24 digital frames

After a year dominated by film, this experiment asks a simple question: can digital still capture the same tension, discipline, and excitement of shooting analog? Lets find out.

Today I’m doing something I haven’t done in a long time.

Not loading a film camera, but “loading” a digital one.

For this post, I’ve given myself a simple constraint: shoot 24 frames, just like a roll of film. No bursts, no safety net, no endless card space. I’m treating the Ricoh as if it were a compact loaded with Portra 400, using a Portra 400 recipe and keeping every image straight out of camera.

I’ve spent most of the last year almost entirely on film. Developing, scanning, converting, my whole workflow has shifted into the slow, deliberate rhythm that film naturally creates. And I love it.

But sometimes, you want to move faster. You want the responsiveness of digital without losing the mood or the discipline.

That’s where the Ricoh GR3X comes in.

For this experiment, I’m shooting in shutter priority, a method introduced to me by Thomas from Photobreak. It changes the way the camera behaves out on the street, and it lets me chase motion and timing the way I would with film in these conditions.

So this is the premise:

24 digital frames. One “roll.” One walk. All JPEGs, straight out of the camera.

Let’s see what happens when you treat a digital camera like a film camera, and whether that tension, that excitement, and that unpredictability can survive the transition.

I felt myself falling into old digital habits right away. Maybe it’s the 40mm focal length, it's close, but not quite the 35mm im used to on the Leica. My focus shifted toward details, and my compositions naturally became tighter.

Looking back, I enjoyed the whole experience far more than I thought I would. The ease of shooting digital was refreshing. But the final results, which actually matters, still don’t hit me the same way film does. There is something intangible that digital can’t quite match. And that’s fine too. They’re two different mediums, each beautiful in its own way.