Maybe there is a growing awareness of the analog revival as not just being "Nostalgic"...

[Kino]

Analogue technology can be frustrating – is that part of the appeal?

Digital technology's quickness and convenience ought to have buried its analogue counterparts. Yet vinyl records and film photography endure. Why do people continue to use it?

www.bbc.com

 

[JensH]

Hi,

It's not frustation itself being appealing, to master the problems is much more satisfiing than with non-analogue issues.
Think of optimising bw development, bringing vintage cameras back to life...
Or adjusting and using vintage or antique fountain pens (like my 1915 made Swan 3012).

I'm not into vinyl records, but understand those arguments.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

I like my games in physical media.
I like my books printed.
I like my movies pressed in BR or DVD.
My photography is no different - it's quite "there" and I just prefer the physical/"analog" workflow and results I get with no computer involved.

A challenge and a set of limitations can and often is vital for one's output. Unlimited options can be counter productive at times.

 

[Dali]

"Work, effort, meaning". The article says it all.

 

[Willy T]

Film slows me down - waaay down - I get better shots for it.

Not to diss digital, but it, in me, anyhow, it may encourage an unhealthy craving for immediate gratification, rather than the slower satisfactions of craft.

 

[guangong]

I like my games in physical media.
I like my books printed.
I like my movies pressed in BR or DVD.
My photography is no different - it's quite "there" and I just prefer the physical/"analog" workflow and results I get with no computer involved.

A challenge and a set of limitations can and often is vital for one's output. Unlimited options can be counter productive at times.

Ditto. I would add recorded music. Much of opera still remains in vinyl or tape only. Same goes for jazz.

 

[bdial]

There is plenty of frustration to be had in dealing with digital stuff when you dive below the surface. Some of the frustrations are different than analog, but a lot of it is the same, just hung on a different framework.

 

[VinceInMT]

Thank you for posting this. It covers the topic very well, checking all the boxes for me. It certainly spoke to me with the “slowing down” aspect. While I shoot some digital (using a phone when out running or traveling) I do like how film slows me down. The next step in slowing down is to sit down and draw the image/scene in my sketchbook, a process that takes about 2 hours for one image.

I believe the slowing down is related to mastering delayed gratification, something that IMO, is in short supply these days. So much is about acquisition and getting it right now. Oh, you don’t have the money, no problem, we’ll loan you instant cash.

 

[xkaes]

Analog CAN be frustrating, but Digital CAN be just as frustrating -- but in different ways. That's seems totally left out of this discussion. Many use analog because they find digital too frustrating -- not to mention expensive.. That deserves an article just as much.

 

[ic-racer]

B&W film for artistic expression isn’t ‘coming back;’ it never went away!

 

[flowerpunk]

I’m 72 years old and started shooting film in early 70’s and collecting vinyl records. Didn’t get into the darkroom until a decade later.
I messed with digital for a short time and just never got into it.
I think film has grown over the past few years and will continue, with a whole new generation carrying on.

 

[flowerpunk]

B&W film for artistic expression isn’t ‘coming back;’ it never went away!

I agree it never went away, but it is in my opinion growing in popularity in a way that hasn’t happened in years.

 

[Sirius Glass]

To me, analog's understanding is based in physics, for example the f/numbers, while most complexities that I see with digital cameras are based in an engineer's implementation of a design in software. There can be a difference. YMMV

 

[btaylor]

Great article! Unlike many written on the subject they (mostly) seem to know what they’re talking about.
For me, the “process” is the most satisfying part of making a final image. Mastering skills, overcoming mistakes, happy accidents - I love that about film based photography.
I would agree, digital has its own struggles, but in a very different way. I’m taking a photo class that’s all digital and the software and connectivity issues pop up and I don’t find them fun to solve at all.

 

[Luckless]

Analog CAN be frustrating, but Digital CAN be just as frustrating -- but in different ways. That's seems totally left out of this discussion. Many use analog because they find digital too frustrating -- not to mention expensive.. That deserves an article just as much.

I haven't seen many large format digital sensors, and I've only seen a price on a few of them, but I can buy myself a LOT of 4x5 film for even the cheapest I've seen so far, and given the price of film and the rate I'm taking large format images I question my ability to take enough to make up the price difference before I die. And I haven't even hit 40 yet.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

Another benefit of film: interchangeable sensors.

You don't like how Delta 100 renders the scene? Why not give Adox CHS 100 II a try?

Want color? Sure, try Portra.
Want to project slides? Sure, try Provia or Ektachrome.

Don't like how a given software algorithm processes your image, but like the camera sensor? Try different developer...

 

[RezaLoghme]

I like my Seinfeld DVDs in proper analogue cardboard boxes.

 

[TomR55]

Years ago (too many), I was part of a team of researching air safety in the commercial airspace—in particular, we studied how flight crews communicated within the cockpit during the various phases of flight. One central operating hypothesis was that flight safety was highly correlated to pilots’ “situational awareness.” Situational awareness is sometimes defined as an agent’s conscious knowledge of the immediate environment and the events that are occurring in it. (That definition from the APA … IIRC).

My point here is that both modes of photography, analogue and digital, shape our “situational awareness” in different ways. Whether one creates better photographs with digital or analogue workflows might depend entirely on individual differences and individual criteria for ’success.

For this photographer, maintaining situational awareness is easier in the analogue domain—for a variety of reasons that boil down to individual differences.

 

[xkaes]

At least with my analog cameras I never had to memorize a 200-page user manual.

 

[loccdor]

I have tons of pictures around from the 90s but not many remaining from the 2000s when we started using digital. Hard drives crash, and people switch their computers and forget their files. Then they are gone forever. It's a lot more difficult to face this problem with physical media. Yes, you can make many backups, if you are diligent and remember. Most people living busy lives can easily forget doing that - film is resilient to being forgotten.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

At least with my analog cameras I never had to memorize a 200-page user manual.

Only 200 pages? Why, you must be talking about a low-end consumer P&S.

Creeping featureitis is the death knell for software based products.

Imagine a mechanical film camera with a little knob next to the shutter speed dial that lets you select between a 1, 2 , 5, 10 , 25, 50, 100 shutter speed progression or a 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, 125 progression. Will it make your pictures better? Do you want the extra complexity? And, do you want to pay for it all?

 

[Luckless]

At least with my analog cameras I never had to memorize a 200-page user manual.

I was supposed to memorize any of that? For anything? ... News to me.

 

[Sirius Glass]

At least with my analog cameras I never had to memorize a 200-page user manual.

You can say that again. The learning curve can be steep on some digital cameras.

 

[Marcelo Paniagua]

You can say that again. The learning curve can be steep on some digital cameras.

Yep. Still learning new features on my Canon 6D after years of owning it. Most of these new features are actually useless to me by the way.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

...and one has an opportunity to feel like an absolute idiot when handed a phone with God knows what camera app to take a group picture under complicated stage lighting, where simple exposure triangle controls are hidden under God knows under what nonstandard UI element - seen or via gesture. Because you're photographer and you should know better!
But all I needed was ages old shutter speed/exposure adjustment controls...

You need 500 page manual for apps too.

//Joke, but not really. Another reason I prefer mechanical: controls are there right on the camera body next to my fingertips, ready to be accessed right away not under 3 Menu layers...
And when I found ISO setting in the app and adjusted it to better match the lighting, it behaved 180° opposite of what I expected - dialing in higher ISO darkened the image, because reasons not communicated on screen and something cute from that exposure triangle being locked under a different series of menu... and people on stage are waiting on me fiddling the controls, making remarks already

Why do this?