Film is not dead

[charlieharper]

As it turns out, film is not dead.

Picked up a little half frame camera (Olympus Pen) at a thrift store in Bangkok and a few rolls of film early 2024.
Half frame means it exposes a smaller area of film per photo, which allows you to fit 72 photos on a standard 36 exposure roll of film.

Managed to get it developed and scanned in Seoul for ₩5000 (±R70) - film labs are still everywhere in Asia!

Couple random shots from a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 that doesn't include friends and family.















And some random black and white photos from a roll of dodgy Russian film (Slavich 400).







Anyone else doing film?

I still mostly shoot digital on my Fujifilm, but the magic of film still feels really special.

 

[bwana]

I loved photography from a young age, and must have shot (and developed) thousands of rolls by the time I left college, but film was an ends to a means... photographs. I still love prints and have them hanging on the walls all over the house.

I definitely wouldn't be doing what I do today if we were still shooting film. Discount the thousands of images I take every week for work and my cellphone is probably my favourite camera.

That said people should shoot whatever format makes them happy. Nice images @charlieharper, but I think they'd be just as good if they had been shot on digital.

 

[charlieharper]

I loved photography from a young age, and must have shot (and developed) thousands of rolls by the time I left college, but film was an ends to a means... photographs. I still love prints and have them hanging on the walls all over the house.

I definitely wouldn't be doing what I do today if we were still shooting film. Discount the thousands of images I take every week for work and my cellphone is probably my favourite camera.

That said people should shoot whatever format makes them happy. Nice images @charlieharper, but I think they'd be just as good if they had been shot on digital.

I'm a too young to have been able to fully experience film, as it were in during its peak, so I agree - it's a novelty for me. But super fun!

 

[Bismuth]

I enjoyed film and still have my old film camera in a cupboard. Shot on digital now, but did enjoy film, might go back to it and b&w, always found that fun!

 

[Mike Angelo]

I remember as a primary school kid in the 60"s developing rolls of black and white film at night with developer and hypo we got from the local pharmacy by see sawing the roll by hand through a kitchen bowl full of developer. Also had a contact print frame where I made contact prints.

 

[garyc]

I loved photography from a young age, and must have shot (and developed) thousands of rolls by the time I left college, but film was an ends to a means... photographs. I still love prints and have them hanging on the walls all over the house.

I definitely wouldn't be doing what I do today if we were still shooting film. Discount the thousands of images I take every week for work and my cellphone is probably my favourite camera.

That said people should shoot whatever format makes them happy. Nice images @charlieharper, but I think they'd be just as good if they had been shot on digital.

Also went down this route. Had my own darkroom, but realized that I spent more time in there than on any other aspect of photography. This really limited the potential output. During the latter 90s I switched to scanning the negatives and processing them on a computer since the technology now allowed it. Fast forward to the 2000s and I got a digital camera as soon as the prices came down from the stratosphere. This meant that I no longer had to take a limited number of safe photos, but could experiment a lot more.

I would not mind shooting some more film, but locally it is a real hassle getting it developed and I inevitably have to do the scanning myself.

 

[Jackal65]

In my opinion there is nothing like a black and white photo.

 

[bwana]

In my opinion there is nothing like a black and white photo.

That's why we have great apps like Nik Silver Efex.

 

[RedViking]

There is just something about film that captures nostalgia, emotion and feeling. While modern digital technology prioritizes high definition and artificial enhancement, it often fails to capture this intangible quality. I have never been to any of those place in the OP , and yet it invokes a longing to be there. To breath the air. To watch the people walk by. To take in the beauty of the man made structures observing the daily toil of the humans rushing towards their destinations. Well done @charlieharper.


/and I've only had 2 cups of coffee so far. I'm gonna go get a 3rd now.