The analog camera gone for some. Many of us rush to get the best digital camera we can afford and forget our analog cameras in a drawer.
Many of you probably never met them. But the truth is that the analog system never went away. Proof of this is that the reels did not disappear (despite the fact that it was taken for granted at first) and that there is a great exchange and sale of analog material both in stores and on the Internet.
Do you wonder why?
Analogue cameras are little timeless jewels, some of them with a great craftsmanship, of a precision and resistance that has led many of them to continue working perfectly 50 years after their manufacture.
So we didn’t talk about planned obsolescence or change cameras every year.
Each analog camera contains millions of stories, millions of photographs and anecdotes behind it. Each one is unique and different; They have their own personality.
If you are a lover of retro and vintage, incidentally I am going to recommend this mega guide with tips and tricks to photograph in black and white and achieve the most spectacular images, because if you are a lover of analog, it is very likely that you are also passionate about black and white photography.
And now, let’s go to what concerns us today: the analog camera.
Advantages of the analog camera
Price
Contrary to what you might think, you can find good analog material at low prices on the internet (unthinkable a few years ago) or in specialized photography stores. To get an analog camera and lens, you will need to spend less than for any digital model (with similar characteristics, of course).
Learn to visualize before shooting
Yes, there is no LCD screen here to help you, to guide you or anything that tells you if you took the picture well or not. Also, every time you pull the trigger, you’re spending money (bearable, yes, but it’s also not a matter of throwing it away without thinking about it first), so what do you have left? To think.
Preview the scene, find the best frame, wait for the right moment, make sure you have measured the light correctly… and press the shutter. Analog photography ‘gives’ you the best lesson you can have as a photographer: think before you shoot.
Learn the secrets of manual mode
Many analog, including the most classic and timeless, only have a manual mode. In this case you are face to face with photography. If you don’t understand the basics, the images won’t work for you. So this is where you really have to put in the effort to understand why aperture, why shutter speed or ISO, and how they interact with each other. It won’t cost you much, plus you have no other choice 😉 , so take advantage of this ‘limitation’ and make it your best ally to learn.
Participate in the whole process
If you really like the analog world, participating in the whole process from start to finish is not too complicated or, in the long run, excessively expensive. Especially in black and white, revealing the negatives yourself will not take you more than half an hour for each of them, and the investment is relatively low, as long as you pay it off with use.
And if you culminate it with the magic of printing your images yourself… If you have ever done it, you will know that if magic exists, it is something similar to that; to wait and see how that image that has given you so much work appears, little by little and finally before you, in a dark room where everything is red. If you really want to try it, you will surely find somewhere that will rent you the laboratory space with its corresponding enlargers, chemicals and introductory course.
Reels or films for the analog camera
This section goes into advantages and disadvantages for different reasons. The main advantage is that, luckily, they still exist and that each one of them is unique and different from another. Some contain saturated colors, others are cooler, others have more or less grain, more or less contrast… Each of them will offer you unique and different images.
They also allow you to make good enlargements without losing quality, one of the things that it seems that today the digital system has not been able to overcome. Later I will tell you about some of them with their main characteristics.
beautiful noise
The romantics and romantics of the analog system always talk about the noise (grain) of film and digital noise. Where the one that loses by a landslide is always the digital one 😉 To this day, the “beauty” of film noise, of silver halides, has not been overcome. The noise or the absence of it in analog photography is one more element, just as each camera or each reel is unique and different.
Freedom
Freedom? You will think, “But if I am tied to a reel, to filters and to the laboratory… I am more tied than ever” True, but at the same time analog photography gives you absolute freedom. Because once you master it, there will be no photography that can resist you 🙂 They say that practice makes perfect, so it’s all a matter of trying time after time until you learn to know and master light.
Emotion
This for me is the biggest and most rewarding advantage of analog photography. From the moment you find your perfect analog camera, until you use it, and finally see the result… It’s like waiting for the Three Kings. You’ve already gathered a couple or three reels (or one if you’re really impatient) and taken them to develop (if you haven’t decided to start doing it yourself).
You cross off the days on the calendar to pick them up, you show up 10 minutes before the store opens, you pay with a trembling hand, you open the package praying that they turned out okay. If you haven’t ordered copies you don’t see anything.
But you look at the negatives fervently, imagining the images they contain. If the reel is in color you only see a brown plastic, if the reel is in black and white, a gray plastic… You run home with your CD, you put it in the computer and YES, finally, there they are. So magical… so many days ago that you hardly even remembered, but finally, there they are.
Some are so magnificent that it seems incredible that you could have done them 😉 others are a disaster. Next time more and better.
Disadvantages of the analog camera
Of course all that glitters is not gold, the analog mode also has some disadvantages, otherwise no one would have abandoned their analog cameras in some memory corner to replace them with a digital one…
ISO
Unlike in digital photography, in this case, the ISO (or ASA) is defined by the one dictated by the reel you have chosen. That means that you will have the same invariable ISO for all situations that arise. You have one less variable to play with, so you should try to compensate with diaphragms and speeds.
- If before starting to photograph you anticipate that you will need more ISO (and you have not ‘released’ the reel) you can force it up to 3 stops, but when it comes to developing it, it is likely that the laboratory will charge you for it, and sometimes quite expensive.
Black and white or colour?
Whatever you fancy at that particular moment, that’s the film you have, no matter if that image looked better in color or black and white. What you have chosen cannot be changed. Unless you use some risky trick like taking out the reel, remembering what frame it was in, changing it to the new one, saving the other one, putting it back in… Unless life is going to you in that image, it is an option at least risky .
Filters
What we have incorporated in digital with the name of white balance, in analog you achieve it through physical filters of different colors, depending on the color temperature you want to compensate.
Space
Compared to digital photography, it is true that analog photography makes you load and save much more material (reels, negatives, prints, contacts or CDs)
reels
The price of the reels can range from just over €3 to €30 for the most specialized ones (and even much more), although the quality standards are between €6-€10. You can easily find them in specialized photography stores or online.
Revealed
The price disparity between one place and another is quite high. Even many laboratories differentiate the price to be charged depending on whether the reel is color or black and white.
- Broadly speaking, a color reel development can be around €4 (only the negative). If you want a copy of the images on CD for example (for me the most recommended), depending on the quality you want, prices can rise up to €12.
- In black and white, a negative-only development can be around €10 up to €27 with a quality CD.
If you want to know more about developing at home, don’t miss our complete guide on photo developing.
Slowness
From the time you finish your reel, until you find the best time to go to the laboratory, you wait for the days that they have told you and you find the time to go pick it up… Yes, let’s say that As fast as the digital system is not!
Increased dependency
In analog you don’t just depend on your camera but you also depend on the reels, on buying them, on carrying enough, on not running out of them in the middle of no one knows where, on carrying the right filter. You depend on your laboratory, to find it, its prices and its good work (as long as you do not decide to do it yourself).
Where do I find an analog camera?
Perhaps at this point you have some curiosity if you did not have it before. To find an analog camera at a good price, start with the most obvious; among your acquaintances.
- in the loft: in the junk room of your grandparents, parents, uncles, friends… Surely someone has a camera, or even you, dust it off, look at it with a little love and fascination, buy a reel and fall in love with it again. analog world.
- Antique stores: It will depend on whether they know the photographic material well or not, whether they take good care of it or not… and whether or not you know how to recognize a bargain and whether they offer a guarantee after the purchase.
- Street markets: They are very fashionable and you can get real wonders, although if you are not very knowledgeable in the subject, it is better to avoid them, it is difficult to know when a camera is in good condition if you do not even know where the shutter is, how rare it is 😉
- Specialized photography stores: They are usually much more expensive than those you can find on the net, but they offer you (should) a revised product in good condition, with a guarantee of 6 months to 1 year.
- In the net: ebay, amazon, second hand, KEH, B&H, etc. As in all the products that you may have acquired through this system, check the opinions of the users about the seller and review the…