When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

I'm saving at least one unopened Quickload sleeve for the times-gone-by corner of my
film freezer, somewhere beside an unopened roll of 120 Kodachrome.

That's funny to me becauseI have gone from 100% digital back to my roots and am once again in love with film. I shoot digital still because I think it has a place but I prefer to mostly film now hands down.

Shan

Really good posts, I am w/o a darkroom at this time, so no LF in a few years...work in digital at my job, but recently started shooting film in 35mm, for myself, which I never really did, and am loving the process of waiting on my color negs to get developed...when I get the darkroom up, I will continue to shoot 35 C-41, but will probably process it myself...plus, get back to the b&w LF, which I miss. I find digital too easy and the 'nightmare' of storage, backing up almost endlessly + keeping up with the best way is too time consuming...

As advanced amateur, for landscapes I have maintained slide film alongside digital during the past 6 years. Following is my personal experience:

"When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?" --- These are not two of the same. Digital can be large format whether it is using lens movements on a viewcamera or similar, a camera permitting shift but no tilt, or simply an Alpa TC that have no lens movements but a large format lens.

As for going complete digital, the corner stone has for me been the rendering of slide film and the pleasing colors of Fuji Velvia 50. That said, some weeks ago I sold my last boxes of film: 5 boxes of Velvia Quickload. It was frank unexpected that I would sell them and not impulsive.

Why? I recent upgraded digital back to Leaf Afi-II 12 80MP. However, please read me clear when I say that this is not a rage over the latest gear or fun tool. It is far from it. Digital is not new to me and I have prior had Leaf Aptus 65 digital back (3.5 years), Mamiya ZD (six months), Leica M8 (1 year), Nikon D200 (15 months), Nikon D50 (2 months). The Nikons were the worst per my impression. I did not like them. While the Leaf Aptus 65 impressed me, for landscape it still left something missing… something that could not fully replace the pleasing from film.

What the Leaf 80MP back has impressed me with is not the many pixels themselves, although they do help. What does impress is the fine gradation of colors, there are more colors, and colors are more correct and appear more pleasing than my prior 28MP back. There is also a wider dynamic range and which aids in the transitions to highlights, as well as in shadow detail. These are key things that I did not see before in digital, although my prior back was best I seen and beats any of the DSLRs out there in image quality, low ISO.

On a recent visit back home to Sweden in June I shot mostly Velvia 4x5 for landscapes on my Shen-Hao and tagged along my new Leaf on a Rolleiflex Hy6 camera and one 80mm normal lens for such captures about two times. Those captures were made right after I had visioned a scene and captured it on 4x5. When picking up the 4x5 from the lab they looked fine and correct exposed as I had envisioned, and some would perhaps be very proud of them. Yet, there was something missing to my eye; they failed to impress me in that they did not fully represent the scene as I had envisioned. Now part may be that my brain has become more digital and yearn for more control of the image than film will allow. However, on the very contrary the files from the Leaf left me with the complete opposite to the 4x5; I was able to process the files more per what I had envisioned and to render the scene as per my vision at capture.

I am not saying digital is better, because it is simply a tad different than film, and I do have a strong favor of landscapes shot well on Velvia 50. What I am saying is that this new tool (and that is all it is) enables me to extend my vision further than film and Velvia 50. In such means, frankly to point of that it has replaced Velvia.

In frankness I should also say that digital has been a rough and long road of learning (not only the $$$ in the list of gear above), but I feel as I have finally arrived at a point of having found what not only enables me to capture my vision but what extends my vision. It is as if it has put me flat back to photography and the image and which I believe is the key to photography. Somehow I had a feeling that this was in direction the new Leaf would be, but... not to point of selling my remaining boxes of Velvia 50, but surprise it did.

Fine, Hy6 is not large format, and therein lays a destiny of likely an Alpa STC for shift or fall/rise and panoramas once I dare to allocate such funds...

Regards
Anders

When I stop enjoying it, of course!
BTW, there are light meters that don't require batteries ;)

For me it's just not possible to add a dark room to my home. Because of that I have used a hybrid "workflow" (if you will (I hate that word)) for the last few years. I use a lab for processing, and I scan the extremely few shots I like and send the files back out for printing. It works ok. But For the future, whether or not I continue with film will boil down to money.

I live in a remote area, and all my film has to be shipped in from the U.S. Some of the 120 too, because nobody here has the selection. Development of anything but 35mm C41 requires shipment to Wellington. I took a roll of B+W 120 up to the local lab and bless her heart the kid had no Earthly clue what to do with it. I had to explain what it even was, and that wasn't easy with my exotic American accent. In the end, they screwed up the processing, too. Now I don't trust them, so I ship the 120 out as well.

As it is, processing alone for my last batch came to $350. And after looking them over, I realized: Frankly, I'm just not that good at it to justify the cost. Add to this the ever-dwindling number of emulsions available, and well...Like I heard somebody on TV say: "Honey, I declare, you have the sweetest kisses I've ever tasted. But it's just not worth the pain." That's what I say to my Ebony almost every day.

So I'm trying to get through my last box of Astia Quickloads, and the last few sheet films I have. After that it's down to some roll film, and then....who knows. Yeah I can see going all digital in 2012, or at least eliminating sheet film. If I continue with film at all it will be strictly C41 in 35mm and 120. I might sell the Ebony and get an RZ67 or a panoramic camera of some kind. Maybe an XPan.

Not in this lifetime.

Before i go to read all the pages here, i have to add, that because of digital i started to shoot film, if i can remember very well then i started to shoot film just last year, happy to complete one year now, but this year only i just started to shoot LF, but only 5 sheets so far, so i hope soon by October or November maybe i will give LF more shoot, even i have 10-21mp and 60mp digital cameras it will not stop me from film for now, i feel in my part of world no place for film but i will have my experience and fun with film as well as others had.

Bottom line, i will give film if all films will disappear/discontinued from the whole markets in the world maybe, i pray this will never happen anytime in the future, i just started, hahahaha.

I want to add something, there are people on the other side [digital] that they will say they will never look back for films even after those years of film using, so if someone new to digital or film, which side or club he will join? and who is correct or wrong here?
I am happy that i am in both sides, hahahaha.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Professional

I want to add something, there are people on the other side [digital] that they will say they will never look back for films even after those years of film using, so if someone new to digital or film, which side or club he will join? and who is correct or wrong here?
I am happy that i am in both sides, hahahaha.

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Any time we make a distinction without articulating how we do photography, we are contributing to the noise of this issue.

I use both, and each fits a different set of circumstances. Sometimes, I need to throw a camera in my briefcase. The little Leica D-Lux is the perfect answer for that. It makes reasonable images when the only alternative is a cell phone. I've used it for work and for play.

When I'm traveling on vacation, I usually bring both my Canon 5D and my Pentax 6x7. The 5D acts like a Polaroid--except cheaper in the application. I use it for experimenting, and I can perform a lot of experiments in a hurry with the Canon. If something works, and if I have a lens that will work, I can then put it on film.

When I'm at home and using the large camera, I am in familiar surroundings and don't need that level of experimentation. I usually don't take the digital camera with me on excursions. But I have also made a Fujiroid image and then packed up the camera when I realized the image wasn't what I thought it was. Doing that with the Canon would have been cheaper.

We learn by attempting things and altering our approach based on the results. With a digital camera, we can attempt things and get that feedback instantly, and that reduces the learning cycle enormously. For someone already grounded in principles, a digital camera can provide a very intensive learning experience. Nearly all of that learning will translate to a large camera.

Many in this thread seem to think that camera automation precludes thinking on the part of the photographer. I don't get that. Cameras don't kill photographers, photographers kill photographers. A thinking approach to using a digital camera can reap large benefits even for large-format photographers.

Rick "thinking a digital camera provides the freedom to cheaply explore dumb ideas" Denney