Digital and Film, My Pursuit

Nikon D780 top, F100 below

I’m getting closer to what I feel like is a good mix. The F100 is a really nice camera however it has issues with sticky rubber and I don’t get matrix metering with my manual focus AI-S lenses. The modern AF-S ED and G series lenses work fine. I’m able to share these lenses with both cameras. I want to be able to carry both formats that would be digital and film cameras with me. I’d like to be able to share lenses between the two, auto focus lenses with all the buzzers and bells of new technology, but still be able to shoot a modern film camera. 

But I’ve had a terrible time buying an F100, apparently they also have power consumption issues, even with the camera turned off, two that I’ve purchased went through a fresh set of batteries overnight. That’s not acceptable. Every other Nikon I own, I can forget or leave the camera on, the motor drive switched on, it does not consume the battery pack yet the F100 can’t get through a few hours with it turned off without completely exhausting all power. The process of finding and returning a new to me camera is discouraging, not to mention the process of filtering through the auction sellers and their advertisements is a hassle, contacting sellers, calling eBay.

I am going to shelve the F100 and save my money for an F6. It’s my goal to own one and I have three excellent manual focus 35mm film cameras. If I’m going to use an AF camera with Matrix metering through AI-S lenses as well as be able to use my modern, AF lenses, then I’ll put all my energy into getting an F6.

That’s where I’m at now. 

Film for me is just a really neat format. I appreciate the way it looks. I don’t post produce my pictures when you see them here at the site. This is the way they look straight out of the camera.

There are times when I’m taking pictures that a manual focus lens is not optimal. Times where I just don’t have the on board brain power to make all the decisions quickly in order to capture what I’m looking at in the moment. I’m realizing that a film SLR like a modern DSLR is what I want. The way that the information is presented the speed of the auto focus the natural shooting. So what I see as I move into a modern film camera, is a marriage of what I’m using in a DSLR but with film.

I like that.

But I like the simplicity of my F3. My F3 seems to be the perfect amount of automaticity for me it’s not a fast camera by any means compared to say an F100 or an F6 but it’s a pretty perfect manual focus film camera. That’s what I’m after. However, it sure would be nice To be able to mount those old AIS lenses on the modern film camera for those times when I want that certain look in a lens that I really like.

I’ll continue to hone my manual focus skills, all of them, camera prep, theory, camera at the ready even when I’m not. On the film side, it will help, on the digital front, I’ll just keep doing what I do, I’m learning way more about photography on the film front, waiting for savings only serves to improve my skills and it continues to steepen the learning curve.

This is the direction of my Photography now, I want to be able to mix those modern lenses and use them with film and digital. I’ve got choices but the he F100 or my dream, the F6, it’s going to wait until I have the resources to purchase the right one.

I will own an F6. Whether I purchased one locally, From Bellamy Hunt, or from one of the film camera warehouses, I will own one. For now, the F100 has shown me a bit of that marriage of technology and has frustrated me in obtaining a new camera into my equipment kit. If I’m going to go through that again, I’m going to do it right.