I’ve been discussing this issue with a knowledgeable and sympathetic friend who, like me, has a foot in both the analog and digital worlds—and who is facing much the same quandary. He is an accomplished medium-format B&W film shooter and analog-darkroom printer, and loves wet-darkroom work. But with young children and the time constraints they impose, he finds himself turning to digital just to keep shooting, and for the color work he’d find impractical to do in the darkroom. Similarly, I shoot also with a Nikon D300, but I’ve done but little work with this very capable camera.
I make no claims here about the superiority of film over digital, or vice versa, and I nod to digital’s workflow advantages. It’s just that I have just never felt that “OMG!” rush of excitement from looking at digital images that I always get with film. This is not scientific or rational; it’s emotional. I love the multi-sensory experience of shooting and handling film. I love uncapping the developing tank and holding that wet strip of Portra or Ektar up to the light to see what’s there. I also like the results I get: jaw-dropping prints that prompt a rush of satisfaction at beholding a thing of beauty. For me, film shooting is like a beautiful girlfriend who drives you insane with her spending and her demands on your time and patience; digital is her practical, sensible, and wholly unexciting sister.
This is a very, very well written treatise on the challenges facing serious photographers who may still be using film or in the digital / analogue shadow.
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