Musings from a new (old) film body owner

[ourabmen]

Ok, first I blame each and every one in this section, LOL, for my recent purchase of my recently acquired F4 body.

I am half way through my first roll of Tri-X 400, and have some observations.

I had forgotten how much fun photography can be. Like most of us here, I made the transition to digital a few years ago, and marveled at the instant feedback and volume of shots I could "capture." I have shot a mere 18 frames with this F4 body, and had an epiphany. I really enjoy shooting with this body.

Strangely, the F4 makes time slow down. I find myself more involved and focused on the composition of the 18 shots I have taken, what the meter is telling me, thinking about the adjustments to shutter, f stop, ISO.

However the greatest joy has come from the liberation from the histogram on my D300. The need for instant feedback. I watch with great anticipation, the counter marching along, frame at a time, and wonder what I will be rewarded with when the film comes back from the lab? Man, I am hooked.

 

[integrale]

Welcome to "The Zone"

What you're experiencing is exactly why I like shooting film.

 

[braver]

You know, we've become trained at judging everything on specs, convenience, value-for-money instead of listening to why we actually like (doing) something. Example: the Senseo coffee machine has been immensely popular around here for years, but everyone always said "I don't like the coffee so much, and it's expensive, but it's so convenient!". Nobody buys those machines anymore, and if you still have one you're now obliged to say "I'm sorry, but all I've got is Senseo". People finally discovered about making coffee what you have discovered about film: it is vitally important to enjoy something.

I recently read an article stating that of all photography students in their final year (these are people like me, not old enough to have a real memory of shooting film) 50% now shoots film exclusively.

 

[photojazz]

Congrats and I wish you many, many hours of fun with this fantastic piece of Nikon wizardry. I have one too...

 

[Phillip Ino]

Hooray! I was recently hooked myself and it feels wonderful :biggrin:

 

[shadowkon]

You know, we've become trained at judging everything on specs, convenience, value-for-money instead of listening to why we actually like (doing) something. Example: the Senseo coffee machine has been immensely popular around here for years, but everyone always said "I don't like the coffee so much, and it's expensive, but it's so convenient!". Nobody buys those machines anymore, and if you still have one you're now obliged to say "I'm sorry, but all I've got is Senseo". People finally discovered about making coffee what you have discovered about film: it is vitally important to enjoy something.

Very eloquently put.

 

[ArtO]

Glad you've found the wonder of film. The F4 has been my favorite Nikon since I first held one in my hand at the Camera store. It's a fantastic machine.

 

[carlitos]

I shoot Nikon F2's; haven't succumbed to digital yet. But I can remember the first time I saw an F4 at Keeble and Suchat in Palo Alto, CA. The camera was brand new and being demo'd by the Nikon reps. Everyone was pretty excited, and, indeed compared to the F3, it was quite a departure. I handled it, and thought that it really became kind of an extension of my hand and eyes. I rented it a number of times and really enjoyed using it. However, even now, I hate to be dependent on batteries. But still the F4 is a beautiful machine. Only camera that can autofocus my beautiful 200mm F3.5 ED.

 

[BourbonCowboy]

I've got a pair of FE2's and love em. I'm planning on a short vacation to New Orleans in August, and I plan on taking a small film kit. I find the actual joy is in the photography, not the photos.

 

[rbsinto]

I've got a pair of FE2's and love em. I'm planning on a short vacation to New Orleans in August, and I plan on taking a small film kit. I find the actual joy is in the photography, not the photos.

Interesting comment.
I've felt the same way for a while now.
I go out and shoot, get the slides back and sometimes don't even bother to look at them for days or weeks, and then often only to quickly weed out the obviously really poor shots. The rest of the images may not get looked at for months or even years.
Often it is enough to know when I'm shooting that I got the shot, and that it is in the camera, and whether I actually see it or not is immaterial.
I guess I could save myself a lot of money by shooting with empty cameras, as it is the act of picture taking that has become important, not the images themselves.

 

[cooltouch]

I cut my teeth on film, shot slides for many years, but gradually drifted away from film photography after we bought a decent little P&S digital. There were so many situations where I wanted to upload images to the web, and suddenly the film gear became a hassle with too many intermediary steps involved. So I slowly drifted away over a period of years.

And then a funny thing happened. A couple years ago my wife bought me a DSLR with kit lens for Christmas. Suddenly I was back into the whole SLR experience and as I started getting sucked back in, one of the first things I did was I began pulling out all my old film gear. Dusted off my trusty old F2 and my assortment of Nikkors. And before I knew it I was actively hunting for gear to add to my old outfit. I hadn't been paying attention to prices either and was really surprised at how cheap some cameras and lenses had become. Now this was a couple years ago, and since then prices have recovered somewhat, but back then there were some amazing prices. So here I was going nuts buying old gear, in many cases gear that I couldn't afford back in the day. And really I haven't stopped. Trying to save up for a 20mm UD f/3.5 right now. Problem is I get sidetracked too easily. Like what happened just last week. Saw an old F with original non-TTL finder that I just couldn't pass up. And it's a sweet tool, too. Works great, amazingly enough.

Nowadays, I probably shoot just as much film as I do digital. I'm doing my part to keep film alive. Long live emulsion technology!