Film Photography

The first known photographic portrait. 

Photographer Robert Cornelius, Nov. 1839.

Public Domain

When photography was in its infancy, a bitumen of judea-covered piece of metal was the medium of choice. Eventually, this evolved into a silver halide-covered piece of plastic film.

Film has been used more than any other photographic medium in history. Assuming there are no unexpected revolutions in photographic technology, digital will, of course, eventually eclipse that...in a hundred years or so.

However, film still has its uses—even for professional photographers. I'm going to detail a few of these uses. Perhaps you may find one or more of these interesting.

Hobby/Experimental

A great use for film is hobby photography. Though I'm calling this "hobby," that certainly doesn't exclude professionals. Wether you're wanting to learn photographic lessons with some vintage equipment, or turn out unique photos that digital simply cannot duplicate, film photography is a great way to both play around and learn (but then I repeat myself).

Large Format

You've seen the old-fashioned "bellows cameras" of yesteryear. What you may not have known is many professionals still use this technology due to the stunningly high quality results that can be obtained with these cameras.

Large format photography is largely used by specialized professionals but used equipment is available at a price range well within reach of those hobbyists that want it.

This format is often used for things like landscape photography because it can be blown up to a massive size.

"Large format" is generally any format which is too large to come in rolls. The most common large format size is 4x3 inches but comes in other sizes also including 8x10 and even larger. 

The largest cost associated with this type of photography is developing, so I would really suggest investing in the needed darkroom equipment instead of paying someone else to do it.

Widelux F7 35mm Panoramic Camera 

© Nic Neufeld/Photo Basics

Panoramic Photography

Panoramic photography is technically a large format but deserves its own description. 

While there are many people who create panoramas by "stitching" a series of photos together with software, a film panorama creates a single, seamless image on one strip of film. 

However, these cameras are expensive.

I recently found a Widelux F7 at an estate sale. I knew it was worth quite a bit more they were selling it for but I had no idea how much. This camera was worth a whopping $700+.

And this is a camera that takes 35mm film. 

Other cameras meant to take medium format roll film cost even more. I've seen large format panoramic cameras that were popular in the mid 20th century but haven't been able to find any information about them online to point you to. Sorry. I can tell you, however, that they functioned by passing the film in front of a slit as the camera swung from one side to the other. The exposure was adjusted by changing the speed of the camera's movement. Of course, motion blur is often a problem with this system.

Cinema

Finally, while there have been several digital cinema cameras released to the market such as the Red One, and the Arriflex Alexa, almost all major Hollywood productions as well as prime time television shows are still shot on film. Why? Because film reproduces images with better color, contrast, and "resolution (film, of course, doesn't have 'resolution')" than digital. It will remain this way for a very long time because even if digital meets or surpasses 35mm film, you can make a film frame bigger much more easily than creating a larger digital frame.

There are countless other ways that film and related technologies are still in use. It's (in my opinion) the best way for a new photographer to learn the basics. You don't have to get a bunch of expensive equipment and film. The cheap stuff works just as well. After all, the first camera was just a glorified box. 

Also, Walmart in the US offers cheap photo processing so unless you decide to really get into film photography, you don't have to accumulate all that stuff either.