film camera

[violetdvs]

Has anyone here experienced using a film cam? I always wanted one but it's expensive just buying the film is too much already for me but I loved the pic and aesthetic.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Back in the day I bought 35mm film in bulk, loaded my own cassettes and had a darkroom in a converted kitchen where I developed film and prints. I spent many an hour adjusting chemistries and exposures to get things just right. Still have a pile of those prints around but once digital came along I digitized my negative and slide collection, switched to digital cameras and never looked back. Having a camera that has nearly infinite shooting options and holds thousands of shots is tough to beat. Having a darkroom in a laptop or tablet is equally hard to beat. No nolstalgia for me, I don't miss the putzing around, cost and aggravation of film for one second.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[8Muddypaws]

I still have several film cameras and several lenses. Got rid of the darkroom equipment decades ago. I had two different setups, one for B&W and the other for color.

 

[A Traveler]

Like Mark B., I also bought Kodachrome by the bushel back in the day. I shot 35mm slides with a selection of Canon bodies and lenses. I also made a lot of Cibachrome prints.

When digital came on the scene, I bought a Canon Digital Rebel and started climbing the digital learning curve. Now that I’ve used digital for a decade or so, I would never go back to film. I’ve upgraded the Canon to an EOS-70D with an assortment of Canon lenses.

While there may be a certain degree of nostalgia associated with shooting film these days, I don’t think it could be used for anything productive. Just getting the film processed is a problem.

Between the flexibility of the digital camera itself, and the “darkroom in a computer” with Adobe Photoshop, digital is definitely the way to go today.

 

[SeilerBird]

I took thousands of film shots and I thank the lord that for the last 25 years I have not had to screw around with darkrooms, chemicals and massive waste. No more taking a shot and waiting a week to see if it came out. Digital photos are dirt cheap compared to film.

 

[Larry N.]

My first serious camera (I had a Kodak Brownie as a kid) was an Argus C4 my Dad gave me in the late '60s, and I went on from there to SLRs, then to digital. I still have several film cameras (they're a glut on the market, and too nice to just pitch), but digital is so much better/more versatile. And with digital I can shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot without having to change film every 24 or 36 shots, with the SDHC cards giving capacity in the thousands, not to mention the ease of getting them on computers/tablets/etc. and ease of sharing them with others and ease of culling them.

They're easier to keep track of/organize pictures too, only printing them (gorgeous pics) when there's a specific purpose. No more cardboard boxes, index cards, etc. just to try to organize pics. And I can even take those I want to show with me. And since most of my film pictures were slides, projector and screen were a hassle -- most have now been digitized and merged with my others on computer/tablet/phone/whatever.

And more...

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

an Argus C4 my Dad gave me in the late '60s,

I still have the one my grandfather gave me. I can't bear to toss it out. Along with a C3, a few brownies and a Voigtlander bellows camera my great aunt carried around europe in WWII. I sold the kit and caboodle of SLR, lenses, flashes and whatnot at a yard sale for a few bucks and was grateful to get that much. I see nice SLR's at thrift stores from time to time and it seems such a shame to see such precision machinery relegated to junk. Once in a while I'll see an enlarger or other darkroom equipment and remember the days, but man what a process to go through to end up with what might be just a few prints. When I digitized my negatives and slides I bought a Nikon film scanner and fed them through assembly line style. Discovered a lot of shots that I wouldn't have bothered spending an hour or more doing on paper, but a few seconds with an image utility, save to network storage and there they are in full glory on my large screen TV. I have a nice Canon digital camera but I'd say 99% of the shots I take are with my phone. I'm no Ansel Adams, and anymore I don't want to schelp around a bunch of camera equipment so the phone is the tool of choice.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Roy M]

I don't miss it either. If I take a bad shot I know right away and most times can delete it and take another. The digital quality is so much better and it is a heck of a lot cheaper. Mom was an accomplished amateur photographer for years, she was absolutely amazed at my nephews first digital. He was was editing our Christmas pictures on the tv, something she spent hours at in the darkroom. She looked at me, shook her head and laughed.

 

[Laura & Charles]

Like others have said, I bought 35mm film in bulk and had a dark room. Took me a while to jump on digital format. Like Seiler said, film is expensive, digital’s cost is pretty much all up front.

These days I rarely get my digital SLR out because my phone’s cam is just so darned good.

 

[Great Horned Owl]

......... Having a camera that has nearly infinite shooting options and holds thousands of shots is tough to beat. Having a darkroom in a laptop or tablet is equally hard to beat. No nolstalgia for me, I don't miss the putzing around, cost and aggravation of film for one second.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

I too have a couple of 35mm SLRs with a collection of lenses. I also have an enlarger and the rest of the darkroom equipment. The whole mess is just sitting around taking up space, but I hate to throw it all out.

When I first started shooting digital, I used Photoshop as my "darkroom." It was expensive, but there just wasn't anything else that would really do the job. Today, Photoshop Elements is both capable and affordable.

Mark, you missed some other advantages of the digital darkroom. It's a lot faster, both in setup and in operation. When you make a mistake, you fix it. With the traditional darkroom, you threw a mistake away, sometimes at considerable cost, and or lost shots. Finally, the digital darkroom doesn't smell as bad, and is less toxic.

Joel