The other day, I picked up my old F90, stuck a lens on it, and looked out on the world - it was a much, much brighter place. I realised just how dim and useless my D200 viewfinder is. And then I pressed the shutter, which fired with a deeply-satisfying, smooth, complex mechanical sound. Music.
We;ve taken twio steps forward with digital and one step backwards. Yep, it's convenient in some ways, but in others it's letting us down, as any of us old film fans can tell you. I met an old Brummie press smudger at a launch a couple of years ago. I was early, so I sat down and talked with him.
"I don't enjoy this job like I used to,@ he said. "In the old days, I'd shoot the City game then head off to the 1-hour lab, while my film was in, I'd cross the road and meet my mates in the pub for a pint and find out how Villa had done. Two hours later, I'd run the prints to the paper.
"Now, we all go to the press room in silence to upload our pictures by modem, then I go home."
Last year's photo competition at the Peterborough Photographic Society was won, as it usually is, by my mate Tony Lovell. This year as last and, I think, the year before, the winning prints were shot on film. There's life in Kodachrome yet, I tell you...