Well actually I don't. It's not that I hate it as much as can't understand why I want to move back to film again with all the costs involved. People keep telling me that film has a different look to it even when it has been digitalised and degraded via scanning. I can agree with this to a degree, but if it is so different as to make film incredibly superior, how come the files I have seen and printed that come from my EOS 5d and one L series lens that I own are more than merely excellent digital images? They have as much life and texture as any silver halide print I have seen. And let's be honest, most scans from film are done on cheap flatbeds anyway, and I can't understand why film shooters keep harping on about how superior their thumbnails are over those from digital cameras when displayed on the Net!
One has to ask if it is all nostalgic rubbish, and of course 80% of the argument is nostalgic. Some film people just can't understand us digital people because we want to get our digital b/w images to look like film. I guess it is because we still hold film up as a benchmark for our own humble conversions in 'Photoshop'. Ah, 'Photoshop' ! That is also a dirty word to the film enthusiast. But 'Photoshop' is one of those developments that has truly helped and encouraged photographers of both media to achieve some outstanding imagery.
In truth, it would be easier to say I hate film. But I don't. I love both film and digital. What I hate is the fact that going back to using film after a year or two of free digital shooting would put an economic pressure on me that just doesn't exist otherwise. I am so acutely aware that every frame of film I ditch will cost me around 30p here in the UK, and that is a lot of money over ten rolls of film. If I only get 10 keepers per roll, apart from the purchase of the film in the first place and then the processing, diy, or professionally, I would be out of pocket. Apart from that, would I gain very much considering my amateur status? Maybe a tad, knowing I can touch and hold the original source material to the window, or look at it on a light box. But as a 15x10 print, or a page in a photo book? I don't think so somehow.
Nope..! I will just have to press on with my digital photography for a while longer and see what happens in the market place that will be enough to convince and encourage me to move back to film.
That was a good read.
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