Time for film photography!
FILM photography is back! While film photography never really went away, it has been sustained by an ardent group of enthusiasts and associated businesses that supply film and vintage kits, we are now witnessing its renaissance. As a confident digital photographer who once said, “I’d never go back to film!” this has been both surprising and a personal revelation.
The excellence of digital cameras these days cannot be understated. It’s impossible to buy a bad camera. You might buy the wrong camera for yourself that is irrelevant to what you wish to use it for, but most cameras on the market will lead to you snapping away contentedly. And of course, most people now have a camera in their pocket or bag in the guise of a mobile phone! The rise, and rise, of film photography seems to be reliant on the different experiences felt by the photographer.
Ironically, in an age of instant digital gratification, clickiness seems to be giving way to mindfulness. The different experiences of choosing and putting film in your camera, the act of valuing every image you make (because film is literally so expensive!), and the time it takes to see your resulting photos, are all things that previously put me off film, but are now its delights! It is a slower, more thoughtful process. It’s enjoyable and fun.
Sunday Jigsaw – Pentax 17.
I’ll come back to more about film photography in the coming weeks, but the subject of today’s Sunday Jigsaw is the new Pentax 17. Produced by the Japanese company, it is the first new film camera made by a major manufacturer in twenty years. Apparently, Pentax had to re-engage with its retired employees to relearn the craftsmanship and skills needed to engineer a new film camera. The norm in film photography is to use vintage models which have stood the test of time, or have been repaired by dedicated hobbyists for re-use. So this move by Pentax was significant, and there are assurances that more new film cameras will be produced. I’ve shot a few rolls of film using the Pentax 17 and some of the scans of the negatives are posted to my Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBQwE3.
The picture here shows the Pentax K1000 a 30-40 year old camera I bought for £175. Click the image to discover the jigsaw made from an image of the Pentax 17 (costing nearer to £500).
