shot last film!!

I've been a two format shooter since I went digital in '04, today I scanned the last batch of slides I shot into computer, after looking on monitor I deleted all images and threw the slides in trash! looking at the slide with a loupe they were ok, but on monitor I said too much trouble and I did'nt like the results, so my FE2, and N80 are now paper weights, and I shall concentrate on my new D200, and D70s as my only ways to produce photos, good-bye film, now if I could eat the remaining film in the "fridge".

How many other shooters have tossed the film and gone to digital? I mean those who have been shooting for quite awhile, me almost 20yrs. started Yahshica super 2000, then Nikon N2000.To those still shooting both formats good luck,,,, me digital only.

Rubicon:

rubicon said:

good-bye film, now if I could
eat the remaining film in the "fridge".

Click to expand...

Send it to me. No, seriously!

rubicon said:

How many other shooters have tossed the film and gone to digital? I
mean those who have been shooting for quite awhile, me almost 20yrs.

Click to expand...

I've only been really shooting for a few years, but I actually started with digital and picked up film along the way. My F4 is actually my preferred camera, I just love how it feels and acts. If you seriously want your film to go to a good home, where it will be appreciated, and used to make photographs, send me an email and I'll give you an address.

My F4 on the ice in Yosemite last week:



--
-Nick Davis
Please feel free to critique anything I post. I'm here to learn.



A humble reflection of the beauty in the world around us:
http://nickdavis.zenfolio.com/

Funny coincidence, at this very moment scanning B&W and slides taken 15 years ago.
--
Rudi -
15 years in Blade Runner Tokyo - back in Sunny Sydney now

I stopped using film 1999 or early 2000.

With my first digital (Sony F505), I had fun taking snapshots of everything I can think of. I put my Nikon SLR aside, and been hibernating since.

I tried scanning negatives and slides 3 or 4 years ago, and not really happy with it. So I put my SLR into extended hiatus.

Recently, I heard that digital images you get when you have your film developed is of good quality now. So instead of me scanning films/slides with my Epson scanner, I'll just let the film developers do the scanning for me (better professional scanner?). So I might give that a try soon. I'll compare it with the images I get with the D300.

--
just me
Teddy

I only use film for fun now. I have not used it professionally for almost 6 years. I was using a matchbox pinhole camera and a box brownie last week, not for the quality of film, but for the fun of something different. I may be using my speed graphic again soon too, got some cheap chinese film for it off ebay. I like the summicron copy on my russian rf cameras so I use that for family snaps from time to time too.

Basically my commitment to film is not enough to warrant a good scanner, buying in date pro film, or serious darkroom time, it is just a non serious hobby.

--

Knolan--My daughter called me last week to see if i still had my old film cameras as she knows I went digital. Seems my granddaughter in CA. is taking a photography class as a junior in high school and only film cameras are used. They must also learn how to develop the film. I sent the two I had left, a Nikon and a Minolta.

I wonder if their local high school also makes the students learn to ride a horse before they learn to drive a car?
--
http://www.cbrycelea.com/photos/

Yes, me too. I bought 2 Nikon FTn's from early 70's and a N65 given to me one Christmas that have retired to the dark closet except to look at them occasionally and snap them in hopes they still work. Started digital back in early 2000 w/ the Canon G3. Now have D200 & D300 & a lot of old lenses.
Ron B.

I started with digital just messing around when digital first came out and went through point and shoots d70's, d200 and now I have a d300 as my newest toy. I still like to shoot 4x5 and 8x10 for landscapes, you kind of get into a little "zone" under the darkcloth while composing that I really enjoy. As a hobby for me, I enjoy the developing and enlarging almost as much as shooting the film. If I were a pro, I couldn't make a living with film at my slow speed approach Digital is certainly faster, but nothing beats a nice 8x10 contact print from tri-x imo

regards
Erik

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiggerpress/

Funny ol' world, isn't it!

I'm thinking of unloading all my digital gear and buying a Coolscan 5000. Been scanning years worth of colour negs with my Epson V700, and I prefer the image "qualities" from those scans. Will be even better with a dedicated scanner (and faster!).

I too enjoy using my older film cameras: Nikon FA and Nikomat. I find I think about the shot more, analising the lighting, composition, etc. with regards to the film type I'm using. It also gives me "full frame". There is, of course, no reason why I can't do this with my digital gear, but for some reason I seem less inclined to (digital laziness?) There is also a certain comfort and ruggedness in their handling.

I have a very, very early 50mm f1.4 which produces amazing images on film(with my help! )- nowhere near the same on DX.

The digital stuff is conveniant and allows endless experimentation but I think it will be some time before it can equal film in OVERALL aesthetic image quality, at least in relation to the work I do.

Now...I have a fire extinguisher and am prepared to use it!

Cheers.

Peter.

Agreed! I loved film, it slows you down and lets you "think" about your whole image I lost that with didital it sometimes remines me of shooting a gun with no bullets, no cost, no one hurt, but its here and film came in second for me, will I ever try to load and shoot film? I don't know, maybe I'll feel meloncoly and do it.

I do agree that I feel my best photos were taken with film, I love B&W, and slides, on a light box and loupe they are amazing for color and detail, but I need to be real for myself! I must move to another medium. Now I feel I'm just a clicker and not a real photographer, but I'm having fun. Good luck to all you "real photographers" and you digital guys & gals lets go "clicking"

Rubicon:

Seriously in my wish list, a slide/negative scanner is in the top. I always carry the Nikon FM in my bag with a 50mm attached to it. Its more fun than using digital. Its viewfinder is awesome which is a complete lack in digital and I am getting high percentage of good shot from this 30 years old machine. Ya, for family gathering I use the digital but for my own test I use FM.
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**********************************
H. Chakma
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hochphana/

Sweet image, even with the tripod in the shot. Looks like you had a wonderful day. I've been to Yosemite once and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

About the F4, yup it's a seriously great machine. I've had mine since '90 and even though I bought an F5 a few years back, the F4 remains my favorite Nikon, especially for shooting from a tripod. Just something bout the F4 that can't be beat.

If you're having trouble getting good scans from your slides, then something is definetely wrong somewhere. In order to get the most from a slide you really do need a good film scanner, good scan software and you really have to know what you're doing. There's no reason you can't get top quality results from a Coolscan or similar. If you're using a flatbed (unless it's a Creo or some other high-end flatbed) you may as well put the film away for good.

Myself, I use a Minolta 5400 which will pull crazy amounts of detail off the film. My scanner is meticulously profiled and I use Silverfast Ai software to perform the scans. I mount each frame I plan to print temporarily in a AN glass mount to ensure perfect flatness and I focus the scanner manually. Because the scanner is profiled, the scan requires almost no tweaking to have it match what's on the slide. Even though the Minolta has a special grain diffuser to reduce grain aliasing, I use Noise Ninja for both grain reduction as well as sharpening on almost every scan since it does both in one step and yields better results than Photoshop's USM. Since the scan has so much detail, and the pixel count is so huge, Noise Ninja removes the grain with no reduction in detail.

Despite the above, I do shoot digital as well. In fact, I use my D50 as a sort of preview tool for many film shots. Of course this results in me usually having both a film and digital shot of a scene but 9 times out of 10, I prefer the film image.

JoeyJoJoJuniorShabbaDoo said:

Sweet image, even with the tripod in the shot. Looks like you had a
wonderful day. I've been to Yosemite once and I thought I'd died and
gone to heaven.

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Thanks, I sure did have a great day! Froze my @ss off, but I was dressed more appropriately for a beach party than the Donner party.

This was kind of a grab shot, you know, "Look, I set up out here on a frozen river!" I can't wait to see my slides!

JoeyJoJoJuniorShabbaDoo said:

About the F4, yup it's a seriously great machine. I've had mine since
'90 and even though I bought an F5 a few years back, the F4 remains
my favorite Nikon, especially for shooting from a tripod. Just
something bout the F4 that can't be beat.

Click to expand...

I bought mine three months ago, trying to see if I would like film, and fell in love...
--
-Nick Davis
Please feel free to critique anything I post. I'm here to learn.



A humble reflection of the beauty in the world around us:
http://nickdavis.zenfolio.com/

rubicon said:

I've been a two format shooter since I went digital in '04, today I
scanned the last batch of slides I shot into computer, after looking
on monitor I deleted all images and threw the slides in trash!
looking at the slide with a loupe they were ok, but on monitor I said
too much trouble and I did'nt like the results, so my FE2, and N80
are now paper weights

Click to expand...

This year I've shot 50/50 digital and film and last year I was 95% digital. Plus I've just bought my first slide film: velvia 50 and kodachrome 64. The look and simplicity of film is very appealing. My good photo lab, been around 100 years, does my film processing and the results are very good. Time is money to me. I'd rather spend $6 for a 36 exp. roll and $10 on developing and 4x6s than to spend several hours processing twice as many RAW files as I am more selective shooting film and end up with the same amount of keepers with film. I am 18 months behind in processing RAW files for crying out loud!

Plus I've scanned 3000 of my Dad's old slides in the past year so scanning a slide that is worthy of being printed larger for sale won't be an issue.

Greenville said:

I wonder if their local high school also makes the students learn to
ride a horse before they learn to drive a car?

Click to expand...

Teaching film or digital in classes is always a heated debate. I am for teaching film.

Many people think students can learn quicker if they shoot digital and have instant feedback when that can be true, but is it? Are they shooting more digital images and picking the best one? Or are they learning from which shot settings with metering makes a good image with digital?

If a student is learning film, they will analyze a scene more and think about the exposure instead of shoot and shoot again with digital.

I have a niece who graduated from a very well respected art institute. She had photography and also black and white film. There she learned to understand how different colors translate into black and white film to be better able to pickout subjects that will make better B&W images. You could say could learn the same with digital, but again it's learning the fundamentals and not "shoot and reshoot, and shoot again" that digital allows.

Interesting debate.
--
Rudi -
15 years in Blade Runner Tokyo - back in Sunny Sydney now

I understand your feelings but my path is different.

I have been shooting since I was kid (I turn 50 in a few days).

I really enjoy digital and it has really helped me develop my art. Having said that,

I still love film. I took a hiatus over the past few years while I moved from one digital camera to the next (Sony S85, Sony F828, Nikon D200 with lots of goodies). During that time I kept scanning 40 years of negs and slides and from time to time I would see something that stood out to me and the more I looked the more I realized that it was about the look of film. Oh yea, I had lots of bad film to look at too but when I did have a decent image, there was something very 3-D, or organic. Not sure what words to use but I just know that I like it.

I started shooting film again about a year ago with my Minolta X-700 but alas the years finally caught up with it and the film advance stopped working. Since I now owned Nikon glass, I picked up a Nikon F100 on Ebay. What a terrific camera.

Aside from the camera itself which is a joy to jse and provides a wonderful shooting experience, I am quite taken with how far film emulsions have come. I am particularly fond of Portra 160NC. I just shot some Ektachrome which I like. I am going to order some Velvia 50 and try that as well.

Done with film? Not hardly. I am shooting now more than ever. I kind of feel sorry for those who have never tried film.

Take care and enjoy the journey no matter what brush you paint with...

Nate

--
http://lightp8nter.smugmug.com/

I shoot a roll or three a year, mostly black and white landscapes and portraits. Still have an N80 and FE, my son has an N80 also and dearly wants a D70 or something similar.
Ted

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http://photobucket.com/albums/y260/tdkd13/