Relegation be Damned
bybr /Jonathan Eastland.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"The dearth of features, news and articles pertaining to the use of film cameras in the photo press well illustrates the popularity of digital technology across a broad spectrum of enthusiasts; or is it simply that advertising rules the roost? (no answer needed.) Only one, the British Journal of Photography, regularly continues to uphold the values of film for both its reviews of new materials and portfolios by shooters still enamoured by the silver halide./spanbr /br /Just recently, I completed a review of Rollei's ATP 1.1 film - the new(ish) flagship Technical Pan - according to the maker Maco for the Journal. Over a period of several weeks, I exposed rolls on the streets of Paris, Versailles and back home on local UK hunting grounds in a Leica M6.br /br /After a traumatic processing experience, the negatives were scanned on an Epson F3200 at the maximum optical resolution. The results lived up to almost every one of Rollei's claims - except ease of processing in small tanks with stainless spools - and I immediately put in a request for a sample of the 120 medium format version announced at this year's photokina.br /br /ATP 1.1 captures an astonishing amount of fine detail; negatives are virtually grain free, although it is there and visible in large scale prints. Image appearance reminded me of early Kodachrome II sans colour. The joy of course, is that digital post processing tools lend an easy hand here to obtaining the near perfect file ready for printing on a variety of substrates.br /br /This experience also reminded me it had been some time since I developed my own b+w films. I still have a refrigerator full of Kodak Tri-X and other stock, but I shifted to using Kodak's T400CN chromagenic film some years ago, both for the sake of processing convenience (C-41) and the fact that it produces very good fine grain scans. Nearly everything I have shot in b+w in the past few years has been on this stock and I have not been persuaded to return to old favourites yet.br /br /Carrying out the strict procedures necessary for quality development of conventional silver halide emulsions also allows - when one is familiar with the process - time for reflection on other aspects of photography.br /br /On this occasion, one which came back to niggle concerned the reason why, as a working editorial freelance, I need to be using anything but digital capture. At this juncture towards the end of 2008, there is no more argument about which medium appears to produce the better quality image in mechanical print. Digital technology has reached a point where only a few smaller format film emulsions - Rollei's ATP 1.1 is one - capture more noticeable fine detail which remains readable in large scale reproductions. ( I have made a brief review of Kodak's new Ektar colour neg in 35mm fomat which also appears to be endowed with some special characteristics - it is certainly, as the maker claims, very fined grained.) Larger film formats ( 5X4 inch and up) still enable better looking and possibly finer detailed images when the material is laser scanned. For the most part however, full frame digital a href="http://nikoncameras.ajaxnetphoto.com"Nikon/a, Canon, Sony and the larger format sensors of a href="http://hasselblad.ajaxnetphoto.com"Hasselblad/a, Leaf et al, obtain the clean,sharp and highly detailed result most image buyers and stock agencies want. And, as I am not engaged in making prints for exhibition, A3 is about as large as most of what I shoot is ever likely to be reproduced.br /br /There are various threads as to how these thoughts get kick-started. One was Cosina's announcement at photokina of a 6X7cm medium format folding bellows rangefinder camera - the a href="http://bessacameras.ajaxnetphoto.com"Voigtlander Bessa III./a There's no question in my mind about whether or not I need this tool. I will have to have it, if and when it eventually materialises. In the meantime, I continue to run the odd roll of 120 through a pair of sixty year old a href="http://baldacameras.ajaxnetphoto.com"Balda Super Baldax cameras./abr /br /Another is the emotionally charged notion that somehow, my life as a photographer would simply not remain visually connected to the chaos of ordinary life without the mechanical extension of the mind's eye used in attempts to capture slices of it. My film Leica's are the tools of choice and they continue to be used for the purpose.br /br /Yet circumstance and opportunity to shoot prolificly with a Leica M6 has not presented itself so far this year, although at least one body and a couple of lenses has been in the bag on a variety of assignments. The last of these was to Sweden at the end of August where the task to document marine archaeologists was up against a short deadline; digital got the job done on time.br /br /So, I hear the cry, why not use an M8?br /br /I have already made my position on this model clear in previous blogs and nothing so far, leads me to believe this will change any time soon. Indeed, what I think about that tool is partly a result of where Leica Camera AG has been heading for the past couple of years. Company philosophy seems aimed unwaveringly at the digital convert with a basket of products designed to appeal specificly to that market. They may say that film still forms a part of their on-going activities, but I have not seen or heard much evidence of that in recent weeks. Indeed, reading between the translated lines of what has been said, I am inclined to believe the M film camera is quietly but deliberately being sidelined by the company in favour of an all out effort to establish the Leica S system as a digital force to be reckoned with. In other words, there will come a time in the forseeable future when the Leica M camera may only be available 'a la carte' to special order.br /br /In the meantime, the mark II version of the M8 is still not the digital a href="http://leicacameras.ajaxnetphoto.com"Leica rangefinder/a I wanted and until they get rid of its motor and replace it with a thumb lever wind and make a digital camera the same dimensions as the M , I will not be interested. Of course, it could easily be argued that for decades the Leica M has been used by enthusiasts with a Motor Winder attached. That device makes more racket than the current M8 but at least it could be removed from the camera body when conditions demanded. And then there is the issue of the camera's ability to produce high quality jpeg files without first capturing an image in RAW. For the money, you could purchase three current entry level Dslrs which do the job far better.br /br /Still, even with a mechanical thumb lever wind, I know the experience of using a digital rangefinder is not the same as using a film camera. I carry an a href="http://epsonrd1.ajaxnetphoto.com"Epson RD1/a alongside M cameras, but it gets less use than the latter. I like the RD1 colour space and the camera doesn't feel much different in the hand from an M, but the mystique attached to each frame exposure, the smell and process of inserting or extracting a roll of film from a Leica endows the user with a unique emotional experience far removed from the seemingly clinical and objective process involved in digital capture.br /br /The economy of using digital in the past couple of years has led me temptingly down the route towards wanting more of it at times and there are things I like about some digital camera colour spaces - in particular the hybrid digital/film look manifest by the Nikon D2H. Yet each time I come to process a film image, I am transported back to an era of photography that was truly magical. This isn't about being a luddite, it's about recognising there are things both systems do well and how different the end result obtained is. For some motifs, Kodachrome, Tri-X, Ilford HP5, adds an aesthetic visual appeal to a photograph which tugs at nostalgic emotions giving it an extra dimension. Often, and depending on image content, that extra dimension may seem inexplicable, but I know that it's there. For other motifs, the digital image obtains a quick and efficient result; a loveless, matter of fact representation of reality which lacks the transparent veil of mystique manifest by film.br /br /For the most part, it is only [some] photographers who think about these things. Carrying out limited research amongst friends and acquaintances who are not shooters to see if they can spot differences between film or digitally captured images leads one down a blind alley. It's not a topic which concerns them or one they ever think about and mostly I have found, they can't see the difference when it is pointed out. And what nearly all seem to say when confronted with a selection of b+w pages is how much they 'love' that medium.br /br /So my choice to carry on using film for some projects isn't driven by any fanciful notion that viewers of my work might benefit visually or emotionally one way or another; it's driven more by the artisan in me that says simply, this tool and its medium is the one I prefer for this or that job.br /br /In the case of the Leica-M it has to do with how the tool feels in the hand, the noise it makes (or doesn't) when the shutter is released, the act of inching the lever wind over for another frame, the second nature way it seems to have of being easily manipulated surreptitiously, deftly and quickly to capture a moment observed, the way in which it is not seen or heard by most at whom it is aimed. There are many other reasons I could cite. In the end, I guess, it's about the comfort factor; how a particular tool does not make one think about a lot of bad baggage associated with some other tools, about how one special tool can make an individual feel good about what they want to do with it and how that will affect the end result.br /br /Got to get out and shoot some film.br /br /span style="font-size:85%;"br /span style="font-style: italic;"Visitors, users and viewers of the foregoing content may copy and re-use it in other internet content sites on condition the source of all material so used is acknowledged with the attachment of the following.br /Copyright; Jonathan Eastlandbr /a href="http://www.ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com/"www.ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com/a 2008.br /a href="http://www.ajaxnetphoto.com/"www.ajaxnetphoto.com/a 2008.br /This content may NOT be used in any media made available for commercial resale.br /The products and companies named in this website content are trademarks , registered trademarks or servicemarks of their respective owners or licensed user./span/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22300009-1403919870075319016?l=ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com'//div
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