How much does it really cost to do film?

Berin Loritsch — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:34:00 +0000

I’m not going to argue about quality, process, etc. It’s just a pure look at the cost of film vs. the cost of digital. Let’s be honest, there are some real gear junkies out there so we aren’t going to talk about the people who change their camera every week for half of a megapixel more resolution. We’re going to talk about real people and real situations. So first off there are certain costs that are the same. Your lenses and your flash units are not likely to be any different with film vs. digital at any format size. Medium and large format cameras where the shutter is in the lens use a standard cable release for remote operation. Small format cameras like to get you to spend more money for the same thing so a remote for your film camera may not work for your digital camera. What’s worse is that a remote for one model of a company’s camera won’t necessarily work with a different model of the same company’s camera. It’s still a constant expense, so go figure.

OK, so now that we got that out of the way, what’s different about digital vs. film (other than the fact that one is digital and the other is film)? First off, the cost of the sensor for a digital camera is very high in comparison to the “sensor” for a film camera. One is several hundred (or thousand depending on format) dollars, and the other is less than $10. That’s right, film is a light sensitive material, hens it is a film camera’s sensor. The big difference of course, is that you can only use film once and you can use a digital sensor several times. That’s the rub. Your up front costs are going to be higher with digital, but over a given time your consumable costs will overtake that initial investment. That’s a fact no matter how you slice it. Digital also has consumables in the form of compact flash cards and hard drives. They are convenient in that they can store large amounts of photos, but dangerous because if the device fails you lose everything. That’s why you need more than one, and to back them up on other drives. With film, the negative is your storage device and it requires physical damage to lose pictures.

Small format cameras are a little worse than medium and large format cameras in the sense that you have to replace the entire camera when you upgrade. Medium and large format cameras have changeable backs where you can use the same camera for both film and digital, depending on the client and your budget. By the way, a digital back for a medium format camera is several thousand dollars. You can purchase several small format digital SLR cameras for the same price. For the sake of argument, let’s keep things in the realm of the small format SLR cameras.

A used small format film camera can be had for $25-$400 depending on the model you buy (consumer/pro, age, etc.). You can buy a small format digital camera for about $500-$900 depending on the model you buy. Add to that a compact flash card for $20-$50 depending on the size and speed you buy. So just how many rolls of film will it take to overtake the initial plunge? Again, it depends on what kind of film you use. Slide film is near $10 a roll, but if you do black and white film is around $3 a roll. The price of lab development also varies based on the lab and the type of film. Slide film can cost near $10 a roll to develop at a pro shop, regular color film can cost about $4 a roll at a pro shop or $1.50 a roll at Target. If you develop black and white film yourself it will cost you pennies a roll—definitely worth it. So you can see that the answer depends on a lot of different things.

Let’s say you are the extravagant type and you shoot Fuji Astia 100. It costs $5 a roll, but to get it developed unmounted it costs $6 a roll (mounted is $10). That’s $11 a roll. Now, let’s say you also you skimped on the body knowing you were going to upgrade to digital later. So that’s $25 for a cheap used camera. Slide film is typically very low grain and very rich colors. To produce equivalent pictures you’ll need a nice digital. Let’s go for the $900 model (roughly what I paid for my used Canon 30D). The difference between the $925 (camera and compact flash card) digital and the $25 film camera is $900, so it would take roughly 82 rolls (just under 3000 pictures) to hit the break even point where the up front cost of digital equals the same cost in film.

Now, let’s say you are shooting sporting events and you need to take several pictures in a row quickly. You’ll need a better film body so your up front cost is something like $400 for a used top of the line model (roughly what I paid for my used Canon 1N). You’ll also need high ISO film if you are shooting indoors, which means you are working with normal color negative film. You have a choice between Fuji Press 800 for $3.50 a roll or Fuji Pro-Z 800 for $5.50 a roll. Developing costs for a pro shop is about $4 without prints. Let’s call it an even $8 for simple math. Using the same digital camera from the last example, your difference is only $525. You can shoot 65 rolls (2300 pictures) before you hit the break even point. In sports photography that number comes up really quick. Digital is a clear winner here.

For the aspiring fine art photographer, black and white is king. You’ll want the nicest camera you can afford because you want to enjoy the process, but you are now shooting black and white film and developing it yourself. Fomapan 100 (a very nice film) is about $3 a roll, and to develop it yourself costs about $0.50 or cheaper a roll depending on the chemicals you use. That’s $3.50 total per roll, and for the sake of argument we will compare the same two cameras in our last example. You will have to shoot 150 rolls of film (5400 pictures) before you break even. Since this style of photography is slower paced, your digital gear might need an upgrade before you reach that mark. The film gear will be just fine for years to come. My personal belief is that film renders a better black and white image than you can get from digital. That’s my opinion, and you can take it for what it’s worth. If we took the cheapy film camera and the expensive digital camera the difference is even more drastic at 257 rolls (9252 pictures).

For the casual shooter, film provides a great starting point as you get your equipment together. For the more prolific types of photography such as sports and event photography, digital is a clear winner. It will pay for itself rather quickly. For the fine art photographer, you can’t go wrong with film. There is no real demand on quantity of pictures, and the archival quality of film has been proven based on history rather than simulated projections. There are plenty of other reasons to choose film, but those are all personal choices. The truth is that digital cameras (not the cheap point and shoot variety) cost a lot more in the initial investment, and film has a continual cost you need to incur as you take pictures. Eventually, digital will become cheaper as long as you don’t keep upgrading your body. I use both, personally.

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How much does it really cost to do film?