Film News: Adorama scores a hat trick of blunders

Ruffling some feathers today on the interweb is this article by Mason Resnick for Adorama which explains away his reasons for never going back to film photography and promoting the digital way. While the never ceasing film vs. digital clash has become moot for most sensible people with a brain stem as they realize there’s a place for both, the article did manage to score a hat trick of bone-headed gaffes that will surely alienate their film customers.

Gaffe #1: Lying, stealing photos and deleting watermarks

Upon posting a photo of his supposed Leica M3, astute readers quickly noted it looked suspiciously identical to a certain Mr. Rockwell’s sans copyright. Of course the comments and image has since been deleted but here they are.

Images courtesy of https://twitter.com/mfphotograph Mike Fraser.

Gaffe #2: Illogical, biased and flawed points

The math work looks impressive when comparing film costs to digital but conspicuously omits taking into account the depreciation of your equipment, from your camera to your laptop/desktop. And with the recent hugantic sensors producing 50MB per image files, storage adds up quickly as well as the price of professional level RAIDs for real work. Oh yeah, and digital GAS is easily arguable to cost more.

The speed of digital over film argument only applies to professionals on strict deadlines with clients or those who will shrivel and die without the endorphins from immediate Instagram likes. Comparing click rates with digital and film is also apples and oranges, the average person not named Gary Winogrand will not be shooting 25,000 frames on film in a couple years.

The digital is healthier claim fails to acknowledge what happens to electronics like DSLRs, computers and hard drives when they are worn out. You can keep telling yourself that e-waste is actually recycled.

Gaffe #3: Alienate your customers

Whether he claimed it was unintentional or not, the fact is many readers felt offended and interpreted the article as film shooters are wasting their money and time. As can be seen from the copious disgruntled comments on the article, customers are boycotting and will be getting their silver-halide fix closer to the Hudson River.

Whether it’s left wing vs. right wing, liberal or conservative, film vs. digital is replete with hypocrisies as well. From digital plugins to produce that film look to scanning negatives for only posting online, the point of all this remains lost in the tribal need to belong to Team Film or Team Digital. Find out what works for you and gives you the most joy; some prefer the journey, some the destination. What we shouldn’t do as purveyors of our beloved art and industry is give biased information, steal, lie, and then lie about not lying. C’mon Adorama. Do better.

MN