Funny a thread like this should be started just around the time I've been thinking the same thing!
I've decided to shoot film exclusively after 3 years of digital(slr). It didn't happen over night. There were a number of things that led me to this decision. I was really getting sick of blown highlights in high contrast scenes, scenes that only an HDR could capture on digital. Then Ektar 100 came out. After shooting a few rolls with my dads F100 I realized I could get comparable to better quality than my K10D but with greater dynamic range.
It wasn't the highlight thing that tipped me over the edge though, it was the realization that if I had a film camera and film around I never wanted to shoot my K10D. There was just something about the film camera that did it for me. The slow process, the big viewfinder, the sounds of the film winding, and of all things... the smell of the film when you first pull it out of the canister. The process just does it for me. I'm not a professional, not by a long shot, and I don't shoot high quantities; just ~7000 clicks on my K10d in 3 years. The speed and convenience of digital aren't as important to me as it is for many and the cost really isn't a factor either.
I'm lucky to have a pro lab by me that develops my C-41 uncut for $2.49 and does same day E-6 for $8.99. Then after deciding which images are the keepers I scan them and print them. I'm only interested in the images I think are worth printing(unless I'm just testing). There is no sense cluttering my hard drive with images that rarely get looked at by anyone but me.
My scanners glass can fit 72 frames of 35mm in one go, so I queue the images and go do something else. The quality is great and matches or exceeds my k10D except for high iso. Then all the negative/positives get put in the fire proof safe. Pretty simple workflow. I work in graphics and spend a ridiculous amount of time in front of the computer, so it's nice to look at things on the light table or in hand for a change.
I'll be selling my K10D and I've just taken that beautiful Silver MZ-S off Frank's hands. I'll be spending a lot more time in the film forum from here on out.
Here's some measurebation to back up my claims about the quality, I'll be posting some good(up for debate
) shots later in the other forum.
color test of Ektar 100 @64:
Ektar 100% crops @3175 spi:
Ektar 100 +2 stops over exposed and still not a single blown highlight:
A few test scans comparing Astia 100F on old Coolscan V vs my Eversmart @2540 DPI
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/bmwolf/Crop1-1.jpg http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/bmwolf/Crop2-1.jpg
Man that turned out way more long winded than I intended, but it beats starting a new thread I guess
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