Making Art With Analog Technology

Film snobs. If you know any photographers, (and I know a few) you probably know some film snobs. They're kinda like vinyl snobs, those guys who rail against CDs and iPods, and insist the only proper way to listen to Dark Side Of The Moon is on vinyl, played on some crazy Bang & Olufsen turntable running through a tube amp, blah, blah blah.

When I was a teenager, I visited the original Motown records studios, in a little house in Detroit. In the control room, I saw a tiny, crappy speaker mounted next to the mixing console, the kind of speaker that would be attached to an AM radio in any car from the 60's. Berry Gordy mixed all that classic soul through that shitty little speaker, because he knew that was how all his music would be heard for the first time.

Ever since then, I haven't have much use for vinyl snobs.

Since I started getting back into photography a few years ago, I had the same chip on my shoulder about film snobs. When I was a young'un, my father was a photographer, and he tried his best to teach me the discipline of photography. I had a nice Pentax 35mm camera, but due to my general lack of patience, I pretty much sucked. Between that, and the constant expense of film, I gave it up, pretty much the same way I gave up learning to play the guitar after I failed to master Louie Louie.

Fast forward twenty years or so. After feeling like I was getting what I wanted from digital photography, I decided to give film another go. My pal Chris Haston offered to trade a beautiful Leica M6 camera for some artwork. Oh baby.

What a a lovely camera to shoot with. I'm a Leica fan anyway, but the M6 is just such a beautiful little hunk of machinery... I love the way it feels, the noise the shutter makes, the weight of the camera.

At first I was just having fun shooting with the M6, and being forced to think through everything, but I wasn't really in "love" with it until I got the first batch of film back. There is a certain quality to the light that, I must admit, you just cannot get with digital.

Digital cameras are incredibly sophisticated pieces of technology that do amazing things, but the Leica M6 is such a beautiful piece of mechanical engineering, like an old Porsche roadster or a vintage Rolex Submariner wristwatch, that it becomes the pinnacle of its type, the perfect object that all others aspire to be.

Using the Leica is a unique pleasure all its own, independent of the results... but oh, what results! (when used properly of course. Still working on that!) It really is something magical.

I'm afraid I might be turning into a film snob.

Comments

[JB]

Coop, what film are you shooting?

[Randy Rager]

I started with digital, amassing a list you wouldn't believe. And purchasing for family members a quite respectable list, seperately.

Then my assistant (I supervise a 1 Hour Photo lab for a large chain) kept bringing in film shot through an old Canon AE1 that exceeded my best efforts with digital bodies costing several times as much.

So I dug up my wife's old Olympus OM88 and put a few rolls through it. Not bad, but what an annoying camera to work with!

Meanwhile, Ken Rockwell was extolling the virtue of film over digital. He's still doing that, as a matter of fact.

So based on the recommendation on his website, I picked up an old N80 body and a 28-80 lens, and put some film through it.

Holy Crap!

For outdoor work, the Nikon combination loaded with the right film (slide film, preferably Velvia, or Fuji Reala 100, if you know you won't be able to get E-6 processing) captures more detail and better color than my Canon 20D, which cost me 5 times as much for the body alone, never mind lenses and accessories.

So I picked up a Fuji GA645, a medium format autofocus autoexposure fixed lens point and shoot. Sounds odd to say all that after the words "medium format", doesn't it?

I also picked up an Epson V700 and an aftermarket medium format film holder from betterscanning.com, so I'd have something to scan the end result.

Total expenditure for camera, scanner and holder was around $1200. Bear that in mind for what I'm about to say.

2400dpi scans from 645 film give 20.5 megapixels. An 11x14 print (the closest aspect ratio) is actually a downsize of the scan.

4800dpi scans of course give 82(!) megapixel scans.

You can't even buy an 82 megapixel medium format back yet, and even when you finally can, it most likely won't have true three color information at every pixel, the way film does. Due to the nature of the Bayer sensor, two thirds of the color data at every pixel is interpolated from the surrounding pixels.

It will certainly cost you more than $1200, and you haven't even purchased a camera body (never mind lenses!) yet.

So yes, I'm a bit of a film snob for anything outdoors.

But I still use my Nikon D40 - 18-200VR - SB400 - DEMB flash diffuser setup for family events indoors. Digital just works better in low light.

[COOP]

I've been shooting with Kodak Tri X 400.

[Sam]

Too bad you can't hear "Dark Side of the Moon" played on my turntable. BTW, I am still using my Minolta SLR 35 mm camera.