Shooting film in a digital world

Why would anyone use film in today's digital world of facebook, flickr and other on-line oriented media?

Well, perhaps for the same reason musicians still play on acoustic instruments. The invention of a new medium will not necessarily spell doom for another. There is still something magical about holding a print in your hands or looking at great photography in a gallery.

Personally I enjoy the special look of a photo taken with film. I am sure you can obtain the same “feel” with a little work in photoshop but that is not where I want to spend my time. I like to use different kinds of film, filters and exposures to get the shot right the first time. I learned to shoot on digital and I still think this is a great way to discover photography. You can take hundreds of photos in a day while trying out new things and if you don't like them you delete them and try again, but instead of sifting through thousands of mediocre RAW files I try to use the right tool for the job. I shoot film as often as I can but I also use my digital rig and even my Blackberry camera (check out my photos at  http://tegnerud.posterous.com/). As the old saying goes “the best camera is the one you have with you” and I ALWAYS carry my phone... =)  photo taken with my Blackberry Bold

 The development and innovation of film have by no means been standing still over the last 10 years. Film making is still alive and well in today’s digital media world and the products out there are some of the best ever, some are even designed to fit your hybrid media workflow. Sure, production has been scaled back but film photography is still a viable and not too expensive option to digital.

But is it really that expensive?

Take this for example, you can spend about $1,200 today and get a good digital camera like the Canon EOS 60D or the Nikon D90 but how will these cameras match against the competition in 3 to 4 years? That doesn't mean that they are bad cameras but in an ever changing digital world the next model with all the “must have” features is always around the corner. You can find a great film camera such as the Canon EOS 630 on eBay for under $20 and load it up with tons of great and ever developing film products. This camera might be from the early 90’s but the film you shoot with it will continue to evolve in the future and better products are being released every year. Try that with your 60D in 2020... ;-)

If you want to discover more about film photography I highly recommend the following sites and pod-casts.

http://filmphotographyproject.com/

http://www.insideanalogphoto.com/

http://www.keepfilmalive.org/

~jonas