Does anyone still shoot on film?

[Wreckdiver]

Does anyone still shoot on film?

I would suspect that there are still several people here on the forum that do. In the past few weeks the BBC has shown a number of photography programmes: Tish, Vivian Maier, Simon Murphy and the excellent Britain in focus series which I thoroughly enjoyed. Browsing through Amazon books I came across the one in the link below, used but in quite good condition and at just £3.39 (including postage) I couldn't resist. It arrived today and I was quite surprised as to how big it is, 320 pages and how much information it contains. All retro stuff but still fascinating and it even has an underwater photography section😮

So, just going through a revisit of the past at the moment, recalling my first camera that my Dad bought me for a birthday in the mid sixties. It was a German Baldixette which took 120 roll film and I used to load it with 120 black and white roll film purchased from my local Chemist in Pensby, Wirral. I took a lot of photos from around 1966, 1967 which I think my brother has somewhere. Photos of the Liverpool Pier head to Birkenhead ferries which I really must get off him.

We then made a darkroom in the garden shed, lots of black bin liners and the safety light was powered via a mains extension lead passed through the kitchen window. Very Heath Robinson but we got good results. I never moved on to colour until I got an Olympus Trip and an OM10 in the 80s and then processing and printing colour was beyond my means. I still have my Trip and the OM10 (which is a bit tatty now) but there is one on Fleebay with a 50mm f.1.8 lens and a Manual Adapter in "Fantastic condition", apparently. Bit too much asking price and probably not worth it but I am tempted. Hmmmmm..... perhaps best not.

Fast forwarding to today and drawers full of digital cameras, lenses and all the other stuff one accumulates. E-M1X, OM-5, D810 and D850 have now replaced the film cameras but I still have them all, except I can't find the Baldixette.

So, are there still film shooters here and do you do your own processing and printing, colour or monochrome?

[Bikie John]

I had a similar journey - shot lots of B&W which I used to develop and print (badly) myself. Occasional forays into colour slides. Then once high street labs were common and cheap I shot a whole lot of colour film. Got back into B&W when I started shooting gigs, mainly because the light was very poor and I could squeeze more out of very fast film. I developed the negs without a darkroom, by this time scanning was a reasonable option. Then digital came along but I stuck with B&W film for the music stuff for quite a while because the low light performance just wasn't there with digital.

I shot the occasional roll of B&W film and enjoyed it. Last year I dug an Olympus 35RD 35mm rangefinder compact out of mothballs. Took it on a canal trip and really enjoyed it, so I sent it to Luton Camera Repairs for a full rejuvenation and they have done a superb job. I haven't had an excuse to run a film through it yet, but I am looking forward to taking it on a few trips in the summer.



Boatie John

[moggi1964]

I shoot about 25% film and 75% digital.

35mm; 120; 4x5 and half plate. (Recently added a 9x12 too )

Develop my own B&W in the basement and have a local lab do the colour. I'll do colour myself at some point.

I have a couple of enlargers in the basement for up to 4x5. I also have a Canon Pro-100 for digital printing.

there is something about film both the process of taking images and the processing that I enjoy.

[Ricoh]

I still use colour and black and white film because it has a different look to digital and because I can do things with analogue that are almost impossible with digital, eg Holgaramas and endless panos with the Lomo LC-Wide. B&W I self process at home, colour goes to a lab. Everything gets scanned.
I have a Pentax MX with assorted lenses, three Nikons, an FM2n, FM3A (the best SLR ever produced in my opinion) and an F100 with an array of lenses. Also a Holga, Lomo LC-Wide, Sprocket Rocket, a Lomo Belair HydroChrome Sutton (fluid filled lens) and a Rollei 35 LED.
The bottom half of the fridge is filled with film.

[Ian]

I have kept some of my film gear, but haven't used the cameras for many years. I did help my daughter with her black and white film photography at art school 6-7 years ago.

Ian

[blu-by-u]

I have a roll of kodak in my dry box. Have not come around to try it. it's more than expired now. maybe more than a decade.

[Geo]

Haven't used film for many years, still have many of my old cameras in my mini museum though.

[Wreckdiver]

Wow! That is quite an impressive collection and some very nice cameras there. That Mamiya TLR looks fantastic and all look in superb condition. Very impressed.

[Geo]

Thank you, over 60 years worth my first was an instamatic when I was 12 then through Practice, Pentax and finally Nikon. Bronica when at college. One day I will add a Cambo 5x4 monorail to complete the collection. Must say I do miss the darkroom, it was great fun, and the smell of the darkroom chemicals

[Wreckdiver]

Seems film is still hanging on. The price of a Kodak 35mm, 36 exp film can be purchased for under a tenner which I suppose is reasonable these days.

Cheers all 😊

[MJ224]

Used to until digital cameras worked well. Still have the Pentax P30, and the Yaschicatmat 120. A neighbor gave me his old Zenith, but I have never used it...

I processed and printed B/W, all too much faff now.

[Bikie John]

I processed and printed B/W, all too much faff now.

Yes, lots of faff. But if I ever catch a whiff of those chemicals I am transported straight back into the darkroom! I would quite like to set one up and have another go, but I know that I wouldn't do justice to the time, space and expense it requires.

I have a book on order that might be interesting. Still waiting for it to arrive so I can't comment on it yet:

https://www.douglasethridgephotography.com/book

John

[Ian]

Looks normal to me?

[moggi1964]

I see the Latin too. How odd! Anyway, let us know what you think of the book please. I don't use PS but do use Affinity so it would still be applicable in the digital section.

[Bikie John]

Really? I get a load of Latin text which Doctor Google translates as "The lion of Morbi laughs, the gate and the chase, and the vestibule and the eros. He wanted to put a complete set before the poisoned protein trucks. Duis soft, it is not a good thing to mourn, unless it was a small airline, Lacinia needs to hate itself and not the elit. But it is a matter of policy.". Doesn't look very normal to me!

[biggles3]

Although I shoot digital daily, I use film a lot nowadays. What has enabled this to happen is the availability of many previously lost film formats plus the creation of adapters where replacement film can't be found. So, we can shoot from Minox and 110 right up to large format plate cameras plus almost everything in between. It's even possible to find a workaround for 126 cassettes; the only completely dead format is APS as no one can find a means of adapting it. When it comes to film, I mostly shoot 6x4.5 (Contax and Mamiya), 6x7 (Mamiya RZ) and 6x9 (Fuji and Zeiss Ikon). If I can find a surgical support, I'll also use the awesome Fuji GX680III... For 35mm, mostly I shoot with Contax gear but I also have the lovely Olympus Ace and a couple of its lenses which is fun as it takes you back to basics. Also, being tight-fisted, I've also returned to half-frame cameras (Olympus & Yashica) so I can get 72 images on a 36 frame roll plus 220 film, now that it's back too, when shooting medium format. It's not just a wonderful time to be working in digital but also in film; I never thought I'd see the return of 127 film or adapters for 116 & 616, etc., etc....

And there is one extra thing about using film which is probably beneficial to all 'togs and that is it slows you down. With film being quite expensive, and no shoot & delete option, you are forced to think more carefully about every shot - especially when shooting with the larger film formats. I do believe that shooting occasionally with film can help to make you a better photographer. And there is one further opportunity today; many medium format (and some large format) film cameras can be used with digital backs, giving you the best of both worlds...

I've attached a piccie of some of my favourite medium format cameras plus the Olympus Ace...

[Wreckdiver]

Absolutely amazing and your second paragraph is so very true. Thanks for posting, some fantastic equipment being put to great use.

[Ian]

Used to until digital cameras worked well. Still have the Pentax P30, and the Yaschicatmat 120. A neighbor gave me his old Zenith, but I have never used it...

I processed and printed B/W, all too much faff now.

Did the Zenit come with the 58mm f2 standard lens? It's renowned for interesting bokeh.

Ian

[MJ224]

Not sure...I will look later...Yes it has that lens....Not sure that I am going to put a film through it though...

[Ricoh]

Now that someones mentioned 1/2 frame, I forgot to say earlier that I also have a Pen FT with the 40mm f1.4 and 70mm f2. Takes ages to shoot 72 frames, unless scrutiny of shooting is ‘relaxed’, but that’s something I can’t do. The portrait orientation of each 1/2 frame leads fairly naturally to shooting diptychs, triptychs and even panotychs.

[moggi1964]

I love the Olympus PEN-F Half Frame from an aesthetic POV but cannot imagine having 72 or even 48 frames to shoot. Perhaps I am too impatient to wait to see the results.

[Wreckdiver]

Great to see people using film in a serious capacity today. Saw this short film on the BBC iPlayer recently:

[Ricoh]

Anyone else having the GAS for a 110? I really like the lo-fi appearance of the images, and the way the edge of the scene is within the rebate. Looks really cool, as my kids would say.
Lomo sell both the camera and the film.
Here’s a look at some of the images from someone Lomography commissioned for advertising:

https://www.lomography.com/magazine/352889-hong-kong-film-enthusiast-francis-lee-s-first-impression-of-our-new-lomomatic-110-camera?source=nl_lomomatic_perspective&utm_campaign=nl_lomomatic_perspective&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter