Demographics of film Vs digital

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

If you're on-the-move life-wise, entrepreneurial, unsettled, disrupted, adventurous...renting, change partners, are open to changing location...professional photog or aspiring to being professional: you shoot digital (or shoot and scan film) and you inkjet print if you print at all.

If you're stable, own your home, predictable salary or solidly retired, long-married: you shoot film and enlarge film, hang out in a darkroom...unless you are happy with convenient mini-labs.

What are your thoughts/prejudices/experiences?

Sirius Glass · Mar 12, 2019

"change partners" are you talking about separation and divorce, or swinging?

nmp · Mar 12, 2019

Not sure if it is this clear cut. I know many people who are stable, with their own homes, with predictable salary or having solidly retired and long-married who all shoot digital. In fact the people I know who qualify for either of your "demographic" and none of them shoot film. So anecdotally, I disagree with the premise.

faberryman · Mar 12, 2019

jtk said:
If you're on-the-move life-wise, entrepreneurial, unsettled, disrupted, adventurous...renting, change partners, are open to changing location...professional photog or aspiring to being professional: you shoot digital (or shoot and scan film) and you inkjet print if you print at all.

If you're stable, own your home, predictable salary or solidly retired, long-married: you shoot film and enlarge film, hang out in a darkroom...unless you are happy with convenient mini-labs.

What are your thoughts/prejudices/experiences?

What nonsense.

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

nmp said:
Not sure if it is this clear cut. I know many people who are stable, with their own homes, with predictable salary or having solidly retired and long-married who all shoot digital. In fact the people I know who qualify for either of your "demographic" and none of them shoot film. So anecdotally, I disagree with the premise.

May depend on your region. Japan is reportedly much more stable than the US. Don't know about the UK or EU or Subcontinent or China etc. Or Norway/Sweden.

Most of the stable people I know in New Mexico are Navajo Indians and, recently, elderly Jews (lots of friends with both groups) .

I've read that Millennials marry less frequently than same age did in earlier generations...and we do know that most Boomers have been (once or twice) divorced.

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

faberryman said:
What nonsense.

Any actual thoughts?

awty · Mar 12, 2019

So what your saying is happy people get to do darkroom printing and sad and lonely people have to inject print?....interesting, but weird. You should use your zealous imagination for making pictures and post some up in the gallery.

macfred · Mar 12, 2019

Can someone tell me what this thread is about? I'm walking in darkness ...

Arklatexian · Mar 12, 2019

jtk said:
If you're on-the-move life-wise, entrepreneurial, unsettled, disrupted, adventurous...renting, change partners, are open to changing location...professional photog or aspiring to being professional: you shoot digital (or shoot and scan film) and you inkjet print if you print at all.

If you're stable, own your home, predictable salary or solidly retired, long-married: you shoot film and enlarge film, hang out in a darkroom...unless you are happy with convenient mini-labs.

What are your thoughts/prejudices/experiences?

Guilty to the second sentence though I don't know how stable (mentally) I am and as I own a small business in today's political climate, don't know how solidly retired I am, but I think you are probably correct here in the U.S. Good post!......Regards!

Peltigera · Mar 12, 2019

I use both film and digital. What does that make me?

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

awty said:
So what your saying is happy people get to do darkroom printing and sad and lonely people have to inject print?....interesting, but weird. You should use your zealous imagination for making pictures and post some up in the gallery.

I didn't "say" anything of the sort.

Unstable people are often happy, and stable people often plod through dull, predictable lives.

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

Peltigera said:
I use both film and digital. What does that make me?

Did you bother to read the OT?

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

Arklatexian said:
Guilty to the second sentence though I don't know how stable (mentally) I am and as I own a small business in today's political climate, don't know how solidly retired I am, but I think you are probably correct here in the U.S. Good post!......Regards!

Thanks for considering the OT. I think onset of instability sometimes opens doors, and that onset of stability often closes them. fwiw I quit a very exciting photo career at its peak, simply changed horses and became a headhunter (which I loved)...then 9/11 vanished many of my bank clients and a different struggle began...now I'm very much "retired" and strangely stable, but I had great creative and profitable times with twenty years of very unstable self-employed careers.

pbromaghin · Mar 12, 2019

jtk said:
If you're stable, own your home, predictable salary or solidly retired, long-married: you shoot film and enlarge film, hang out in a darkroom...unless you are happy with convenient mini-labs.

Not sure if it's nonsense or not, but this accurately describes me, except that I am printing hybrid until the darkroom is built.

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

macfred said:
Can someone tell me what this thread is about? I'm walking in darkness ... View attachment 219326

Have you tried reading the OT?

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

Sirius Glass said:
"change partners" are you talking about separation and divorce, or swinging?

Coupling, uncoupling, dating....the way younger people do partners...which is the norm today more than marriage/divorce.
Divorce seems to me an antique concept (did that decades ago) but I suppose it does result in availability of used film equipment (that equipment accumulation and darkroom may have led to the divorce?).

BradS · Mar 12, 2019

As somebody else already said, it's just not that black and white.
I guess I supply a counter example. I'm on-the-move life-wise, not entrepreneurial, unsettled, disrupted, adventurous...renting, change partners, am open to changing location...not a professional photog nor do I aspire to being professional: I do not use digital and definitely Do Not inkjet print

I own my home, have a fairly predictable salary am not solidly retired, and am not married.....

and I use film, occasionally scan film to post stuff on-line and make prints in a darkroom with an enlarger film, spend as little time as necessary in the darkroom.. and am sometimes happy with not-so-convenient mini-labs for color films.

Peltigera · Mar 12, 2019

jtk said:
Did you bother to read the OT?

Yes, I did. I do not fit either group while at the same time fitting both groups. Hence my comment/question.

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

BradS said:
As somebody else already said, it's just not that black and white.
I guess I supply a counter example. I'm on-the-move life-wise, not entrepreneurial, unsettled, disrupted, adventurous...renting, change partners, are open to changing location...not a professional photog nor do I aspire to being professional: I do not use digital and definitely Do Not inkjet print

If you're un-stable, own my home, have a fairly predictable salary am not solidly retired, and am not married.....

and I use film, occasionally scan film to post stuff on-line and make prints in a darkroom with an enlarger film, spend as little time as necessary in the darkroom.. and am sometimes happy with not-so-convenient mini-labs for color films.

Brad, I don't understand...are you saying you're "on-the-move" life-wise, single, and stable? Congratulations...I hope you're having fun. If not, a little instability might be funner (e.g. quit your job tomorrow, move somewhere new, then move somewhere else).

I shoot a lot of 35mm, Nikon scan it all, and inkjet print. I rarely use mini-labs (for processing, NOT printing). I'll probably start processing E6 because I like fast service...there are very few good E6 labs.

jtk · Mar 12, 2019

Peltigera said:
Yes, I did. I do not fit either group while at the same time fitting both groups. Hence my comment/question.

Tell us about how you fit both groups. I don't doubt that but I don't understand (e.g. how are you both stable and unstable)

BradS · Mar 12, 2019

jtk said:
Brad, I don't understand...are you saying you're "on-the-move" life-wise, single, and stable? Congratulations...I hope you're having fun. If not, a little instability might be funner (e.g. quit your job tomorrow, move somewhere new, then move somewhere else).

I shoot a lot of 35mm, Nikon scan it all, and inkjet print. I rarely use mini-labs (for processing, NOT printing). I'll probably start processing E6 because I like fast service...there are very few good E6 labs.

Hmmm...no. What I said is that I don't think that your model really describes reality very well.

awty · Mar 12, 2019

jtk said:
I didn't "say" anything of the sort.

Unstable people are often happy, and stable people often plod through dull, predictable lives.

Well that's what the op implies. Its been scientifically proven that men in long term relationships live longer more happy meaningful lives than those who are single and have little stability. So the statement makes out men with darkrooms are more fortunate than those who dont.
Inject printers are doomed!
Still time for you, my dad found a love again in his late 70's and is now almost 89 and still going strong.

Ces1um · Mar 12, 2019

I don't know how to answer this one. I don't think the defined terms of stable or unstable and how they relate to digital vs film or darkroom vs lab processed are really even defendable.

The majority of the population use cell phones for their photography. That population spans stable and unstable people. People on income assistance and the very rich both use phones to take the majority of their photos. By your definition only unstable people use digital and stable people use film and the darkroom. That would mean that the majority of people using cell phones out there are unstable. hmmm. Maybe you are onto something.

This is an interesting discussion though, so thanks for bringing it up. As a thought exercise it has merit but I'm not sure the argument itself as it's defined really is valid.

Chan Tran · Mar 12, 2019

Unless somebody collects solid data to prove otherwise I am sure the OP is incorrect statistically. Also the question "Are you happy with minilab" is irrelevant as there is basically no minilab around.

nmp · Mar 12, 2019

It is kind of a silly discussion, but judging from the past, I bet this will go at least 10 pages.

Demographics of film Vs digital

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