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01-11-2020, 12:57 AM - 6 Likes   #1
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"Why We Shoot Film" - cool mini doco about film photography resurgence

I know that there've been a fair number of younger shooters popping up in this PentaxForums corner and I'm genuinely curious how many around here now did not grow up with or shoot film initially but began on digital. I'm a verified gen-x "bridge" shooter I guess, with equal memory and experience in both really but I know there's a wide swath of demographics here.

This is a well done and nicely produced little piece from NBC Left Field... quite a few familiar faces to me in it. Covers the film "trend" over the past decade pretty interestingly. I'd certainly say this is not the fad (at least overall, though there certainly are fads within photography in general, irrespective of film or digital as it's always been) that so many have called it over the same past decade. Thoughts?



01-11-2020, 01:24 AM - 1 Like   #2
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Thank you for posting this. I had no idea there was a resurgence in film interest underway. I will have to watch for it locally.
01-11-2020, 01:47 AM - 1 Like   #3
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Beautiful. Makes me want to pick up my Pentax ME Super and Zenza Bronica...
01-11-2020, 01:48 AM - 1 Like   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by jbinpg Quote
Thank you for posting this. I had no idea there was a resurgence in film interest underway. I will have to watch for it locally.
I've certainly seen it happening and even moreso in the past year. I go through periods of fixing up cameras or I find or am just not shooting any longer and selling locally. The last few I've sold here in the past month or two have nearly all been to very young shooters, 25 or younger (and one gent that was in his 60s). The two most recent were were brand new to film, had a multitude of questions for me, and they went home with a Pentax K1000 and Konica TC, respectively, with a lot of excitement, which honestly was just cool to see.

01-11-2020, 02:59 AM   #5
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I recently travelled to Vietnam and it was very cool to see how many locals (mostly younger people) were shooting film in Hanoi. Lots of the classic Japanese 35mm SLR's, as well we some more exotic German rangefinders and a bunch of FSU stuff.



Old Mate with an Olympus OM-something - Hoàn Kiếm
01-11-2020, 03:56 AM - 1 Like   #6
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Long live film!
I've been yelling that for years.
Love the end of the video. I miss that genuine happiness and warmth of dealing with a nice real person that becomes your friend over time and who you trust with your images. Decades later I'm still friends with 3 or 4 of those people despite the shops been closed for over 20 years.

Thanks,
01-11-2020, 04:20 AM   #7
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I've mentioned it before but I've seen more Pentax film slrs than I have Pentax dslrs. I guess you are more likely to spot one in urban areas where young people hang out. I'm one of those who look back at my Kodak Portra images with longing. At the same time I dislike the nostalgic feel so I can't see myself going back to film.

01-11-2020, 08:06 AM   #8
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More power to the people who want to deal with film.

Personally, I really think you have to separate "photography" from just the casual "I want a pic of my kid doing this thing for the first time" shooter, from the "I want to make art out of something" person. The casual person I mentioned isn't going to care about the method, the medium, the technology, or the process. They just want an image to remember, and really, that's what cell phones are mostly supporting now.

I don't see much difference between the film shooters in the video above from what I would call the serious photographers, like those on this forum. It doesn't really matter what medium we're recording onto. We're not just taking our cameras and blindly pointing. We both do our best to frame nicely, use appropriate settings, and then capture. Certainly, they can't spray and pray in certain situations, and yes, they have to be a bit more intentional, but regardless, we are all following the same process.


The one person in the video certainly does make an extremely valid point about the environmental impacts of film photography. I'm certainly no Greta Thunberg, but given the way that the world is moving, film photographers can certainly expect to see a backlash against them from the environmental movements and either legally, or financially, they'll be out of a hobby.
01-11-2020, 09:08 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by motorhead9999 Quote
More power to the people who want to deal with film.

Personally, I really think you have to separate "photography" from just the casual "I want a pic of my kid doing this thing for the first time" shooter, from the "I want to make art out of something" person. The casual person I mentioned isn't going to care about the method, the medium, the technology, or the process. They just want an image to remember, and really, that's what cell phones are mostly supporting now.

I don't see much difference between the film shooters in the video above from what I would call the serious photographers, like those on this forum. It doesn't really matter what medium we're recording onto. We're not just taking our cameras and blindly pointing. We both do our best to frame nicely, use appropriate settings, and then capture. Certainly, they can't spray and pray in certain situations, and yes, they have to be a bit more intentional, but regardless, we are all following the same process.


The one person in the video certainly does make an extremely valid point about the environmental impacts of film photography. I'm certainly no Greta Thunberg, but given the way that the world is moving, film photographers can certainly expect to see a backlash against them from the environmental movements and either legally, or financially, they'll be out of a hobby.
Certainly agree. I started photography with film, as a hobby I always wanted. I learned a lot from it. The process is similar but not the same. Film means a lot of restrictions , though I think many of us admit there is something magical about it that digital era is not yet capable of producing. But the financial and ecological crisis is pushing us away towards a more sustainable living. This film rebirth is only one of many signs of our times. For me it’s an alternative, for others it’s a fashion thing, others are not even considering the possibility of developing. One thing is for sure, film is reborn
a lot more expensive. It’s not a norm. It’s not widely available. I love film. But there is a huge difference between then and now.
01-11-2020, 12:00 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by motorhead9999 Quote

The one person in the video certainly does make an extremely valid point about the environmental impacts of film photography. I'm certainly no Greta Thunberg, but given the way that the world is moving, film photographers can certainly expect to see a backlash against them from the environmental movements and either legally, or financially, they'll be out of a hobby.
I think it goes without saying that the point of the video (rather the resurgence in general) isn't casual snaps, but something much less tangible.

But insofar as the environmental aspect brought up by that particular instructor late in the video, I fundamentally disagree, and emphatically. There are so, so many ongoing industrial and consumer practices that are exponentially more harmful across as many industries that require attention long before anyone should bother even investigating film's impact. As one pointed out, there are multitudes of household cleaning products still in use by orders of magnitude that are as bad or more impactful. This isn't to say a more green approach shouldn't be explored, but realistically film production and use is a drop in an ocean.
01-11-2020, 01:46 PM - 1 Like   #11
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Good video and thanks for posting. Vancouver has always had a large film community, but in the last 10 years it's mostly been "hipsters" and old diehards like myself. Now I see more and more millennial's shooting film and that's great for the industry. Thanks to them I now have my Ektachrome back!

A win win for everyone.

Phil.
01-11-2020, 01:59 PM   #12
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Great video. Thanks for posting it. Makes me want to get my 45 year old Minolta back out.

I think this video points to younger people who have never shot film and are truly interested in photography are discovering a process of capturing and presenting an image that makes them feel much more creative and satisfied. In today's world, most take a photo and 30 seconds later it's on display for the entire world to see. The entire creative process can be over with that quick and leaves some very unsatisfied. I believe when they shoot with film and develop a print in a darkroom, they feel they have invested much more time, effort, and expense on each photo and end up with a physical, tangible product they created that makes them feel much more rewarded and satisfied instead of an image floating in cyberspace. Also, I think they are seeing, as I do, that a properly edited digital image, even those scanned from film, printed on today's best printers and papers, do not exhibit the wonderful characteristics as one properly created from a wet darkroom process.
01-11-2020, 02:51 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by DWS1 Quote
... are discovering a process of capturing and presenting an image that makes them feel much more creative and satisfied. In today's world, most take a photo and 30 seconds later it's on display for the entire world to see. The entire creative process can be over with that quick and leaves some very unsatisfied.
I really think that has to be a large part of it. Shooting on a phone (or for that matter modern SLR or mirrorless with a wi-fi transfer-RAW-to-mobile-post-procssesing sort of workflow) so much of it is over not long after it's begun... And if you're posting to the most social media spots (Instagram most obvious) the interaction is nearly immediate and short-lived as well and then that image essentially disappears into a digital abyss, the algorithms ignore and few-to-none ever go looking for it again. It's a rather bizarre and for my part, remarkably unrewarding.
01-11-2020, 06:42 PM - 1 Like   #14
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i still shoot some black and white and develop it but scan the negatives that i want to print and also use my K1 body in black and white mode a lot. but it is interesting that this was posted today, i just had a discussion with a friend the other day about shooting black and white after she asked why i was shooting in black and white with a yellow filter with my K1. her question after i explained what i was using the filter for was "why not apply it in photoshop?" which led to a discussion about subtle differences in exposure and so on. she seemed interested so i sent her a site about using filters on black and white and promised the loan of an old kodak book on using filters that i have had for years. i learned on a spotmatic so slowing down has never been a problem.
01-14-2020, 01:15 AM - 1 Like   #15
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Great video, very well made.

QuoteOriginally posted by Bassat Quote
When photography got boring, I bought a 645. That led to a 645N. After my first roll of 120, I sold off all my 35mm gear, with the exception of a Voigtlander 35mm Vito II folder
Medium format is much more enticing for me today than 35mm (digital has picked up most of the recording I used to use 35mm for). I now shoot 35mm mostly to use my favourite gear, with 120 for most of my 'arty' stuff. I struggle to shoot more than 15 shots now.
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