Film?

Dialog from "The Maltese Gelatin Silver Print Falcon"

* Is that photo supposed to show that film is better than digital or something?

* Have you ever seen a gelatin silver print that wasn't made in the dark?

* Why do you think that?

* I knew I did something wrong.

* Perhaps you could explain why you posted it.

* Why should I? Nobody explains it when they post a picture.

I love it! Dashiell Hammett would be proud!

All the best,
Mike
 
My dear old departed mama used to tell me, "If ya can't say nuthin' good about something or somebody, don't say nuthin'."

As the discussion declines to debate, I gotta break that rule and.... No. Mama was right.

(Good analogy, Mike.)
 
Am I the only one here who likes all processes as long as they are done well enough to make me feel something? Jeez, photography's history has proven there is great work made with every single camera and process.
 
jsrockit said:
Am I the only one here who likes all processes as long as they are done well enough to make me feel something? Jeez, photography's history has proven there is great work made with every single camera and process.
Click to expand...

With every single camera is a big word.

gelatin silver print (summicron 50mm v4) leica m3

Erik.

51989380216_fe64a95c58_b.jpg
 
Erik van Straten said:
With every single camera is a big word.
Click to expand...

Sure, but looking at vernacular photography and the history of photography, I would think someone out there has made at least one good photo with every camera. We might not know them, but they were made. And if you do not believe that, let us change it to every serious camera and process.
 
I will always shoot film but which format? Just before the pandemic I was on a 3 week road trip with a 5x7 large format camera and a Cooke PS945 portrait lens. I also have an 8x10 with its own set of lenses. For large format there are a lot of bargains out there in cameras and lenses in any price range. There are large format pinhole cameras. While cost of sheet film has tripled or quadrupled especially for Kodak so has the cost of going out and shoot for a few days in gas and lodging. I have taken my 4x5 to Tokyo, Venice, Milan, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, SF, etc. I’ll continue to shoot LF until I can’t. But I have never posted any LF images because I don’t have any means to digitise them PROPERLY. This is my problem. I will wait for the day when I have a proper studio and darkroom. I would like to learn alternative processes and contact print the negatives.

But for street I only bought a Monochrom last year. With the M10M I can get the kind of shots I couldn’t before like stopping people in motion in the streets without a flash. Most of my street shots had been with a Rolleiflex and I am on the fence about keeping or selling them. And the more I become proficient with Lightroom I am more appreciative such tools exist.
 
One thing I see about new film cameras is that they have become as bloated as DSLRs are. I would hope that Nikon and Canon and the rest of the classic camera makers kept the old dies and tooling for the classic cameras and could start making them again. I like to think that this might be profitable for them even at the scale of sales that today's world would offer. Imagine if you will a brand new, warrantees OM1 or F2. Or better yet a new M4!
 
Might as well put in my 2 cents worth too.

To me, film shooting is much more fun and I don't worry about camera depreciation since my main shooters are Leica Barnacks and copies. My favorites are my 3 1930s era Leicas, all like new as they came with CLAs included. I started film shooting in the late 1950s, shot Fuji X100 series cameras for the last years of digital and then went back to film a few years ago.

But digital is still quite useful to me; I shoot pictures of my film camera collection with my X100F.
 
Erik van Straten said:
Can you throw these prints in water and dry them without any damage to the image?

Erik.
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Yeah, throwing prints in the water is a new hobby. Must be a hipster thing, right? Is that how we measure things nowadays? Literally the oddest argument I’ve ever heard. ???

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWKz7Cthkk

Skip to 2:04

I’m sure all those newly sunken $100 million worth of Mercedes and Porches will start right up! Ha ha!
 
Film is more fun and much more memorable to me, that even if it is Colour, I tend to feel and remember the shots more.
Having said that, I have just shot a couple rolls this Q1 and for an upcoming spring event season I went and purchased a used RX100.
Spring colors might have me load up and carry the Fuji 6x9 much more often. An issue I am having this 2022 is that I am overly biased towards social events and have not taken my cameras along much, relying on phone snapshots mostly.
Either way I also have not dedicated darkroom time.
 
jsrockit said:
Well Bob, there are plenty of CD collectors out thereâ¦believe it or not. Look at a done of the Facebook groups⦠itâs only a matter of time before they come back too. Nostalgia always wins.
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I still have my CD's and some player's (four) I get them pretty cheap now off ebay, some are hit or miss but I find they don't hold up they break down pretty easy
as they get older.
 
No one's going to make a new film camera, not a credible one on a remotely professional calibre. So logically the forecast for the next 5-20 years will be repair technicians, followed in second place by film manufacture and related materials like chemistry, paper etc.

I'm more hopeful on the latter than the former. I think those looking ahead will get into solid reliable and fully manual/mechanical cameras and will get them serviced for the long haul sooner rather than later...with light to moderate use, such cameras brought up to top condition now will be there for use for the next lifetime or two.
 
I have film cameras, but intend to acquire 1-2 more mechanical version over the next 1-2 years with the intent of keeping them maintainable. Perhaps I can convince Sover Wong to compile a Nikon F2 repair video training series while he lives to keep those gems going for much longer! The shelf life of my fully manual lenses is much longer than I expect to be around.

Things I find satisfying about the analog process?
  • Gently loading film into a camera and carefully taking up the roll.
  • The smooth advance of a Nikon F3.
  • The great viewfinders of basically any 30-40+ year old camera.
  • Real focusing helicoids.
  • Going on hikes with a small shoulder bag, body, 28 and 50, and not feeling weighed down.
  • Using a lightmeter to take ambient readings in sun/shade and adjusting exposure on the fly.
  • Using the per shot cost of Tri-X/HP5+, an old Dan Winters quote, and understanding of memory formation to keep my camera largely put down and living in the moment around my family, utilizing all of my senses, and making the shot count not go crazy.
  • Loading film into daylight tanks into a dark bag.
  • Slacker's Brew aka Diafine. Thank you Calzone! This is the probably the biggest reason I'm still shooting B&W film as a father. Easy 400-800 speed Tri-X on the same roll and 1250 with a push.
  • The joy of seeing negatives come out of a tank with pictures on them.
  • They joy of seeing completed scans from said negatives and enjoying what I shot anywhere from 2 weeks to 24 months ago with my family.
  • FP4+
  • HP5+
  • Tri-X at base or pushed in low light.
  • TMAX 400 every so often
  • B&W tonality.
  • Things that take time and effort to complete are rewarding.
I'm looking forward to having a real enlarger at some point. Maybe. Gelatin printing seems like the good final leap of the craft. I have beautiful E6 and C41 negatives but the prices are getting to much for me for now. I'll continue buying 5-20 rolls of B&W per year (there are worse addictive habits right?) and shooting that.
 
jsrockit said:
Am I the only one here who likes all processes as long as they are done well enough to make me feel something? Jeez, photography's history has proven there is great work made with every single camera and process.
Click to expand...

Generally speaking, that is not what this listing / column has been about.

Technically speaking, there is a steadily growing grass roots type of camera repair awareness in social media channels that I feel is promising. But there is also a ton of great lower mid end gear out there that is just fine to make satisfying images with which speaks to the above. I just got done photographing a great short film festival and one of the more talented film makers was clicking away with a well used black Pentax MX.

So while it is interesting how some of the better stuff has gone up a modest to impressive amount, I feel there are other forces that could work against film than lack of cameras.

My number one concern for film is actually the outcomes of climate change.
 
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