Picked vintage film camera over digital for my night photography thing, zero regrets so far

I was dead set on getting a used Sony mirrorless for shooting abandoned buildings at night. Then a buddy let me borrow his old Canon AE-1 with a roll of pushed 1600 film. The grain and the way the streetlights bloomed on that first test roll, I honestly felt something. Sold the Sony idea, bought the Canon and a $40 light meter off eBay. First full moon shoot at an old grain silo in Ohio came out better than any digital shot I've done. Anyone else go analog for a weirdly specific niche and never look back?

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victorbutler1mo ago

My buddy Dave spent like 2 years shooting nothing but medium format film at this one abandoned power plant outside Pittsburgh. He brought a Mamiya RB67 that weighed more than my dog, and we had to climb through a broken fence at 11pm. The first shot he took, a raccoon knocked his tripod over, but the film still came out with this weird motion blur that made the place look haunted. He swears every digital shot he took there before just looked like a photo, but that film roll made it feel like a crime scene. He still drives out there once a month with a fresh roll and a thermos of coffee.