4 ms·

I just scored a semi-nice film SLR the other day; it used to belong to my parents but they've gone digital and it hasn't been used in yonks. It's certainly now

by frio 17y ago

I just scored a semi-nice film SLR the other day; it used to belong to my parents but they've gone digital and it hasn't been used in yonks. It's certainly nowhere near as programmable as even a cheap digital SLR, but whatever, it's fun to use. The difference, in terms of taking shots, is night and day - with my digital camera, I'll snap 10+ shots of the same thing to try and find the right one; with this, I spend five minutes angling around and trying to find the right shot off the bat. I'm not a good photographer by any means; in fact, I'm substantially below average if I'm honest about it. But raising the bar to entry certains makes you focus on what you're doing a lot more. Which I guess is a long and winding way of saying I agree. It's more fun when there' more effort involved.

potatolicious 17y ago
I feel the same way - there's a greater sense of accomplishment when you allow yourself only a single opportunity to capture what you see in front of you. In photography parlance we call it chimping - i.e., jumping around like a monkey and clicking the shutter like crazy, trying to get the right shot. Even if you get the right one, you have no idea if it's your skill, luck, or just law of large numbers... When I shoot film I feel more purposeful - I rarely ever take more than a single exposure of any one particular thing - it also teaches you to be patient, and hold the shutter until you know you have the right shot. On rapid-fire you will often get a good picture, but no idea what makes it good, whereas with film I'm aware that this picture works because, say, I waited until there was no one in the background. My current favored camera is a Leica R4s - only manual and aperture priority modes, manual focus, manual aperture control, and only 2 metering modes (you only ever need one - center-weighted). When you strip a machine down to the bare minimum it opens a lot of creative doors.
- elpuri 17y ago
  Usually chimping just means checking your shots from the LCD.
  - angusgr 17y ago
    Yeah. I've heard "clicking the shutter like crazy, trying to get the right shot" referred to as "spray and pray", though. ;)

by frio 17y ago

potatolicious 17y ago

I feel the same way - there's a greater sense of accomplishment when you allow yourself only a single opportunity to capture what you see in front of you. In photography parlance we call it chimping - i.e., jumping around like a monkey and clicking the shutter like crazy, trying to get the right shot. Even if you get the right one, you have no idea if it's your skill, luck, or just law of large numbers... When I shoot film I feel more purposeful - I rarely ever take more than a single exposure of any one particular thing - it also teaches you to be patient, and hold the shutter until you know you have the right shot. On rapid-fire you will often get a good picture, but no idea what makes it good, whereas with film I'm aware that this picture works because, say, I waited until there was no one in the background. My current favored camera is a Leica R4s - only manual and aperture priority modes, manual focus, manual aperture control, and only 2 metering modes (you only ever need one - center-weighted). When you strip a machine down to the bare minimum it opens a lot of creative doors.

elpuri 17y ago
Usually chimping just means checking your shots from the LCD.
- angusgr 17y ago
  Yeah. I've heard "clicking the shutter like crazy, trying to get the right shot" referred to as "spray and pray", though. ;)