Topic: The holdouts ? shooters who still use film

[Ed Wenn]

This in from Aislinn Leggett on Twitter: an article by Robert Benson called "The holdouts ? shooters who still use film" (http://robertbenson.com/blog/2009/12/29/the-holdouts-shooters-who-still-use-film/#more-2183).

Now, I'm kind of bored by the film vs. digital debate (have been for a while now), but there are some interesting comments from photographers in this piece, so if you have a spare ten minutes...

[Francois]

Somehow, I sometimes feel "holdouts" is synonymous to "recluse", "hermit" and so on...
I think they could have been more polite... or it's just me that loses this in translation (sometimes happens...)

Somehow, the word "anti-conformists" would have been nicer

[vicky slater]

i like "maverick'

[Janet_P]

'Holdouts' reminds me of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and that can't be bad surely 

[Urban Hafner]

Seems like it's en vogue to write about film photography right now. There was also a piece in a german magazine (or rather the web version).

Urban

[moominsean]

yeah the term holdout kind of implies that conversion to digital is inevitable...we are just hanging onto threads of analog.

i'll flip through the comments, though i've also grown bored of the digital vs film argument. i just want to take pictures.

[astrobeck]

Yeah, same here...
musta been a slow news day.   

I like Maverick too!

[Francois]

i just want to take pictures.

And not be bugged by such a sterile debate.

[gothamtomato]

yeah the term holdout kind of implies that conversion to digital is inevitable...we are just hanging onto threads of analog.

I second that emotion.

Seriously, it is that envangelical attitude that just annoys me. Why can't they just allow people to make pictures with what they make pictures with?

[db]

Someone kicked in the back door of my office the other night- (I got the call from the security company at 0330- ughh). Not to worry- all my gear and computers were locked away, and Mr Perp obviously scarpered as soon as the alarm screamed.

But on to the point. The CSI guy came next morning. Poked around with his black dust and snapped pictures of the scene. I was back at my desk when I heard the unmistakable sound of a Nikon FM2 shutter and manual film advance. I must have looked incredulous when I went out to confirm what my ears had told me. The poor guy looked really embarrassed.

He's probably the last copper in the western world to be using film, a thirty year old un-powered camera, and a Metz hammer-head flash pack.

So in light of the funding problems my local bobbies must have, I'm not holding out for them to process any DNA from the crime scene 

[Ken B: eyes, I just do eyes.]

Don, 11 years ago my wife and I had $36,000.00 worth of camera gear stolen, pretty much the collection of 7 years hard work.

This was the days of doing your insurance over the phone, we had more than adequate cover for it, except they didn't ever point out the fine print where they could tell us to go F ourselves, pretty much like Milton's recent escapades with insurance.

Back on topic, Coppers come around CSI the shit out of the place and then when I visited them 2 weeks later to get a progress report (Norwood station) the desk Sargent told me, off the record, that since it was under $100,000.00 they would not be chasing it up as they didn't have the funding for such small cases.

That didn't go down with me real well at all. As he explained much  of the evidence they gather is shelved for when said ne'er do wells do get caught they then have a pile of cases to put on them to prevent them wiggling out of a prison term.

I still want to find the arsewipes who nicked it and kick them in the balls, but I harbour no residual anger towards them anymore you understand.

[rolo]

I'm with the folks who said that they prefer the feel and function of their film cameras.  Having been to digital and back, this was/is huge for me.  All of my film cameras, from "real" to crap are more enjoyable to shoot with than digital cameras.  It has something to do with viewfinders, knobs, aperture clicks and the like and it also has to do with using a machine that doesn't feel like a minicomputer attached to a lens.

And good luck getting a roll of TXP to fit in a Leica.

[CarlRadford]

It has something to do with viewfinders, knobs, aperture clicks and the like and it also has to do with using a machine that doesn't feel like a minicomputer attached to a lens.

And good luck getting a roll of TXP to fit in a Leica.

Now where did i put my nice new M9

[K. Praslowicz]

I'm with the folks who said that they prefer the feel and function of their film cameras.  Having been to digital and back, this was/is huge for me.  All of my film cameras, from "real" to crap are more enjoyable to shoot with than digital cameras.  It has something to do with viewfinders, knobs, aperture clicks and the like and it also has to do with using a machine that doesn't feel like a minicomputer attached to a lens.

Last weekend I fixed my RB67 with a claw hammer.  It is the simple things in my photography life that keep me holding out.

[Aline]

I like that the actual image has some soul.  I like that I have to slow down and take only 12 images.  I don't like that it takes me an hour round trip to drop off a roll of film and then another hour to pick it up.  But I like getting the roll back and like a Christmas gift, open it and scan it and examine it, reject it or love it, and I like that my children will have something tangible to remember me by, not a CD of digital files, but boxes of negatives and silver gelatin prints.  That's what I like...and because you like it too, I like you.