Tired of film-users bashing

[kristopher_lawrence]

Hi,

This post is mainly written because I am tired of being bashed by dealer who want to sell digital only, that try to convince me that digital is the only way now. Its not about the debate digi vs film, I just need some reassurance...

If you live at Ottawa, you surely know that film users are abandonned. In one week, I have been facing rough comments on the fact I use film. The manager at Black's photo on Sparks street was arguing virulently that Kodachrome has been completely discontinued... The clerck at Black's in Rideau center was refusing to send out Kodachrome for me until the manager told him it was possible. And moreover, another manager, at another photo store, betted me that Kodak would be out of film buisness in two years just after I buyed a bulb for my enlarger.

What kills film, is people saying that it is dead. I tell them about Adox efforts in bringing back AGFA stuff, they say Adox will go bancrupsy soon... I tell them about some marvelous photo stores in montreal that cares about film (Camtec, Photoservice, Lozeau in some way, Boreal printing etc...) they say that helping film users «is not buisiness wise».

I am simply tired, I can't stand it anymore. Curiously, most «normal» persons, after they get to know I use film, think I know my photographic stuff. On the contrary, shop clerks, are always treating me as a rebel that don't want to enter the crowd of digital. No argument can convice them, they simply think I am trying to be exuberant. Maybe I should show them some pictures...

Seriously, Ottawa is a bad place for film photographers...

Thanks for reading me, I needed to tell this to someone. However, when I see the growing numbers of APUG members, I get reassured since I know there is a lot more lurkers around too.

Long live film!

Kris

[Paul Goutiere]

I buy my stuff from "The Camera Store" in Calgary and feel supported. They sell film cameras and some store members use film themselves.

Film ain't dead yet!

[David A. Goldfarb]

If those shops don't support you, then you don't have to support them. You can send your Kodachrome directly to Dwayne's, who will process it anyway, no matter where you drop it off, and order film and darkroom supplies from shops online or local to you that will be glad to stock what you need and sell it to you.

[RoBBo]

"Maybe I should show them some pictures..."

Really, that's the only way to do it.

[Alisha]

What kills film, is people saying that it is dead.

I can't tell you how frustrated I was in Photography class this week when my teacher was talking to the students (us) about film. She made it sound as if no one ever uses film anymore, or that none of us students have ever seen 35mm film and have no respect for it all because we are young. At the end of the class, I freaked out and started complaining to one of my friends that digital was barely introduced a couple years ago and now people act as if no one knows what it is anymore.

As for the store's case, I'd just do what some other users have suggested, don't shop there anymore. Obviously they don't respect your choice of media, so there's no use in going there.

Film is not dead though. I know a couple of my friends who want to go back into using film because digital makes them lazy. I had a friend who complained about the fact that she never prints any of her digital pictures because she can never get herself to do it. I have another friend who wants to get into medium format photography, so film still has some life in it.

[gerryyaum]

Edmonton is a bit better than Ottawa, but you got to remember that photo store staff are salesman and what do they have to sell? Digital cameras! so take what they say with a grain of salt.

What I get tired of is the "But digital is so much easier than film!" argument, that really gets my goat..who cares how easy something is..if you cannot work hard and suffer a bit for your photographs then your not devoted enough! Why is taking the easier way out the better way?

Gerry
www.gerryyaum.com
www.gerryyaum.blogspot.com

[Sean]

Just tell them their shop will be dead long before film is dead. With online shops able to undercut their markups by 70% their days are numbered..

[Tom Stanworth]

I think the most important thing to realise in all of this is that the world is full of ignorant, stupid people I started noticing this sort of BS 5 years ago! Some of my fondest memories are of pixelographers trying to find out what (inkjet) printer and inks I used to produce my silver exhibition prints. They were clearly baffled and desperate but it did not even occur to them that they may not have been produced courtesy of Epson and a custom profile.....Oh, they had no interest in the prints themselves. The technical issues consumed them!

I shoot digital too and find that those most vociferous on the topic tend to have overly saturated, overly sharped inkjets hanging up to show how 'good' the medium is. Many are technophiles not photographers. Film has the same issues sometimes with people being more into the process than the outcome, but digital has swallowed up millions of IT/computer Nazis that really have little interest in 'art'.

At the end of the day, who gives a (insert expletive of choice)? They day shop clerks have a bearing on my photography and need to do what i do, I am most definitely doing it for the wrong reasons. They are irrelevant in every conceivable way and you should not let it get to you for this very reason. However, once in a while, I find someone who works in a digi environment but has a burning passion for film...and they dont get enough customers like you!

Everything you need to do you can get done by ordering film online if there is nowhere decent locally, processing etc.

You use film because it gets you where you want to go. We all do. All that matters is what happens when a person stands in front of a well lit print, stops and just looks.

[Jeff Kubach]

I enjoy using film. Digital is ok, of the two I perfer film. At some of the camera shops around where I live, some of the young salespeople perfer film over digital. This is somewhat strange to me, I would have thought it would be digital.

Jeff

[dances_w_clouds]

Ottawa is bad for ALL of Canada. !!