Film Photographers survey 2024 results Posted On 24th April 2025 To News

Film Photographers survey 2024

At the end of 2024 we asked you to complete and share our film photographers survey. We wanted to understand what's important to you, the film community, irrespective of which film brands you shoot. We hoped that the results would provide us with an invaluable insight into the behaviours, expectations, and preferences of film photographers around the world.

The results

Over 14000 of you from more than 110 different countries completed the survey.

We saw film shooters of all ages taking part and we tried to ensure that it was shared as widely as possible on as many different forums, social platforms, and websites to get the best possible representation of community as a whole.

It was great to see a wide range of ages are enjoying shooting film and, somewhat surprising, to see how long some of you have been shooting for.

The reasons for getting started in film photography varied. Many of you told us you'd always shot film or, had been given a film camera by a friend or family member.

5% of you had been 'influenced' by Youtubers such as Grainy Days, Matt Day, Willem Verbeeck, and Nick Carver amongst others.

Which type of film?

We knew that the majority of people completing the survey would likely have shot some of our ILFORD, Kentmere, or HARMAN films so anticipated some 'bias' toward these however the results were still fascinating.

In the previous year 90% of you shot some black and white film, 77% shot colour negative and 26% shot slide.

Unsurprisingly the most popular format was 35mm with 95% of respondants using it, followed by 68% shooting 120 format. Instant film was the third most popular option with 25% shooting it followed closely by large format sheet film with 21%. Other formats such as 110, 127, 220 and 620 were also mentioned to a lesser degree.

Overall 71% of you shot more film last year than in the previous 12 months.

Why do you shoot film?

You told us that you like how it's different to digital, the 'film look', and the creative control.  You also use social media, YouTube and forums for advice and inspiration alongside books and magazines about film photography and printing.

We asked you which new products, services, or technology you'd like to see introduced for analogue photography. The overwhelming reply was a new 35mm SLR camera. Alongside this, you asked for faster colour films, black and white slide films, higher contrast & cheaper black and white films and existing products in different formats. Plus many other ideas!

You have GAS!

Just a small 4% of you only own one film camera, (for now). Whilst an astonishing 18% have a serious case of G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

Film processing

When it comes to film processing, an impressive 72% of you had processed their own film in the last 12 months, but the majority were still sending some films to labs. You are more likely to process black and white films yourself whereas most colour films were being lab developed.

Naughty step!

We were thrilled that 96% of you keep your negatives after developing however............The other 4% need to take themselves off for some time on the naughty step. They either scan then throw their negatives away, or just leave them at the lab.

Thank you

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to answer our questions and to share this survey, you've given us a lot to think about. Keep an eye on our websites and social channels to see how we're responding to some of your requests and feedback.