Film is dead (to me)

When I was 16, I dusted off my mother's Canon AE-1 from the closet and loaded up some film.

I went out to shoot - had no idea what was going on with the camera except how to focus, and fired away.

I opened up the camera and wound the film back into the canister.

Yeah - you read that right. Ruined the whole roll.

But - from that point, I enjoyed putting the camera to my eye, framing the shot and the joy of hearing the shutter click. There is still nothing like it. I'll fire off frames just for the sake of doing it. At least now, I can just press the delete button.

As much as I hate to do it, I'm parting ways with my Voigtlander Bessa-R (at left). I'll miss it (a little), as I've always had a fascination with the Leica and Contax rangefinder cameras that were the photojournalist's tools for years. Not having the budget for either of those (Leica film bodies run for over $2000 new, and the lenses...well, a lot), I opted for the cult-following, well made and value-priced Bessa.

Nevermind the fact that I was full into digital when I bought in in 2008. However, I had this fantasy that with this camera, I was going to do photography the right way, by shooting Black & White film, and developing it on my own. I'd scan the negatives to get what I needed.

Riiiiiight....

After scanning my first negatives (from a color test roll), cleaning off the dust spots, color correcting the file, etc., etc. I gave up that notion quickly.

OK, I could get the film processed at the drugstore and have some digital files made. Then anything I really wanted to work on - I could scan that. At $10-12 total cost for the film and processing, my starved wallet killed that idea.

And so, this elegant camera sat, with it's cute little Russian made lens I swiped from a cheap, Russian made Leica copy in a box for a couple of years.

It's a bummer, because this camera handles wonderfully, is light, a conversation piece and I've taken some very nice pictures with it.

Not at $10 a roll nice, though. And it's going to get worse.

Kodak (!) of all companies is essentially dead, and is selling off its film business. Yeah, that Kodak. Fujifilm (my favorite) has trimmed its offerings as well, despite being relatively healthy in that business.

As a final insult, Nikon - the camera brand emblazoned on the journalist's machines throughout the 70's and 80's and the vehicle by which Paul Simon loved to take photographs with the now-dead Kodachrome has now forbidden film photographs from its contests.

How far its come in such a short time.

Film is not dead, it will live in a niche for likely several years to come. But it is going the way of the LP record, an expensive niche to connoisseurs.

I started my hobby on film. I owned some pretty decent film gear. I have other cameras (including the AE-1) just for the sake they're cheap and neat.

And I had time and money to make film work, when I bothered to get it developed. Today I don't have either.

Film got me started, but digital is what made me a photographer. Without digital, there's no way I could hope to attain proficiency in crafting images. I have no intention of going back. Film is dead to me.