Where I live there are a few well heeled eccentrics who indulge in the nostalgia of running anything from a simple pony and trap to a 6 horse team and carriage. It is great to see them trotting down the country lanes enjoying themselves. Perfect if we all have all the time in the world to get nowhere slowly. Alex I don’t recall anybody knocking you for enjoying the pleasures of film but as a few have said before you do seem to have to justify this pleasure. Added to this I get the impression rightly or wrongly you like to take a pop at the advances in photographic technology.
I have never quite understood why you scan your negatives given your standpoint on digital. Is this an attempt to have one foot in each camp? I could understand it if you scanned the final non digital print to broadcast your efforts through the digital medium.
Analogue and digital each have a set of problems neither is perfect. Either way it is image processing of one sort or another.
Alas the horse and cart is not the right tool for the job in today’s fast moving environment and the weekend horse and cart enthusiasts jump into their cars during the week. I have to agree that some of the old ways are better and it is very short sighted to rush headlong toward unknown horizons.
You have to remember that many of us older folk cut our teeth on film processing and darkroom technique because there was no alternative. As much as we enjoyed it at the time few of us have a burning desire to return to those days. In my case I feel the advances in photographic technology have taken my photography to a new level compared to my film days. It would also be interesting to find out if the digital version is actually greener than film.
Without doubt development has produced better lens, faster focus systems and improved low light image quality to name a few technology improvements.
Yes use a vintage camera if you want to produce images faithful to that time frame. But why use an inferior optics if you don’t have to?
A good example is to compare wildlife media (film, magazines) from the 60’s & 70’s which was pretty dire to the current outstanding material.
An interesting point about you feeling self conscious when carrying a larger camera. I guess you are used to carrying compact size camera. I had concerns when using long lens and then white long lens. To be honest most folk don’t notice you. From my experience when talking to people in the area it is only the folk with 1D and 500mm F4 that get noticed. Strangely enough for me it is the guys with the old film camera that stand-out as most folk seem to have a dSLR, bridge, digital compact or camera phone.
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