This article is a write-up about my history of shooting film photography, and how it came to an end in 2026. My film shooting experience and reasons for quitting reflect my own personal "film journey" - you may disagree with many of my points, or agree with some of them but would have drawn different conclusions than I did - and that's perfectly okay. ✌️
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I had started photography as a teenager in the early 1980s with an Agfamatic 2000 Flash pocket camera that used 110 film. The negatives were minuscule and the image quality wasn't great, but it was a fun and handy tool to carry around and get a feel for point-and-shoot type of street photography.
Agfamatic 2000 Flash Pocket Camera. Image Source: Science Museum Group. Camera from Kodak New for Old collection. 1984-1741/55 Science Museum Group Collection Online. © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum.
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Then, in the fall of 1987, after completing 15 months of mandatory military service in Germany, I invested my army discharge pay into a humble first SLR lineup, consisting of a Nikon F-301 body, a quite versatile Mitakon MC 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom lens, and a Nikon SB-15 flash. I didn't use it heavily during the first couple of years while I was a university student, but I felt that I really got my money's worth out of it when I carried it on various overseas trips that I made from the mid-1990s into the early 2000s.
Nikon F-301 (with a 20mm prime lens attached; different from the zoom lens that I had used). Image Source: Photo by Ashley Pomeroy - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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With the advent and proliferation of digital cameras, my film shooting activities then came to a halt for quite a while. Between 2003 and 2012, I didn't shoot any film at all, but instead went through a variety of digital compacts and SLRs ...1
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... until 2012, that is. By that time, I had worked up a bit of an appetite to shoot some film again. It turned out that my trusted old F-301 wasn't quite up to the job anymore - so during that year's Japan trip from Germany, I dropped it off at a camera store in Tokyo, and instead found myself a used Nikon FE2 and two Nikkor prime lenses:
Nikon FE2
My Nikon FE2 35mm film camera with with Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4 lenses.
For the rest of that trip, I started using the FE2, and enjoyed the differences to shooting digital - thinking carefully before committing a precious exposure to film, using various color and monochrome film stocks, and having the added "mystery" of waiting for my prints to come back from the lab. In the beginning, I didn't worry much about getting back the images in a format that would make it easy for me to share them online - I just enjoyed the feeling (and smell) of holding fresh prints in my hand, after years of having filled folder upon folder on my hard drive with digital images.
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After going through about a dozen rolls of 35mm film on the FE2, I wanted to "level up" my analog shooting game and started researching and reading about medium-format film cameras. At first I was rather interested in the Hasselblad V system or in TLRs like the Rolleiflex, but both of these were not only prohibitively expensive, but also really clunky. They were also too attention-drawing for my preferred style of shooting, which is just walking around and capturing who- and whatever draws my curiosity.
Then I discovered the Mamiya 6, and its form factor, relative simplicity, and the availability of high-quality prime lenses immediately piqued my interest. I found a pristine kit of camera body, 75mm lens and 50mm lens at a camera shop in Tokyo in 2015:
Mamiya 6
My Mamiya 6 medium-format film camera with 50mm f/4.0 and 75mm f/3.5 lenses.
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The Mamiya system really "clicked" with me from the very beginning. Just look at this first photo I ever took with it, within less than one hour after I had purchased the camera, having no technical knowledge of it or experience with it whatsoever:
The detail and dynamic range to be found in the huge medium-format negatives was fantastic, and I made sure from the beginning to get my Mamiya photos scanned by professional labs2 at a resolution sufficient for web publishing and moderate printing needs.
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Once I had the Mamiya 6 in my lineup, my usual approach for taking photographic equipment on trips to Japan (I was still living in Germany at the time) would be to bring
the Mamiya 6 with one lens (most frequently the 50mm),
the digital camera I used at the time, and
my current smartphone at the time.
From 2018 onwards, the second and third item from this list became one - by that time I had sold off all of my digital SLR / mirrorless equipment and lenses, and only brought my iPhone as a digital camera.
Whenever I used the Mamiya 6, I enjoyed the slower, more deliberate photographic experience. Each click of the shutter really felt like making an image, after spending thought on composition, and making sure to properly focus and expose the shot.
Medium-Format Film Photography
This portfolio presents a selection of medium-format film photography.
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In the first few years of owning the Mamiya 6, I used it regularly and put quite a few rolls of film through it. Here is a list of the years in which I owned the camera, and the number of medium-format film rolls I shot in each year:
(unless otherwise noted, the rolls were "120" size which equals 12 6x6 images on the Mamiya 6. "220" rolls are twice as long, i.e. they yield 24 square images.)
2015: 17 rolls (120: 16 / 220: 1)
2016: 14 rolls (120: 11 / 220: 3)
2017: 8 rolls
2018: 14 rolls
2019: 11 rolls
2020: 1 roll
2021: 6 rolls
2022: 3 rolls (120: 2 / 220: 1)
2023: 3 rolls (120: 2 / 220: 1)
2024: 8 rolls (120: 7 / 220: 1)
2025: 0 rolls
2026: 0 rolls
At a quick glance, it would appear that the excitement of the early years was abruptly slowed down by the Coronavirus pandemic, and never quite recovered to previous levels afterwards.
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The pandemic was only a secondary reason, however. A couple of other factors had come up over time that started to weigh down on my motivation for shooting film.
- 1.
Traveling overseas with film gear
International air travel came with asking for hand inspection of film at the security checkpoints, in order to avoid potential fogging of unprocessed film rolls by CT or X-ray scanners. Particularly at European airports, I had to endure many a snarky comment (or flat-out refusal to accommodate manual checking) by pompous security staff, and I was getting incredibly tired of it.
(Note: There was never any issue with domestic air travel in Japan. Japanese airport security staff always accommodated requests for manual inspection, and sometimes a nice short chat about film photography ensued). - 2.
Weight and size of film gear
Obviously, when I bought the camera and lenses, I noticed that these were rock-solid pieces of gear that weren't anywhere near as light as a mirrorless digital camera or a smartphone. However, carrying them in your bag all day every day during a two-week vacation builds up a fatigue that makes you question the merits of this effort more strongly than if the equipment were lighter. - 3.
Availability and cost of film and processing
This is a factor that got progressively worse during the decade in which I owned the Mamiya 6. The number of labs to choose from became less, and the amount and variety of film stocks was equally dwindling, with the remaining items being sold at more and more of a premium. On top of all that, the expense for film development and scanning became increasingly burdensome over time. All of this turned shooting film from a somewhat still affordable alternate artistic choice into a luxurious "boutique hobby", and I really couldn't justify the cost of it anymore. - 4.
Consistency of film shooting results, in comparison to digital images
This was a mixed bag, and I will provide some examples in the section below this list. I was happy with many of my film photos, and if I have a comparable digital image shot at the same time, I tend to lean towards the warmth, mood or tonal range of the one that was shot on film. But there were other cases in which the film results came out rather disappointing. - 5.
Convenience, technical sophistication and image quality of digital
Film's latency period for development and scanning before results are available doesn't really bother me, as I am not a professional photographer who might have to deliver images to clients within hours of shooting. However, my website has evolved into a photography blog on which I want to be able to present "current" images in a diary style. The convenience of digital photography for this use case is undeniable - instant feedback, the chance to quickly take multiple photos at different angles or focal lengths, and the ability to re-process shots with different settings are just a few compelling advantages. Plus, the iPhone camera (which is the only digital camera I am using at the time of writing this) produces amazing images with lots of detail, has a "night mode" that does a great job gathering and combining light in dark shooting conditions, and also allows me to easily create panoramic or monochrome images on a whim. - 6.
Environmental impact of shooting and processing film
Again, this is something that I was aware of before starting to shoot film - and realistically, digital photography isn't impact-free either (cameras, batteries, computers, storage and replacement cycles all come at environmental costs). However, the environmental impact of film (processing chemistry and waste, water use, silver extraction) made it harder to justify shooting it, considering that all the other factors mentioned so far were already nudging me towards digital.
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In point 4. of the list above, I had mentioned the comparison of film and digital results, and I wanted to show a few illustrative examples here. You might evaluate these totally differently than I do - so feel free to take this section with a grain of salt, and consider my judgment as reflective of the kind of color esthetics and "feel" that I enjoy finding in photographs.
The first image of each exhibit is a (square / 6x6) film image shot with the Mamiya 6, and the second one is a digital image taken within 1 minute at the same location, with the camera model specified in the notes. I cropped the digital images into square format for easier comparison.
Exhibit A: Film > Digital
All images were taken in January 2019 in Koenji, Tokyo. Digital images shot with iPhone 6s.
There is no major issue with the digital images, and I'm sure some people actually prefer their color rendition. From an aesthetic point of view, I like the analog versions more though: they are examples of the latitude and difficult-to-replicate warm color tones of film, and they do work really nicely on a slightly dated Tokyo neighborhood like this one.
Exhibit B: Film ≈ Digital
Both images were taken in May 2015 at Gannenji Temple in Kanazawa, Japan, in clear weather. Digital image shot with Fujifilm X-E2 and Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens.
Both images came out quite nicely; exposure was a bit delicate as I was standing under a heavy wooden gate shooting into a bright yard. The film image has a warm (albeit slightly greenish - Fujifilm stock) tonal balance and less aggressive highlights. The digital image has a fresh and crisp look, and a quite natural color palette.
Exhibit C: Film < Digital
Both images were taken in May 2024 from the same viewpoint in the lakeside town of Hallstatt, Austria, on a reasonably bright day with fluffy clouds. Digital image shot with iPhone 15 Pro.
For me, the digital image wins here on contrast, detail and color rendition. The film image isn't a total failure, but if I had visited the place and brought back only the film version, I would have felt like it didn't show everything I actually saw.
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In conclusion, I have sold both my Mamiya 6 and Nikon FE2 and all matching lenses in September 2026. Shooting film has given me a lot of joy and pleasure over the years, and this wasn't an easy goodbye - but I feel that letting go of it is the reasonable thing for me to do at this point.
I am also about to sell all my remaining film stock (which is going to free up quite a bit of space in our refrigerator that can then actually be used for food!). Ironically, my leftover film stock is almost as big as the total number of rolls I shot in the last decade; seems that my hoarding impulses have gotten a bit out of hand there. 🙄
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I still have a backlog of unpublished film photography, and plan to release at least some of it on this website in the future. I also have thousands of archived 35mm film negatives from trips I made to North America in the late 1990s and early 2000s - maybe sometime in the future when I feel nostalgic or win the lottery (or both 😇), I might have some of those scanned for publishing.
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Going forward, I plan to focus on shooting digital images only. For now, my digital camera will be the one on my current iPhone. In a couple of years, once I fully retire from my day job, I might look into a digital system (such as the Fujifilm X-series) again, but at the moment, I do not strongly feel that this kind of investment will even be necessary.
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If you made it to here: Thank you very much for reading! I appreciate your time and patience. 🙌