Paleo Retiree writes:
“Daddy, what’s a film camera? And why are they so cheap?”
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Uncouth Reflections 
My daughter is learning chemical photography at her art high school, which is fun because I was formerly a darkroom technician. All of the black and white techniques can be done by the dedicated amateur so that will continue to be used by a minority much vinyl in music.
The sad part is the loss of Kodachrome which was too complex to do at home. But maybe there is hope. 5 years back Ampex stopped making the preferred large format audio tape used in analog recording studios. After a few years however another company bought the formula is now making it again, in smaller batches and higher prices for the hard core. So maybe there is hope for Kodachrome.
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It gives you the nice bright colors, it gives you the greens of summer, makes you think all the world’s a sunny day.
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but they did take it away!
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Those cameras are being given away because they’re pretty cruddy even for film. All the choices that the person should be making are already off-loaded to a machine (like autofocus), so why not just have it to do everything and buy a digital point-and-shoot?
Sad to say, the camera companies dug their own grave with this digital bullshit. They’d already cheapened the build quality during the second half of the ’80s — look at how plasticky and rubbery most of those cameras already look, compared to the rugged builds of the ’60s, ’70s, and early ’80s. Then autofocus, zoom lenses… why stop there, when you could have a Google Glass fart out whatever you happen to be spying at the moment, with no choice or action on your part?
The lenses and film, on the other hand, are still fairly expensive. Yeah, the ones made for older film cameras are less expensive than new ones today, but a $300 minimum price tag for a f/1.2 lens is going to sober anyone who thought “old camera gear” was going to come cheap.
Good ol’ 35mm film is still 3 to 5 bucks a roll, for “only” 24 or 36 exposures, and the cheapest option that most folks will have for developing prints (Walgreens 1-hour) is $12 plus tax for that one roll. You can save a little by having them scan and store on a CD rather than make prints, but not by much.
Film was, and still is, more expensive to actually shoot on and see the results of. But you get what you pay for. A full range of light levels, for one thing, instead of the ubiquitous outdoor digi-pics where the sky is blown out, and taking up half the frame to boot — gotta make sure to inflict maximum pain on the viewer’s eyes.
Most of the job of rendering those rich colors and full range of brightness and darkness isn’t done by the camera body, so yeah, why not give them away? It’s the lens and film that record the scene for playback.
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Yeah, these weren’t very inspiring film cameras. The older, all-mechanical bodies that were being also being sold were pretty expensive. I have zero interest in film-based photography (too much trouble; hate the smell of the chemicals), but I wouldn’t mind owning some old Leicas and such just as beautiful collectors’ items to display on a shelf. 20th century industrial engineering and design at its finest.
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I learned to shoot on an all manual bog-standard Pentax K1000, and my daughter is doing the same. It’s the best way I think.
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Didn’t mean to scare anyone away from trying to score a good film camera for little money. If there’s a good second-hand scene where you live, chances are you’ll run across something cool and cheap within one month of regular visiting.
The sellers don’t know what they have — it’s all “old camera gear,” so the creamy and the cruddy are priced about the same. A week ago I picked up a Nikon F-3 for $25 at a thrift store (no lens, but otherwise all there and in working order). Ebay sold listings are generally over $100. Just be patient. Lots of people are unloading the good stuff on craigslist, too.
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You can get good twin lenses cheap sometimes too. Someone I know got a Rolleiflex for $25. Those are fun cameras, but you need a light meter.
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Good riddance to film. I don’t miss it anymore than I miss vinyl.
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LOL. Ease and convenience have a lot to to be said in their favor, maybe especially where a dabbling sort of hobby-activity goes. I’ve definitely been liberated as a photographer, er, snapshooter by digital. Everything about taking snapz is easier and more fun than it was in the film years, IMHO. Plus the quality of digi snapshots has gotten mighty high recently. My newish iPhone takes higher-quality everyday snaps than any film camera I ever owned. Great film-based equipment and picture-making may still have their magic, but for everyday slobs who just like snapping pics digital is a major blessing.
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I used to wonder about the whole quality of analog v. digital, until I came to know three professional photographers, plus the guys who run the official photography section of the National Library of Australia. Not one of them gave a damn about the death of film from either a quality or ease-of-use perspective.
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I just use my phone now too, but partly that’s a matter of the kind of photos I take, which are not more than snaps. If I were a Serious Photographer though….
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I’ve got a Minolta something or other from way back when, uses film. It’s a beautiful device but I feel stuck with it…I can’t just toss it in the trash ffs! Nowadays it’s my odorless Nikon D3000 which I use as an extension of Photoshop.
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