In the late 1990s before I opted for early retirement I started to collect cameras, particularly the ones I had lusted over when I was in my thirties and forties but in no way could afford.
I bought and sold and used countless cameras over this period but like so many of us I turned my affection to the new arrival, digital. When digital SLR's became affordable I decided to sell most of my collection, partly because I was afraid they would lose value, but also to fund the new kit.
I can remember the moment I took this decision. In 2007 I took two portraits of my grand daughters with my then new Nikon D70. I uploaded the photos, a few minutes in photoshop and then printed them out as A4 mono. The result was so much better than all previous home developed film, scanned through film scanner and likewise put through photoshop yet in a fraction of the time.
However recently my son-in-law has been buying old film cameras and started to develop his own mono films, and I must say producing some very good results. Interestingly he is an exec in the media business! So this prompted me to put a roll or two through one of the two cameras I kept, and over Christmas (2009) when I was developing them with my son-in-law I started to enjoy again the simple pleasure of film photography. Even started to buy a few more cameras. I doubt if they will ever replace my digital cameras but it's fun exercising the old skills - or is it just another example of nostalgia.