filmvsdigital

Why Digital Cameras Will All Die but Film Cameras Live On

Digital cameras are great -- the technology they are built upon is remarkable, underpinned by remarkably sophisticated designs. Not only that, but the pictures they acquire are of such astonishing quality that they make anything that went before pale in comparison. So why then do digital cameras have such (relatively) short lifespans compared to film cameras?

8×10 Film vs 150MP Digital: Can 150 Megapixels Compete?

Over 8 years ago, we over at On Landscape performed a mammoth “Big Camera Comparison.” We compared medium format and large format film against various digital cameras including the then cutting edge Phase One IQ280, an 80MP CCD sensor which we used on a Linhof Techno, an Alpa, and a Cambo technical camera (we also tested a D800 and a 5D Mark II).

Film Simulation vs Actual Film: Fuji ACROS Comparison

The recent release of the Fujifilm XPro3 camera coincided with me getting some recently re-released Fujifilm ACROS 100II film. Given my love of Fujifilm digital cameras, film photography, and ACROS film, I desperately wanted to shoot and compare the new XPro3 alongside a rangefinder film camera.

Film vs Digital: Shooting a Wedding in Fujifilm ACROS

On my last shift at the film lab in Bondi, I picked up one of the last rolls of Fujifilm ACROS film. It seemed poignant -- as my job at the shop was finishing, so too was the production of this film stock.

Film vs. Digital: This is How Dynamic Range Compares

Photographer Bill Lawson wanted to compare the dynamic range of film and digital photography, so he recently went out and shot 10 stops overexposed and 10 stops underexposed for a 21-stop comparison to see how far you can go before the photo is unusable. He shares the results in the 7-minute video above.

Film vs Digital in Music Photography: I Shot the Same Show With Both

Film is very rarely used in music photography anymore. The reason for this is primarily because of social media and instant news. There’s no time to go home and start pouring chemicals onto film to develop it or wait until the morning until a lab opens to do it for you.

Analog is Left but Digital is Right?

Having learned photography in the time of manual analog film cameras, I know digital feels different. And for me, it’s all about the "left and right of photography."

Film vs Digital: Comparing Processes, Results, Pros, and Cons

Photographer Irene Rudnyk often receives questions about film photography, including from people who wonder why it's even worth doing when you can slap a VSCO filter onto digital images these days. To answer these questions, Rudnyk made this 6.5-minute video comparing film vs digital through a portrait shoot.

Film vs. Digital: Can YOU Tell the Difference?

It's an age-old question: why do people shoot on film? Can you tell the difference between film and digital? Is it enough of a difference to warrant the high cost of shooting film? Or is it just a fad? We are here today to hopefully answer some of these and more!

Don’t Go Trendy with Film: Learn Photography Faster with Digital

Are you setting out on your journey of discovery in the wonderful world of photography? Are you wondering whether to go for digital or follow the fad for film? Are you intending to invest in some gear but don’t want to waste your hard earned cash on kit that doesn’t help you to progress? Here’s some advice from a photographer who has seen both sides extensively.

Film vs Digital: A Fashion Photography Shootout

Photographers Anita Sadowska and Alex Hutchinson recently did a "film versus digital" comparison through a fashion photography shootout. They photographed the same subject with Sadowska using a digital Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR and Hutchinson using an analog medium-format Pentax 67 as a comparison of film vs digital.

Film vs. Digital: Let’s Put It to the Test

Have you ever heard the argument that digital just doesn’t have the same look as film? Well, let’s put that argument to rest. I have painstakingly made my own Lightroom preset that I believe is 96% the same as my favorite film, Kodak Tri-X 400.

Shooting a 300-Megapixel Photo: Film vs Digital

For a recent project, I was tasked with shooting a hot rod. It was exciting from the beginning, because this particular kind of car is pretty rare here where I live. The owner also requested that their dog sit on the car's fender, and for the photos to be huge -- 100 megapixels were too few.

On the Future of Cameras and How it Hurts Progress to Treat Digital Like Film

The digital revolution—and a revolution it was—enabled photographers to immediately start saving money after new equipment purchases. Sure, the quality sucked initially (and convenience was overstated) but after a few years, the whole thing really started to work properly, for the most part.

Comparing a VSCO Film Emulation to the Actual Film

I’ve been a user of VSCO Film for Lightroom for several years now. I’ve been happy with the results, but I wanted to see how close VSCO's settings are to actual film, so I decided to do my own tests.

This whole experiment was a learning experience for me, especially regarding the digitization of a film negative. For this casual experiment I shot some Portra 400 film on my medium format Fuji GA645, snapped a few similar frames on my Nikon Df, and did a side by side with the VSCO Portra 400 setting from Pack 01 straight out of Lightroom.

Shooting Film for Street Photography After a Lifetime of Digital

I’ve shot digital for as long as I can remember, but for a number of years I have been considering delving into film for my street photography work. Every time I became adamant about pursuing it, I talked myself out of it.

"What are you going to do with your negatives? How will you print? It’s so expensive! Your hit rate on digital isn’t that great...you have more control with RAW anyway...It will be waste of money"

5 Myths Photographers Will Tell You About Film, or: Why Film Isn’t Afraid of the Dark

You will be hard pressed to find a reasonable working photographer today, who won't admit that film still has a place in photography and really offers some unique characteristics, even if they choose to not use it. But often photographers who love shooting digital and don't want to deal with film attempt to write off and make excuses for why they can't shoot film. I'd like to offer a rebuttal to such excuses, inspired by a recent thoughtful PetaPixel post.

5 Things Pure Film Photographers Won’t Tell You, or: Why I Shoot Hybrid

I love film. I purely, madly, and deeply love film. I learned on film, I shot my first wedding with film, traveled around Europe with a film camera, and have taken Polaroids on road trips, adventures and portrait sessions. I have boxes of beautiful little Polaroids that I treasure more than anything I’ve ever taken with a digital camera. Film is a wonderful, brilliant medium for taking photographs with real soul.

A Fair Fight? Shooting Film in the Digital Age (A Rebuttal)

I wish I hadn’t, but the other day I stumbled across an essay on PetaPixel entitled 12 Reasons  Photographers Still Choose to Shoot Film over Digital. Bravely, the writer had polled his associates who shoot film and culled their responses down to a dandy dozen. I shook my head sadly, because I’d heard them all many times before.

But the worst part came next. I scrolled down to the comments section. I tried mightily to avert my eyes, but I couldn’t, and the lurid spectacle of grown men and women (but mostly men) verbally beating the living daylights out of each other while thousands cheered them on from the cheap seats proved too much for me.

Film vs Digital: A Comparison of Pros and Cons

In a world in which photographs are primarily taken with digital image sensors, there are a growing number of photographers who are newly interested in film formats of the past. But why would anyone in our age of technological convenience still choose to shoot with analog film?

12 Reasons Photographers Still Choose to Shoot Film over Digital

This year will mark forty years since the invention of the first functioning digital camera, and despite it being a measly 0.01 megapixels, it heralded a new age of digital photography and with it came a death cry for film.

Prompted by this incredibly dull article published recently by the BBC, I decided to ask some fellow photographers what reasons they had for still shooting the so-called "outdated" technology. Here’s the list of what they told me...

Comparing the Image Quality of Film and Digital

There have been a few film versus digital articles here and there on the interwebs, but seems like very few have approached the subject in a scientific fashion or with the advice of both film and digital experts.

However, with the help of Joe Cornish (a landscape photographer who made his living shooting on medium and large format but now shoots Phase One IQ280s), Chris Ireland (who sells Phase One cameras), and myself, Tim Parkin, (I shoot film and run a drum scanning service), a definitive test was born.

Film Takes on Digital in Head-to-Head PBS Showdown, Can You Tell the Difference?

When it comes to the film vs. digital debate, many people are fairly entrenched on one side or the other. But can you really tell the difference between RAW digital footage and film footage? What about when the digital footage is made to look like film using filters in post? PBS Digital Studios wants to put you to the test.

Lost Memories: A Sci-Fi Short Film That Weighs in On Film Versus Digital

Lost Memories is a beautiful 3-minute-long short film by Francois Ferracci that imagines a future in which cameras can share images with the world as soon as they're shot -- oh wait, that's now -- and can beam holographic photographs into the air for easy uploading or editing. In such a futuristic world, would analog photography still have any role to play?