I recently got interested in film photography again. I'd been taking photos with my digital Canons (Powershot S95 and a T3i that belongs to my partner) as well as my iPhone. Then one weirdly warm day in December I came across my vintage Canon Super Sure Shot AF35ML camera in a box. It's no Leica, but I always thought it rendered some decent photos, especially at landscape distances. It has a surprisingly good f/1.9 40mm lens. Ken Rockwell has a nice review. Yup. I put some AAs in it, not really expecting it to still work, looked through the rosy viewfinder and pushed the release. It worked. The camera made all the racket I remembered and I became compelled to get some film and try it out. Would you believe that film is still made? Indeedy Kodak and Fuji are still around. A little search on the Internet gleaned some additional options for film as well. Film is alive in parts of Europe. It's made in the UK-that would be Ilford--and the Czech Republic. Lomography.com sells film too.

Right, tangential. I shot a $3.50 roll of Fuji Superia 200 and took it to an awesome little camera shop about four blocks from my house in Orlando called Colonial Photo and Hobby. They have been there since Orlando consisted of a cow and an orange tree. Some say the staff is a bit surly, but whatever. I'm glad it's there. I entered a wibbly wobbly time warp as I dropped off the film...just like I had done over ten years ago. The same envelope the film goes in. The same boxes ticked. The same anticipation for it to ready and the same overestimation of my photography skill. It was about $3 to get the roll developed.

Of the 26 frames five turned out worth a crap. The other 21 were slightly to very blurry. All portrait-distance photos were blurry, and several landscape-distance photos were too. I'm not sure if the problem was user error or if it just sat idle too long. I read the manual and decided to try once again. I haven't finished the roll yet.

I started casually looking at vintage cameras. Mostly to just look at them, but also to see what prices were like. I found a Canon I liked, the A-1. I'm absolutely sure there are better film cameras out there, but I think it's an awesome camera. It looks the business. I like the angular design and simplicity of analog controls. I wanted to see if I could find one locally to look at, so I called a couple of places to see if they sold vintage cameras. Well, a guy at one of the shops said he personally had one he would sell me. I just really wanted to see one, so I met the guy to take a look. He had done a clean, lube, and adjust job to it and it was in very good shape. I was surprised at how good, actually. He had brought a camera bag along that had some lenses in it too. I idly asked how much he was asking, not at all expecting less than $200, which I couldn't do. He wanted $60. For the whole lot. The A-1, three lenses, a bag, and some filters. I couldn't let that go.

I love using this camera. It's just fun. Much more so that the T3i. I feel like I'm using a camera to take a photograph. I have to focus. I have to think and plan each frame. Digital is awesome, I agree. Being able to take as many photos as available RAM permits is very liberating, but I also get a LOT of junk photos. Digital photography also seems to have a more detached feel to it.