You have to be afraid of technology or pretentious to love analog photography – or both. At least that is what I thought until not long ago. However, a few months ago my perspective completely shifted, and now this hobby is a huge part of my life that I don’t want to miss – but why?
In this post, I want to discover the reason for that perspective shift and explore what it is that makes analog photography so appealing for people like me. The goal is to help anyone reading this decide if this hobby is truly for them and how they can get started.
The Spark
Why get started?
The rational reason: constantly being reliant on screens and “being available” – looking for something calm that nudges me to explore my surroundings.
The emotional reason: watching “One Battle after Another” on 70mm film projection in a cinema, falling in love with the look of the film and grain (I was trying to come up with a rational explanation for that, but I can’t…it’s a feeling – that’s it). I ordered my camera, a Canon AE-1 with a 50mm lens, the same night.
Starting is frustrating
The first hurdle in starting this hobby is getting a camera. To be honest, this part can be exhausting and cause a lot of insecurity. The internet is full of advice, but much of it is actually overwhelming and can cause frustration. My tip is: don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis; there are three easy ways to decide on a camera:
- Get your parents’ or grandparents’ old camera. This is a luxury not everyone will have available to them, but if you happen to know someone who will give you their old camera, take it. To learn how to use it, just Google the camera model and you will probably find plenty of tutorials – or take a look at the next tip.
- Go to a local shop specialising in photography – best case: specialising in analog photography. They will have a selection of cameras and lenses and can help you figure out the best option for your goals and budget. On top of that, they can help you understand the basics of using your camera straight away, and you already have a go-to shop for developing your film later. In Berlin, I can strongly recommend PhotostudioBerlin.
- Buy from an enthusiast. This is the option I chose and am very happy with. After Googling a bit, I found a photographer in Germany with a website selling well-maintained analog cameras, lenses and more (shoutout to sniggiscameras.de).
If you didn’t get a roll of film while purchasing your camera, go ahead and get your first one – local drugstores or photography shops will have you covered – you can’t go wrong with the bestsellers for your first roll.
The joy of good engineering
Once the camera, lens and roll of film are assembled, the actual fun and the appeal of analog photography begin – we have to assemble our tools. This means figuring out all the mechanical and electrical mechanisms of the camera, which allow us to attach the lens, put in the film and maybe even add a battery (depending on the camera), as well as understanding the various buttons and dials.
Objectively, modern smartphones are more complicated and more technically impressive than these “relics” of an older time, but they don’t capture our sense of awe in the way these analog tools do. A possible reason for that is that modern tools like the smartphone try to hide their engineering as much as possible and aim to streamline the process of using them to its simplest form. And I guess that is a necessity; after all, the workings of a smartphone are so complex that no human brain could truly fathom them – or can you visually imagine how the processor of the iPhone 17 Pro makes your TikTok scroll possible?
Analog cameras, on the other hand, while more limited in what they can do, demand far more attention. They are easy enough to grasp while challenging enough to keep you engaged. All the buttons and dials do something, and that invites exploration.
Literally learning by doing
A camera wasn’t made to be admired; it was made to take photos, so what’s so appealing about that? Here it gets more complex. First off, I don’t want to say analog photography is better than digital photography or smartphone photography – all of them have pros and cons and have a place and time to be used. The appeal of using analog cameras does not make smartphones less appealing at the things they are great at – so let’s not talk about convenience, cost or ease of use, because that is definitely not what analog cameras are made for.
What analog excels at more than any other form of photography is progression. It severely limits your options and forces you to focus on just a few parameters when taking a picture – without allowing you to undo or correct anything. This automatically forces you to think more about every single shot you take. Simply put, with every picture, the stakes are higher – all your effort (and money for film and development) could be wasted. If you are someone who loves figuring out technical details and analysing your best and worst work, this is exactly what makes you fall in love with this hobby. You can set it up so that you constantly feel like you are learning something new and getting better at something that requires skill.
Analog Photography is like drugs, gambling & Christmas combined
Receiving a gift, wrapped in beautiful paper, is a joy unlike many others. The anticipation of opening the present, the curiosity about what might be inside, fills your brain with so many joyful chemicals that often feel more intense than the reveal itself. I get the same feeling every time I bring a roll of film in for development, peaking in the moment I see the email with the attached scans of the images I took – were the images as good as I wanted? Are some even better? By the way, these same chemical mechanisms are at work when you are addicted to something – the anticipation of a drug or behaviour causes more dopamine than the drug or behaviour itself.
But unlike my favourite drug, Kinder Schokobons, the results of my scanned film rolls can often sustain my joy. Granted, especially in the beginning, many pictures don’t turn out as I wanted them to, but that makes the ones that do so much more rewarding. Again, the same principle as gambling: slot machines make you win some and lose some – the losses make the wins feel more rewarding. Think of that connection between gambling and photography what you will…
The water runs so much deeper.
Everything above reflects my experience of a little less than six months. I feel like I have learned so much and yet there is still so much more to explore: so many types of film, genres of photography to try, different lens types, books to read, workshops to attend and conversations to have – not to mention the rabbit hole of developing your own film. With analog photography, the learning never stops, but it always gives you enough moments of achievement to motivate you to keep going.
To summarise, I think the main appeal of analog photography is exactly that: the constant feeling of getting better at a skill by continually providing you with a challenge that is complex enough to demand your attention and problem-solving, while still simple enough to grasp and stay motivating. Your outcomes cause all kinds of emotions: from disappointment all the way to cheerfulness and even a healthy dose of pride. Without the super low lows, which you simply don’t get with the same intensity in smartphone photography, the emotional highs wouldn’t feel as earned and rewarding.
As a final bonus, if you also love organising – both in the digital and analog world – you will find it very satisfying to build an organisation and storage system for the film negatives and digital scans of your photos. Nevertheless, this hobby requires you to constantly solve problems, and if that is what you are into, give it a shot.
