Film photography is having another moment, but its appeal goes beyond nostalgia. When we can take and share endless digital pictures, there is something refreshing about a camera that asks us to slow down, make each frame count and wait to see what we have got.
Taking a photograph has never been easier. With our phones are always to hand, we can shoot dozens of pictures in seconds and check them straight away. If one does not work, we simply take another. Most of the time, we barely give it a thought.
Film asks for a lot more patience. You buy a roll of Kodak Portra 400 or Ilford HP5 Plus, load it into the film camera and get on with taking pictures. There is no screen to check and no second chance at the touch of a button. You have to trust your eye, live with the occasional mistake and wait to see how things turned out. That does not automatically make the pictures better, but it can make taking them feel different.
That is part of the attraction. Film is not just about recreating the look of an old photograph; it changes the experience of making one.
The problem with infinite frames
When each extra exposure costs almost nothing, it is easy to keep shooting just in case. That freedom can be useful: instant review helps you experiment and catch fleeting moments. But it can also mean putting off the decision that matters most: is this really worth a photograph? With film, the limited number of frames makes that question harder to avoid.
Then there is the pressure of the social feed. Photographs sit alongside an endless stream of images and video, all competing for attention. It is easy to start thinking about whether a picture will land online before considering what made you want to take it in the first place. Of course, plenty of people still shoot for themselves, away from the demands of likes and shares.
AI adds another wrinkle. It can produce convincing images of events that never happened, so a picture on its own is no longer proof that something took place. Photography was never a guarantee of truth: framing, editing and context can all mislead. But a film negative does have a physical link to the scene it records. Light reaches the emulsion and, through chemical processing, becomes an image. Digital photography also records light from the real world; an AI-generated image does not need that process at all.
For some people, that difference matters. For others, the appeal is simpler: the feel of a camera in the hand, the sound of its mechanism and the small pleasure of loading a roll of film.
What a limited roll changes
A standard 35mm roll gives you 24 or 36 exposures. When they are gone, they are gone until you load another roll. Some photographers find that makes them more selective; others enjoy the surprise of seeing the results days later, including the frames they had almost forgotten about.
Sometimes the picture you barely remember taking turns out to be the keeper. The shot you fussed over for ten minutes may be the one that disappoints. That uncertainty is part of the fun.
Film also has a character of its own, shaped by the stock, exposure, development and the way the image is scanned or printed. Kodak Portra is a favorite for color work, while Ilford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X are long-established choices for black-and-white photography.
Still, a particular look is not the whole story. Digital cameras and editing software can recreate many of the colors, grain and tones associated with film. A photograph is not automatically more meaningful because it was made on analogue equipment, any more than a digital picture is somehow less authentic.
An industry still making film
Film has not disappeared from the market. Established stocks are still being made, new ones have appeared and analogue cameras can be bought new or second-hand. It is a smaller part of photography than digital, but it is very much still here.
British company Harman Technology, best known for its Ilford photographic films, introduced Harman Phoenix in 2023, its first color negative film under the Harman name. Phoenix II followed later. Pentax launched the Pentax 17, a new half-frame 35mm camera, in 2024, while Lomography continues to sell analogue cameras and film and Kodak remains a major name in film production.
These launches suggest that manufacturers see a continuing audience for analogue photography. They do not, on their own, tell us how large that audience is or how quickly it is growing.
There is also a lively second-hand market. Some sought-after cameras, including the Contax T2, sell for hefty sums, but plenty of older models are more affordable. If you want to take pictures rather than collect equipment, a used camera can be a good way in.
The expense does not end with the camera. You have to buy film, then pay for processing and scanning unless you do it yourself. Digital photography has its own costs, from equipment to storage and maintenance, but once you own the camera, taking another picture costs nothing. Shoot regularly on film and the bills soon add up.
The romance has its limits
Film will not suit every job. Digital is usually the practical choice when you need lots of images quickly, have a tight deadline or need to check results on the spot. Some professionals use film for particular shots and rely on digital for the rest.
Nor does loading a roll of film suddenly turn someone into a more thoughtful photographer. You can waste frames as easily as you can take a considered picture on your phone. And cameras and rare film stocks can become status symbols in their own right, with the gear taking centre stage instead of the photographs.
The environmental argument is not straightforward either. Making and processing film uses materials and chemicals; digital photography depends on electronic equipment, batteries and energy. The overall impact varies with how products are made, used and disposed of, as well as how long they last. Neither option is impact-free, so claims that one is always greener than the other need to be treated carefully.
Learning to wait
Perhaps the best thing about film is the wait between pressing the shutter and finding out what you have captured.
Finish a roll and you can send it off to a lab or develop it yourself. Until the negatives or scans come back, the pictures exist mostly in your memory. You might have nailed the shot, missed the focus or caught something better than you expected. You simply do not know yet.
Digital photographers can create their own version of that discipline by limiting the number of shots they take or resisting the urge to check every frame. With film, the limit is built – every exposure uses up one of a finite number of pictures and seeing the results usually means waiting for another step.
In a world where almost every image is available to view, edit and share in seconds, film offers a welcome change of pace. It asks you to be a little more deliberate, accept that some pictures will not work and enjoy the wait. Sometimes, the pleasure is not just in the photograph you get, but in the process of its creation.
Check out our guides to the best 35mm films, and our rundown of the best film cameras
