Just buy a film camera!

Mike Johnston's The Online Photographer blog is probably the best read, photographically speaking, on the internet. It's always clever and insightful and Mike's a great writer. However, this post - involving a "discussion" between Mike and his quaintly-named regular contributor, Ctein*, had me in stitches.

The two are discussing the possible merits of a black and white only sensor in a digital camera. I suppose when I was in thrall to digital I would have found some traction in this topic but now it just seems a touch surreal. Mike and Ctein ponder whether or not a manufacturer might take on the production of a black and white sensor and, if so, what the benefits might be in terms of sharpness and dynamic range over the present colour sensors that are in digital cameras.

Because it's such a popular blog, there are, as usual, loads of comments all debating the pros and cons, not one of which (I think I read or at least skimmed every one of the comments) mentions the obvious solution: get a film camera and use black and white film. How difficult can it be?

There are still plenty of choices when it comes to black and white film and 35mm SLRs can be picked up very cheaply on Ebay. A quick Google search will bring up plenty of labs which will still happily process and scan the film if you can't be bothered to do it yourself. This would save you having to spend £1000 - or more, who knows - on a black and white sensor camera, should one make it to the shops. And instead of having to use Photoshop or Silver Efex Pro (no matter how good these two pieces of software are) to simulate the look of film, you've got the real thing.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get my head round the type of thinking that's espoused in the Mike/Ctein conversation and the follow-up comments. So much effort and debate has gone into something with a very easy solution. Having gone from film to digital and back again, I'm convinced it's just about laziness and convenience in many cases. Has the pace of life really become so frantic that we can't find the time in the course of a week to develop and scan a roll of film?

* Had to be careful there. My spell checker suggests the substitution of Ctein with "cretin"...