Am I crazy for buying a film camera?

I have a D7000, and DX glass fropm 10mm up to 300mm. I'm very happy.

YET, for some reason, I have the urge to buy a friend's Nikon F100 film body. I can use my 50mm 1.4, and 70-300, and ( I think) Sb-600 flash.

Have any of you gone back to an occassional roll of film lately?

Anthony said:

I have a D7000, and DX glass fropm 10mm up to 300mm. I'm very happy.

YET, for some reason, I have the urge to buy a friend's Nikon F100 film body. I can use my 50mm 1.4, and 70-300, and ( I think) Sb-600 flash.

Have any of you gone back to an occassional roll of film lately?

Click to expand...

Were it not for a scheduling glitch, i would have picked up an old Canon rangefinder last week.... on second thot, it would be pointless, since I already have an old Nikon film camera.

Film is great in situations when you know how you want to use it... outdoors, high dynamic range, etc. In some ways, the results will be more pleasing than film, but for all practical purposes, every camera after the D80/D200 has been the equal or better of ISO 100 negative-film.

--
http://1000wordpics.blogspot.com

I shoot a roll with my old F4 once in a while, mainly to keep it excercized. But once you learn digital it's a lot more fun & less expensive.

Film is still great. The cameras are very cheap (F100 is a great choice by the way). I have many more film cameras in 35mm, Medium Format, and 4x5 than I ever thought I would.

You need to slow down, not take as many "well it might work" shots, and think about what you are doing before doing it. If you do that, it isn't all that expensive, compared to constantly buying the newest DSLR every year or two. I have a D40 and D90 which I use frequently, so I'm not anti-digital. Both the D40 and D90 make great light meters and test shooters for my 4x5's. Just kidding - but they do work great for this.

Medium format and large format quality still beats the pants off of any realistic digital equipment for the average user, even a wealthy one in the case of large format.

Besides all that, film is fun.

I still have every film SLR that I still use (just not very often) because I have always enjoyed shooting with them. It is hard to beat the instant results with the digital.

--
Michael

who lugs my digital stuff around with my 4x5 for test "polaroids" and to use as a light meter. It's inconvenient size-wise, but awesome to have a digital preview!

Sam
--
http://thenumbersam.wordpress.com

A DSLR is a great proofing setup for a field 4x5, but I still prefer a dedicated light meter and Polaroid back.

You are only crazy if you pay too much for it. Film cameras are very inexpensive these days. I recently sold two D90s and could barely get $50 each for them, the ads were up for weeks. I sold an N75 on ebay and only got $39 for it in auction.

I do run the odd roll of film through my film cameras. I have decided on black and white film almost exclusively. I just like the look of it. I think I enjoy the process of shooting film more than digital, that feeling of antici...........say it................pation.

I have an old camera bag with a pentax K1000 and a couple of lenses that I leave in my car trunk. I can still take a picture even if I've left my DSLR at home. I don't concern myself with theft or weather. It just sits there with a roll of black and white film in it.

There are some things I don't like with film. I feel stupid every time I look down at my non-existent LCD....and I do this almost every time! Plus, I have a bad habit of letting the finished rolls of film pile up undeveloped. I'm sure I'll end up being one of those photographers that will have 100000 rolls of exposed yet undeveloped film left in the basement when I die.

Anthony said:

I have a D7000, and DX glass fropm 10mm up to 300mm. I'm very happy.

YET, for some reason, I have the urge to buy a friend's Nikon F100 film body. I can use my 50mm 1.4, and 70-300, and ( I think) Sb-600 flash.

Have any of you gone back to an occassional roll of film lately?

Click to expand...

--
eddyshoots

You are not crazy, just sentimental. I have kept my old collection of Minolta film cameras just in case something important comes up. I could have gotten $100 each for them in trade in value (a local camera store had a special where they gave you $100 for any film SLR if you bought a digital one). But I held out (well I did trade one in). Have I used them since. No. Will I? Who knows. So far when my granddaughter was born, the last thing I wanted to do was trust this important moment to something as unreliable as film ( you never know how well the picture turned out until it's too late) so I only took digital. Turned out great. Had to use high ISO (flash not encouraged in hospital) and got way better photos than I would have obtained with high ISO fillm. So much for my idea to keep film cameras so I can capture quality photos of those important moments.

So am I crazy. No, just attached to something that is no longer practical and that I will probably never use. Just the same way my wife is attached to all of those art projects and awards our kids got in elementary school years ago. And just the way my own father insisted on keeping his rotary phone.

The sad part is that when my granddaughter is old enough to drive film will not even be available.

Here's your answer ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJKT353CYc

... considering the price of film rolls and the price of having them developed. I just checked it recently and I was truly amazed how expensive it would be to shoot film (at least here in Budapest, Hungary).

A normal iso100 Kodak 36+4 costs around 4 USD.
Development of the roll is around 4-5 USD.
Each print costs around 0.4-0.5 USD (10x15cm).
It adds up nicely...
A 36 roll would cost 20-25 USD. That is crazy.

Anthony said:

I have a D7000, and DX glass fropm 10mm up to 300mm. I'm very happy.

YET, for some reason, I have the urge to buy a friend's Nikon F100 film body. I can use my 50mm 1.4, and 70-300, and ( I think) Sb-600 flash.

Have any of you gone back to an occassional roll of film lately?

Click to expand...

I bought a Nikon N80 for the fun of it. At the time, I had a Nikon 50mm F/1.4G and a Nikon D90 with a Nikon 35mm F/1.8G. This allowed for direct comparison, with similar quality lenses (one DX, one FX)

It was no contest. The D90 crushed the N80, both with Velvia 100 and Provia 100F film, which are supposedly the best available. Here are some comparisons. Click "Original" to see the 1:1, for the Velvia 100 shots, the slide was scanned with an Epson V700 scanner, and sharpened up a bit in photoshop to try to match the sharpness of the D90. I've verified that the V700 is more than up to the task with regards to resolution (dust shows up crystal sharp at scan resolutions beyond what the emulsion could resolve)

For resolution comparison, look at the brickwork on the buildings, notice how much clearer and more detailed it is on the D90.

















Provia 100f showed better colors, but otherwise the comparison was similar. Here's a Provia 100f shot (Sigma 150-500 at 500, F/8 or so, if I recall correctly):





It's possible I could have gotten slightly better results with a professional level slide scanner. But, IMO, the D90 has more resolution, better colors, and is a heck of a lot more convenient. Fortunately, I only spent $75 on the N80, and I've only shot 3-4 rolls of film through it so far. Maybe one day I'll shoot another roll for fun, who knows, but if IQ is important, you'll need medium format film or bigger to compete with modern day DSLRs, at least based on my experiment.

I must admit that some of the best pics I took last year were with a Nikon FE and fuji film. For some reason I prefer the "feel" I get from film. I typically keep the FE in the bag just in case I see an good opportunity.

hoof said:

I bought a Nikon N80 for the fun of it. At the time, I had a Nikon 50mm F/1.4G and a Nikon D90 with a Nikon 35mm F/1.8G. This allowed for direct comparison, with similar quality lenses (one DX, one FX)

It was no contest. The D90 crushed the N80, both with Velvia 100 and Provia 100F film, which are supposedly the best available. Here are some comparisons. Click "Original" to see the 1:1, for the Velvia 100 shots, the slide was scanned with an Epson V700 scanner, and sharpened up a bit in photoshop to try to match the sharpness of the D90. I've verified that the V700 is more than up to the task with regards to resolution (dust shows up crystal sharp at scan resolutions beyond what the emulsion could resolve)

For resolution comparison, look at the brickwork on the buildings, notice how much clearer and more detailed it is on the D90.

Click to expand...

hoof said:

Provia 100f showed better colors, but otherwise the comparison was similar. Here's a Provia 100f shot (Sigma 150-500 at 500, F/8 or so, if I recall correctly):

It's possible I could have gotten slightly better results with a professional level slide scanner. But, IMO, the D90 has more resolution, better colors, and is a heck of a lot more convenient. Fortunately, I only spent $75 on the N80, and I've only shot 3-4 rolls of film through it so far. Maybe one day I'll shoot another roll for fun, who knows, but if IQ is important, you'll need medium format film or bigger to compete with modern day DSLRs, at least based on my experiment.

Click to expand...

I know that it's not a fair comparison as different wet processing or electronic processing would yield differing results BUT I have to say I like both film images much better than the D90 versions. The home looks a little dated with film (which makes sense I guess). The tree images are like two different scenes with the colors and contrast in the film image being far more interesting. I'm not a pixel peeper (it's a bad habit) so I didn't zoom in as far as I could just determine which leaf is sharper, though. Different people will prefer different images.
--
eddyshoots

about a year ago I bought film for my F5. Took the camera out and kept looking for the confirmation on the LCD. Well duh, there is no LCD on the F5.lol Never got the film developed. Just put it back in the closet.

Glad you said that first. I think I prefer the film images. It also is not fair after shooting only 2 or 3 rolls to decide that it isn't capable. A lot of what is necessary is to try different films and learn their strong and weak points. Personally, I do not care for Velvia. To me it always looks like Ken Rockwell's over saturated digital photos.

I also have a D90, so I like it, but in these examples, the D90 shots look faded to me. Again, it's all personal preference, but I don't think what you have described is an exhaustive or even fair test. But if that is all you feel it deserves, then by all means, have fun with your D90 - I do, but I also have fun with my FM2, F3 (plus many other 35mm's - they are CHEAP), Pentax 645, Yachica D, and Crown Graphic (soon to be joined by a like-new Tachihara 4x5) !!!!

I've been shooting a bit with my Olympus Infinity Stylus with regular old 400 Tri-X, and I'm loving the quality. Perfect as a just-for-fun camera. However, I do want to get an N80 to use my newer lenses with it! They go for cheap on eBay. F100's are excellent too, though quite a bit more expensive.

Your comparison is severely flawed because you are assuming the desired destination is a digital file on a computer screen and the film image was converted to digital by a scanner. You didn’t even use a real slide scanner. You used a flatbed scanner with a transparency adapter. Furthermore, Velvia ia not a natural looking film, it is highly saturated. Are these scans of reversal (negative) film or sildes? Velvia and Provia are both available in reversal and slide media.

hoof said:

It was no contest. The D90 crushed the N80, both with Velvia 100 and Provia 100F film, which are supposedly the best available. Here are some comparisons. Click "Original" to see the 1:1, for the Velvia 100 shots, the slide was scanned with an Epson V700 scanner, and sharpened up a bit in photoshop to try to match the sharpness of the D90. I've verified that the V700 is more than up to the task with regards to resolution (dust shows up crystal sharp at scan resolutions beyond what the emulsion could resolve)

Click to expand...

hoof said:

It's possible I could have gotten slightly better results with a professional level slide scanner.

Click to expand...

Also check out KEH.com. They are a very safe company to deal with. Their ratings are generally considered very conservative. I just did a quick check. N80 in excellent+ condition $65. They also have a N90 in bargain condition for $25.

I have a N90s that I got from them for $29 in bargain condition about a year ago. It works and looks beautiful. Can't find a thing wrong with it. I think the only reason it was bargain condition was that they had an overstock and it was missing a body cap.

Don't mean to imply that all of their bargain rated cameras will be beautiful, but they should all work fine, and if not, KEH is very good at refunding or replacing. They also do good repairs, by the way.

I just bought a Nikon FE from Keh two weeks ago. It was listed as Bargain and the only issue with it is a bit of wear on the back of the camera at the edges. It works perfectly. I haven't even processed the film from it yet...came with the 50mm 1.8, which is very clean. I love the FE, it really makes me approach photography with a different mindset. Shooting with the FE is a joy and I love the aperture based metering option. I'm going to pick up a quality photo scanner and I plan to shoot film reguarly, not as much as digital, but I will use the FE on a regular basis.

I thought maybe I was crazy too. I went in to Henry's here in Toronto to pick up a small case and strap for it and the guy thought I was a bit nuts , he didn't seem to understand why I would want to bother with film since I was already shooting digital. I guess film must be for old guys with beards or something. When I went in to Blacks a few days later, the lady who helped me was thrilled that I was starting to shoot film, so I think I'll be going to Blacks for my stuff from now on, I've always had good experiences going there...come to think of it, I've never had a real good experience at any Henry's location I've shopped at. Anyway, film is really interesting to me and the old manual cameras are really beautiful pieces, and the FE takes up so little space in my bag that it doesn't matter.