Working for a shot - Film cameras vs Digital cameras

The other night, I brushed off my F5 (film camera) and took it out for a night on the town (nothing special just coffee with the boys). I ended up going through 2 rolls, and had them developed the next day. I was pretty surprised with the quality of the shots. They came out pretty sharp, well exposed and contrasty even though they were shot very casually. And even more to my surprise, I actually caught some interesting candids of my friends.

This lead me to the conclusion that using film cameras makes you work for the shot, no matter how casual it is, which means better technical results. Also with film as opposed to digital cameras, you don't stop shooting to look at the photos you just took, and instead keep your eye on the viewfinder at all times - letting you catch those oh-so-hard-to-get candids.

By the way, when I say getting good 'technical' results I mean getting the exposure, focus & composition right. This is probably because with film-cameras, you can't see the end result of the shot till you've developed the film - so you want to make sure you get it right while you're shoting! When I shoot digital though, I usually just take a quick shot, look at the pic (ie. 'chimping'), make any adjustments I need, then retake the shot, look at the pic and keep repeating till I get the photo I want. Sure, i'll get the right technical result after a few tries, but worse, i most probably wont be catching any good candids. I also get into the bad habit of not forcing myself to think about the setup and shot first.

My other conclusion was that FujiFilm makes some awesome film for my style of photography - really colour saturated and contrasty. The results I get out of the canister, takes me at least a few minutes in photoshop to achieve with my digital shots.

Anyway, I've decided to really force myself to stop looking at my results when I'm shooting digital. Hopefully, this will force me to be more careful when I take a shot as well as leave me free to catch the action going around me.

I'll let you know how it goes.