Shooting Film Again:
I love digital photography, and I love the many possibilites and flexibilities that it can offer me. But I did mentioned in one of my past post that I wanted to go back to shooting some film again. Not that there is anything wrong with digital but there are several reasons for why I want to try some film again. One is that I was looking through some old family photo albums, and I was actually quite pleased with the results. The colors were so smooth, bright, and pleasing (especially from Fuji Reala). I even have this one photo shot in Cancun Mexico with Fuji Velvia, and the colors just pop. Seriously, the photo was so three dimenional, and for a moment, it made me wonder what was really wrong with film that we needed to replace it with digital :). Maybe I will scan that photo in the future, and put it here.
Ever since I bought my M9, my whole photography life has been immersed in the world of digital. I have no regrets about that. The Leica M9 is a wonderful camera, and I’m glad I chose this camera to break into the digital world. But I guess with all the digital that I’ve been shooting with, and seeing everywhere, I forgot how a good photograph shot with film can look like.
The other reason for why I want to try some film again is that I’m actually eager to try out some of the techniques that I’ve learned from digital. People always talk about how they apply their techniques from the film days on to digital but not many talk about the opposite. The great thing about digital is that I’m able to shoot many more photographs, and really learned from them without any consequences. Seriously, I feel like I learned a lot about photography thanks to digital. I can see my mistakes, and try to correct them. Plus, I can see them instantaneously, which is a big plus. Anything I don’t like, I can delete instantly, and it doesn’t cost me anything.
I guess what really stops me from pursuing film more often is because it does cost more. I have to buy the film, and get it developed. I have to wait…it doesn’t have the instant gratification that digital offers :). Plus, I want to scan my photos/negatives in, and I’m not really sure about the whole process. My film days were strictly analog, and once I got into digital, I never looked back to film. I never scanned any of my negatives before, and from what I see at some places, depending on the quality, it can cost quite a bit.
But I will learn what I need to learn, and all I’m looking forward to doing is using my 50 lux on my M3. I have the 0.91x viewfinder on the M3, and I’ve been itching to see what effects the F1.4 from the 50 lux will produce on film :). It’s an amazing lens on the M9, and I’m pretty sure it’s just as amazing on film. I’m also probably going to pop a few rolls in my Leica M6 TTL Millenium. It’s painted with the same black paint as the Leica MP, and it’s beautiful. I have no idea why Leica does not paint their digital M’s with that nice shiny black paint. I love that color, and would definitely get a black Leica M9 if it came like that. I just find the black paint on the M9 and M9-P a little to bland for my taste but that’s just my own preference.
↑ Leica M6 TTL Millenium with the matching 35 Summicron ASPH black paint (same serial number).
I currently have some Kodak Ektar loaded in my camera but I also just purchased some Kodak T-Max 100 (24 exposures) from Amazon. I couldn’t resist…it was only 3.99 per roll with free two day air shipping! I’m also thinking about purchasing some Fuji Velvia since I use to love how Fuji film looked. I’ll post whatever I get on film, I just hope I still know how to shoot with film :). Thanks for stopping by!
