I find my current interest in film gear to be rather ironic, really. I was a hard-core photographer up until the mid-90s and my cameras of choice were always mechanical, manual focus ones like the KX, but also the original Canon F-1 and the Nikon F2. I went back to school in 1994 and just about everything took a backseat to that for several years (I ended up getting a BA and MA). But I also have a daughter, who was born in 1991, so of course I was taking loads of photos of her too. So even though I was in school, I was still being the diligent father and taking lots of pics of her. But that was just about it. Family get-togethers and my daughter. By the early 2000s I was thinking my interest in photography had about run its course, so I sold off almost all my gear and kept a small Nikon F2 outfit, plus an EOS Rebel with a couple of lenses that the wife liked to use -- and so did I, to be honest -- to take pics of the kid with.
Life moved on and I found myself doing something I've always been interested in -- building guitars (I've been a guitarist since 1965). And I ended up buying a little 3.1mp Fuji to document my guitar builds. I used the snot out of that little camera out in my workshop, but after several years of 3.1mp, I wanted more. So my wife surprised me -- Christmas of 2008 she bought me an EOS XS -- a 10.1mp DSLR with the 18-55 II lens. What happened next was something I would have never predicted. I had gone out on the web to learn more about the camera and shooting with EOS in general, and learned that I could buy adapters for my EOS that would let me use a variety of other lens makes on that camera. So within a month or two of getting it, I bought an EOS to Nikon F adapter, so I could shoot with my few remaining Nikkor lenses. And that's what started it all.
At first, I started buying manual focus lenses in Nikon mount. And then I pulled out and dusted off the old F2 and started longing for the days of film. So I started shooting with the F2 again. And what this did was wake up my earlier experiences with other cameras -- mostly Canon FD, which is what I started out with. So then I started accumulating FD cameras and glass. Now, FD glass can't be used on an EOS -- or at least not if you want to focus to infinity without having to use one of those adapters with the glass element. So I was really having to shoot film with my FD glass. I was going kinda nuts because film gear was so cheap. So I bought a KX to replace one I'd owned years ago, and for the helluvit, bought a Spotmatic and a couple of M42 Takumars just because of their reputation. While all this was going on, I was also buying Tamron glass -- especially SP Adaptall-2 models -- so that I'd have a variety of optics I could use, no matter the camera. And then I discovered how the bottom had fallen out of the medium format market. I decided to buy a MF system setup and was looking for a good 6x6 deal, or maybe a 6x7, and then ran into an amazing deal on an ETRSi outfit on eBay for a ridiculously low price. So I bid on it and won and suddenly was the happy owner of a nice 645 system. Which I then began adding to, of course. Then came the Yashica Mat TLR to replace the TLRs I'd sold, and a couple of folders, just because I like MF folders. The MF acquisitiveness hasn't run its course yet. Last year, I bought a Pentax 6x7 -- a beast of a machine I've wanted for over 30 years. And I'm still adding pieces to its outfit. And Canon rangefinders -- I've always had a soft spot for Canon rangefinders. Recently I've bought a couple of Minoltas -- an XD-11, which I consider to be the best camera Minolta has ever made, and an X570 because it makes for a great little manual mode camera.
I frequently lurk at goodwill's auction site, and I've bought a bunch of cameras off it. Most winners, some losers. I just picked up a very clean MX from there. I seldom buy duplicate cameras, although sometimes I find it hard to pass up when I see some particularly good deals at shopgoodwill. Mostly I bid on stuff that strikes my fancy or piques my curiosity.
Now, sometimes I ask myself why am I doing this? Why have I accumulated so many cameras -- about 40 at last count. Most 35mm, probably a half dozen medium formats. And I can't say that I have a single concrete answer. Instead, I guess it's many things. Nostalgia, absolutely. The fun of doing my own film developing -- I've done my own B&W from the beginning, but now I do E6 and C-41 as well. It's actually easier, and lots cheaper, just to do it myself. One of the things I enjoyed the most about photography was the control it gave me, and part of that control was manually focusing. I saw AF as a cop-out when it first came on the scene. I've always enjoyed focusing. So I just like mf glass. And there's the whole quality aspect of the old gear. I look back at the cameras made back in the 1970s -- especially 35mm SLRs -- and I look at them as works of industrial art. Cameras like the KX and MX and the original Canon F-1 and FTb and Nikon F2 and FM and Nikkormats -- and plenty more. They're just superb machines. And the lenses were built to last just about forever, many of which are still superb optics to this day. The old Takumars and even early K lenses are simply scary sharp. I even feel something of a compulsion to collect these examples of industrial art to save them for posterity, but I don't collect them to sit on shelves -- I do try to use my film gear as much as I can. I'm also convinced that, when shot under the right conditions, the best current film technologies can still compete with digital. Especially in this day when so many images end up on the web and their sizes are quite small. What advantage does digital have over film in this sort of situation, other than convenience? None, really. There are some great film emulsions available today. With the exception of the deeply missed Kodachrome, which forever will be in a class by itself, there are emulsions today that are the best they've ever been in the history of photography. So it behooves me to do my part, I feel, to shoot film so these emulsions don't go away. And you know, there's also the cool factor of being an iconoclasitic, atavistic anachronism. These days, I get looks and even double-takes when I'm out shooting with film gear. I enjoy it. It's like I'm a member of an exclusive, even mysterious club, and folks don't quite know what to make of it.
So, yes, it's many things, and it's all good. Long live film!
