Probably asked a thousand times before….
p.2 #1Probably asked a thousand times before….
Pixelpuffin wrote:
Does anyone have a link that shows side by side photos (same subject) between film and digital please.?
I’m really struggling to convince myself shooting film is worth all the expense and effort over just shooting digital.
I just can’t bring myself to blow £20-25 only to realise I can’t tell the bloody difference!!
How about this? One of these was taken with a $30 Reto UltraWide n Slim and Fojak 400 film, the other with a $7500 Leica M10r/Summicron 28 combo.
Does anyone have a link that shows side by side photos (same subject) between film and digital please.?
I’m really struggling to convince myself shooting film is worth all the expense and effort over just shooting digital.
I just can’t bring myself to blow £20-25 only to realise I can’t tell the bloody difference!!
How about this? One of these was taken with a $30 Reto UltraWide n Slim and Fojak 400 film, the other with a $7500 Leica M10r/Summicron 28 combo.
May 15, 2026 at 03:50 PM
p.2 #3Probably asked a thousand times before….
The two examples above represent the impressionist (low fidelity) end of the spectrum. It's a vibe I love and respect.
Ektar in medium format would have a lot less character.
Ektar in medium format would have a lot less character.
May 15, 2026 at 06:16 PM
p.2 #4Probably asked a thousand times before….
I mostly shoot medium and some 4x5 format b&w film and scan and print on a Pro 100 and I think the prints look different than a digital b&w. This might be crazy but it reminds me of the Canon 5D prints.
May 17, 2026 at 07:42 AM
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p.2 #5Probably asked a thousand times before….
Pixelpuffin wrote:
Does anyone have a link that shows side by side photos (same subject) between film and digital please.?
I’m really struggling to convince myself shooting film is worth all the expense and effort over just shooting digital.
I just can’t bring myself to blow £20-25 only to realise I can’t tell the bloody difference!!
What is your goal for shooting film? When it comes to results, one can simulate any emulsion digitally with extreme accuracy. The grain, the halation, the S-curve, even the color response. You can do anything with LUTs.
Shooting film is mostly about the process. When someone asks whether I mediate, I say "yes".
One possible exception is what you can do with a view camera movements, or the resolution you can theoretically get out of a 8x10" sheet.
Does anyone have a link that shows side by side photos (same subject) between film and digital please.?
I’m really struggling to convince myself shooting film is worth all the expense and effort over just shooting digital.
I just can’t bring myself to blow £20-25 only to realise I can’t tell the bloody difference!!
What is your goal for shooting film? When it comes to results, one can simulate any emulsion digitally with extreme accuracy. The grain, the halation, the S-curve, even the color response. You can do anything with LUTs.
Shooting film is mostly about the process. When someone asks whether I mediate, I say "yes".
One possible exception is what you can do with a view camera movements, or the resolution you can theoretically get out of a 8x10" sheet.
May 17, 2026 at 09:34 PM
p.2 #6Probably asked a thousand times before….
Having grown up a film (1970's-1990's) then giving it up for digital in the early 2000's. I recently got a few film cameras to play around with. To me shooting with film now is more about the process, choosing a film stock, loading it, knowing there are only 36 exposures, waiting for the images, not being certain what you got...
Digital is definitely easier with the instantaneous reward but sometimes it's nice to slow down. If you are young enough never to have had to shoot film there may be even more about it that is interesting but I wouldn't know.
The main down side is the expense and film has gotten very expensive lately but then you get that look the analog randomness of film that is exciting. To each their own but if you have that itch go ahead and scratch.
Digital is definitely easier with the instantaneous reward but sometimes it's nice to slow down. If you are young enough never to have had to shoot film there may be even more about it that is interesting but I wouldn't know.
The main down side is the expense and film has gotten very expensive lately but then you get that look the analog randomness of film that is exciting. To each their own but if you have that itch go ahead and scratch.
May 18, 2026 at 12:39 PM
p.2 #7Probably asked a thousand times before….
old-gregg wrote:
Pixelpuffin wrote
Does anyone have a link that shows side by side photos (same subject) between film and digital please.?I’m really struggling to convince myself shooting film is worth all the expense and effort over just shooting digital.
I just can’t bring myself to blow £20-25 only to realise I can’t tell the bloody difference!!
Shooting film is mostly about the process. When someone asks whether I mediate, I say "yes".
One possible exception is what you can do with a view camera movements, or the resolution you can theoretically get out of a 8x10" sheet.
First and foremost it’s the enprints
I just miss the simplicity of taking pictures, handing the film over and receiving an envelope contains 36 prints. I then vet to determine which goes in the album. It used to be so simple and straight forward.
I don’t shoot RAW, never have and probably never will. The idea of being stuck infront of a computer adjusting levels and curves fills me with dread.
Likewise thd idea of shooting 5x4 or 10x8… why ??
If the image grabs your attention it will still grab if shot on a smaller camera format
Besides I spent several years at college doing photography in the early 90’s
I’ve had my fill with sheet film cameras.
May 19, 2026 at 03:30 AM
p.2 #8Probably asked a thousand times before….
You've got it. It's more than nostalgia.
It looks like the ember of film photography is growing in an "artistic" sense. It's not replacing digital, but adds back some level of simplicity, integrity and craft. Most of the LES/Brooklyn kids I see street shooting here are using film gear - M6 with a 35/1.4 Nokton being the top choice. They all have Sony or Fuji kits, too, "for work". (I have never seen another Zf in NYC. Go figure.)
Film can also be the middle finger to the internet's MTF-bokeh dogma, clumsily complex camera automations, and "cheap", synthetic post-processing & AI. It can return an aura of craft and "authenticity" into making images.
It definitely pressures you to be more thoughtful and intentional, which should make a you better photographer.
(It's not hard to notice that many of the best images on this site are in "Film is Not Dead.")
Pixelpuffin wrote:
Thanks to everyone who replied
I have singled out your reply Geoff as you basically hit the nail on the head… I miss en-prints so bad
I look through old photo albums with 6x4 prints and yearn for that innocence again….just that snap that I grabbed back then with a plastic lens film compact camera…and yet…and yet today with digital almost guaranteeing every single shot razor sharp and pretty much perfectly exposed (mirrorless) I somehow miss those en-prints !!
They seemed to capture a moment that my modern cameras can’t.
God I miss en-prints !!
Who’d’ve thought that!!
It’s just stepping back that’s stalling me…oh and the expense too!! 🫣😳You need to PM Huss (Desmolicious) - I don't think he has ever told us the number of plastic point and shoot cameras he owns, but it must be dozens. The results can be surprisingly good for little money. I'm sure he can point you one within your budget.I wasn’t meaning revisiting plastic lenses - that was all I could afford back then
I was meaning en-prints in a flip photo album sat on a coffee table ready to be passed around.
It’s funny because now when I look through those old albums it’s the flaws that pull my heart strings, the slight orange streak from light leak, the snap that didn’t quite freeze the subject yet the back ground is sharp, the green cast from shooting under artificial lights etc etc
All the things that annoyed us back then I now find rather charming.
Flawless Perfection is so incredibly dull and boring these days, don’t you think?It has taken me awhile to embrace defective prints. I had to deliver color correct images to clients. When i saw them I knew which were exhausted chemistry, poor technique, cheap or expire paper, etc. Back in the day - they were crap. Then, I guess, some photog decided to say he deliberately screwed it up. Like when a cat trips on a rug, and then acts like they meant to do that. Terms like "cross processing" and the like seemed like invented terms to explain away errors, but they did connexct with people's nostalgia. It gave them the warm fuzzys. So, I've finally learned to appreciate that connection.
Getting a sharp picture has never been so easy as it is today
Even my phone gives ridiculously sharp vivid saturated contrasty pictures. I could hand a toddler a iPad and point them to the flowers in the garden, they would return with amazingly sharp vivid pictures everytime.
Which actually always kinda makes me laugh a little on other forums where guys sporting high end camera gear upload RAWs of flowers that tbh look no better than the snaps taken by the iPad clutching toddler !!
A sharp picture in 2026 is a given. Uploading for validation to fuel one’s ego says...Show more →
It looks like the ember of film photography is growing in an "artistic" sense. It's not replacing digital, but adds back some level of simplicity, integrity and craft. Most of the LES/Brooklyn kids I see street shooting here are using film gear - M6 with a 35/1.4 Nokton being the top choice. They all have Sony or Fuji kits, too, "for work". (I have never seen another Zf in NYC. Go figure.)
Film can also be the middle finger to the internet's MTF-bokeh dogma, clumsily complex camera automations, and "cheap", synthetic post-processing & AI. It can return an aura of craft and "authenticity" into making images.
It definitely pressures you to be more thoughtful and intentional, which should make a you better photographer.
(It's not hard to notice that many of the best images on this site are in "Film is Not Dead.")
Pixelpuffin wrote:
James Markus wrote
Pixelpuffin wrote
James Markus wrote
Pixelpuffin wrote
Geoff D F wrote
Unless you are doing large format and all that involves, digital is way ahead in terms of resolution and flexibility. I shoot film because I like the imperfections. Photos are like memories and memories are imperfect. When I look at my old film photos I have a different emotional response than looking at my old digital photos. YMMV.I have singled out your reply Geoff as you basically hit the nail on the head… I miss en-prints so bad
I look through old photo albums with 6x4 prints and yearn for that innocence again….just that snap that I grabbed back then with a plastic lens film compact camera…and yet…and yet today with digital almost guaranteeing every single shot razor sharp and pretty much perfectly exposed (mirrorless) I somehow miss those en-prints !!
They seemed to capture a moment that my modern cameras can’t.
God I miss en-prints !!
Who’d’ve thought that!!
It’s just stepping back that’s stalling me…oh and the expense too!! 🫣😳
I was meaning en-prints in a flip photo album sat on a coffee table ready to be passed around.
It’s funny because now when I look through those old albums it’s the flaws that pull my heart strings, the slight orange streak from light leak, the snap that didn’t quite freeze the subject yet the back ground is sharp, the green cast from shooting under artificial lights etc etc
All the things that annoyed us back then I now find rather charming.
Flawless Perfection is so incredibly dull and boring these days, don’t you think?
Even my phone gives ridiculously sharp vivid saturated contrasty pictures. I could hand a toddler a iPad and point them to the flowers in the garden, they would return with amazingly sharp vivid pictures everytime.
Which actually always kinda makes me laugh a little on other forums where guys sporting high end camera gear upload RAWs of flowers that tbh look no better than the snaps taken by the iPad clutching toddler !!
A sharp picture in 2026 is a given. Uploading for validation to fuel one’s ego says...Show more →
May 19, 2026 at 06:00 AM