[dillutedfixer]

I work in a retail photography environment. The amount of 16-25 year olds who come in to buy film is astonishing. Many of them don't even know why they're shooting film. They need help loading their cameras and have no idea what to do with the film afterwards. They'll regale me with stories about how they got an amazing deal on a Canon AE-1 for $200. To me it's quite obviously an "in" thing to do with young people right now. I have to admit that it kind of makes me laugh, but overall I am happy that it's helping an element of an industry that I love stay viable.

[mafuyu]

Ha, I'll admit that I'm one of those people. I shot on a Fuji mirrorless for years, but photography didn't really capture me as a hobby until this year, when I got into film.

I originally got a Mamiya RB67 because I watched a bunch of Youtube channels and wanted the "medium format look", but I didn't feel like switching off Fuji for full frame as a compromise. The experience of shooting on the RB67 was honestly eye opening. The big waist level finder, being able to actually manual focus instead of focus-by-wire, the highlight rolloff and colors of Portra. I picked up and fixed an Olympus 35RC for 35mm after that, and I had a great compact rangefinder I could carry around anywhere. Way cheaper than buying a Sony RX100 or Ricoh GR.

Part of the fun is just shooting on toy cameras and weird film, too. Despite being able to fire off way more shots on my mirrorless, I feel like I'm more open to experiment when I shoot film, and my digital photography has improved as a result.

It's kinda tough to really verbalize why film is catching on again without coming off as pretentious, but I do think that format, form factor, and the shooting experience are all important to the form of the art that comes out. When I record music, sometimes I'll record on my Zoom, or to a cassette, or maybe just my phone. I'm not trying to put out award winning studio produced albums, just trying to have fun and produce art that's hopefully meaningful to myself and my friends. :)

[trizic]

I think that photography without film or printing isn't worthwhile (as a hobby). Until I messed around with an instant camera, most of my photos were just dumped into a folder I would never have time to edit them. But with the instant camera, knowing that each shot costs money, I try to focus on taking a better picture or capturing a certain moment. Having a price per shot certainly forces you to improve quality. I also prefer Olympus and Fujifilm cameras for having great out of camera JPEGs that don't really need editing. Paired with the Canon CP1300 mobile 4x6 printer it makes shooting fun like film since you have the intent of printing.

[throwanem]

That's a good attitude to have. Definitely the opposite of every place I ever went to as a teenager trying to learn bass guitar, for example. Keep it up!

[calvinmorrison]

I have a Canon A-1 I got for about $40 bucks with a camera bag, a few lenses and some extra not-expire film. It's easy to shoot on, has an ok auto mode. Mostly it's easier for me to shoot on than with a phone and I can develop b/w and have a scanner at home. It's not all that hard all in to get good photos and have some physical photos.

[Aloha]

200 dollars, for an AE-1? I remember when those were selling for 20 dollars.

[rangibaby]

They’ve gone from being so old they’re crap to being so old that they’re cool again. All the sweet deals now are on 90s camera equipment.

The autofocus versions of the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens are competitive or cheaper compared to the manual focus ones even though they have identical optical formulas and the manual focus ones are almost guaranteed to need an expensive professional overhaul at this point.