For the Love of Film

Here at 595strapco, we've always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with film.  We love the simplicity it has in terms of how you shoot, but hate waiting for the processed rolls of film back!

The love does outweigh the hate for us though, there is something wonderful about taking your time, enjoying every frame you take with a film camera and thinking more consciously about what you're doing.

Digital photography simplifies the process.  Shoot, chimp, shoot again... with film you can't work like that.  We make more discretionary decisions about what to shoot and how to shoot it than we ever do with digital.

Not Right. Not Wrong

Now don't get us wrong, we love digital photography and everything it has going for it, but sometimes it's nice to be more considered in our approach and think about what we're doing when we have a camera in hand.

We also love the flexibility a digital negative gives us in terms of what we want to do with it... we can give it a 'film-look', we can turn it to black and white, we can change almost any parameter we wish to.

Film on the other hand is more disciplined.  If we want to shoot black and white film we are committed to it until we've finished the roll in camera.  Do we want a certain look, then we can find a film that suits.  Our favourite film stocks being Kodak Portra 400 for colour and Kodak Tri-X for black and white.

We also love the hardware of a film camera.  We've dabbled with medium format and that's just so good, but we've now nailed our hat onto a Leica M6.  They are legendary cameras and great for shooting in any style you want to.  Being a small(ish) body our range of neck and wrist straps suit the style well and provide a strong, reliable support for the camera.

Which neck strap for a Leica M6?

For our own personal use we like the rivet free range of neck straps we have available.  Whilst we're not too discerning of our kit, the rivet free offers a no-rivet fix for the strap ends, meaning one less thing to catch on our camera bodies. 

We also make rivet free neck straps with the option of camera bumpers meaning the split ring attachment won't catch on the body either.

We also favour the Granada neck strap, another stitched end neck strap which provides a dash of colour thanks to the thread options available.

If you're looking for a film camera, we'd definitely recommend the Leica M6 to you - OK, so they're not cheap and prices are only going up at present, however it's a camera that if looked after will last you a lifetime.  It has a meter which makes it much more simple to gauge the exposure, but should your batteries fail, you can always apply the sunny 16 rule and carry on shooting!

If you have any questions about our range of neck straps or how to start shooting film, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.