[trm42]

Photography in general after I started coding for a living 15 years ago but for the last few years I've been getting into film photography and somewhat into film camera collecting. Especially in medium format. Don't get me wrong, I still shoot digital as well but shooting film feels more satisfying.

It feels so liberating to shoot 10-12 frames and that's usually enough compared to our big memory cards that can swallow hundreds or thousand photos. It forces me to plan more in advance and not iterating between every shutter click.

It's fun that nowadays we have 60 megapixel mirrorless cameras with ML-optimized super AF-systems, dynamic range of 14-15 stops, ability to make moonlight look almost like sunlight (those crazy high ISOs of models like Sony A7sIII etc), but in the same time you can make good photos with some film era 35mm SLR or Medium Format Mamiya or Hasselblad. With a little of practice and bunch of film one can learn to shoot photos without all that automation.

The electronic-less cameras are surprisingly easy to use: select ISO and the look by selecting film and it's ISO rating, measure or guestimate the amount of light, set shutter speed and aperture and then focus. That's it. No need for deep menus and buttons.

Also the chemical development of the film and developing paper photos from the negatives feels more fun than Lightroom + Photoshop workflow. And accidents are more fun.

Failing is more concrete as well. Once I probably shot my best cityscape photos (or so I want believe) but fumbled the development totally, but that's okay. At least I didn't get some mediocre photos I anticipated to be awesome.

Also the film cameras have quite a long history compared to the digital gear as nowadays all the DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are mostly the same.

The film cameras have a lot more of variety and different mechnical and usage differences and feel. Compare old MF folders to TLRs or to SLRs or compare Japanese cameras to German or to Swedish cameras and you'll see the differences. I guess the Soviet cameras would be ... interesting ... addition to the comparison as well but I'm trying to avoid them.