Wondering why I still shoot film

[JChrome]

But seriously this is the endless debate. Some might call it a "master-debate"...


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[Toyo]

[Tebbiebear]

"I want to paint realist paintings with oils. Talk me into continuing to paint impressionist watercolors." Use the tools you want to use to create the art that you want to create, don't let momentum or peer pressure dictate style or tool choice.

[goamules]

Horses and mules versus automobiles. Yet some of us, sometimes, still use the four footed animals. Those that gave up on them don't know what they're missing.

[Ken Lee]

Bravo !

[brad martin]

Some digital shooters seem awefully intolerant to the continued presence of film.

I suppose it's because of the digital shooters tendencies to spray and pray, the shallow Photoshop learning curve, and the push a button create a hundred identical prints beauty of modern printers.

I don't know, I love the smell of fixer, a negative on a light table, and the CRAFT of an analog print.

Of late I've found myself missing turntables and LP' s.

[Ron789]

A 8x10" can deliver 500 to 800 perceptual Mpix, a 4x5 can deliver 200 Mpix. No digital stuff is near form that.

Keep on dreaming.... look at this test, back in 2011 (!), comparing 8x10 film with professional digital cameras.... digital is the obvious winner. And that was 5 years ago!
https://luminous-landscape.com/iq180-vs-8x10/

I love shooting film because I enjoy the end-to-end process, especially the darkroom work. It's tangible, it forces me to spend time and thoughts on every single image. Sure, good digital processing requires lots of time and thoughfulness too; I much rather spend hours in the darkroom rather than hours looking at a computer monitor. But if I were a commercial photographer the choice would be obvious... digital.

[Two23]

I shoot film because:

(1) I love old cameras and lenses. (Just bought a Voigtlander Vitessa.) The hundred-plus year old gear gives me a feel of connection with the photograhers of the past, and their life & times.

(2) I shoot 4x5 & 5x7 because I can use lenses from any age on them, and they work just fine. I have a small collection of pre-Civil War lenses and another small collection of lenses 1905-1925 that I just love the image quality they give.

(3) I like the challenge of film, especially 100 yr. old gear. You really have to know what you are doing.

(4) Other photographers see me using a camera from the 1890s and think I'm a genius!


Kent in SD

[Corran]

Not to mention time favors digital, as capabilities increase. I recommend Pere test it himself - and publish his results, if he thinks otherwise.

[George Pappas]

We have such a wealth of options today...I do shoot both film and digital. The OP asked a question why to shoot film and he implied Large Format film in the face of digitals growing image quality. Why do I still shoot large format?

1) Movements - an earlier poster touched on this. View camera movements - both shift and tilt - are best done on a view camera. The tilt/shift lenses for DSLR's are good (I use Canon's) but their range and flexibility are severely limited compared to how much you can do with a view camera. Furthermore, the small range of movements required with small image format DSLR are very hard to control (tilt especially) compared to a 4x5 or 5x7 view camera. How important this is will depend on the kind of subject matter you shoot. I came age learning with the view camera integrated movements into the kind of images I make on a regular basis.

2) Ground Glass. I believe that learning and shooting with a view camera helps improve composition for many types of images. the size of the image on a ground glass (especially a 5x7) helps you see image flaws and compositional weakness much better than a small viewfinder. Additionally, the inverted image helps you better see image architecture better as it separates the "content" of the image from the arrangement of the image. It helps me make stronger pictures.

While digital is great for many things, I find photographing with a view camera to be the perfect kind of setup for many images.