Reacquainted with Film Photography

Friday evening, 18 Sep 2009
Ahhh… Nice long weekend. Four consecutive day of bliss, and a wedding to look forward to on Sunday morning and evening. Usually I would get my DSLR gears ready for action. But since I've sold mine, I left with the Panasonic LX3 P&S. As I remove the camera from the dry box, I notice the dormant Nikon F3 sitting at the corner, shy from light within the red leather casing cocoon. With the D300 away, it's far easier to get noticed. Recalling back, the last time I used it was probably 10 years ago, when I went out with my high-school friends on a day trip to a waterfall at Ulu Langat, Selangor. After that, I probably still shoot film, but with a simple P&S, up until the year 2001. After that, I started shooting in digital, first with FujiFilm F601z prosumer, then Nikon D70s, then Nikon D300, Panasonic LX3 and Fujifilm F11.

This gave me a thought: why not I take it out for a field test this Sunday? There's plenty of people returning to shooting with films nowadays, including one of my high-school friend. I should take this chance to find out why, personally.
So I checked what I need to prepare:

1. Battery. As stated in the manual, "two 1.55v silver-oxide cells (eveready EPX76, D76 etc)". Hope I can find one tomorrow. Battery are needed as the F3 is not a fully mechanical camera.
2. Film. I'm sure I can find some tomorrow. Preferable ISO 400 and above.
3. Refresher course. I have not used it for 10 years. So I really need to get re-acquainted with the F3. I've downloaded the scanned manual in PDF few years back. Not sure where I found it but I glad I did, cause the original one is missing.

With the user manual on my laptop, I read through it while watching TV. Fortunately, the manual is thin and I mange to finish reading browsing it within an hour. If it's a D300 manual, I would have to spend at least a week reading and fiddling with the camera.


Saturday, 19 Sep 2009
I originally planned to visit Low Yat Plaza for some tech shopping. So I will get my batteries and film there as well. My friend Jeff told me that I can get films from Keat Camera down at Pudu road, but I'll leave that as optional. Maybe next round.
I know I can get film easily, but can I get the batteries? First off, major camera shops. Fotekem, don't have. Boeing, don't have. Ok, so these major camera shops don't stock these anymore. How about older camera shops?

I remember BB Plaza has a old camera shop. So I went there to check. Lucky for me, the uncle understood what I wanted once I show him the camera's battery holder, and took two unit out from the closet for RM10. Excited, I tried the batteries immediately, to see if the camera's electronics are still functioning. Half pressing the shutter release button should bring up the LCD situated at top in the view finder, showing the shutter speed, and whether I'm over or under expose. Unfortunately, nothing show up at all. I took out the batteries, using my finger, I scratched the base of the battery holder with my fingernails a bit to remove the greenish oxidation, and try again. This time, the LCD shows the shutter speed in the viewfinder, Woo Hoo! It's alive!

Happily, I left the shop, and went to buy myself some normal Kodak Gold films: 2xISO200 and 2xISO400. Took a few test shots on the way back home, while my wife was driving… Oops, no preview until I develop. Guess I'll have to wait...

At home, I decided to change the camera strap to my OPTECH for better support. Also, I've decided to shoot exclusively with 50mm F1.8 for tomorrow, so I don't have to worry about changing lens. Of course, I'll bring my LX3 as well.

Removing the battery chamber lid


Batteries loaded into the chamber


All set for tomorrow!

Sunday morning, 20 Sep 2009
Outside the bride's house at 8:30am, it is where I started shooting in films again. For the rest of the morning, I shoot mostly with F3, and occasionally switch to LX3.

Here's some shots from LX3 with some PS.

Too bad, can't see any of the shots from the film until I send them to the lab...



Thursday, 24 Sep 2009
As recommended by my friend, I sent in the first roll of film for development at SS2 Fotosun: Development RM5, all photos in 4R RM0.40 per piece, normal scanning of all shots RM7. Total of RM 26.40.

Here's the test shots taken while on my way home from KL last Saturday.

First shot, in the SMART Tunnel


2nd shot, my wife

And here's some good shots during the wedding, straight out from the photo lab.

Afterthoughts
After getting the photos developed, and finished with the PS of the digital shots, I can't help but notice the benefit of shooting films on a leisure manner:
1. The camera has fewer controls to fiddle with. Put the photographer's concentration back at taking the shot.
2. No urge to check the shot on back LCD, cause there's none! So you can concentrate more on the shooting then the checking.
3. You'll automatically take more effort to compose shots properly. Point #1 and #2 supports this. This also translates to less or no PS later.
4. The excitement of viewing the photos after development, cause we don't get to see any preview immediately after taking the shot.
5. No worries about getting accurate white balance, cause there's no such settings on film. All shots produced have the same colour tone as per what I saw that day. This means zero PS time.
6. Nice film grain. Though this can be simulated on PS, it is still not the same as genuine film grain.
7. The "feel" of the photo produced by film. There's no word to describe it. It just looks different as compared to digital. Maybe it's the film grain, maybe it's the wider dynamic range, maybe because of the colour which is so true to life, or maybe it's just me.

However, there's some downside to it as well:
1. I forgot to wind the film sometimes after taking a shot. That could jeopardize the next shot. (Well, it's because the camera doesn't wind automatically, not a real problem of shooting film)
2. Only 36 shots, then you'll have to "reload". That could be a hassle, not to mention the bulkiness of carrying all those extra films. I could shoot hundreds to a thousand shots with a large CF card on DSLR.
3. Split screen focusing might be difficult to judge focus when subject does not have vertical lines as reference.
4. Film loading is a hassle, especially during in between events. To make matter worse, half way through the wedding ceremony I ran out of the first roll of film, and I did not load the 2nd roll of film properly into the takeup spool . So the rest of the event I was shooting blanks. What a waste!
5. Cost of development. It's not expensive, but each shot does cost you money, and over time it could cost quite a bit.

Therefore, my conclusion is that film still holds its merit and wonder as a photographic medium. It changes the way how a photographer takes a shot, and the feeling of shooting with film is totally different from shooting with digital cameras. There's no delete button, there's only 36 shots per roll, and each shot cost money. Therefore, you'll make your best effort to make sure it is the best shot when you hit the shutter release button.

With digital photography technology improving at blazing speed, it is a matter of time before digital surpasses film photography in every aspect. But for now, I know I will still be shooting film. Maybe not for all occasions, but in a casual and occasional manner, using it as a documenting tool, not have to worry about post development, making it telling a story as it is without any alteration and skewing of actual facts of the true moment.

Ejecting the Gear-Head Mentality

After posting my Nikon D300 and battery grip for sale for two weeks on a local online photography forum, I finally found a suitor which propose the right market price. With that, we arrange a place to meet, and I bid "farewell" to the best digital camera I ever had for 18 months.

Good condition Nikon D300 camera. Unfortuantely, digital products loose it's value too soon.


Battery grip MB-D10, seldom used.

It's been two weeks since then, and within this two weeks, there was this withdrawal syndrome I experienced, where I felt the tendency to grab a new camera ASAP. However, I've constantly reminding myself not to position myself in a situation, where 18 months later, I have to go through this same cycle again, painful, due to the depreciation of the gears is so damn fast.

It's time for a "time-out"
In my opinion, the D300 is a very good camera, capable of shooting various kind of shots. I've done lots of weddings with it, and a dozen of other things just for fun, such as portrait with CLS, GT racing, hiking/nature photography, interior design photography, social gathering etc. As for post-editing, Nikon's own suit of software is so feature reach and easy to use, that I find myself not using any other additional tools. Most importantly, colour rendered from Capture NX is an exact match with what was seen on the camera LCD. So why would I let go of a camera with such caliber performance?

1. Price is (or going to be) dropping like mad. Curse the Moore's law.

2. I'm sick of the weight of the camera. Whenever I go out for some social gathering, I contemplated whether I need to bring the camera or not. If yes, which lens to bring, then which bag to use, then should I bring a flash or two? Should I bring a tripod? Which tripod? On and on... Even if I just bring the camera and a prime lens, it is still a kilo worth of weight and bulk.

3. I'm not shooting events as often as I used to. In my honest opinion, one reason of getting the D300 instead of D90 is for the hard buttons, which provide quicker change to some important settings in the midst of a photo shoot, and the 51-point focusing point which fills almost the entire frame and track my subject very well. These are features that are important for making important changes fast and for shooting events. Other than that, D90 by itself is already a very capable camera and cheaper price, and it captures video too.

4. Most importantly, due to reason #2, I find myself not bringing the camera when I should have. That is equal to missed opportunities to capture memorable events. Down the road of my life, I know I will regret for it.

What's next?
Since I've had a taste of general photography for a few years now, I felt that it is about time to take a breather, two step back, and evaluate where am I now. I need to pass the phase of being a gear head, and wanting to try all kinds of photography, which roughly translate to buying more gears, and being a victim of mass marketing. I have no idea where I am heading for now. Would I be changing to a different system? Leica M9? Micro 4/3? Sigma DP2? Or just scale down to Nikon D90? I still need more time to reflect and make the right decision. Moving forward, I want to make photograph as something that I enjoy, not because some bloody magazine tells you to do so, or shooting someone else's portrait while neglecting capturing the life of my own family and friends in stills. The next direction or system must integrate well with my goal of photography.

How to live without a camera?
As a photographer, I would have felt like a lost soul if I don't have a camera ready for some action. Fortunately for me, I already got myself the Panasonic LX3 last year. Small, pocketable, yet produce satisfactory images (check out here and here). This will serve my photography need for now as I go through this transitional period. Other than that, I still have my Nikon F3 film camera. Perhaps it's time to resurrect it and go back to film?

Sunsets at Kuala Belait

I have left Kuala Belait and are now back in Malaysia. Only thing I miss from there is the walk at the beach during the evening. Being a city person, I did not have the experience of living close to a beach. Therefore, each day being there provides me a unique oportunity to capture a different sunset. Below are some good ones taken with my LX3, over the course of one month.

My work in Brunei is not done yet. So I will be back there soon for more work, and more evening walks by the beach...