I was recently given a couple of Canon 35mm film SLRs along with various lenses, filters and other bits and bobs... a real treasure trove of recent photographic history for me to rummage through for which I'm very grateful.

Amongst all this I found a couple of rolls of film and as all of my 'serious' photography has been done in the digital age I started to get quite excited about having a go with a film camera. For a moment I was caught up in a romantic notion of it all, the discipline of being limited to 36 shots, the excitement of the film being developed and not forgetting the retro cool silver and black looks of the camera itself.

Just for a moment that is, right up until I next used my DSLR, that's when the bubble burst. I realised that, even if with large slice of luck I managed to get a few shots exposed correctly, in focus and with a composition I was happy with, it was going to cost me a fiver just to get the film developed and the images put onto a CD. Hold on a minute, I can already do that for free and using a more sophisticated camera. I can also check whether the image is exposed correctly and I'm happy with the composition before the opportunity to take another shot has passed and I don't need to be disciplined, I can experiment with settings and be creative with compositions because I have more memory cards than I'll ever manage to use!

I'm sure curiosity will get the better of me and I'll use those couple of rolls of film (especially as one of the cameras uses the same lenses as my digital bodies) and maybe I'll even buy a roll of black and white film to try out but for the moment they are sat on the shelf where they have joined my much loved collection of old cameras while I try and figure out what is the point of still using film?