Home Forums Gear Photography Surging interest in film.

I have noticed an increasing interest in film photography. If you are interested in the why, just google the topic and find many discussions on it.

I have also found out that Kodak has some new (to me ) emulsions that are getting a lot of raves, ex. Portra 400.

Wouldn't bother me one bit to go back to film other than the cost. Not a lot of income and all set up to shoot and print up to 13x39 right now if I want to! Going back to film I'd have to invest in a photo lab equipment and chemicals. Boils down to cost and probably learning curve for me but, I still have a Nikon F5 nd my old Yashica 635 cameras and love them both!

I shot on film in 35, medium and large format for years and I was happy to see it go. I think a lot of it's resurgence is related to nostalgia. I'd consider shooting a bit again but the cost.

If Cookie goes to film, we'll go broke

I found some old rolls of film under the bed the other day , been there 15 years probably . Wonder if they would worth getting developed. Anyone have any fist hand experience of good place to get film developed these days. I found several on line but would like some first hand opinions if they are out there. Thank you for your time... Joe

I liked shooting film but, got a computer and printer when I went digital and never looked back. Still have a twin lens 120 camera and get it out now and then. digital and a decent printer are so much less expensive and I enjoy seeing what I got right them. Have a Cannon Pro 9000 MK II for about 7 or 8 yrs now and new one be here tomorrow, 13" of course. Like doing 13x19" and do a lot of 9x18 and 12x24's. Come to think still have a Nikon F 5 also but no film for it.

I haven’t used them for film, but use them for lots of prints.

https://www.mpix.com/products/film

Mpix is the general consumer side. Millers Prifessionsl Imaging is their pro side. Pittsburg, Kansas. Fairly well known and used nationwide.

Thank you for your time and the link… Joe

Nikon FM-2 here, i miss using it... digital is boring as schit to me, no interest in it... so i rarely take pics anymore

I dug out a couple of my old film cameras and am contemplating going back down the B&W photography rabbit hole. Don't really know if I want to get involved in it again, as much fun as I had with it 20-50 years ago. I sold my Hasselblad 500 long ago, which was my favorite, still have the Nikon F2 w/Photomic and the Leica M3 double stroke w/50mm Summarit.

The Leica:



The Leica should be treated to a good clean/lube/adjust. Any recommendations for someone to do that? My old local camera repair guy passed away a decade ago.

I gave away, to a good cause, a Canon AE-1 with the 50mm to a friends daughter. She was interested in film and I had a few cameras. She took it to Ireland to grandmas. I kept the Nikon FE and Pentax K2dmd. Tamron lenses shared

I never stopped using film, and currently have 6 film cameras. While I use digital, and have a bit of money tied up in a Fuji system, what appeals to me is the "honesty" and challenge of film. Like Gnoah, I like B&W. Even most of my digital pictures are jpegs converted to B&W, or using Fuji's in-camera Acros film simulations shot jpeg. I have my film negatives scanned, so I guess I'm not a purist. I don't do much of anything post-production to my scanned negatives though.

Today the art/profession of photography is as much about the post-production work flow as it is in the original composition. I don't want to knock the professional photographers on this site. This is the way things are now, and technology just marches on. I won't deny these technologies make stunning pictures. Take a look at Doug Koepsel's (Red Rabbit) black and white landscapes--incredible! I simply find more satisfaction using film. This is code for 'maybe I'm just not that good'.

Gnoah- Leica CLA & repairs

Film shooters these days are almost always young hipsters with thin beards and bad tattoos who enjoy playing with all things analog. They do this in part because things that aren't instantly gratifying are novel now. And they love to use "film" as a marketing buzzword for weddings especially.

I shot MILES of film annually over decades for newspapers and commercial clients.

There is NO comparison in the quality - today's digital is far, far better. It's not even close.

And if you want the look of, say Portra 400, you can easily download luts/profiles for it.

The one valuable thing film forces photographers to do is to visualize the negative - and then the print - of a scene that they are photographing in their mind's eye. This exercise of visual imagination has largely been lost because it isn't needed with digital, but it is valuable for the few that still have it.

Black and white images, even if shot with a modern digital camera, will be better if you've spent years in a darkroom. But, to develop this ability, you have to shoot a hell of a lot of film and learn to develop it and also learn to print really well. That costs a LOT of money and time, so much so that I've yet to see any young hipsters shoot film and print it worth a damn.

You couldn't run fast enough to hand me a film camera today and that's not uncommon among people who shot it enough to make living with it.

I was a Navy photographer from 68 - 72 and I loved the job.

We shot a lot of film. The Navy wanted photos of everything and the byword was, "Film is cheap."

There was a great deal of satisfaction in that work.

One of my Navy buddies that I'm still in touch with, lives down in Texas. He does a lot of digital work, but film work as well. Every so often he runs film photography workshops for the artistically inclined in his community.

Same with vinyl records

I sometimes miss shooting film quite a bit. But seems that trying to find some place to get it developed and then the cost of developing and printing is a turn off, I live on a social security check! Got my first digital camera and at the same time my first computer and printer and eliminated film processing. Works for me but still get the pull from film now and then. Something I really like about digital that film can't touch is seeing the picture on the camera right after I shoot the shot. If I were a pro I'd keep the film camera simply to go play with, digital is a lot easier in most ways. But then I'd only have 645 OR 6X7 film cameras! Where I have a problem is understanding the digital language trying to figure out things on the camera and in processing. had a guy on a photography forum a couple days ago tell me a B&W I'd posted wasn't really a B&W. said he could see different colors in it. Really need to be careful what some of these guys tell you about digital.

I still have my AE-1 and A-1. Haven’t used them in years.

I still have a rather elaborate Nikon professional film camera collection, including mostly F3's (my all-time favorites), plus F2's and an F6. Even have some medium and large format cameras and lenses, plus some 35mm Minolta cameras. And used to shoot quite a lot. No longer have the darkroom and its equipment. Even my digital cameras have seen little use since getting lazy with the iPhone 12PRO.

But I've missed the satisfaction of shooting with manual focus cameras.

My D7000 has a switch to turn it on to manual focus!

Man… Film cameras!

I learned on a Rolleiflex TLR. Then an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic. Then Honeywell Spotmatic. Mamiya C330. The first SLR I bought was a Nikon F (FTn) with 24, 55 Micro, and 135mm lenses. In 1968. Through the years.., Leica RF systems, Leica SLR systems (4 bodies including MOT models) with lenses from 21 to 560mm (Novaflex), lots of Nikons, Olympus OM systems, Pentax (I wrote copy for their catalogs) 35, 645 and 6x7 systems with a ton of those great lenses, Nikonos, Rollei 35, the tiny Olympus, Fuji, … and a bunch more.


I started shooting pix for my father’s magazine articles when I was 13. 1964. Went to Mizzou photojournalism school. Shot for magazines for the next 30+ years.

I did my own B/W processing but sent off the slide film.

Sold and gave away almost all the film cameras. Still have the Rollei TLR.

Went through a few variations of digital cameras and now shoot Sony A7 series with Sony and Zeiss glass.

Whenever I get the urge to shoot film I sit down until the feeling passes. The A7R V with Zeiss and Sony GM lenses is better than any film camera I owned. I have several Zeiss Loxia manual focus lenses, but they need to go away. The latest example of AF in bodies and lenses just improves the percentage of keepers. And, I can focus them manually if I want to (landscapes).

I am nostalgic for the old cameras, Tri-X, Pan X, and Kodachrome. They are fun to play with, and I guess if you haven’t shot hundreds of thousands of frames on film with manual wind cameras you can benefit from slowing down with a manual transmission camera. 😉.

Here’s a thought. Today’s cell phone cameras are the new Leicas.

I still have an ancient Canon AE-1 (like everyone)...

My son-in-law gave me his old Canon EOS Rebel 2000 (35mm film SLR, AF, AE, etc...), that he used for a college photography course. Still works great, but, getting film developed these days is a real PITA!

The 24hr photo labs have gone by the way of the Dodo. Nowadays, you mail it off, and wait... and wait... and wait...