In which I return to an old love
I finished a roll of film this morning.
It's funny how unremarkable that statement would have been even three years ago. Or — to be more precise — before mid-October, 2005. In early October I was shooting on three cameras: A Canon 10d dSLR, a Canon G3 digicam (point and shoot), and my beloved Leica M7 (film, nearly always Kodak Tri-X).
In mid-October of 2005, I bought the then-new Canon 5d, and everything changed. Suddenly I had a digital SLR that delivered higher quality image files than I could get out of 35mm film.
To quote myself from that month:
I have *never* gotten prints like this from another 35mm form factor camera ... I'm not sure what all of this means. I doubt I'll use the 5d to shoot on the street (it's still too big for me to feel comfortable using it that way, and I still love the texture of tri-x for that work). But for anything else... I think I've crossed over completely, now.
As it turns out, I answered my own question. After getting the 5d, I've shot exactly two rolls of film, and developed... none. Every time I thought about shooting with my Leica I thought "oh, geez, $20 a roll for film and processing, plus the trip to the lab to drop it off, and the trip back to pick it up which has to be while they're open, and then the scanning, and the dust spotting..." and I'd pick up my 5d or the G9 instead.
A couple of weeks ago, though, I was at a work retreat and got to play with a corporate VP's Leica M8. A couple of minutes with that camera reminded me exactly why I've never loved another camera the way I love my Leica. Instead of trying to explain here, I'll point you to a good essay from the New Yorker on the Cult of Leica.
This sent me into an annoying swarm of circling thoughts — how shooting on the street just doesn't work that well with the 5d or the G9 — maybe I should bite the bullet and buy an M8 — holy crap that's six thousand dollars, I could buy a second 5D and still have money left over for all three of us to have a great trip to Italy — but dammit I haven't been happy shooting on the street — that's because the 5D and G9 don't work that well on the street — what about an M8 — $6K — that's 300 rolls of film and processing — but all the money and processing — 5D and G9 not so good on the street — etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
That lasted a few days and I was getting pretty tired of the circling. Finally, in the shower one morning, I had two insights that made everything more clear.
First, and most important, I realized that I had been penalizing the moment of capture in favor of ease of processing. That is to say, instead of using the tool that made shooting on the street the easiest, when split-second timing and getting into a good flow is key, I had been using tools that made it easier to process the images, when I was sitting at my computer and had plenty of time to deal with the images.
Second, I realized that I don't really shoot that many frames when I'm shooting on the street. Even at a roll a week, that works out to almost six years of shooting before I hit the cost of an M8.
So I loaded up my Leica with Tri-X, put the 50mm lens on it, and started carrying it with me. I've returned to my old habit of taking the bus downtown, skipping the next bus to work, and photographing in the 15 minutes or so that gives me between busses.
Will I keep doing this? I don't know. I haven't developed the film, after all, and I haven't scanned any of it. Maybe the hassle will prove to be too much.
But for now... oh, it's such bliss to be shooting with my Leica again.