Not a Camera Review

Six months on, where am I with film vs. digital? 

Since my April post (Fuji X-T5) I made one film keeper.  This was with a Minolta X-570 with a MD Rokkor-X 45mm f2, loaded with Lomochrome Purple XR 100-400, which is, no, not slide film, and, yes, purple (well, it leans toward).  It did not involve any darkroom (small “d”) work, as the film was developed and scanned by The Darkroom (large “D”) and then minimally manipulated on my computer.

I shot a couple of rolls of very old T-Max 100 with a Fuji GW670III and its Fujinon* 90mm (45mm equivalent) f3.5, using a KEKS EM-01 meter, with disappointing results, so much so that I threw out the rest of my 2013 batch and still need to do a controlled test on 2016 (all of the film had been refrigerated).  I’m thinking that a more positive outcome could help to steer me back to film.  Additional disappointment would mean tossing 2016 and then digging into the freezer or just giving up entirely.

*All Fuji lenses are Fujinon, so I won’t repeat it.

But the telling incident is this:  another trip, to Colorado, in the car, which always used to mean film.  What did I bring?  The Fuji X-T5, the XF 16mm (24 mm equivalent) f2.8, and the XF 90mm (135mm equivalent) f2.  I didn’t expect to have time for photography (drive drive drive to get through five states in three days, three days to visit with our oldest daughter and deliver some dishes that prevented us from flying, then drive drive drive to get home), but you never know.  I took a few shots at the lake near her house, got one snapshot of her and her husband, but nothing that would end up on my website or on the wall.

Then, on the way home, this:

Roadside rest area on I-80 in Utah, looking south, away from the restrooms, tiny smokestack in the distance contrasting with the expansive landscape (the “tiny” and the “expansive” enhanced by the wide-angle lens), a fine lace of clouds that obscured the sun enough to prevent lens flare, several shots (sun on the left, sun in the center, sun on the right), my visualization telling me that this would be black & white and that it would have a desolate, other-worldly look, later work in Apple Photos pumping up the contrast and suppressing the highlights – this is my favorite photo of the year!

Could I have done this with film?  Maybe.  I would have needed my Fuji GSW690III with its 65mm (35mm equivalent) f5.6 – not as wide, so the “tiny” and “expansive” would have been less so, and of course I would have needed confidence in the film.  Then there would be the question of replicating the same dynamic range with my enlarger.  Maybe not.

We are contemplating moving – downsizing.  We won’t find a house with a darkroom, and likely not with a space to build one.

The writing seems to be on the wall (“Which wall?” you say – “old house or new?”).  I love the film process, including (or maybe especially) the uncertainty and lack of immediate feedback, but I also want the final product.  Did my latest favorite photograph push me further from film?

Need to test that 2016 T-Max 100.