Maybe a little late here, but we'll give these questions a go. I have been a hobbyist for roughly 10 years and started shooting film again in the summer of 2025. I am a little over 35 rolls in and while I still shoot digital, I usually grab a film camera these days.
What was the biggest surprise…..or shock? Learning how little I cared at the "drop in image quality" compared to my main 40mp digital camera. It makes you realize that if you really look back at your favorite photos, the technical qualities aren't the reason you care about them. If fact, the limitations of film may force you to shoot more creatively. Also, film has just been fun. I get more comments from friends while using film cameras than any digital camera, and I am surprised at just how many people perk up and volunteer that they used to shoot film decades ago or took a photography class in high school and miss doing it. Film cameras start more conversations for me, which maybe that opens you up to taking their portrait.
How did you cope stuck with fixed iso? I have been shooting mostly 400 speed film and haven't felt that limited honestly. I just have to have the approach that I am not doing much low light photography (not a tripod person) and will need some filters if I want to use a wider aperture in the daytime (or just see what happens with the lens stopped down more). I rarely used filters on digital, but found that with film filters are much more frequently on.
Did you struggle with just 36exp after years of 1000+ per card? I don't think I was ever a fill the SD card in a day kind of shooter. But the amount of work you have to put into each roll really makes you pause before taking a photo instead of just snapping away. I have been developing the my film in my basement and know that each photo takes about a minute of time (roughly 40 minutes to load the film, develop it, and scan it) before I ever actually edit anything.
What’s your keeper rate per film? Maybe a third of shots. But also some of my favorite photos have been film. Film is more challenging but when you get it right, the results are so satisfying.
Do the labs override your deliberate exposures? Can't help on this one. I saw the price labs charge and decided to get the chems and equipment. Chems are cheap! There is also more than enough videos on the university of YouTube to teach you how to develop film, but you have to be prepared that developing also has a learning curve, which has resulted in some mistakes... err... "artistic choices" but overall, results have been better than expected. Also, check if your local recycling center or photography store takes or knows where to take spent chemicals.
cmatthews74 wrote:
Maybe a little late here, but we'll give these questions a go. I have been a hobbyist for roughly 10 years and started shooting film again in the summer of 2025. I am a little over 35 rolls in and while I still shoot digital, I usually grab a film camera these days.
What was the biggest surprise…..or shock? Learning how little I cared at the "drop in image quality" compared to my main 40mp digital camera. It makes you realize that if you really look back at your favorite photos, the technical qualities aren't the reason you care about them. If fact, the limitations of film may force you to shoot more creatively. Also, film has just been fun. I get more comments from friends while using film cameras than any digital camera, and I am surprised at just how many people perk up and volunteer that they used to shoot film decades ago or took a photography class in high school and miss doing it. Film cameras start more conversations for me, which maybe that opens you up to taking their portrait.
How did you cope stuck with fixed iso? I have been shooting mostly 400 speed film and haven't felt that limited honestly. I just have to have the approach that I am not doing much low light photography (not a tripod person) and will need some filters if I want to use a wider aperture in the daytime (or just see what happens with the lens stopped down more). I rarely used filters on digital, but found that with film filters are much more frequently on.
Did you struggle with just 36exp after years of 1000+ per card? I don't think I was ever a fill the SD card in a day kind of shooter. But the amount of work you have to put into each roll really makes you pause before taking a photo instead of just snapping away. I have been developing the my film in my basement and know that each photo takes about a minute of time (roughly 40 minutes to load the film, develop it, and scan it) before I ever actually edit anything.
What’s your keeper rate per film? Maybe a third of shots. But also some of my favorite photos have been film. Film is more challenging but when you get it right, the results are so satisfying.
Do the labs override your deliberate exposures? Can't help on this one. I saw the price labs charge and decided to get the chems and equipment. Chems are cheap! There is also more than enough videos on the university of YouTube to teach you how to develop film, but you have to be prepared that developing also has a learning curve, which has resulted in some mistakes... err... "artistic choices" but overall, results have been better than expected. Also, check if your local recycling center or photography store takes or knows where to take spent chemicals....Show more →
Co-sign on basically all of this. I also started shooting film in summer 2025, and have found it to be a very enjoyable experience for many of the same reasons:
- The biggest change I have seen is that my keeper percentage has gone up drastically. A day of walking around and shooting might be 2 film rolls (72 exposures) or probably 200 on digital. In both cases I'll probably walk away with 15-20 keepers, but that results in a way higher hit rate on film than digital. What it comes down to is that with digital the cost of a single shot is so low that I end up taking 5-6 shots of the same thing and only like one, whereas with film I feel like each shot is precious so I do more work on the front end to compose well and get the "best" available shot. I'm still not working the scene as much as I could, but it's certainly been much improved with the switch to film.
- Switching to film cameras has also been my first experience with fully manual cameras. There's something about being more involved in the process, particularly with manual focusing, that makes the good shots feel "earned" in a way autofocus/auto-exposure systems lack now. This is not something I felt when I was purely on digital, but now that I've had this other experience it does feel that way when I go back to digital.
- I enjoy the way film photos look, inclusive of the exposure weirdness but also the grain, color science, etc. Black and white photos of course have a lovely tonality and grain structure which I suppose you could reproduce with Silver Efex but it's fun to have done it on actual film. Slide has unfortunately been as incredible as everyone said - I love how Provia looks and it's frustrating that it's $1 a shot if you can even find it.
- I'm slowly getting more hands on in the development process. First step was getting a scanner, and now I have chems and the Reflx Lab "ice cream" rotary tank for B&W development. The tank and rotary system are designed for water bath immersion so I may eventually start developing my own C41 and ECN2 but for now i'll be starting with good old Xtol and black and white.
Overall I'm happy to have dipped my toes and now entire body into the film world. Maybe I'll get over it eventually and go back to digital, but I've tried several digital M cameras since switching to film and it just doesn't hit the same way.
Perhaps getting a little ahead of the OP's questions, I'm one of those who is about to be inundated again with the film era gear and am excitedly looking forward to it, though age wise (83+) it is a little late. I need to explain...
I began shooting film in 1964 and from then until 1978, recorded 5000+ images of the redwood forests in and around what became Redwood National Park. I was very involved in the creation & expansion efforts and those image have been donated to the park service. I developed all the B&W myself and recently have been scanning the color with a Z7ii & macro lens. The B&W was scanned with an Epson V750
A dear friend I knew well, who was also involved the those early redwood park days, just passed away at 90 and I'm inheriting his Nikon F3 and 4 lenses (50mmf2, 60mm micro, 105mm f2.5 I believe, and a 400mmf3.5) and Linhof Technika 23 (6x9) and 5 Schneider lenses (65, 105, 120, 150 & 270mm) and 2 roll film backs. He used a tripod but I don't know what other accessories he had like meters, etc. I will see it all in about 7-8 days. We were never in the field together so I don't know the full extent of what I will see or their condition or what age, given some items were in production over many years. His son says they are in "tip-top shape". My friend was actively using them until he broke a foot when he was 88, but I don't know how much after that. Needless to say I am excited
I have an FTZ ii so I should be able to check out the Nikkor lenses with my Z8 but will want to try using both cameras after giving them a careful inspection.
I am especially intrigued by the Linhof, as it revives my Hasselblad 500C memories and life with 120 film. I'm amazed I don't find much info on Linhof here on FM, but maybe there are some old threads someone can point me to. I have been doing as much research as I can.
As a digital shooter, I'm still not prone to fire off a lot of exposures, so that element of old film life has NEVER left me, and the Z8's capabilities I'm barely using. Keeping a steady low ISO by using a tripod is another old procedure that works with film. My photo trips are often "purpose based" with an intent to get to a location and photograph a specific element there, so film works for that. However, I see no way I'm going to process any film myself, so if I get back into it, I'll need to find a lab. I hope that from the SF Bay Area to Portland, OR on the west coast I can find something workable with short turn around times.
I know this thread has been dormant for a few weeks but I'll chime in anyway. I started shooting film maybe 55 years ago. Life took some left turns so after maybe 20 years the camera got parked and I used various P&S cameras, then my phone. But I kept looking at my old Nikon F-mount lenses and wondering if a new digital camera could work with them. Last autumn I bought a Nikon Z5ii and FTZ.
Eventually I revived my old faithful Nikkormat and started with film too. I picked up a few more lenses and then a friend gave me more lenses and two bodies, a Nikon F which I've used and F2 which I have not used yet. Somehow I've ended up with eight F-mount Nikkors and one F-mount Tamron macro which I use for scanning film.
So I've been shooting Kodacolor 200 for fun. I like the feel of the cameras, the Nikkormat best. A lab processes the film which I scan and convert to positive digital images. I'm not sure I have an artistic preference for film over digital, though film pics do look different. Since I'm using all manual-focus lenses my composition practice is about the same. Then there's having to fill up a roll and wait for the lab, as compared to digital pics which I can see right away, re-shoot if I choose, and process as soon as I get home. (My wife especially likes the immediacy of digital.)
So digital wins the practicality battle. Except that I like the satisfying ker-plunk of the mirror and I like playing with toys. My success rate is low enough that film can be an expensive form of fun.
cmatthews74 wrote:
Maybe a little late here, but we'll give these questions a go. I have been a hobbyist for roughly 10 years and started shooting film again in the summer of 2025. I am a little over 35 rolls in and while I still shoot digital, I usually grab a film camera these days.
What was the biggest surprise…..or shock? Learning how little I cared at the "drop in image quality" compared to my main 40mp digital camera. It makes you realize that if you really look back at your favorite photos, the technical qualities aren't the reason you care about them. If fact, the limitations of film may force you to shoot more creatively. Also, film has just been fun. I get more comments from friends while using film cameras than any digital camera, and I am surprised at just how many people perk up and volunteer that they used to shoot film decades ago or took a photography class in high school and miss doing it. Film cameras start more conversations for me, which maybe that opens you up to taking their portrait.
How did you cope stuck with fixed iso? I have been shooting mostly 400 speed film and haven't felt that limited honestly. I just have to have the approach that I am not doing much low light photography (not a tripod person) and will need some filters if I want to use a wider aperture in the daytime (or just see what happens with the lens stopped down more). I rarely used filters on digital, but found that with film filters are much more frequently on.
Did you struggle with just 36exp after years of 1000+ per card? I don't think I was ever a fill the SD card in a day kind of shooter. But the amount of work you have to put into each roll really makes you pause before taking a photo instead of just snapping away. I have been developing the my film in my basement and know that each photo takes about a minute of time (roughly 40 minutes to load the film, develop it, and scan it) before I ever actually edit anything.
What’s your keeper rate per film? Maybe a third of shots. But also some of my favorite photos have been film. Film is more challenging but when you get it right, the results are so satisfying.
Do the labs override your deliberate exposures? Can't help on this one. I saw the price labs charge and decided to get the chems and equipment. Chems are cheap! There is also more than enough videos on the university of YouTube to teach you how to develop film, but you have to be prepared that developing also has a learning curve, which has resulted in some mistakes... err... "artistic choices" but overall, results have been better than expected. Also, check if your local recycling center or photography store takes or knows where to take spent chemicals....Show more →
I agree with this 100%. I have high end Leica, Hasselblad, Fuji and Nikon cameras with high end lenses. The photos that everyone loves almost exclusively are from my film cameras. I have Leica, Nikon, Nikkormat, Hasselblad, Pentax...etc film cameras. Funny enough, the photos I see framed at my friends/family houses are almost all from my $90 Pentax 90WR or $300 Nikon FE. I print and pass out photos from $15k rigs (M11 or X2Dii) that people seems to like but are not framed or on the fridge.
I also agree that film is so much more satisfying when you get a hit. It is more difficult in general and you have no idea until you develop if you nailed it. My wife has a habit of blinking right when I shoot. With digital, I just shoot another. With film, I don't know until weeks later.
I shot a ton of film back in the 80/90's but was shocked to find out it was a thing again. Been enjoying it a lot for the last years. Film is my favorite.
I shot film up until somewhere in the late 1990s. I always sent my film in for developing. I got a digital point and shoot, and then another, and another. Mostly just travel photos. Then around 2010 I got my first DSRL, then switched back to film a couple years later. This time I took a class at my local community college and learned how to process my own film, and print on paper. I did that for a year and then dropped photography all together.
Now I'm back 13-14 years later and taking the same class again. This is the first week of class. I really like the simplicity of SLRs and film is just fun to work with!
