Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex1994
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The biggest advantage comes in logistics, reliability and equipment:
--Like I said before developed film is very durable and can be viewed anytime with the latest scanners.
--No time spent messing around the computer (I'm on it long enough as it is)
--Lovely, cheap manual cameras an optics (personal preference, but I love how an old camera gives you access to important things quickly without piling on unnecessary features that will just distract me).
Ken Rockwell has a great article on the subject: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/why-we-love-film.htm |
Lots there Alex
My most unreliable camera was a Nikon FE2 in the cold. My friends was an Olympus OM10. In each case it was battery probs. Well batteries have improved tremendously since the 80's but never the less old film cameras were not without problems. My most reliable old cameras had mechanical shutters and all the gear train that goes with that so servicing was important.
But cameras apart and we are onto the form of image capture.
Digital does require processing on a computer but having had my own darkroom for the best part of 20 years then in my experience there is no comparison in how to get to a processed image.
Darkroom :
Lets start with a roll of B&W as thats the easiest.
Film development no probs but 120 is more difficult to load ... and yes I have dropped a roll on the floor at this stage.
Mix up dev, stop, and fix then rinse and dry measures. This even if you only want one print.
Printing is a joy but a bit costly if you do a sheet as a printing map for dodging and burning. Sometimes I have gone through half a dozen sheets 12 x 16 to get what I want. Then when done its all about washing up.
Colour :
Unless you have a processor this is when you enter a different world. Water baths for temp control of chemicals. Time taken for your eyes to aclimatise to a sodium safe-light ( yep seriously dim ).
No way can digital processing be considered hard after that.
Scanners - Well thats where money comes into it. No point in using hi-res film, best optics and a budget scanner.
Of course both processing and scanning can be left to an outside processor but machine prints means everything has to be spot on. I have looked at film processing and scanning in a previous thread and its expensive and the scanned super res file is less than a D2X Tiff, so unless you do it yourself on a top scanner or pay for that then you are not getting all that the film will give.
Cheap cameras yes. There can be a great deal of enjoyment from owning and using one. But once again unless the optics are top drawer then looking at film resolution numbers in isolation is not giving the whole story. A bit like having a super-car on the UK roads. Super-car = the film. The speed limit = lens resolution. The car might be capable of 180mph but its limited to the 70mph speed limit.
KR link. Well he is a fav of mine when I want a laugh but I will go through it in the spirit of this thread.
Back tomorrow.
Don