Originally Posted by
35mm
Re the digital vs film discussion: there will always be proponents of each medium, and trying to demonstrate which is "better" would be like trying determine whether chicken or fish is better. It depends on your taste buds.
I'm not anti-digital, but I only own P&S digi cams, no DSLRs, and I use them mostly for snapshots.
Using film cameras (and Pentax in particular) is partly nostalgia- I learned on a K1000 way beck when. Also, I just enjoy the process: loading the film, the click of the shutter, winding the film, sending it off and waiting for the results. Not everybody's cup of oolong, I know, but I like it.
Also, the older cameras and lenses are of high quality and available at bargain prices. Of course, the cost of film and processing offsets that somewhat.
I like simplicity. Set the aperture, set the shutter speed, compose and shoot. I prefer my old KX, MX, K1000, K2 and the like to digital cameras AND programmable 35mm cameras because manual mode is the default, and I don't have to navigate menus to get there.
So am I saying film is "better"? Well, yeah, for me. I enjoy the process and the results. For everybody? Not a chance.
Having said that, if I were to suddenly go pro (not a chance), I would be heavily invested in digital gear if for no other reason than workflow.
I'm not suggesting people not shoot film if they enjoy it.
I shot a lot of film in my time. I was the photographic editor for an award winning yearbook. I developed B&W and occasionally colour print film. I did a lot of event photography, a few weddings. I worked in a camera store and got access to very cheap film and printing. One customer gave me a vintage Contaflex, in hopes I would fix the stuck shutter and use it, but I never got around to it.
http://mconnealy.com/vintagecameras/contaflex/0012.jpg
I still have my Nikkormat ELW, though not the winder that I once had. I have my three original lenses, a 28, a 50 and a 135. The beauty of Nikon is that I can and do use these lenses on my Nikon dSLRs.
I also have a medium format Yashicamat 24.
Its not really collectable, but I haven't sold my Nikon D200 which was a state of the art pro camera 10 years ago. It is worth it to me to have a backup.
My objection to the "film makes me a better photographer" is the notion that film slows you down and makes you work harder so you get better results. My digital experience is that you can be just as manual on a dSLR as you can an old film camera. I have focused my old film lenses on my dSLRs, and you can do the exposure manually as you can with a K1000. So you certainly can use a modern dSLR the same way as a film camera, but most shooters chose not to. And editing a digital image gives you much more control than film did, though admittedly, I'm not as good at digital editing as many are. My dSLR I set to aperture priority (which my Nikkormat ELW was), but if I want full manual, I can set it to that without going to a menu, by just turn a dial one step. I wouldn't try manual on a point and shoot digital.