Film or DIGI

By Kirsten Ho I Kei

What would you do if you want to keep your memory? Easy! Take out a piece of paper, and start a diary. But then you start to struggle from using proper words; you put down the pen and close the brown book with zero words in it.

There is a saying, “One picture is worth a thousand words”. There are people who keep their memories with their camera visually. Focus, press the shutter on the camera, then capture is done. It is easy and quick!

As the economy booms, the standard of living rises, and advanced technology helps us, eases our troubles and provides convenience in our everyday lives. The new replaces the old, which is believed to be the golden rule in the universe, especially in the market world. However, there is a tendency that the post-80s try to fight against the trend. They pursue the vintage, aged photography world in which the film cameras rule.

Pal Lok, a 22-year-old copywriter, shifted from using digital cameras to film cameras since the age of 19. He recalled that the first time he used a film camera was a beautiful coincidence. “I should say it was because of the peer influence. An acquaintance of mine had a mania for film cameras, so I started following his film camera activities.”

There are two types of film cameras: the manual focus ones and the automatic focus ones. Lok preferred using the manual focus film camera, not only because she can adjust the focus point, but also the desired light gain, film speed and aperture of the camera would create a picture she likes. “I draw pictures with my camera, according to the different combination of films and shutter speeds.”

Lok uses digital cameras too. “The difference between these categories is the process. Digital cameras definitely can show the just-taken picture within a second, yet you will never know what comes out from a film camera only until you have the films developed at the camera store,” she said.

“The whole thing has just turned around,” Chan, the 56 year-old owner of the Foto Creative camera services store, said. “Those who require film developing service are mostly the 80’s generation. They usually come with 4 to 8 rolls each time for development.”

Chan guessed that the reason for this tendency is because the younger generation has the passion for films compared to the older ones. “Using a film camera requires good eye sight due to the challenge of the focus function with the lens. Also, film cameras are much heavier than the digital cameras; therefore, the elderly no longer use them,” he added.

According to Lok, the texture of a picture taken by a film camera differs from the digital one. “The contrast, texture and colour of the picture taken with film cameras are also the reason that makes me a film camera slave. Frankly, it is hard to describe it in words,” Lok smiled.