Film Medium Format Cameras

[Kayaker72]

So not a competition but as a blind taste test this is my preference:
1A, 2 (No Preference not comparable), 3A, 4A, 5A, 6B and 7B.

I assumed that in 1A those were birds and not dirt on your lens.

Yep. Birds.

Other than color temp and the shadows seem to be exposed differently I can't see much difference without pixel peeping. My guess is that with some post processing you could them to look pretty dang close to each other as far as internet viewing goes.

Curious to know how and why you see a place for medium format film in your photo world?

It has caught my attention that I often, not always, but often prefer the film image when people are shooting side by side of the same subject. I am now seeing this with images I've shot side by side. I do not want to go too far down that road as you are right, you can make digital awfully close when you try.

But my preferences are pretty similar to Ricks above, which was 1 R5 image, 5 film, and 1 no preference. (I am 2/5 split)

Most of the images I posted, I processed them trying to not think about the other. And not only did I pick different color temps, but so did LR when using auto. So where you start seems to effect where you end up.

I did try to get several images to match but I haven't been able to. Quick example:

Spending ~25 minutes on the R5 file.

to try to match the film image

Even with that effort, I still might prefer the film image, and even with several different attempts, couldn't get the sky to match.

So, where do I see using film?

• When I feel like putting in the effort. Slowing down, limiting myself to a couple of shots. I definitely have a heavy finger when shooting digital. Going out and limiting myself to 15 shots does have its appeal.
• Right now, I am thinking there are 4 truths to film v digital in terms of IQ, and I can see times when I want one or the other:
  
  • Digital can provide more shadow detail (see examples 1&2). Granted, this tends to be very linear, giving it a bit of a "digital" look.
  • Film handles highlights better (you can see this in some of the later examples, but I did over expose a couple of scenes, and digital is blown out well before film)
  • Elements of the composition with film seem to be more independent of each other with film, whereas with digital the entire frame feels more universal. With the R5 image in this post, for example, I added a liner gradient filter and dropped the color temp on the water which was not necessary with the film image.
  • Different films have a look, like a preset. That gives you a starting point once scanned. In general, I seem to like the look.

So, I am thinking of some of my landscape shots. I will try people at some point. But that 95% of my images will still be taken with the R5.