Kodak survey: 75% of pro photographers still use film

Stats highlight film's "superiority" over sensors

21 September 2007 12:47 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

A recent Kodak survey 9,000 professional photographers in the US has revealed that 75% percent of photographers say they will continue to use film, even as some embrace digital imaging technology.

Kodak says the results mirror those of a similar survey the company recently conducted in Europe, where more than two-thirds of professional photographers surveyed plan to continue using film.

According to the US survey results, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of professional photographers prefer the results of film to those of digital for certain applications including:

* film’s superiority in capturing more information on medium and large format films (48 percent);
* creating a traditional photographic look (48 percent);
* capturing shadow and highlighting details (45 percent);
* the wide exposure latitude of film (42 percent); and
* archival storage (38 percent).

Although there were acknowledgments that digital cameras offer certain benefits, some said that film better captures certain images, particularly black-and-white photos.

The majority (90 percent) of photographers produce black-and-white images, with 47 percent saying black-and-white photography allows them to create a certain look and feel and differentiate themselves. More than half of them (57 percent) prefer using film to achieve this desired effect.