My dad taught me how to use a camera in the late 1960s. The medium was 35mm film. No digital back then. The first camera I owned was a gift from my parents in 1975. It was a black Canon FTb with a Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 lens. I shot with that kit for nearly ten years. In fact, I still have the camera and it works like a champ. Not so much the lens. Over the years I shot that camera I built up quite the stash of gear. More lenses, flashes and associated cords, macro filters as well as a bellows, various straps, leather camera case, etc. When it got to be about 20 pounds of stuff I decided it was time for something different. By that time I was out of college and traveling a lot and opted for a small point and shoot - the Olympus XA2 with the A11 flash. Again, still have it and it still works. I carried that camera everywhere I went for about eight years. The Canon still saw use but that Olympus was my primary shooter. In the early 1990s I decided I needed a "real" camera again. Autofocus and auto exposure were mainstream by then and since Canon had introduced the EOS series, and since none of the Canon F-mount lenses would work on an EOS mount, I jumped ship to Nikon with the purchase of the N90 and a nice set of f/2.8 zoom lenses. Over time more gear accumulated but I dragged that camera with me for many years and many miles. Hundreds of rolls of film went through it. Never had a problem. And like the Canon and the Olympus before it, the Nikon still shoots great images. In the mid-2000s I transitioned to digital and over the next 20 years accumulated a collection of digital cameras.
But I never forgot about film and just as the world went into lockdown in early 2020 I began purchasing 1950s era rangefinder cameras. A few Canons and a Barnack Leica. Following years of shooting ever more advanced digital cameras with lots of customizable buttons and knobs and pages and pages of menu items the simplicity of a manual focus, manual exposure film camera was intoxicating. The Canon FTb and Nikon N90 were brought out, dusted off and loaded with batteries and film. Later, a Leica M3 was added to the mix and a drawer in the garage refrigerator devoted to film stock. I was back in the film game (just in time for price increases and film shortages but that is another story) and loving it!
It is a fact that re-discovering film improved my photography. I've slowed down and become more deliberate in my subject matter, framing and exposure. Film hasn't replaced digital - most of my images are still in that format - but I'm having a blast shooting with 60+ year old cameras and lenses on color and black and white film. Give it a try!
