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So I got a couple phone calls and Instant Messenger sessions from a reader, and nagging from my family bugging me about not updating this since Christmas. Sheesh, it hasn’t been that long.

The nagging question that I’ve been asked to answer has been ‘Why is film photography important when I have this cool digital camera?’

I guess I wasn’t overly clear in the blog post about Golden Age of Photography.

First off, digital is great. Quick delivery, instant gratification, you know quickly if you screwed up, ability to print without a darkroom, all kinds of good things. There’s nothing wrong with that. I salivate over the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Nikon D700 like most of the population. Sometime soon, I’ll have one.

So with that said, who gives a rat’s patootie about film?

I do. Here’s why.

1. Film has it’s own look. Develop film for fine grain or enlarged grain. Torture it to make it look funny. Film is just darn flexible in developing some killer good looks.

Yes, digital is flexible too. That’s not the point. This isn’t a competition. I think people have lost sight of that reality. We as a species are obsessed with the evaluation of who won. Why? Does it really matter and what is a win in this case? Is the win the abandonment of one of the most important technical advances in the history of mankind? I think not. This isn’t a game where one technology needs to be taken out.

See, the real answer is that film photography added to the body of artwork established by painters, writers, and other artists, it didn’t supplant those methods. It augmented them.

2. Film is fun. There’s this magic of having your picture just come up from nothing. That’s cool. No reason to abandon that.

3. Film, especially slide film, forces understanding of exposure in a way that knocking out bracket shots in a digital camera never will. That precision attained by using slide film or precisely exposing negatives reinforces technique and knowledge. Yes, you can get this in digital, though most people I know aren’t that disciplined in digital for some reason. It is forced upon you with slide films because the exposure latitude is so narrow and there is a cost of developing film that imposes a rigor.

4. There are many outstanding visual artists still using film. There are many more behind us that we hope will begin to use film. We hope that media will stay commonly available. That will only happen if people keep using film.

5. Film is inexpensive. Yep, it costs more than the electrons in a digital body, but film cameras are cheaper to get into a good 35mm slr or medium format camera. Pinhole cameras can be totally free. With an inexpensive film camera and a lens or two, a lot of experimentation could be done. Yes, if you shoot enough, at some point the cost can overtake the cost of a digital SLR. Again, this isn’t a comparison of the two technologies.

6. Film can be used in a hybrid method of developing film then scanning for digital printing. Pretty cool. You can have real film with the flexibility of editing and printing digitally.

7. Photography, like any discipline, is best done with the best tool for the job. Carpenters instinctively know not to use a hammer for every task. Photographers seem to have difficulty with that.

So, those are some virtues of film – some that are important to me. So go get some film and shoot it.

Back to Christmas – I got John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ and Miles Davis’ ‘Birth of the Cool’ I can’t believe I didn’t have those already. BTW, at johncoltrane.com, ‘A Love Supreme’ is the first video showing on the site. Incredible. Go listen to it.

Before I start: No, I’m not talking about digital cameras. Yes, I still use them, no I’m not ripping on them.

So, here we are, at the end of 2008. Cameras, the kind that use film, are insanely inexpensive.

I went to Schiller’s in St. Louis last week. I saw a nice Nikon F4 for $199 and a very nice Nikon F5 for $299. These are premium cameras. Fantastic film cameras at really low prices considering their technology.

Now, if you go to all manual cameras, there are even more deals available. And darkrooms? Shocking. This is a great time to be buying film cameras. For $100, you can often get a great 35mm camera and a couple of lenses. I’ve definitely taken advantage of deals on ebay over the last few years to buy some nice old Pentax cameras, Graflex flashes and Gossen light meters. I’ve taken advantage of classifieds and photo stores as well. There are great deals to be had.

Yes, the world by and large has moved onto digital, but that has left some incredible equipment out there for the taking. This has made the hobby incredibly inexpensive. Grab an enlarger, a camera, and some film and you’re off to the races. Scan it and you can have digital too.

Do you want to save even more and have more control, get a bulk roll of 35mm black and white for $30-50 and you’ve got enough rolls of film on-hand to start getting serious.

This all sounds great, but what are the problems we face?

First off, a glut of inexpensive used equipment and wide distribution of digital cameras. Like I said, I’m not bashing digital. I do shoot it, but there has been a wholesale movement to it. Yep, time is money. So professionals and those not serious about the craft of photography alike go on to digital so they can expedite their pictures. Also, some very good art photographers move on to digital so they can manipulate their images more easily and more cheaply. And there are those that are truly dedicated to digital photography. Those are all great reasons to use it. Look, like I said, I’m not bashing it. My concern is the total abandonment by some of film.

So back to that glut. If the film camera companies do not keep creating new cameras because of lack of demand then the newbies, the next generation, will not work in that medium. All they might know is digital. That impedes our growth. It means that we won’t have people that have a classic education (even if self taught) in photography. We’ll be down to bits and bytes. (No, I’m not a Luddite, I’m a computer programmer by nature.)

I was talking to someone a couple days ago. He was telling me about his friend’s wedding. The photographer charged $3000 and handed the couple a disk with 1200 images on it. It’s interesting that there is no editing and little selectivity before handing a disk of what are essentially 1200 snapshots to someone to print out on a home computer. Can you imagine the wedding photographer of old burning through 1200 film exposures with a motor drive on a wedding? Well, I guess if you shoot enough something is bound to work out.

The other issue is that with far fewer people buying film, we are already seeing well respected films being retired. Companies concerned with the bottom line are coming out of the market. That leaves fewer companies and film emulsions to support us. Even with some of the competition out of the way, these smaller companies are seeing their market shrinking too.

We, as a community need to be purchasing film, chemicals, papers and keep promoting their use to the newbie. We need to promote experimentation across companies because the stronger the film market is for all, the stronger it will be for one. We don’t just need a market for Kodak as great as they are, but also Fuji, Ilford and numerous small players.

Now, let’s look at the darkroom market. Yep, they’re affected too. I can practically get darkroom equipment for free. Oh, wait, that is how I got some of my darkroom equipment. Totally free. Good for me, but how long will the manufacturers be out there supporting the craft if nobody is out there to buy the products?

Maybe this isn’t all so bad. Maybe, we’ll have a resurgence of film use. I’ve certainly seen some people come back to film. Maybe the dedicated photographer will do what he did a few short generations ago and build his equipment himself. Maybe it’s all progress, the old media and great branches of photography are dead, and I should get over it. Somehow, I think not.

Anyway, I’m buying.

35mm SLR Cameras on eBay

Do you look at the prices of digital cameras and cringe? I know I do. As much as I enjoy putting film through, I mean, saving pictures to memory cards, all these toys cost money and someone has to pay for that. Right?

Well, here’s an insightful article by Ken Rockwell about affording that gear and anything else in life. There are several gems in here that are so true.

How to Afford a New Digital Camera and Anything Else for that Matter

So if you have that urge for a new Canon EOS 5D Mark II or a Nikon D700, this article might get you thinking.