Film ain't dead yet

A photo taken on New Year's Eve which we spent at a friend's house with several other couples and their children who didn't stop moving all evening. It was one of the very first shots taken with the Leica and a really old roll of C-41 process B&W film I happened to have around. I'm impressed that I captured her smirk in spite of the low light, her dervishness and my rusty manual camera reflexes. The picture would have been totally different had I taken it with a digital camera and I'm not entirely certain it would have been a presentable photo.

Recently, Kodak announced that it plans to discontinue a number of products including their line of APS film cameras which, if you believe a lot of the chicken little reports around the net, means the end of film photography as we have known it for the past century. Well, aside from the bias that people in the insular world of the internet tend to place on everything from Dean to the blog revolution, film is not doomed or otherwise obsolete even if all the kids who wouldn't part with their digital cameras say it is. The market Kodak is getting out of is one that has gone digital but there are plenty of film fanatics, film cameras and film processing labs out there to keep film in business for many more years.

I succumbed to the siren call of a digital camera about 3 years ago and, while I think digital has helped me to become a better photographer, I don't know that it has produced better photos than a film camera. I recently read Why digital cameras = better photographers which is a nicely done article on what makes digital attractive but, judging by a lot of the digital photos I've seen around the net in comparison to the film photos, I don't know that this is entirely true. Digital has produced a lot more photographers and photos so that the odds of there being more and better pictures is greater than before. I often wonder how many great photographers there would have been in the 1920s and 1930s had there been as many film cameras in the hands of people as there are now. A digital SLR gives you enough exposure feedback to get a feel for what the camera is doing which you can then take back to your film camera, but most digital cameras are completely automatic. People are taking more pictures and enjoying their cameras more so digital is a boon for getting more people interested in photography. However, this is not the death knell for film. Not yet anyway.

I'm getting back into film partly due to many of the inspiring photoblogs I've found at Photoblogs.org in which many of them have pictures taken on film that appeal to me far more than many of the digital photos I've seen or taken myself. Both formats have their strengths and weaknesses for me and, I suspect, they are similar for others. As they say, there is no accounting for taste, but I compared two photos of the same scene from the trip to Madeira and find that the digital photo, while a decent photo, treats the light completely differently than the film photo which has a warmth to it. I found this with a number of shots I took for this very purpose of comparing the character of the mediums.

Digital

weaknesses

• DSLR is big, bulky, and heavy. Intimidates people at times.
• Trouble focusing in low-light.
• Batteries; aside from needing charging, they don't live long in cold conditions.
• It can crash at unexpected times without warning.
• Shutter lag.
• Lower light sensitivity.
• Archival concerns with digital format.
• Lots of equipment needed just to view and print pictures at home.
• An almost clinical perfection.

strengths

• Instant gratification.
• Instant feedback.
• Easier to share photos with wired friends.

Film

weaknesses

• Film can be expensive.
• Processing can be expensive.
• No instant gratification or feedback.

strengths

• Small and light cameras.
• Fun.
• More creative.
• A Challenge.
• Film has the capacity to surprise in ways that digital never will.
• No batteries necessary.
• No shutter lag.
• Fewer buttons and gadgets.
• No CPU to crash at unexpected times.

The Elph is a fun little digital camera that I can take in my pocket anywhere and use for photographic post-it notes or fun candids to share. The 10D may gather some dust for a while since the Leica and the Lomo are a lot easier to carry around and they seem to capture more interesting images as perfection doesn't leave a lot of room for creative imperfection.