A friend and reader of this site sent me an article written by Stan Horaczek that was recently published on Popular Photography’s website entitled Films Worth Shooting With Before They’re Gone. The tag line read “Give your digital camera a break and shoot these rolls while while you still have the opportunity”. The article goes on to state:

“Film photography is not dead. Although a few years ago it was hurting, with old film stocks being lost every couple of months, but in the last few years there has been a resurgence of new film stocks hitting the market and a companies bringing back once discontinued films. Although the remaining selection is a small fraction of what we once had, there are still plenty of films out there worth loading into a camera. The second hand film camera market is also having a bit of a revival. But who knows what the future holds?  We’ve put together a collection of films you might want to try while you still can.”

How’s that for a good news/bad news story? Come on. No need to be a Debbie Downer here! While there is no doubt we have lost some great films as a result of the digital onslaught … Plus-X, Pan-X, Verichrome Pan to name a few … we are very lucky and still have a large number of wonderful films such as Tri-X that we can use in confidence (not to mention a great selection of tremendous papers to print them on and all the chemistry you will ever need!). A number of them are mentioned in this article – both black and white and color.

Like vinyl, film is back. A small amount of film cameras are still being manufactured and a number of vintage camera models have seen their prices steadily rise on the used market. Thankfully many can still be had at bargain prices and their use is helping to feeding the film resurgence.

So I am happy to see this article but the sense of it is almost like hey, we’re all digital users, but once in awhile it’s fun to try something more old word and charming.  I have run into a number of photographers that still print digitally but have given up on digital capture completely. They love the experience and love the look of film. Think Tri-X. I have met others that have come back to analog completely.

Look, film is not going anywhere and there is an abundance of cameras to use them … believe me, I know! Maybe what we really need is an article that discusses using your mobile phone to snap a picture when you are out an about and don’t have your film camera with you!