So it just so happened that when I was in Colorado this last winter I was shooting both film and digital. This is not something I usually do because a picture is a picture, but it just seemed to make sense at the time. I’m somewhat glad that I did though because I’ve never really been able to compare the results head to head. Additionally, this is something I’ve been thinking about recently because I’ve found myself reaching for my film camera more than ever and sometimes I wonder why I’ve quit investing in my digital gear. Do I just not care for the convenience and editability of digital images or is it the image quality of a digital sensor? I’m not sure, but the purpose of this blog is to see how the results compare and if anything interesting comes of my little experiment .

I may have overstepped when I said head to head because while these images look similar the are all shot at different focal lengths and on different digital cameras. Check the captions provided for the specifics of each shot just so you have an idea. All of the film shots were taken on the Nikon FM and the Nikkor 50mm Ais lens while the digital is a mix of Canon 7D Mark II and Fujifilm X100s. Also for the digital photos I had no film images for reference so they were edited to my usual style for digital: warm highs and lows, muted black point, and desaturated blues with nice saturation. The film on the other had was shot at least 1 stop overexposed and scanned using a v550 with Negative Lab Pro for conversion and edited to my film style: very warm, light, airy with pastel colors.

Stickers at Loveland Pass, Summit County CO 2021. Nikon FM 50mm F1.8 AIS, Fujicolor C200, V550, Negative Lab Pro.

Stickers at Loveland Pass, Summit County CO 2021. Fujifilm X100s.

All of these images were taken at the summit or near the summit of Loveland Pass in Colorado. The pass gets up to 12,000ft which is pretty amazing as this is well above the treeline! From here you have views as far as Copper Mountain and be able to inspect the front side of Arapahoe Basin. I’d also say that if you are a fan of orange gold alpine-glow watching the sunset here will be something to remember. For me it’s a reminder of rugged places, adventure in the mountains, and an easy hike to feel the burn of high altitude.

Top of Loveland Pass, Summit County CO 2021. Nikon FM 50mm F1.8 AIS, Fujicolor C200, V550, Negative Lab Pro.

Top of Loveland Pass, Summit County CO 2021. Canon 7D Mark II, 70-200mm F2.8 USM L. Shot at about 135mm I think.

Arapahoe Basin from Loveland Pass, Summit County CO 2021. Nikon FM 50mm F1.8 AIS, Fujicolor C200, V550, Negative Lab Pro.

Arapahoe Basin from Loveland Pass, Summit County CO 2021. Canon 7D Mark II, Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art

So what do you all think? For me I’m somewhat blown away and I think I’m going to have to do more of this just to see how the two mediums react in different situations. Right off the bat what I notice is the soft warm highlights that come through with the film. Admittedly the dusk/sunset time of day comes through much better in the digital and it feels more like how it was in real life. The luminance and colors are far more true to the scene when looking at the digital images. That being said, I like the film images better. I love the soft highlights that bleed into the shadows and the subtle colorcast of magenta. The softening of the images and oranges are also really pleasing to me. The film images aren’t what the scene actually looked like but it is how I’d want to remember the scenes. They feel more like an artistic version of the digital image, something I wouldn’t have created while editing without seeing the results from the film.

I must say that I was surprised I enjoyed the film better. In 20 years, who knows how things may change however. Will the time and effort of developing and scanning the film ware off? Will the faded pastel look (aka the nostalgic look) still be cool? Who’s to say? But being the stubborn person I am and knowing that I will always own and enjoy digital cameras I had to try and make my digital look like film. Below is what I came up with using the Fuji X100s file and about 20 minutes of editing, with more time and know how I’m sure I could get them to match. So if I could simply recreate the results of film in digital then why even shoot film?

Picture from my Fuji X100s edited to look like film.

For the sake of brevity and to prevent me from ranting more than I already have I’m going to simply say, shoot whatever inspires you to shoot. Recently shooting my film cameras has been what gets me outside to make images more then digital. But, I also know the first camera I’m going to pick up if going outside on an adventure will be my digital gear. So shoot whatever camera that’s in your hands and if that’s 7 cameras then, well, good luck and don’t complain later.