Return to Film

[wolfnowl]

Since George Eastman first began supplying Thomas Edison with 35mm film stock for his 'Kinetophone' in 1892 (120 years ago), some people in my local photo meetup group are going to invest some time in doing a return to B&W film shoot.  I'm digging out the old Ricoh 500 rangefinder, the Halina 500, my old Minolta SRT-101, my Yashica Mat 124G and a few other cameras and those who have film cameras are bringing them along.  Not a 'digital vs. film debate', just an afternoon going 'old school' - manual focus, manual film advance, maual light metering, etc. and everyone brings 12 B&W prints to the next gathering to show and share.  Might even be fun!

Mike.

[Mike D. B.]

Interesting to read your experience, Mike.  I also enjoyed shooting film.  Many of my scanned negatives or color slides seem more natural than the more clean digital images.  I also enjoy handling a Leicaflex, M3, Pentax 67 or Spotmatic with their manual focus lenses more than using my 5D with ist autofocus optics.

But I’ve been spoiled by the speed of processing digital files.  I no longer have 20 rolls of film from a weekend outing which sometimes took seemingly for ever until I found the time to finally develop them.  While I miss those long evenings in the dark room, I don’t miss the chemicals.

Maybe it’s a generation thing but my dream D-SLR has a simple menu structure (Leica-like) – a sort of digital Pentax K1000.

While I favor the sort of retro-styling some manufacturers have adopted, I don’t understand why a number of features seem a lost art: why no built-in lens shades?  Why can’t we operate polarization filters with mounted lens shades?  Why so few bodies with dedicated MLU-switches?  What about manual MLU?  Why so few viewfinder blinds? (those silly plastic caps I constantly lose are a pain)  Why so lenses few tripod mounts?  The Zeiss 100 macro is a wonderful lens but no tripod mount – so for me, almost worthless.  Are there so few dedicated landscape and macro photographers?  I don’t need face detection features.

I’ve begun collecting some analog (Leica) gear but know that I won’t really switch – I’ll play a hybrid game whenever I feel the need.

[WalterEG]

Wonderful to read your comments and activities chaps.

My personal work is all film - albeit 4x5 & 8x10 - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I am actually giving thought to another Hasselblad as we speak.  Simple controls and flying by the seat of your pants, which isn't really all that daring at all if you know what you are doing.

The life-changer for me is the Jobo ATL ..... "set and forget" processing.  I haven't really gotten into the arcane alternative processes.

I am really keen to see some of your results.

Cheers,

Walter