Many of you know I still shoot film, mostly a type called Tri-X, and want to continue using it. I love film. It looks amazing. But I'm facing a bit of a quandry.
Film is getting more and more expensive to develop. I have 25 rolls of film to get souped. The place I go to is charging $9.50 a roll. The prices go up even more if I have to pull or push the film, up to a 200-percent surcharge if I push the film two stops during development.
So I have three options. I can either keep shooting film and pay out the nose for developing; I can quit shooting film, which I don't want to do; or... I can shoot film and develop it myself.
Of the options, the third one is the best. I just haven't developed film myself since 1992. And I don't like the idea of not shooting film.
See, the thing is, I'm not totally in love with digital. Sure it's the future or whatever. But film is film and its hard to understand if you're not a photog or photo-geek. Film has a certain look. It looks warmer. There's more tone to it, more depth. Digital is well digits. Its cold. There's not a lot of tone to it. In my opinion, it will probably never catch up to the physical act of burning light on to silver halides on a neg.
I've shot film on The Hill and think those images are better than my digits. Unfortunately I haven't scanned that stuff yet.
Therein lies the problem with film -- digitizing. I have a scanner but haven't hooked it up yet. I mean, hooking that scanner up isn' a big deal. Digitizing is though. It has to be done if you want to bring a 19th century technology into the 21st century.
That's neither here nor there.
I might start developing myself. Developing takes chemicals. Storing and disposing of them are the biggest issue with it. There's a place here that rents darkrooms for a few bucks an hour. They take care of the chemicals. So that might be the better long-term option.
3 comments:
I'm with you on this one, I still shoot film (unless the client is willing to pay for that Phase One back on my hassey or rz) and I use tri-x and portra 160VC/NC
Having moved from Asia to South Africa, I was greeted with the fact that buying film here is now expensive and damn hard to find, and the processing is even harder (one comment was why dont you upgrade your old leica to a proper digital camera)
I think the darkroom rental option is damn sweet, only wish they had the option here in Durban
good luck
I feel your pain, man. Have you considered developing yourself? B&H ships the stuff.
I don't think you are right about digital, Bill-try exploring all the options in post processing and camera setup. I'm sure you will find that digital is just as good as film, if not better when used carefully.
I used to keep my film processing costs down by developing my own Ilford HP5-plus. With a changing bag you don't even need a darkroom. Just a bit messy and you have to have an understanding wife. My wife Susie is still cross with me for not re-converting our downstairs toilet !!
Over in the UK there are still snappers just like you-Tom Stoddart is one that I can think of straight away. Uses Leicas and an Imacon scanner.
I admire you for sticking to film, but it's not for me these days-too slow, too expensive and I reckon the new cameras out these days can beat it on quality.
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