I've recently spent a lot of time becoming familiar with the digital wonderchild D800, and it is a truly superb camera. It's effortless to use, and can do things that I wouldn't have thought possible. But now I've switched back to my hasselblad and zeiss rangefinder for a couple of weeks, and as it does any time I go back to a favourite, it feels like coming home.
I love the experience of using these cameras, and enjoy that they can't do some of the things that the digital ones do. Film really does have its own look, and it's one that I really like. There are 'filters' and 'plug-ins' available that are supposed to replicate some of that for the digikids; apparently there are techniques to make acrylic paint look like watercolour, but I don't see the point of that either.
But scanning colour film is one part of the processes that I do not enjoy.
When I started out with film I thought this would be easy: it has a fixed colour balance, so it should be consistent and straightforward. If only! When I'm at my best I will start the roll with a colour reference frame and set up the scan job for a consistent exposure and register the film base colour, and that helps. When I'm not at my best – like when I'm using my old light-leaking XA on a sunny day in New York City – then the results can be 'variable', to say the least. I can spend hours on a single frame and still come away with a result that maddeningly resists being good enough to be worth the effort.
Black and white is easy. It's also something that film is still superior to digital for. I just wish I didn't like colour as much as I do.
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