why I'm excited about shooting film: compare and contrast

35mm film, probably fuji? With the 90mm wide at f2.8. No idea what the shutter speed was. Probably 400iso. Developed/ scanned by CVS. Damn, I love this shot. Nearly every shot on this roll makes me want to grab my camera and head out the door. And that's the whole point, isn't it?

Yesterday, I took four rolls of film to get developed at my local CVS. (Cheap. Yes, I am cheap. Developing film at a professional lab is more expensive and I'm not ready to go dark room.)

The black and white all developed blank: they don't have the right chemicals. Google gave me that answer in two seconds. I feel like a schmuck for taking the black and white there, but live and learn, right?

Digital. Kit lens at 70mm (with crop factor: 105mm, so very close to the same angle as the lens above).  f5.6 1/200s, 100iso. The blur sucks because it's the kit lens. I was playing around with a polarizing filter.

I have two more roll of B&W, which I'll send in somewhere more fancy. And I'm looking to buy some porta film, which the Film is Not Dead guide assures me is amazing.

[That is not an affiliate link. I won the guide in this contest on the Let the Kids blog, where I guessed the difference between the film shots and the digital. Pure luck? It was close to my birthday. But I do see a tonal difference between the shots. Mine show a wider difference but that's because I'm still learning, both on film and digital.]

Digital. Taken with the 90mm lens (crop factor 1.5, so it acts as a 135mm). f2.8, 1/100s, 100iso.

The roll of color film I got back rocked my world. I was on a high last night after putting them on the computer. Wow. The blur and the smooth grain (I like grain). I wish I had taken better notes about what film I shot with/ shutter speeds ect... but it is what it is. Live and learn.

(The fourth roll was an old film disposable I shot on an inner tubing trip in the summer of 2010. And I have another disposable camera I found that I'll get back later today. I don't even remember when I shot it, so it'll be a complete surprise!)

Digital. 50mm lens (crop factor: 75mm). f1.7, 1/250s, 100iso.

Film is too expensive for me to shoot with primarily. But oh, I am in love with it. I'm excited to play around with different films and figure out what I can do in a whole new way.

Digital photography offers a lot (instant rewards, easier learning curve), but film has such a different feeling entirely.

35mm film. I wish I had a shot of this bush with my 50mm lens on the film camera. Instead, here's a similar front focus shot, indoors, with unknown color film -- also 400iso -- and the lens wide open at f1.7. Good glorious awesome, the bokeh in those twinkling lights on Remy's orange organizer is awesome. And the blur is delicious. And I do love the grain.

It's slow. It's patient.

It reminds me to "just be here."

It is what it is .

Film (unknown). 90mm lens. f2.8, unknown shutter speed, 400iso.

Film is neither better nor less than digital. I actually resisted shooting film for a long time because I perceived this "film is so much better" arrogance that I didn't want to be associated with.

But this isn't about better. Although of these particular shots, my favorites are the film. But finding comparison shots of the berries in my front yard was a little challenging. It would have been easier if I'd shot them at the same time, but I didn't think about it until I got the roll of film developed.

Same bat lens, same bat channel. Those scratches are on the film, I think, because they're different on each shot. But that's part of the charm, I think.

It is what it is.

Mmmmm... yes.