I find that my HD camcorder (Hv30) plus a 35mm adapter is the perfect combination.

Digital all the way! Woot!
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"Imperfection equals Realism"

I think it's going to be difficult to create the controversy you seek because I don't think too many people
posting here have experience shooting 35mm.

Fo me I don't see this as a rather controversial matter at all.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

I haven't shot 35mm film, but I have shot on the RED (which has a 35mm-sized sensor) and I've shot on 16mm film, and I've talked to many knowledgeable people on the subject. It boils down to this:

I shoot video because it's cheap. If money were no object, I'd almost always shoot film. It looks better, and better suits both my aesthetic and my workflow.

I think my dream format for a digital finish is super 16mm, just because the cameras are so lightweight, and I'm not incredibly big on really shallow depth-of-field. 35mm I could take or leave, depending on what application it's for. It mostly appeals to me as an affordable and viable way to do a direct film print for theaters without mucking about in a digital intermediate.

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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com
and my reel at http://portfolio.exgfilms.com

I go RED. It's an awesome camera and it's the future. (Of course the future is now!)

This may sound too much like a producer... But I would weigh the costs of format VS potential return on investment (without compromising the story).

Meaning: If you don't need to shoot 35 to tell your story effectively. And you think your story can still find distribution and sales without going film, then you have a pretty compelling argument to get the best bang for your buck.

Go here: www.filmmakingstuff.com

35mm for me is quicker, cheaper, faster, and industry standard, so anyone I work with knows whats going on. Also, I don't need 35 extra people to setup and maintain a digital workflow, downloading and encoding and all that. Everyone of the professional shops is already set up to develop film and print for theatrical distribution.

I will say however, that I do enjoy the DI process... scanning 35mm work print and editing digitally.
So there you go, and remember: You can't shoot 70mm digital! 🙂

It's call grain, its suppose to be there.

I like to digital workflow from cameras like the RED and the DALSA. 35mm has never been an option for me unless the projects were studio backed so I've only used the RED and before that, HD cameras (and lower than 2k resolution cameras).

I love the telecine process and love the level of talent involved in that end of the process. But that level of talent means $$$ out of my pocket, so I instead pay for a DIT that I can trust and knows the workflows. We distribute dailies via SFTP so I don't have to pay for runners or courier services. We work in final cut so the reference files that the RED spits out work perfectly with in my bays and our online bay facility (Technicolor Creative Services Burbank) has worked on several RED features and has the ability to do 2k and 4k film outs from RED footage.

Digital has my business.

David Schatanoff
D Studios Productions