Film VS Digital

(Disclaimer: I am not trying to say that one is better than the other, I personally shoot both film and digital whenever I have shoots with friends or during my travels.) 

For the longest time in my photography life, I have always been intimidated by film. As a very indecisive person and someone who ends up with an average of 300 shots during a simple 2 hour portrait session, the idea that you only get 39 shots in a roll really put me off 35mm photography. However, last year I took a gap year after submitting my 4th year dissertation and decided to focus on photography and travelling. It was the perfect time to give film a shot since I had lots of free time to play around with it, hence my dad's 1988 Minolta Dynax 7000i (it's older than me!!!) was dusted out from his vintage camera dry box and into my care.

FILM

The first time I tried anything related to film, or at least the concept of film, was my very first Fujifilm Instax Mini 25 (yes, the typical tumblr girl instant camera). While most girls my age were using it for keepsakes with friends, I was figuring out how to use it to shoot scenery and nature but of course being a plastic point-n-shoot camera there were limitations to how clear the film would turn out. I still do play around with instant film cameras (Instax Mini 9, Instax Wide 300, Leica Sofort) but my reviews on them will be on another post!

35mm film photography was a completely foreign concept to me in 2019 but I was determined to understand it. I started from the basics, understanding the physics of an SLR camera.

Now, you must be wondering, what is an SLR camera? (Read up more here)

SLR stands for Single-Lens Reflex, and in layman's terms, an SLR camera basically lets you frame your shot so you get to see what it will capture on the medium you use (i.e. film). Here is a little diagram to explain how old-school film cameras work, I won't go into too much detail here because there are many websites that can explain it much better.

Understanding the physics of your camera helps a lot with working with it. I personally find this the most important lesson to learn when working with a new camera. The most expensive equipment is worthless if you can't understand it. So I started from scratch, I searched up diagrams and materials used for the camera. I wanted to know if there were any flaws in the making of this camera and how it might affect my shots. When I finally understood how my camera worked, I moved on to the most daunting process - bringing it out for a field day.

I chose Haw Par Villa to test out the Minolta because of the vibrant and contrasting architecture. I wanted to know how well the film will take to colours. So I made the insane decision to shoot at noon, when the sun was the brightest. I took very long trying to frame each shot, I kept reminding myself that each shot has to count since I won't be able to preview it to decide if it needs a do-over. It really challenged my indecisiveness, but also taught me that I should do the same for my digital shots.

DIGITAL

The first digital camera I played with was a Nikon DSLR. Although I loved learning about photography, I always found it too heavy and bulky. I did not pursue my interest in photography until mirrorless cameras surfaced. The first mirrorless camera I got to use was my pink Sony Alpha NEX-C3. I remember having to take turns with my dad to use it when we went on a family trip to Germany and Austria, the learning curve was steep when you learn to use a camera while traveling different cities everyday, and I completely fell in love with photography.

The one thing about digital photography that I love and always take for granted is the ability to preview my shots and decide if I need to take another one. And if all else failed, there was always photoshop to fix them up.

FILM OR DIGITAL?

I am definitely no professional and these are just my thoughts on my film and digital experience. In 2019, I was fortunate enough to travel to five countries with different cameras from my collection. Furthermore, when I was back in my home city, I was heading out for shoots 3-4 times a week. I never took the same camera out two days in a row (with the exception of my Sony A6500), this let me focus on working with many different cameras over the span of a year. All my digital cameras are from Sony or GoPro, and my film cameras are from Minolta, Hanica, Vibe Photo and Fujifilm.

I feel that most of us are fortunate enough to be able to choose from digital and film cameras in this modern age. My dad had to learn photography with a film camera and I am just cringing at the number of film rolls I would have wasted if I learnt on a film camera. I personally prefer to use DSLR/SLR/Mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses, but if you enjoy point-and-shoot styled cameras then I would actually recommend (non-)disposable film cameras. There is a particular anticipation and joy I get from not knowing how my shot will look on point-and-shoot film cameras and they really do capturing moments as they are. I typically use these types of cameras when I'm at parties or on volunteer trips just because they are easier for keeping memories and the photos have a really cool muted-smoky effect.

If you enjoy learning about ISO and aperture, I would recommend starting with a digital SLR or mirrorless before trying your hand at film. Digital cameras will give you instant results and you will learn to tweak your settings to your liking. Once your basic skills are perfected, film photography will be a breeze and the focus will be on framing the perfect shot.

So what exactly do I recommend?

I have no answer for you because I love 35mm and digital equally. I would actually recommend that you try them both and make a decision for yourself. Photography is so personal and it also tells a lot about a person, everyone has their own perspectives to the same concept.