Film Photography Is Not Dead, but It Is Dying

 I started taking photographs, processing film and printing images on paper in the late 1960s.  A Kodak Instamatic, led to an Argus c-3, to 35mm SLRS, and a TLR and a 6x7 SLR. I owned top of the line film cameras in the golden age of film cameras. I worked in an era when new film stocks were being developed with faster film speeds and finer grain. It was an amazing time to work in the field.  

There were a few old times around who insisted that anything smaller than 4 by 5 inch film, was not serious photography, but 4 by 5 was dying. Very few new cameras were being made, most of what was being used was 30-40 years old, based on designs from before World War II.  

When I was getting started in photography in the late 1960s Henry Ford's Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan, still had a working tintype studio.  I was nostalgic for the way things used to be done.  It was even more impractical than the guys who insisted that 4 by 5 was the last real photography.  

But technology had moved on.  And like it or not, technology is making film photography, what tintype was when I was a kid. A thing of the past.  A interesting and norstagic practice, that is not dead, but well on its way. 

It is sad, some of the greatest cameras and lenses of all time were made in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.  It was disappointing that there was little effort to create digital backs for cameras like the Canon F1 with the amazing FD series breech lock lenses, and Nikon F series. But it didn't happen.  I grieve the loss of these great tools. 

Not to say there aren't some great cameras being made today.  And honestly lens design and materials have continued to progress.  Along with much less concern about ISO speed and much-much less concern about grain, we can capture images today with digital, that we could only dream about with 35mm film. Just as with 35mm film, we could easily capture images that were only dreamed about with 4 by 5. And 4 by 5 could capture images that were impossible with tintype. 

Like it or not things change.  

Will I work with film again? Maybe, for old times sake, but not because I have any notion that it is better, or the only serious way to photograph.