Film has been quiet for the past years but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s dead.
Before Digital cameras were invented, we have film or analog cameras where we use to load film inside our compact cameras and have it developed after filling 32 to 36 shots.
A roll of film is loaded into your cameras and it’s your own strategy whether to play with the lights and basically choose your angle.
A lot of people dived in to the idea of having film back in their arms again—it’s like sticking with an old best friend, creating more memories in a different form aesthetically.
Here are some reasons to choose film right now:
The Film cameras are cheap, fun to collect
As we can see, there are advantages and disadvantages of choosing film. When you’re such a hobbyist or a vintage junkie, collecting film cameras might be so good for you.
Film cameras were built in different formats. They have Single-Lens Reflex cameras or SLRs, Twin-Lens Reflex cameras, Rangefinder cameras, Point-and-shoot cameras, and Instant cameras are the famous ones. It can range from 500 pesos to 5,000 pesos depending on the type, brand, and the quality. Some popular brands include Minolta, Konica, Olympus, Nikon and Canon.
It produces good aesthetic
The aesthetic that the film cameras hold is one of a kind. It may depend on the film you have chosen because films have different qualities and effects depending on your own liking. The result of the photos from the film that you took might give you a vibe of an old-ish cinema-like feeling, can put up on a 70’s and 80’s vibe, or simple random shots that will make you feel like you’re in a different place because of the color, light leaks, and format.
It slows you down
Since you have limited shots unlike digital, you might want to consider slowing things down when composing a shot or thinking when to “click”. It’s not actually pressure, but slowing you down gives you an advantage to have proper composition or arranging the subject that you want to capture.
The pictures are permanent
In digital, when you take tons of photos, it can be gone in snap when you delete it or when it is deleted. In film, it’s a beautiful process of developing—once the film is developed, you will have a copy in negatives which you might able to see and keep it forever as you like.
28mm wide 126 format roll film for still photography
Whether you want to shoot in film or in digital, we can’t deny the fact that film is really great, not dead. It gives us more time to appreciate a specific aesthetic a digital can’t give. It can bring back us to the times we missed, help us appreciate the process, and also restoring the fact that film cameras still exist and they’re out there in the market waiting to be used, waiting to serve its purpose.
As the Pop-art icon once said, “The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting,” and it applies to Analog Photography, to shooting in film format.
