Why these prestigious film-cameras are back on the production lines after twenty years
Leica's cameras were always highly sought after for their smart designs and meticulous production standards, as well as the crispy-sharp lenses. But it's also their design which is illusively timeless: we know that they're old, even ancient, but that something about them just looks so modern, as if they were made yesterday. But wait… maybe they actually were made yesterday? Because at the end of 2022, the German manufacturer that had, like all other companies, digitized their products over the past twenty years — announced that they would be renewing their analogue M6 — one of their all-time classics, which some say is the best camera in the world, like, ever made. The cost: 5,300 dollars, a price that the ecstatic consumers are lining up to pay. For a FILM camera.
Remember the days of film? When we didn’t know the result of our “clicks” until the photos were developed a week later? While the born-again M6 is gaining traction, another friend from the olden days declared a comeback: please welcome (back) Pentax, the Japanese manufacturer, with its flagship model — the K1000 — which is designed especially for film enthusiasts and photography students in the early stages of their career, that need a sturdy and practically indestructible tool.
So what’s the fuss all about? People who have become obsessed with analogue photography will religiously tell you how it bears qualities that digital photography simply cannot match. They'll tell you that the way high-quality film captures and portrays the human skin relays an organic tone that can’t be mimicked by any other technology. Not many know this, but until today, fashion portraits are shot almost exclusively with super high-end cameras in a “4X5” medium format.
But the truth is, that it is precisely the downsides of film that are attractive (for those who are willing to spend the money).
Shooting with film is not instantaneous like digital photography, and every shot is carefully curated; You need actual knowledge of how to work the machine: the size of aperture, shutter speed and how to calculate it, ISO, white balance and more; It requires patience: first, to use up the film and then to develop it; Maybe you screwed up and the entire film is ruined: the photos are blurry, dark or very bright, and in a world of insatiability from instant pleasures and gratifications — film provides a sense of groundedness and sanity. We embrace the unknown, we find joy in the process. Like sculpting or painting, shooting with film has a therapeutic quality to it. Compare it to the perfect (and perfected) images created by our smartphones, and the “shortcomings” of analogue photography become the antidote for our imperfect lives.
And what’s the takeaway for those developing a brand or leisure product, or any other product for that matter? That as consumers, we’re looking for a brand that offers something beyond the functionality of the object. A product that generates social impact or that benefits our social status by associating with it. In a world where better and faster functionality is the given and at the same time is the hardest feature to measure — it’s precisely the brands with the narrative story that stand out, that draw our attention to them, amidst the murky waters of pricing differences.