Realgrumpytyke

By Realgrumpytyke

Digital v film photography

I have said before that I prefer shooting with film but that would be almost impossible for blipfoto; it would be a full time job, and more. But I do get pangs to go off with one of the film cameras, no digital, for a day, even though I have recently acquired for the first time a digital camera that I do enjoy using, the Fuji X Pro1. 
I hated the Canon 5D, got fed up carrying the bulk around every day so went to 4/3, Lumix, which was fine for work as I never needed to blow up a shot beyond A4, more usually they would be viewed on screen. Then, hankering for the feel of a classic rangefinder, I went to Olympus Pen. The menus drove me mad and I hate trying to view on a screen at the back, but adding a viewfinder destroyed the design from a practicality point of view.
I had intended to get back to some film photography but for a whole variety of reasons haven't managed it for well over a year. I feel a need to but could not explain why.
Yesterday I was flipping through two lots of tweets that I follow, Magnum and Ilford, and taken by the latter to the site of emulsive.org and an interview with Andrew Sanderson who is based in Holmfirth, Ilford 'Master Printer', photographer and teacher.
Reading the interview I was reminded exactly why I have a hankering to return to film (so now I have to work out how I might do it alongside blipfoto, which for me is a completely different approach and equally desirable). The extract from the interview I could most relate to, particularly the second paragraph, was:
"I love the challenge of shooting film versus the ease of shooting digital. There is a discipline which film and darkroom imposes and you have to really use your intelligence, instinct, vision and sometimes a kind of endurance to see an image through to the final stage.
"When you have got the print you envisaged, you feel a great sense of satisfaction and pride, something that digital can't give because the process relies largely on the expertise of other people, like the software designer".
My blip is of three of my favourite cameras, two which I wouldn't want to carry around continuously - the Contax AX and the Mamiya Universal. I have a range of lenses for each. Then tucked in behind and just retreating out of focus, the Leica CL (Leica aficionados will say it's not a Leica!). It sits in a pocket all day without a problem.

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