[ChrisPlatt]

I prefer classic film cameras. Few digital cameras appeal to me.

Recently I decided to once again try a Fuji X100 digital camera.
It resembles a film camera in more ways than many other models.
Further Fuji SOOC JPEGs have a great reputation for high quality.

I purposely chose small capacity SD cards; each will hold about 30 images.
This should make me shoot more judiciously, as I would with a roll of film.

How do you make your experience of digital photography more film-like?

Chris

[clickclick]

I recently shot a roll of B&W and then took some pictures of specific frames with my K3 II (with my bellows setup for duplicating slides) and then used Paintshop Pro to apply a negative to the negative. I know many probably do this, but it was a first for me. I still print B&W in the darkroom, but this was my first hybrid approach. I kinda liked it. Just tweaked contrast and brightness a little bit, and that was nice to be able to do in post. And don't know why I'm so surprised, but the quality of it being B&W film was still there - I was happy to see grain the way I wanted to see grain as I zoomed in. Honestly though, I think some of what's going on is the K3 II is higher in raw resolution than the film, so it captured the look and feel so to speak - you see the grain before the pixels become evident. I can see bouncing between the two methods depending on mood. I did it because I was impatient - I wanted to see how my roll came out, but the weekend got busy and suddenly I was out of time to go into the darkroom, or so I thought, because when all said and done, I think I spent more time messing around with it on the computer....

[Pentax Syntax]

I agree that there is something special about film and the constraints it places on the photographer. Here are some of the things I have tried:

1. Shoot JPEG ONLY with the transparency rendering of the K-3 or K-1. Much like Kodachrome.
2. Shoot using Infrared setting on the B+W JPEG engine....very interesting and no need for a red filter or focus compensation....you film guys will know what I am talking about.
3. Shoot Sepia B+W setting JPEG only. With some of the digital filters this can be super neat.
4. In camera zoom during long exposure for those film-like zoom effects.
5. Use a fixed White Balance setting (like daylight) and alter the color rendering with filters (warming filter) just like to old days...remember Moose's warming polarizer?
6. Use the multi-exposure mode to catch the moon magnified and place it in a landscape in a single frame.....just like we did with multi-exposure on film.
7. Turn off AUTO ISO and set a constant ISO like 100 or 400. Then you are forced to really concentrate on shutter and aperture settings.

AND FINALLY....My favorite:

Turn of the back monitor to avoid even a passing glance at the captured image. Chimping is the one of the biggest changes that digital imaging has wrought and it is not conducive to deliberate image capture. Heck, even Polaroids required you to wait and shake before the image magically appeared :-). Think of all the fun you will have when you "develop" all of those images on the screen at home.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post!

[Tony Belding]

I tried a Fujifilm X-T1 for a while, and I did like the "retro" control scheme with dedicated ISO and shutter speed dials and an aperture ring on the lens. It reminded me a lot of my Pentax ZX-5n film camera, and that's a good thing. However, there were some other things about the Fuji that I didn't like so much, and I ended up going to a Sony Alpha A7 instead.

I have no native lenses for the Sony. I have only a couple of M42 thread mount adapters and a Pentax-K adapter and a set of vintage SLR lenses. It's all manual aperture, manual focus. (I have several Takumars, which are great, but my favorite lens is a Voigtlander Ultron 40mm F2). The Sony's EVF with focus peaking and magnification provides the best manual-focus experience I've had on any camera. I only shoot raw. That means there's a long, long list of camera settings related to autofocus and to JPEG rendering that I never have to think about anymore. It's a much simplified experience, more like shooting film.

I also got a nice set of film emulation presets for Lightroom, so I can simulate Kodachrome, Portra, Ektar, Tri-X, etc.

Turning off the LCD sounds like a good idea, but not too practical with the Sony because then it displays all the menus in the EVF as well. That's terribly awkward.

[aaacb]

I shoot film, my first camera was a film camera. I like it because it is consistent, once I find certain kinds of film that I like, all my photos will have the same tonal character. I've been trying to get that with digital by using presets when processing raw and really sticking to them except for exposure/shadows/highlights. I prefer the operation of a modern dslr, the only thing I'm trying to regain is having a similar look in most of my photos.

[Jacquot]

The X-100 is a nice camera, but also a bit quirky. It is definitely easy to shoot as one would a film camera. I have some difficulty with the view finder on it myself, compared to film bodies, and focusing can be tricky, and not like any film camera I had, but there are tricks for that. The images that I like most I processed as B&W from RAW. I think about that camera for B&W, so I relate it more to my film experience in that way. That said, I think Pentax Syntax has given some great advice. I just see post as the equivalent to darkroom work, which I did for B&W, so I shoot raw with it. Card capacity never really affected how I shoot digital. It would be interesting not to review the images in camera, that would be a big means of getting more into the film experience for me.

[Eyewanders]

I've largely given up pitting the two (film v digi) against one another. They are far too different. I've returned to shooting film more than 90% of the time, even for paid work but I shoot digital for the times that digital is suited. When I need an image immediately. When the ISO requirement is extremely high. When I'm shooting for online For-Sale postings or otherwise "throw-away" images. Or when I'm grabbing a random moment for social media, which in many ways is another kind of "throw-away" image. Barring those, I've returned to film once more pretty much entirely, for many reasons that so many others have gone on about ad nauseam (myself included occasionally, when evangelizing a bit) but the most important of which is simple: I enjoy it far more.

[ChristianRock]

I can't really afford to shoot much film these days, so what I do is emulate film in my post processing. I don't go for a particular film, just what I call a "60s/70s look" to the pictures.A bit like slide film but not exaggerated like I feel a lot of the slide film emulations are. This is a more recent thing for me and it's basically when I use the K10D with old film lenses.

Examples

[dsmithhfx]

How do you make your experience of digital photography more film-like?

A full-frame, metal body in m42 mount for under $100 would be a good place to start.

[ChristianRock]

A full-frame, metal body in m42 mount for under $100 would be a good place to start.

But how about something that can actually happen?

[Eyewanders]

But how about something that can actually happen?

A decade from now the K1 might be around $100 used and come with the adapter the original buyer purchased to mount m42. It'll happen - we'll have to wait.

[ChristianRock]

A decade from now the K1 might be around $100 used and come with the adapter the original buyer purchased to mount m42. It'll happen - we'll have to wait.

The 5D never got down to those prices... but one can hope

[gofour3]

The only digital camera I could ever see myself buying would be a Pentax K-01. It would be only used for eBay product shots and so on when you need a image quickly, plus I could use my supply of K-Mount lenses on the camera.

I currently use a 10 year old Nikon Coolpix from work for these types of shots and that camera is probably the worst/annoying camera that I have ever used. Even more so than the Kodak Instamatic I used as a teenager.

Phil.

[dsmithhfx]

But how about something that can actually happen?

Right then. Stick with film.

[Helios 1984]

A full-frame, metal body in m42 mount for under $100 would be a good place to start.

For this kind of money, you can get a functional body, a 2 or 3 lenses, a bag and even a few rolls.