Shooting on film

[khendar]

I was wondering how many photographers on here still shoot on film ? I started out taking photos on a hand-me-down Canon A40, and have taken some pretty nice shots with it. However I decided I wanted to learn the more technical aspects of the craft, and not being able to afford a Digital SLR, I turned to ebay for some second hend film SLRs. I picked up a Minolta XG-1, a Pentax MG, and several lenses for each. Paid a maximum of $30 per piece :D. My hope is that taking a step backwards in terms of technology will make me pay more attention to the finer points of photography, in terms of keeping an eye on exposure, focus, aperture etc.

Anyone else feel the same way ? Or am I living in the stone age ? :P

[dejavu]

The argument goes both ways, and there are merit to both arguemnts too. I think at the end of the day, the oldies will say "go from first principle son, go film and learn the basics and when you are as old as me, you will understand why", but if you ask those who started out in the digital age they will say "digital is da bomb dude, buy it and get out shooting. By the 10'000th photo, your photos should be worthy".

Often it depends what you like to shoot. Say you have a passion for photojournalism. Digital it is. Why? ISO800 on my 10D, which considered pretty noisy, is quite acceptable. Fuji Press 800 is considered one of the best, and the grain is absoluately terrible! (mb I am just used to ISO50 and 100).

On the other hand, if you love shooting landscape, then both will do.

Macro: I would go digital too, since often you need a few shots to get the right one, and good ISO400 performance also helps to freeze the shot.

Film is just fine. At the end, it's all just a medium for your artistic expression, it doesn't really matter what you shoot with.

[Waynus]

Well if you are in the stone age then so am I!
I not only enjoy shooting film, in some ways I prefer it (probably because I have been doing it for 40 years). I still have 5 film cameras (all Pentax) & only 2 digitals.
Consideration needs to be given to the older generations who do not have equipment on which to view digital images & rather enjoy handling photographs and passing their comments (particularly where family members are the subjects).
I know digital photos can be printed but that opens up whole new issues.

[SirNobicus]

There are only minor differences between shooting with film or digital.
the one that I noticed the most when jumping to digital was you reduced the variations due to different types of film. (these effect can be added later post process)
the other is quality. film seems to still produce better results in the larger print sizes.
but on the down side learning on film can be a little expensive. getting film processed is not that cheap. (and the waiting for it to be developed)

They way that you use any SLR hasn't really changed.

[Ronbo]

Well to be honest I bought my dSLR to actually teach me how to effectively use my film camera.

I want to shoot Landscapes in b/w and with the cost of film and developing I wanted to learn all the nuances of composition, lighting and camera settings before I started this endeavour. Why not Post Process b/w? The answer is simple...from an engineering and mathmatical perspective you are taking something away from the image by doing b/w conversion of a digital image, so you do lose something in the conversion.

I have had film cameras since I was married and simply used them for family gatherings. But now I want to use them for artistic work as well. As you notice of the cameras I have most are film SLR's

I think that film has a distinct advantage over digital in picture quality with it's wider range of ISO(ASA) settings. Depending on the film I use I can get really clear and sharp images or noisy images..it would be my choice. Now without spending thousands of dollars on a professional camera film is the choice for what I would like to do.

[BarrieAllan]

Greetings All ;

There is still a place for ' film ' photography , although Color neg. and Slide films are becoming dearer .

In the end , however , it should be the FINAL IMAGE that is important ; the size or make or type of camera is not that important.

..............Cheers BarrieAllan, melbourne :)

[ricktas]

Welcome to AP Barry, the thread you have posted in is almost 4 years old. How about posting an introduction and showing us some of your photography?