I’ve always been pretty firm in my resistance to the seemingly unstoppable charge of digital photography. The “digital revolution” has been an inarguable success, but the takeover has not been total. The brave new digital world has been benevolent enough to leave room for those of us with gelatine hearts and analogue souls.
A brief search of YouTube finds a huge number of analogue shooters extolling the virtues of film in all formats.
Personally, I love my old film cameras. They’re tactile. They look great, and they feel great, and I can choose between multiple formats dependant on what I want to shoot or how I want to shoot it. It’s great to have a choice, and that choice extends to film or digital.
Now, I’m not a total luddite. I’ve always been able to see the benefits of digital, they just didn’t (and maybe still don’t) necessarily fit with my preferred process. But I wonder if my head has been turned.
A conversation at work resulted in friend and colleague, rinusg recently lending me his Fujifilm x-pro 1, and I think I’m smitten.
It’s the first digital camera I’ve ever held that felt good in my hands, that is, felt like I wanted to use it… I mean, really wanted to use it. I’m not about to give a full review of the camera here, there’s plenty of those already published by far more knowledgeable folk than I. So I’ll just say, the x-pro 1 has a feel of quiet quality. I like the layout. I like the style. I like the handling. And most importantly, I like the results. I’m especially impressed with the way it performs in low light. So much so, that I’m assessing the financial implications of acquiring the updated x-pro 2.
I definitely don’t see it as a replacement for any of my film cameras, but if I do take the plunge, I can easily imagine I might have shot my last roll of 35mm colour slide film.
Let me know your thoughts, and I’ll leave you with a few shots from my brief time with the x-pro 1.
