Film or Digital

Henry Ford Museum, 8/26/1018
Nikon D5500 18-55, ISO 1250 27mm F/4 1/60

There is an amazing renaissance of film photography going on today.  Film cameras from the 50's - 80's are in high demand, prices are way up.  There was some amazing gear made in the 1970's and 1980's.  Very high quality lenses, bodies with titanium moving parts.  A few years ago, you had a hard time selling them, today you have a hard time finding good one's to buy at prices that are often more than they sold for new.  As someone who grew up in the era of amazing film cameras, it is nice to see. 

But, I have to stop and ask, ultimately are they practicing film photography, or digital photography?  Most, nearly all of them, are processing the film, scanning the negatives and then processing as digital.  Very-very few are printing silver-gelatin for black and white, or photo sensitive paper for color.  

When we consolidated from two houses to one, I had a hard time giving away my Beseler 23C II enlarger. I was in a shop in Chicago a couple of years ago, and the shop owner offered to pay the shipping if I would take one of half a dozen he had in stock and no one wanted.  He said the "camera and lenses I can sell all day, but no one is doing darkroom work."  It is becoming a lost art.  And it is an art.  

A case in point, there is a YouTube channel "grainydays" that I rather enjoy. The guy loves old film cameras and has the most amazing deadpan delivery.  Among other classics, he has an 8 by 10 view camera he sometimes shoots with.  I am thinking 8 by 10 and the worlds most perfect contact prints, zero loss of detail because there is no enlargement.  Then he explains his process.  He shoots 8 by 10 film, has it processed, lays it on a light table and digital images of it in quarters of the film, has software merge those four images into one file, then works from there.  Talk about bursting my bubble, if we are going to end up with a digital file, why not start with a digital file? 

There are things that can be learned from shooting film, making every shot count, getting exposure right the first time, depth of field, reciprocity failure, and color balance that if they can be learned on digital are learned differently.  

What I really want to hear from the people shooting film, is a return to the darkroom, to the bright art of manipulating the printing process, rather then manipulating pixels. 

I have to admit I was starting to look for a good film camera.  I have never owned a Hasselblad, if I really wanted it I can afford to buy one, I was starting to shop.  Then listening to the videos, I realized, the end result will be digital, who not just stick with digital?