Falling out of love with film . . .

A few years ago I would have told you I would continue shooting film for the rest of my life, that it was much better than digital in every way. Then, a few months ago I realised I hadn’t shot any film in at least 6 months. What had happened?

I still love the look of a good picture shot on film but is it really that much better than a good digital picture? Maybe, maybe not but I like the digital pictures I’ve been taking so I’m not that bothered.

Price has to be a factor though. The cost of purchasing film has gone up now that Poundland are carrying their Agfa film anymore. The price of processing and scanning fil is going up seemingly by the day. Digital images are saved to my SD cards and transferred directly to a PC or other device, no cost and waiting.

I do love using vintage cameras with all their quirks and near infinite variations but every time I buy something good I end up selling it a few months later when I realise I’m not a millionaire and need food to live. I suspect my Zenit 11 is just not quirky enough for me.

Also, for almost all my photography I can use my digital SLR – I’m struggling to see what I can do with film that I can’t do with digital. At the moment all I’ve managed to do if half convince myself I need a proper panoramic camera, such as a Horizon, as digital panoramas never seem to work as well.

So the question remains, do I need film photography?