Film Photography in the 2020's and beyond part one

 Film Photography has never been more accessible than it is today. There's an article on Hamish Gill's excellent 35mmc film photography website that tells of buying all you need to have a home darkroom for £100/$100. For about the same price you can buy an inkjet printer and do it digitally, which is my chosen method. For less than the price of a DSLR and kit lens you can buy a decent Film Camera, a couple of lenses and the minimum kit you need to develop film at home. Add to that the ability to "scan" your negatives with a DSLR, a Macro lens and convert it to a positive with easily available and affordable software; Film Photography makes more sense than ever before.

After reading that opening statement, you might just be asking yourself "Hang on a minute, why would anyone want to shoot film when they have a digital camera?" It's a valid question and the answer is as varied and complex as the number of ways to compose a photograph, never mind process the image, print it and proudly hang the fruits of your labour on your wall. I can only answer this for myself as we are all as individual as our DNA and fingerprints, but there will of course be similar answers from each and every film photographer you ask.

I explained my background to film photography in my first blog post titled beginnings. I remember in the 1970's my Mum had a Kodak Instamatic that shot 126 cartridge film and used four shot flash cubes that were easily available and cheap to buy. She still has a few albums of photo's of myself, my brothers and sister and extended family from those days and cherishes those memories. Back then film was king and the digital revolution was still the realm of science fiction. Things we take for granted today, multi spot light metering and autofocus in particular were just beginning to be developed and most professional photographers either used a 35mm system like the Nikon F/F2/F3, Canon F-1 and the Pentax LX or shot Medium Format on camera's such as the Mamiya 645 or Hassleblad system camera's.

The beauty of film today is those camera's are still here. Admittedly you can't buy one new, but you can find a hidden gem in one of the few camera retailers that still sell Film camera's and supplies. This is also the perfect time to find your older relatives who enjoyed film photography back in the 70's and see if they still have their old camera gear. You will be surprised at what folk have tucked away in a cupboard or stored in a case in the attic or in their basement. Once the digital revolution took photography to the 21st century many folk left their film camera's behind and went full digital, but they didn't always sell their film camera's. As recently as 2017 the second hand film camera and lens market was trickling along and prices were very low for camera's that folk thought were not worth much as everyone has a camera on their phone.

In February 2017 I returned to Film Photography with a Pentax SP500 35mm camera and a Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2 lens that I picked up from ebay for £20. This was the student camera of the 1970's as it just had the basic functions you need, selectable shutter speeds, aperture selection on the lens and a very rudimentary selenium light meter built into the body. The lens was the student lens of the 1980's as the Zenit range of camera's began being imported into the west from the Soviet Union and cost peanuts! I still enjoy using my Pentax and Helios lens today, I think it's good to strip everything back to basics from time to time just to keep myself honest and my basic skills sharp.

The market began to change as the film community went online and shared their photo's and talked about their gear. Dedicated film photographers have writen blogs, built websites and sold 'zine's to showcase the art they love and slowly but surely, film has risen again as a credible art form. Wedding Photographers are increasingly offering a film shoot in conjunction with the digital photography to capture precious memories from the happy couples special day. My wife and I were given an album a dear friend had compiled from her film photo's she shot on our wedding day back in 2002. I often look at them and think they were taken on a digital camera, they quality is that good. If I remember correctly it was a Minolta X700, but hopefully Mal will put that right.

Film was still king back then but digital was growing up and advancing quickly until in 2006 when the big manufacturers called time on their film divisions and went fully digital. Film was considered dead and prices plummeted. Thank the deity of your choosing that enough film photographers kept their faith in film and continued buying enough film for Ilford, Fuji and Kodak to keep making it. It was a rough decade as many manufacturers ditched their film divisions or closed completely as the great film massacre ran wild through the photography market, but film refused to die.

Kodak stripped their film production back to it's most popular stocks that were using the most environmentally friendy chemical processes. Sadly Kodachrome was a casualty of the campaign to remove carcinogenic chemicals from everyday life and Steve McCurry, famed for his "Afghan Girl" was entrusted with shooting the last roll off Kodak's Kodachrome production line. I got back into film at the right time, prices were still low and boutique films were gaining in poularity and gave Kodak and Fuji the incentive to re-introduce Ektachrome 100 slide film and Acros II B&W to the market.

The final piece of the puzzle is the rise in the number of Camera Repair and Service businesses over the last few years. It has improved the supply of  high quality reliable camera's and lenses to the market. If reliability was holding you back, now is the perfect time to be able to buy a camera and a couple of lenses that you can happily shoot for a decade or two with minimal servicing and the ability to have it professionally repaired at an affordable price.

During writing it has become increasingly clear that this is going to be a two part blog. If you got this far, thank you for sticking around. I appreciate your time but don't want to push my luck too far. I shall finish this first part and share some early images I have taken that have not appeared in my blog thus far. They aren't the best photographs ever, but they did teach me a lot. It's reckoned that your first ten rolls are the steepest learning curve and show your best improvement. For me it was probably my first fifty as things take a while to sink in these days. I will continue giving my thoughts on why Film is more accessible than ever in part 2 as I talk about developing, scanning and printing photographs and hope you will join me again as I continue My Journey into Photography.