Remember when I said that I would make my life a little harder by taking pictures in film? Well, I did. I went to the Getty Museum to see what I can get with my old Canon A-1 camera. The Getty is a nice place for photography because of the architecture and the view from above LA. I’m intrigued with black & white photography, so I used a BW film, Tmax 100 to be exact.

The day was beautiful, it was sunny and cool at the same time. I thought to myself, “this is the best kind of weather for photography.” As I looked around, every other photographer out there had DSLRs. Nobody uses film cameras anymore? My fellow photographers would occasionally give me that look of wonder, “why is this guy stuck in the 90s?” The answer to that is I want the challenge and the suspense of not knowing the results. At least, not until 3 days later.

After wasting a 36 roll film, I went to Samy’s Camera and paid $6 to have them develop the film. I didn’t want prints because I wasn’t sure how the images turned out. Two days later, the film was developed, so I picked it up. I got home and scanned all the negatives on my scanner. What I saw was disgusting. I could not believe how muddy the images turned out. I was very disappointed. Now, I start to wonder what went wrong. Could my camera be defective? Did the light meter give me the wrong reading? or did they screw up in the dark room at Samy’s? The only way to truly find out what went wrong is to go back out there with a different kind of film, and see if the results are the same. So, I did but I’m still waiting for the film to be developed. It should come back in a couple of days.

What I learned so far is that film photography is costly, both in time and in money. Every time you click that shutter, it’s costing you money. The cost of the film and the processing fee can add up pretty quickly. But, at least the lenses are cheap, dirt cheap to be exact. I got a 28mm fast lens on ebay for $50. I think in the digital world, that could go for around $300. So, that’s the trade-off. And for me personally, I like the quality of film better than digital. But, my DSLR is an entry level Canon XTi. I don’t know how film would compare to the $5,000 DSLRs. But, it doesn’t matter because I cannot afford that. When the 2nd set of negatives come back, I’ll post the results, so stay tuned.

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