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.