This article is from a few years ago: musings on returning to film from digital SLRs. I can identify – not so much with the divorce part, but with the renewed draw of film. To be clear, there is still a place for using digital cameras. For me, this is typically when speed is important: both the ability to quickly upload photos online, or prints, or quite frankly when shooting sports and I want to be able to take 10 frames/second, I’m going to be shooting digital. If I’m in low light with challenging environments, I kind of like digital. And most of the time, under the theory that the best camera is the one you have on you, I’ll continue to take a LOT of pictures using the amazing camera on my Samsung S7 Edge.
But I certainly also enjoy slowing things down a lot. The tactile analog of film. The need to think through each shot, and the feeling that the cameras is more truly an extension of your body. Yes it is limited, however these very limits are what makes it appealing.
Perhaps it is nostalgia, harkening back to the times in high school and college when I developed and printed my own photos? Perhaps. Yet film is having a strong comeback, Kodak is reintroducing Ektar film later this year, the Impossible project is coming out with new Polaroid type films for more classic cameras, and photography stores are back in business and *gasp* selling actual film cameras.
Film will not likely dominate digital ever again, but much like vinyl it is having a notable resurgence, and I for one am quite happy to see it stick around.
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