My struggle with film photography

When Tom Vogels put the proposition “Digital photography has driven out the magic of film photography” to me a while ago on his podcast Over Fotografie Gesproken, it unconsciously planted a seed.

Why can I not manage to embrace film photography? The price? The ‘faff’? Wanting to do everything myself?

In my office an untouched bottle of Rodinal stands beside a Canon AE-1. The roll undeveloped, and dust is starting to settle on the camera. The shutter, and the sound of that shutter, made me decide to buy it.

Why exactly? Because the sound of the iPhone camera is based on this camera, popular in its day. No other reason. That is the kind of nerd I am.

Before that I had tried the Pentax ME. Another lovely camera. I shot carefully, because I knew film has a bit of lag and the people in the street carried on as ever. Sometimes a photo worked, sometimes I forgot to have the roll developed.

With my good friend Lawrence Mooij I developed a roll in a Labbox developing tank. A mindful process, but I find that after my visit to his studio that day I have not found the calm to develop anything myself. Of course I have all the gear at home. It is like buying running shoes for the run that will never happen.

It keeps gnawing

I walk hundreds, perhaps thousands of kilometres a year with my digital camera. And make as many photos, which I edit and put on Instagram, in a book or a magazine, but I cannot find the calm for film.

I do love those cameras, although carrying a heavy film camera around all day is not my idea of fun either. My camera is the Fujifilm X100VI. For now. Small and light.

On YouTube I watched a video by KingJvpes. Recommended if you love film.

Photographer Jonathan Paragas talked about a magical little film pocket camera that gets far too little appreciation. That interests me. The underdog of film compacts.

He was talking about the Canon MC, an angular little camera with a detachable flash. The answer to a popular Olympus of the time. I went looking.

The Dutch classifieds are full of film cameras. Sometimes offered very professionally and sometimes something comes down from grandad’s attic and the seller has no idea what they are selling. You know how it goes, because I think every photographer has a look at the classifieds now and then.

We all have a touch of gear acquisition syndrome and the classifieds often provide a quick fix. Within a few minutes I found an underrated Canon MC, with nonsense bids on it. I bid realistically and bought the camera. It arrives tomorrow.

Why film after all?

Because this camera is a good deal lighter, I do want to start taking it out into the street. Make pictures. See whether digital photography has driven out the magic of film. I already know my answer stays ‘no’.

But I am keenly aware that film slows you down and makes you think twice about a photo. And I have an enormous need for that.

Recently I walked along the Meir in Antwerp towards the station and decided to make thirty or so photos without looking. ‘Whether there is anything among them’ was of course my question. Because of my quick pace and continuous clicking, camera at hip height, nobody really noticed I was photographing. Of the thirty photos at least three were perfectly acceptable. Too easy, really.

Look, if you have the light behind you and it is a reasonably sunny day, that way of working takes the magic out of digital street photography. Past the trick, running off production and trusting that you will come home with something good. There is nothing to it.

I know film does not allow that. Film photography needs a deliberate stop, winding on and a firmer press of the shutter.

Besides, every photo costs a fortune, so you do not want to make thirty photos in a row with a ten per cent hit rate at best. Ilford HP5 Plus 400 soon costs 10 to 12 euros if you are lucky.

Developing may then be about five euros and I can scan it perfectly well myself on my little Easypix Cyberscanner, but it always costs 50 cents a photo. It slows you down, and that is my main point.

Two cameras

Some street photographers carry several lenses, and I think that is nonsense. It is extra weight in your bag and I also think the limitation of one lens makes you more creative. In my photography I want as few decision points, and therefore choices, as possible.

I want to look, and only then photograph. I shoot almost everything in landscape format, at a 35mm focal length and usually on shutter priority at 1/500s. Depending on the light, of course.

That little Canon may yet bring about a change in that. The choice between film and digital is an interesting one, certainly if you have both with you. I imagine days that start digital and end on film.

When my feet hurt from walking and I am tired of looking, film may well give the right impulse, the right calm, to keep going a little longer.

The fine Canon AE-1, the lumbering beast I have now, does not really fit my camera bag. The shoulder strap pulls at my neck under the weight of the camera. It just fits in the too small bag, and getting it out is already a faff. That Canon MC fits easily, and comes out easily.

I have been practising with the Instax Wide Evo, a digital camera and printer in one. Light, more cumbersome, but charming and always good for a conversation in the street. ‘What have you got there?’ ‘Here, have a print.’ It feels slowing as well and I like that, but the handling gets in the way of my street photography.

That Instax is mainly a very enjoyable gimmick. The Canon MC has to become a workhorse. A slow working workhorse, one that brings some ease. I am curious.

And I will let you know.

Over to you

Have you ever shot film, or have you been doing it for years? Did you grow up with it and are you fed up with the modern frills in today’s digital cameras? What is your preference, and:

Has digital photography driven out the magic of film photography?

This article first appeared on Photofacts.nl (the biggest photography platform in the Netherlands), for which I have written a monthly column since 2025.