[6BQ5]

I shot film with my Dad as a kid, both color and B&W. Like many, I stopped shooting film and shot digital but I wasn't a serious enthusiast until a few years back. Nostalgia got to the best of me recently and I have been shooting film again this year. My biggest obstacle was the development process. Once I discovered my local shop processes C41 film for $3/roll and that I can camera scan my negatives with my K-30 I was off to the races! This gives me the best of both worlds at the expense of having limitations from both worlds too.

I really enjoy film for the variety of colors, textures, and opportunities it provides that digital cannot match without a lot of hard work. For as much as I enjoy post processing I don't want to be stuck behind a monitor trying to digitally create a look that is easily available chemically. I want to spend more time on the shot at the moment.

I also really enjoy the tactile feel of using film cameras. The physical interaction is very special to me and it heightens my experience.

[ChrisPlatt]

Photography has been an interest and a hobby since the early 1970's.
I'm not as active a film shooter as I once was, but I've never stopped.

It's digital photography I just can't get excited about, though I've tried...

Chris

[TonyTurley]

Thanks for all of the film processing links. I've never developed film myself, although I considered it it my youth. I just never got around to trying it.

[patrick9]

I'm curious who you folks use to develop your film. I haven't shot film in a while, but have some old rolls I need to develop. I was never satisfied with the quality of work done by Wal Mart, Rite Aide, or any of the other 1-hour photo places.

I guess I am lucky. A forum member here has opened a photo lab here in town. That is after he started teaching me to develope my own film. I use him. If you wish I can get his mailing info and PM it to you.

[MD Optofonik]

Thanks for all of the film processing links. I've never developed film myself, although I considered it it my youth. I just never got around to trying it.

If you decide to shoot B&W it's very easy and a bit of a thrill to see your images unspool from the reel. I haven't developed color yet but I'm hoping to start next summer. Although temperature requirements for B&W processing are very forgiving (relative to color) I'm using my B&W processing to practice strict temperature regulation in preparation for doing E6.

[robthebloke]

I'm curious who you folks use to develop your film. I haven't shot film in a while, but have some old rolls I need to develop. I was never satisfied with the quality of work done by Wal Mart, Rite Aide, or any of the other 1-hour photo places.

I use a local independent place in the uk (probably not useful for you) called snaps. My advice would be to phone around a bunch of places, and go for the one that is cheapish, and uses a noritsu scanner. Don't worry about postal services. If it's 100miles away, but does a good job, it'll be worth the postage

---------- Post added 08-09-14 at 10:29 PM ----------

My sister found a box of ancient negatives that my dad shot of us when we were kids. We'd never actually seen them before - because whilst he developed his own film - he didn't tend to print many of them!

Kinda got me thinking that actually film has it merits!

Picked up a cheap 645 a while ago, and now it's the only camera I take to family get togethers! I figured the boxes of negs I'm now accumulating will give someone some joy in 30/40 years time.

After a while, I started doing my own b&w developing, because well, why wouldn't you!?!

[TonyTurley]

I use a local independent place in the uk (probably not useful for you) called snaps. My advice would be to phone around a bunch of places, and go for the one that is cheapish, and uses a noritsu scanner. Don't worry about postal services. If it's 100miles away, but does a good job, it'll be worth the postage

Thanks Rob.

[Nuff]

I started shooting film again about 1.5 years ago. I was going through my old film photos and thought how come my old photos looked so much better than my current ones? So I picked up ME Super and tried it with my limited lenses. I was blown away by the quality of colours, viewfinders and simplicity of the process. Then I got a MX, the next thing I knew I had Hasselblad and I traveled with this kit to Nepal and Japan. At this point I realised that my K5 didn't leave my bag for 1.5 years and I'm seriously considering selling it.

Now I'm looking for a Leica M3 and 50mm summilux. I used to own that lens on m43 camera and loved it, wish I never sold it when I moved to Pentax.

If all of my plans pan out, I will be taking the MX, M3 and Hasselblad to Myanmar end of this year. Not to mention lots of E6, C41 and BW film.

[patrick9]

After a while, I started doing my own b&w developing, because well, why wouldn't you!?!

I have a friend that was teaching me tom develop my own film. He opened a photo lab so I just let him do it for the time being. I still plan on eventually doing my own.
I just picked up a couple of Nikon film bodies and some lenses. Thought it might be fun to have a different set of film bodies to use along with my Pentax gear.

[Jonathan Mac]

I got interested in photography once I had a cheap Canon P&S, I upgraded to a Sony "bridge" camera and then to a Pentax DSLR, the K200D, which I still have, use and love.

My interest in film photography is two-pronged.

Firstly, I love old film cameras. They are beautiful to look at and to use, and even if I didn't use any of them I suspect I'd still collect them. I often have one on my desk purely for the purpose of looking at it, or picking it up occasionally and enjoying the feeling of cocking and firing it a few times.

Secondly, I feel that a lot of digital photographs lack a certain something that photos taken on film do not. A photo taken on film can be interesting to look at while the same photo taken on digital is flat and dull. Many people try to use ugly post-processing to make such photos interesting to look at, but they just end up making them worse. I still use digital a lot, but it has it's place, as does film. I certainly enjoy the process of shooting film more.

---------- Post added 08-15-14 at 09:56 AM ----------

I started shooting film again about 1.5 years ago. I was going through my old film photos and thought how come my old photos looked so much better than my current ones? So I picked up ME Super and tried it with my limited lenses. I was blown away by the quality of colours, viewfinders and simplicity of the process. Then I got a MX, the next thing I knew I had Hasselblad and I traveled with this kit to Nepal and Japan. At this point I realised that my K5 didn't leave my bag for 1.5 years and I'm seriously considering selling it.

Now I'm looking for a Leica M3 and 50mm summilux. I used to own that lens on m43 camera and loved it, wish I never sold it when I moved to Pentax.

If all of my plans pan out, I will be taking the MX, M3 and Hasselblad to Myanmar end of this year. Not to mention lots of E6, C41 and BW film.

It looks like this is working out very well for you - your flickr photostream is very good indeed. Sometimes I wish I had the courage to dump digital and go 100% film, but digital is too good at certain things so for now I'll carry on as I am.

[Nuff]

I got interested in photography once I had a cheap Canon P&S, I upgraded to a Sony "bridge" camera and then to a Pentax DSLR, the K200D, which I still have, use and love.

My interest in film photography is two-pronged.

Firstly, I love old film cameras. They are beautiful to look at and to use, and even if I didn't use any of them I suspect I'd still collect them. I often have one on my desk purely for the purpose of looking at it, or picking it up occasionally and enjoying the feeling of cocking and firing it a few times.

Secondly, I feel that a lot of digital photographs lack a certain something that photos taken on film do not. A photo taken on film can be interesting to look at while the same photo taken on digital is flat and dull. Many people try to use ugly post-processing to make such photos interesting to look at, but they just end up making them worse. I still use digital a lot, but it has it's place, as does film. I certainly enjoy the process of shooting film more.

---------- Post added 08-15-14 at 09:56 AM ----------



It looks like this is working out very well for you - your flickr photostream is very good indeed. Sometimes I wish I had the courage to dump digital and go 100% film, but digital is too good at certain things so for now I'll carry on as I am.

Thank you for the compliments I'm trying to improve.

I find that digital is good for high iso colour, when there's bad light... but the thing is, good photo is capturing great light, isn't it? Don't need high ISO for that.

I just decided not to take colour photos in low light and if I do, I will have tripod. For high iso I will shoot Ilford Delta 3200. It's grainy, but I like it.
In the trip I have mentioned I want to keep weight to minimum, and I had to decide between tripod or DSLR. The later got the cut, I think tripod is a lot more useful.

[aurele]

I started photography with my dad SLR, then got a DSLR, then after 3 years, went back to SLR

I could say the cliché things (that are partly right) like "it slows me down", "i'm more carefull in my shots", "it take more quality pictures", etc ...
But in fact it's more like Jonathan Mac :

I feel that a lot of digital photographs lack a certain something that photos taken on film do not. A photo taken on film can be interesting to look at while the same photo taken on digital is flat and dull.

And, i have to admit that the fact that film can't be erased by mistake, or disapear like data in a hard drive is very valuable. Film is both the way to save a picture and to store it for long time.
And let's not forget that in 10-20-30-50 years, i will still be able to "read" the content of my film. with digital moving so fast, i still have some data saved on things i propably can't read anymore because i probably don't have the machine to read it ! (like Zip / Floppy disk )

[SpartanD63]

I started out with digital on my K30. But then I found that I liked the idea and look of film. And being a techie, I know firsthand how unstable digital can be...
So, a few months ago, I started shooting film. I shoot it almost exclusively now.
I'm still experimenting with film stocks (I still really want to try some IR film) so I don't have a favorite yet. So far though, I like Portra 160 and Provia 100F for color and BW400CN and Svema films for B&W

The only reasons my K-30 has stayed are for video and for selling off gear. That's about it. I absolutely love the look and feel of film. I've even got a couple professional shoots coming up, and the K-30 will most likely stay at home.

[qblade]

I bought my first (non-Kodak 126) camera when I was in the Army and stationed in Germany in the mid to late 70s. The Army had audio-photo clubs (no membership fee) where you could buy stereo and camera gear below retail. I started with Nikon, then Contax, and a Bronica ETR. My wife and I did a lot of traveling in the 6 years we lived in Germany. I would shoot Kodachrome with the 35mm cameras, and print film with the medium format camera. Over time I traded in those older cameras for newer models and finally moved to digital a few years ago. The last film camera I sold was a pristine Rolleiflex 2.8GX that I had purchased from B&H Photo quite a while ago. I could kick myself for getting rid of it, but I was concerned I would have a two thousand dollar display item if it became all but impossible to continue buying and getting film processed. I never did any film processing myself; at the time that I would have really been interested in having a darkroom, the places we lived really didn't have a space I could use for that.

Now - just the other day, I ordered a Bronica S2 with 75mm f2.8 Nikkor lens, back, dark slide, caps and manual from Collectible Cameras marked down from $500 to $249. Couldn't resist. Time to shoot some film again. The package should arrive in a couple of days. The camera is entirely mechanical - no exposure meter, no battery. I think I'd like to try developing some B&W film this time around, but for at least the first few rolls I'll probably get it developed instead.

Of course, I still have digital cameras, and will continue using them, but I'm really interested in seeing what I can do with the Bronica and some film.