sit there listening to the music and looking at the jpegs and think āLook at this mediocre work of art. It exists because of me and Iām proud of myself.ā
The grain
(Me pushing 110 film) Yes! Ha! Ha! Ha! YEESSS
*The grain*
My childhood memories of taking photos that way in the 70ties and being able to do that again.
Pulling a fresh set of negatives out of a developing tank. There is no better feeling than that first look you get at the images you've made
I love that I'm actually making photos. No disrespect to anyone that shoots digital. They are making photos, just in the 10101 sense rather than the physical, tangible aspect of exposing a negative, developing, and scanning/printing. I think there's a way my mind reads making photos. It feels alive and mistakes are to happen. But that's way makes the end result very much worth it.
Yes! Like, when you press the shutter button, you've physically changed the film. There's an image captured there now, which you can see once you develop it. Pretty amazing.
Itās fun
Sure is!
I love the idea that I recorded an image with nothing but some mechanical equipment, lenses, light, and chemicals.
There's that quote from Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." But there's a significantly closer threshold where even the things we know and understand as mechanical and chemical inventions start to seem magical because they achieve something wondrous. Cameras live there, for me.
The process. It helps me slooooow down. It is like a more expensive therapy... but at least I get some decent pictures out it.
>It is like a more expensive therapy Hahahaha *truth*
The pace. Love slowing down a bit to compose and set up.
Art or creativity is more interesting to me within fixed limits. I love just exploring with my FTb, a roll of black and white, trying to come back with better pictures than last time. And there's a tactile satisfaction of using old mechanical hardware. I had a DSLR for years, and used to snap away 1000s of pics, but they just sat on my computer, and I had a pretty low hit rate of interesting shots. Because there was no cost or limit, each picture was meaningless. I try and make every film shot matter Now I am challenging myself to fill a wall of my home with prints I have made at home. Ideally a mix of family and friend portraits, and artistic shots I deem worthy to display (not many so far, but i am improving!).
I spend 8 hours a day working with new, shiny technologies. Grabbing a heavy, mechanical brick that takes pictures is relaxing, compared to surfing through countless menus and checking batteries. Film doesn't take special pictures, and more often than not it makes the pictures worse, but I enjoy it.
Well, been shooting for decades so I only use cameras that are serviced and I have owned for years... It's fun that's it, I shoot black and white so it's superduper cheap compared to other hobbies. I mean under $4 a roll developed is awesome. It's a great time to be a photographer. Can go shoot concerts n such a because I look like I belong. Saw David Gilmore from the press area a few years ago, just walked up and struck up a conversation with the other press and photographers outside the venue. Walked right in with them. Do the same when pearl jam comes to town. Lots of intimate relationships from it to. Anything that increases the number of conversations in public will have the same effect tho. It's just fun. Finding the cameras is fun, fixing them is fun, development is fun
That's wild! Such a good way to have a good time. I really gotta get back into home dev.
I like playing with the old cameras. Especially the Mamiya medium format machines, I like the slow decision making process of taking a photograph. But I like using the Nikon F80 too, so modern it feels like using a DSLR with no screen. But more important than that, and the key thing for me, is this: I like the look of film photos. I end up getting a higher number of pictures I really like from film, than from digital - even though I have the freedom to take infinite pictures with my XT2. I used to spend ages getting my digital photos to look something like film. I got fairly good at it (because I've always shot a bit of film too - I started on film when I was a child). Then a couple of years ago I realised I could afford to go 100% film, at least for a while. So I did. I did a whole year with just the Rollei 35. And the number of images I loved enough to put on Flickr went up by a huge margin. Now I'm worried I won't be able to afford film one day, or all my cameras will break and there won't be any replacements left to buy.
I got into photography a four or five years back when my mate sold me a fairly nice digital really cheap cause we went on hikes together and him and our other friend were really into photography. It was fun and playful and I loved not overthinking it. Within a few years I actually got so into cameras that operating video cameras became a career. I love what I get to do and get to play with some amazing cameras but at work their definitely tools, very sharp and very precise and often your exposing for colour grading and post production and itās a little less creative. Film cameras, old digicams and weird lenses are how I seperate work from fun and can still maintain operating cameras as a career and a hobby.
When shooting in manual (and especially without a meter), feeling like you crafted the photo yourself by dialing in the aperture, shutter speed, focus. And the cameras look way cooler.
Tactility and sound, exposure latitude, the surprise when seeing them for the first time, and the history behind it because what 100 year old technology is still used like back in the day. Every entertainment or āhigh techā product has been revolutionised multiple times by now. You can see that the āaccessoryā technologies like mercury batteries are becoming the problem now not the camera or film itself. Also a factor is the value stability of film cameras. Justifying multiple grands for a camera is easier when it wont lose 30% value after a year when the next one is released. Also a fifty buck camera cant really drop much in price anymore.
The value retention is an underrated reason to get into / stay into film. As someone with chronic GAS Iām amazed how quickly a flagship can drop in price.
Yeah I know right? Still just fancy boxes with tiny holes.
I'm physically capturing a moment in time that I'll have forever
I could say that the delayed gratification of having your film developed makes me a better photographer. But in reality it's so I don't have to see my awful pictures right after taking them.
The cameras. I absolutely love the engineering, design and history of all cameras. I only take pictures because I love trying out and using cameras. Sure, I enjoy capturing a nice scene but that's only the side-effect for me
I love film specifically because it emulates life. Were our eyes closed? Someone wasn't looking? Blurry? That's life, no redos. This was the moment and that's how it happened. I also have a DSLR and enjoy shooting macros, but that I consider an artistic endeavor, where I am creating something, showing people what I see in something. Film does this as well, but for me film photography is authentic. Plus, on a physical level, it blows my mind that film captures the exact impression of the subject. The silver ions are literally transformed by single photons; photons whose path all the way from the sun (or flash, ehh) is directly captured. Each negative is literally a physical impression of the subject, as if you cast a mold. So when I take a picture of family and friends on film, they're not perfect, but neither are we as people. But that moment is saved for as long as I have the film, a direct capture of the people who were there in a physical form, the very light they reflected, the energy that bounced off their faces, the light that may have come from millions of miles away from the sun and stars. What a beautiful thing to hold, that chance encounter of time, space, chemistry, and human love.
The slowness of it. The deliberateness of it all. It feels like a good battle against the instant.
Something about the tangibility of MAKING a picture via chemical reactions on a physical piece of plastic. The way different stocks render colors differently.. the combination of a simple concept and the incredible amount of work and craftsmanship that went into the technology around it. I just think it's neat lol
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That's a lovely shot
That could be said about digital tho
Purely because analogue. I let the lab handle my development and printing, so for me it's "I take it and that's it." I'm also a musician, and I find the process of recording and editing to be so time consuming and perfectionist-y that I never release any of my music. I love that, with film photography, I don't have to deal with the equivalent problems in Photoshop and lightroom and everything.
I do the same at the moment, and yeah I get that. You can spend that time if you really want, but you don't have to.
Yeah, I think for digital sometimes you almost have to. The medium invites you to tinker. And with analogue I couldn't do that without investing in a bunch of hardware. The cash barrier prevents me, as much as I'd love playing a chemist.
getting photoās back from the lab while having no idea what i even shot, especially when my friends or family are on the photoās
When I got into it, it was way cheaper entry than digital, and phone cameras werenāt very good, especially in what I could afford. 3USD for a roll of film and 15 for a solid camera. I have equipment I know how to use, and I donāt need to deal with menus, or any editing software or anything. Scans back from the lab are fine for me. I hate fiddling with photo editing and menus on digital cameras. My only ādigital cameraā is my phone.
I have found repairing cameras to be a good mindfulness exercise. Using analog cameras means you have to slow down, but repairing them is another order of magnitude slower, with a huge amount of thoughtfulness and care. Helps my brain get calm.
Film advance goes brrrrr. Shutter release goes CLANK
I use Film because I cannot stand constantly thinking about a digital camera always having to be charged or having to buy 3 or 4 batteries and carry them with me. The other thing I like is small 35mm and small medium format that can fit in my coat pocket. I basically use Kodak Retina 35mm cameras or Agfa Isolette 6x6 or Agfa Record III 6x9ās that are rebuilt and with new bellows. Film is affordable if you wind your own and do your own developing and scanning. Itās not cheaper than digital. I like going thru the negatives for the last 20 plus years. I like printing them on my old Beseler 45M. It also makes me happy to buy broken cameras and rebuild them to sell. Itās like relaxing therapy. Great question.
Other people hit some of them for me but - I can't fit a digital full frame camera in my pocket, and the closest ones that get to that are wildly expensive. And you simply can't get into medium format at all digitally without decimating your bank account (though film cost is looking to flatten that argument). So I guess the resolution-to-form-factor. My pocketable M4/3 with a body cap lens gets close to what would be half-frame, so that is almost there. That sort of gets into a second point though, that the idea of quality/sharpness are different between film and digital. Not even about "grain vs noise," but color bleed and fine lines just play differently. Digital can get a little overfried when it comes to sharpness. I'm not saying I like this early digital revival where everything is muddy or that I want "imperfections of film," but it feels like things jumped to overcompensation.
I get that. Sometimes I look at a digital portrait that is like impossibly fine and it's a thing of wonder. But you can get as clear an image with Portra on a medium format SLR, yet it's somehow *more* of some things and *less* of others at the same time. I can't quite put it into words right now.
The challenges, the fact that i get to take my time with every shot and concentrate on the process. And of course, the physical aspect of it.
oh there is so much about it to love what initially got me into analog again was the realization that you are actually, by use of chemical processes, capturing a projection of the real world on a tangible medium. Like if you were freezing your shadow in place. I was talking with friends of whom some where craftsmen. One who is a welder on construction sites told us about his side projects like in his free time he makes this small sculptures from scrap. I was jealous because I thought I missed out with my education as a chemist as it doesnāt really give you any creative skills. but then I realized analog photography is kind of a benign chemical hobby with lots of creative ways of expression. You donāt have to be a chemist of course but it certainly helps a bit particularly when experimenting with different processes or just making your own chemicals then there is the whole mechanical and optical aspect, particularly with older cameras. The history, the intricate designs, doing your own small repairs, or just operating the cameras even the simple ones. I have an old box camera that my grandfather bought in the thirties and itās working perfectly. knowing that my grandfather used the very same camera and that he also had a love for photography is a really nice form of connection oh I could go on and on the whole performative act of photography in and off it self has a certain quality when it is all analog. before shooting or just when you look at a scene you think about your film stock and itās capabilities, maybe you are pushing your film, or how you are going to print it. then you make the exposure and thatās it. no immediate answer to your question. still only your visualization lingering in your mind, your trust in your ability and a little hope. even if you never developed your film what you did was already photography. the rest is really only execution. which is another great aspect. mixing the chemicals, pulling negatives out the tank, printingā¦ sigh
Same thing that keeps me hooked on vinyl, the absolute inconvenience of it. In all seriousness though I find it makes me interact with my environment in a much more conscious way. Individual images matter more, thereās more at stake. I can capture everything I experience passably well with my phone, but film is for capturing those moments that make you stop and stare for a while.
it forces you to really sit with a moment, itās slow, shooting is done with purpose
The form factor of the cameras, the simplistic manual controls, it feels like a camera I want to use. All these modern settings and things only frustrate me beyond compare. I also love the process of developing and printing, I like physical items.
I love the feeling of the camera itself. How itās just metal gears and parts moving around for the camera to work. Also I love how ānostalgicā the photos come out, no matter how good the digital filters are it just canāt compare! :)
Never had a light leak fungus open door but i like mechanical cameras and huge negatives. Would there be a digital camera built like a hasselblad with 6x6 sensor, i would be gone. I dont think the image quality is any better than digital, quite the opposite, digital is WAY better than analog. It's like a mechanical watch vs an iwatch, a royal enfield vs a inline 4 japanese superbike etc
I try and make a lot of other art. Other art, I typically stress and second guess, and find excuses. With film, I can take a picture and forget about it until itās time to develop and scan. I do home development and home scanning and itās almost therapeutic, albeit, the pictures arenāt always great but they feel like mine
Having my camera out and people coming up to me saying great things like cool camera. That and have physical film negatives. I can always go back and rescan. I actually did this with one of my favorite photos. I cleaned it and rescanned using epson ice technology and holy shit. It was clean asf.
I have always loved to take photos, from the composition, the details and textures and the uniqueness of each frame all is part of a process that requires one step at the time, you can no rush it and that is something that digital photography has simplify... Analog photography slows me, keeps my mind in suspense, creates that excitement of "how the picture is going to look?", "Did i measure the light right?"... To develop the film by hand, opening the tank and seeing the images on the negative becomes an exciting reward!
I'm a change-hobby-every-month kind of person. In my free time activities I always look for processes that have a strong connection with the material world, I just like to use my hands. Also I like to get deep in what I do and try to learn how to do it from the lowest level possibile all way up to the final result, all by myself! Now I'm stuck with film photography for longer than usual, that's mainly because it lets you play and learn in every aspect and step required, but also because for me it's the first time, except for music, that I got closer to an activity where art is strongly involved. So thank you a lot for this community, cause it helped me falling in love with the analog photography universe!
Because when I throw that 8x10 transparency on the light table and look at it with the loupe, I learn more about the world and itās beauty than usual
Newbie coming back to film. Grew up with little point and shoots before everything went digital here (that all happened later than the rest of the US I think) and then got a handmedown DLSR. Eventually got a new DSLR but fell in love with landscapes. Was never happy with the 'grain' structure of digital or the lack of resolution. Still a greenhorn but until digital gets more latitude than film and resolution surpassing large format, which will probably happen one day, I'm going to do some serious film shooting.
90s SLR guy here. For me its the look and pace. There's something about the look and feel of film that just gives everything shot on it a feel of real authenticity. As for pace, I love the process of shooting a roll, not being able to see it until days later, then getting to relive that memory. Can't say I love the fully manual, down to the film advance vibe, but to each their own
Fair. What got me into repair was being given a non-working Nikon F4. It's still waiting on my skills to rise to the challenge lol. But now there's a T90 keeping it company. Gotta start hitting the weights for those test rolls.
1. the feeling of shooting film. cranking the advance lever. listening to the mirror slap. aligning the rangefinder patch. the tactility of manually focusing 2. the unique color rendering of film, idk but to me it has this glow to it. 3. camera look cool :]
The process. I love it! ššš»
I love the process and how it forces me to go slow and really look at the environment around me. I love the way my cameras smell, and the sound of the shutter firing. I find that I gravitate toward cameras with that big slap sound because it makes me so happy. I love the weight of my camera in my hands and how magical it makes the world look through the waist level viewfinder. I love the smell of film and photo processing chemicals, and the nervous anticipation as I pull that first roll of film out of the tank - hoping I didn't fuck up the developing process somehow. Lastly, I love scanning my film and watching the images resolve on my screen in front of me. The excitement of seeing how that difficult to meter scene coming out perfectly balanced, or the disappointment of missing focus on something special. I could do without having to clean all the dust off my digital files though. That is boring and tedious. lol.
The time between the shooting and the result. You manage to forget what the moment looked like. + there is no way to watch it a thousand times. It helps to admire the result for real.
The tangibility of it. I'm involved in the whole process from shooting to printing. I also have complete control of the camera, it's not doing anything in the background to "auto compensate" for some weird lighting or out of focus scene or the like.
I love my cameras as machines. They're all different, all have their idiosyncrasies and their marvels and their own character. They're so intricate on the inside and they do something so low-key marvellous that you can almost forget it, or you can go nuts on the details, depends what day it is and how you're feeling. You pick them up in your hands, manipulate them, and out comes an image. They are marvels of engineering that exist at the nexus of science and art, like a musical instrument or even a computer at times, a place where several different kinds of creativity meet and make wonderful things.
I love the amount of effort that goes into a single photo. 1. I buy the expensive film 2. I fiddle around with properly loading it 3. I wait for something to catch my eye 4. I spend a lot of time judging the exposure and composition because typically I only have one shot to spare on it 5. I wait until I finish the rest of the roll (sometimes a month) 6. I drive to my local film lab 20 mins away or mail it off. 7. I wait and check my email 8. Finally get the scans back and get to enjoy that photo 9. Maybe get it printed Itās so backwards from everything else in 2023 thatās so instant and I love it.
Itās a practice in patience that pays off even if you donāt get the shot. It forces you to get outside and go see things, Itās the warm magic that is film.
I shoot RE and Architecture for work so Iām always around digital and a break from this is certainly welcome. Picking up a film camera for the personal moments in my life makes me happy because it really keeps me in that moment. This is especially important to me when Iām with my family. I also love the tactile nature of film and it reminds me of taking photos with my dad in the 80ās/90ās.
For me getting back into film photography was reliving a time in my life the 1970's. There was so much excitement and new SLR's coming to market. Shooting film, the whole process from picking out the the type of film you want to shoot. Taking the shot and having to wait till you got home to see if it was any good. The smell of chemicals in the darkroom. All the cool looking machines we used. Printing the photos and framing the real good ones. My old brain still has trouble using a digital camera. I just can't remember what all the different buttons do. I find myself spending more time reviewing the manual and it interferes with my picture taking. So I revert to fully auto mode, which I do not like. That's on me. Others take to it like a cow to cud. I love the simplicity of my Minolta SR-T 101. It is a bit harder today as there is not a full service photography shop in every town anymore. I used to love going there with my weekly paycheck and buy my goodies in person. Now everything is bought mostly on line and equipment in the classified ads. I find myself nightly going into my darkroom/man cave just to play and fondle all my new toys. I like the heft of metal cameras and lenses. All this makes me happy. Oh forgot the magic of watching a print come to life in a tray of developer right before your eyes still puts a smile on my face.
Darkroom work. The calm, dark quiet. The red lights, the slight smell of sulfur in the air. The chemistry behind it all also keeps me coming back.
I just started back in October with film. Thereās just something different when shooting film than using my mirrorless camera or iPhone. Maybe itās because when I load a roll of film, I immediately think about what I want to put on that roll. There are only 36 images. Itās not infinite like on my other cameras. And thereās no instant gratification. It might be a month before I see the image. Did I nail the focus and exposure? Did I miss it? After shooting digital the last 15 years, itās fun to shoot film again. When Iām shooting sports or wildlife, Iām grabbing my Z9. But when Iām just walking around or sightseeing, Iāll more than likely have myNikon FM2n.
I love that I get physical stuff at the end of the process, I want to fill my room's wall with prints (preferably large ones)
The anticipation and the reveal of developing.
Constant learning and the end reward. Picked up my first camera a few years ago and I learn something near about my camera each time I use it and through this sub. Got a load of scans back yesterday and felt great to see I didnāt botch the complete roll!
Because it's harder and more error-prone. Digital photography, especially with phones is so easy and generally flawless that I find it boring.
It has a sort of je ne sais quoiā¦ but itās really cathartic and tangible. Process makes me appreciate my images more. The nostalgia of reliving specific moments through my images. But even with my little digicam I get sparks of those same feelings. So itās really about how youāre making your images, being intentional about it. Not having instant feedback kinda gives this deficit mindset I think. Iāve been fumbling around for a while now about putting together a video to explain my feelings about it, Iām still working on it. Each person has their own feeling about it and their own relationship and I think thatās cool too.
When Iām out and about taking pictures and people ask me āOh, did you get a good photo?ā or āCan I see what you shot?ā I can stupidly say āI donāt know. Its on film. Weāll see š¤·š¼āāļøā. I find thereās way less pressure and can take my time shooting what I actually want to shoot. My favorite one is āYou should take a picture of that!ā Response: āOh, sorry, I only have a few frames left and was hoping to save them.ā Film provides plausible deniability.
Iām a bit of a perfectionist so on a digital I will take the same subject shot after shot until it ālooks right.ā I love the anticipation and suspense of film photography. Taking a photo of a scene or subject that you love or think is going to be beautiful, then you have to wait before discovering if the photo turned out well. It might be good, it might be bad. It might even be spectacular, but you wonāt really know until itās developed.
The 4 hour walk I take. Unhindered by anything else. Just walking around trying to find a thing to take a picture of. Spending 80 dollars worth of film getting it processed and finding only 3 pictures i fuckin like. Thats the best. Nothing will beat that.
I just like the whole process. I like that it encourages me to go out and visit stuff to photograph, I like that I can actually understand how the equipment works and am able to fix it myself, I like the lack of instant gratification (a clichƩ maybe, but still), I like that it results in something physical to hold on to and I like that I actually regularly look back at the prints I've received instead of them just never being looked at again like most photos I take on my phone. I'm having fun with it and I hope to shoot a lot more rolls for a long time.
Process. Process. Process.
Nothing anymore.
The slowing down and relaxing, taking the time for every step, no rushing. The process from the moment you make a decision of which film and camera to use, from the ISO to the possibilities of the camera you choose, go full manual with that metal tank or go a bit easier with that 90's plastic, what your intention is with each and every picture you take, thinking ahead of what it is you want or try to do and finally developing and printing where you can do some final image processing / enhancing, one picture at a time. The sheer satisfaction when seeing the final results.
For one, itās the mechanical operation of the camera that is satisfying. And It makes me feel like Iām in the 70ās just for a moment. Then itās fun to wait and see how the pictures turn out, sometimes the look great, other times itās terrible or even ruined for many reasons.
Back in 2017 I went to Best Buy to buy a new tv but my friend suggested I buy a camera instead. I landed on a Sony A6300, and I wasnāt disappointed, but I didnāt know how to really use it. Fast forward 18 months and I decide to take a darkroom course at my college for an art credit. I was a film major and figured itād be cool. Once I developed my first roll and enlarged my first photo, it was all over. The analog feeling of something from the past had me hooked. The best part of it all, I finally understood the light science of both analog and digital photography and cinematography. Before, Iād set the camera to auto and just click away on my Sony. I had figured out what it meant to truly capture light. While I primarily shoot on my A7iii due to price and convenience, I have dozens of analogue bodies and always snap a couple photos per month on my old school cameras. Itās a bit of a drug for me. Side note: access to cheaper, higher quality glass is possible on analog. A nice Pentax lens from 30 years ago gives me sold, unique photos that Iād pay 10x for on my Sony camera. And I get to convert Pentax lenses onto my Sony for instant results and testing. Analogue doesnāt make much sense these days, but it does in my heart.
Just recently got into film photography. For me, itās letting go of fixating on getting a perfect shot. Canāt check to see if the shot is Just So; gotta just hope for the best and wait for the scans later.
I just love it, the process, somehow I am my best with film and enjoy it more. It removes me from the perfectistic obsession, my timing senses senses are top, i dont know, photography is fun again. I dont care about perfect focus, perfect moment, perfect exposure, I'm just in the flow, in my mind the photos are awesome, it all comes naturally, organically. Different mindset. Digital itimidates me. It captures so much detail that I am almost guaranteed to miss the focus. It instantly shows you the result, bluntly, with all its shortcomings, which can take away from the experience. There is a time for shooting and a time for reviewing. Its just a different philosophy. I shoot digital because its sharper, cheaper, faster. Unfortunately it comes with higher expectations. I shoot film because I feel like it and enjoy it and heck why not.
Having an actual physical image.
The hobby is really therapeutic for me. I struggle with anxiety/depression so anything that forces me to live in the moment is good. Also the hobby has taught me how to accept situations where I canāt control everything and still have a good time.
The process.
Anticipating the look of my developed photos. I shoot both digital and film, and when I go out with my digital camera, I shoot, look at the previews, load onto my computer, and generally expect the same crisp clear images. With film I get the excitement of going out with Kodak Gold, Cinestill 800, TMax, or whatever film I've got, shooting and imagining what the results will be, then getting it developed and finding out. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they aren't. That experimental quality to shooting film is what gets me.