My recent foray into large format has made me consider abandoning 35mm film. This started years ago when I began shooting medium format, but I’ve never really come close to giving up on the smaller format until recently.
The idea is that for “real" photography I’d use medium or large format film and for everyday snapshots I would use the X100 or even the iPhone. Both of them make perfectly fine images. I’ll just sell the film SLRs, of which I have very nice copies from Nikon, Canon, and Olympus. The little point-and-shoot Ricoh GR and Stylus Epic won’t be necessary in this scenario so those can go too. No more tiny little negatives to curse when they curl up like a spring. What a relief!
This is a perfect plan, but it falls apart as soon as I pick up one of the old Leicas.
Leica has developed a reputation in recent years of selling over-priced neck jewelry to dentists. This may not be entirely unwarranted, but if you’ve ever shot with something like an M3 you’ll understand why there’s more to it. A Leica film camera is a wonderful tool to use. I could give up even the Leicas, especially since I find it increasingly difficult to carry a camera everywhere. The iPhone is always handy so it’s convenient just to use that. On the other hand, I find that every time I do carry either the M3 or the little IIIf, I’m glad I did. The reason I’m glad is that I end up with something the iPhone or Fuji can’t give me, and that’s a black and white negative I can process and print in the darkroom. Turns out that’s rather important to me.
So, although it makes complete practical sense to abandon 35mm film, I can’t do it. I’ll have to just deal with those fiddly little negatives a while longer.