20 Film Photography YouTube Channels Worth Your Time in 2026

Probably my favorite YouTube channel out there, Romping Bronco is run by Alexander King, who owns a camera repair shop somewhere in the US and shares news from the analog community, film tests, and behind-the-scenes looks at his repair work.

What sets Alexander apart is how genuinely himself he is on camera. There's no agenda, no carefully placed sponsorships, no "this video is brought to you by" energy. Just honest takes, a dry sense of humor, and the occasional existential aside. The sarcasm is real, and so is the passion.

He runs a weekly news format that covers new film releases, gear announcements, and projects worth knowing about. If something happened in the analog world, Alexander probably talked about it already. It's become my go-to way to stay on top of the industry without drowning in RSS feeds.

But my favorite episodes are when he takes himself and some piece of equipment to a completely random location, dressed in an outfit that raises more questions than it answers, to test cameras and quietly contemplate the nature of things. It sounds strange. It is strange. It works perfectly.

Alexander has been supporting Frames since the early days, and I can say from experience that the generosity you see on screen is the real deal. Beyond YouTube, he also sells cameras he's personally serviced through his online shop, alongside repair services, all available on his website.

Check out the Romping Bronco YouTube channel, or follow him on Instagram to keep up with his latest.

A different beast entirely, but with a sense of humor not too far from Alexander's, Grainydays is Jason Kummerfeldt's channel. He spent years working in Hollywood's film industry before trading it for his real passion: analog photography. You can feel that background in every frame he puts out.

And frames is the right word, because the production quality here is genuinely something else. The video work, the color, the pacing, the way each episode is structured like a short film rather than a vlog. Then there are the actual photographs, mostly medium format, and they're stunning. This is clearly someone for whom "good enough" has never been a comfortable place to stop.

Jason travels, tests cameras, and brings you along in a way that feels personal without being self-indulgent. The humor is dry, the stories are fun, and the sarcasm lands just right if like me that's your kind of thing.

What I find most valuable though is his honesty about the harder side of being a creative. He talks openly about doubt, creative blocks, and the gap between what you imagine and what you actually produce. Coming from someone whose output looks like his, it's oddly comforting. A reminder that dissatisfaction with your own work isn't a sign something is wrong with you. It's just part of the deal.

Go check out Grainydays on YouTube, and follow him on Instagram while you're at it. You won't regret either.

Keaton, who goes by Bazooka Mouth online, runs Metal Fingers, a channel covering pretty much everything analog photography. The vibe is consistently chill, the soundtrack always fits, and Keaton is a talented photographer whose work speaks for itself.

Like Alexander, he runs a weekly news format covering new gear, film stocks, and community projects. Between the two of them, staying on top of the analog world requires very little effort on my part, which I appreciate.

But where Metal Fingers really gets me is the travel content. Keaton explores the US with a group of friends, cameras in hand, and the mood is unhurried and atmospheric in a way that feels almost meditative. I've discovered landscapes through his videos that I'll almost certainly never see in person, and somehow that doesn't feel sad, it feels like a gift.

His work has a strong nostalgic pull, that search for an authentic, timeless look in his pictures that resonates with a lot of us shooting film. He's chasing something specific, and you can feel it.

He also goes deep on his digital workflow, from scanning and post-processing to software choices and maintaining a proper photo library. It's the kind of practical content that's easy to overlook but really useful if you care about the full process, not just the shooting part.

Take a look at his latest videos on Metal Fingers YouTube channel to get some inspiration, and give him a follow on instagram to stay tuned with his content.

Daniel Milnor is a bit of a different proposition from the other channels on this list. No weekly news format, no camera tests in the rain. What you get instead is slower, more deliberate, and in its own way more demanding.

Milnor is an American documentary photographer, writer, and educator who started his career in the late 1980s shooting for newspapers and magazines, traveling across the US, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

Over time he moved away from assignment work and toward long-form visual storytelling that combines photography, writing, audio, and video. His work is held in collections at the LA County Museum of Art and the George Eastman House, which is the kind of footnote that reframes how you watch someone talk about craft on YouTube.

His channel is where he unpacks his thinking on photography, creative independence, and the industry at large. He has strong opinions and doesn't soften them. Not the place to come if you want reassurance that your next lens purchase will change everything.

He's also one of the loudest advocates for the photobook, having self-published over a hundred of his own, and spent years helping photographers publish independently through Blurb. There's something quietly radical about that kind of commitment.

His Shifter series is a personal favorite, and between his Q&A videos and the way he takes time to respond to every comment, you get a sense of someone genuinely invested in the community around him. Not just sharing knowledge for the sake of content, but actually caring about whether other photographers grow and find their footing.

Check out his channel on YouTube or join his Discord. Especially recommended if you think about photography as more than a hobby.

If there's one person who could be described as the Boba Fett of film cameras, it's Bellamy Hunt. Based in Japan, he runs Japan Camera Hunter, an online shop specializing in rare and collectible analog cameras and lenses sourced from around the world. The kind of stuff you didn't know existed until you see it, and then immediately need.

His YouTube channel follows the same spirit. The Camera Geekery series is a deep dive into some of the rarest gear you'll ever see documented on screen. Consider yourself warned if you're already prone to GAS syndrome. He also takes us along to camera shops and fairs around Tokyo, and those episodes have a wonderful looseness to them, lighthearted, unscripted, and just fun to watch.

Beyond the channel, Bellamy is one of those people who seems to run on a different clock than the rest of us. He created his own film stock, JCH StreetPan 400, wrote the Film Camera Zen book, collaborated with Kanto Cameras on a series of custom Leica M bodies inspired by Star Wars, and still finds time to run his shop, his blog, his channel, and his family. It's either inspiring or quietly exhausting, depending on how you look at your own to-do list.

His website is also worth exploring beyond the shop. The "In Your Bag" series hands the mic to photographers from all walks of life to talk about their gear, projects, and process. A simple idea done consistently well.

Bellamy supported Frames at launch and is every bit as kind and generous in person as he comes across online. Check out the Japan Camera Hunter YouTube channel, and follow him on Instagram for a steady stream of things you probably can't afford but will enjoy looking at anyway.

Matt Day is probably the closest thing the analog YouTube world has to a photographer who just happens to film himself doing it. Based in Ohio, he started picking up cameras as a teenager to document his life through a difficult family period, and that impulse, personal, quiet, diary-like, never really left.

His channel covers gear when it needs to, but that's never really the point. Where a lot of film photography content leads with cameras and specs, Matt leads with why. Why you pick up a camera, why you keep shooting the same subjects over years, why documentation of an ordinary life can be as valid a project as anything else. It's a refreshing angle in a space that can sometimes feel like an extended shopping channel.

The style matches the philosophy. Long-form, conversational, minimal editing, honest about doubts and dead ends. It's the kind of content that grew past 100k subscribers not through algorithm chasing but through consistency and a genuine point of view. He shoots his family, his surroundings, small-town Ohio, the same scenes returning across years. Less a tutorial channel, more a photographer's ongoing journal you're invited to follow along with.

If you're early in your film journey, his channel is one of the better entry points out there. If you've been at it a while, it's a good reminder of what the whole thing is actually for.

Check out Matt Day on YouTube and give him a follow on Instagram.

Negative Influence is a podcast hosted by Justin Allen that's been quietly making its way onto a lot of photographers' playlists since launching around 2025. The premise is simple: long conversations with film photographers and creators about the reality of making work today. Several people from this list have already appeared on it, and the episodes with Jason and Keaton are well worth your time.

The tagline is "cameras, creativity, and chaos collide", and that's a pretty accurate description of what you're getting into. Doubt, burnout, social media pressure, creative inconsistency, the gap between the work you imagine and the work you actually make. It's all on the table, and nobody pretends otherwise.

The conversations feel less like interviews and more like being in the room with two people who care about the same things and aren't in a hurry to wrap up. Unstructured, sometimes chaotic, always honest. The kind of podcast where an episode can run two hours and you don't notice.

If you've ever found yourself questioning why you shoot, who you're shooting for, or whether any of it means anything beyond a nice picture, this one will feel like company.

Justin has previously spoken about Frames on the podcast, and from a few email exchanges I can confirm he is as kind and approachable as he comes across on screen. The podcast is available on YouTube and all the usual podcast apps, and you can follow him on Instagram too.

Jonathan Paragas, better known as King Jvpes, represents a different energy from most of the channels on this list. Where a lot of analog YouTube tends toward the reflective and unhurried, his content is kinetic, street-level, and very much rooted in the act of actually going out and shooting.

The channel is built around street photography, POV-style footage, and the kind of in-the-moment decision making that's hard to fake. You're not watching someone explain photography from a desk. You're walking cities with him, watching the process happen in real time. It makes for a different kind of learning, less about absorbing information and more about picking up instincts.

He's also refreshingly undogmatic about the film versus digital debate, which in some corners of this community can feel like a full-time religion. His take is essentially that the divide is mostly invented by photographers themselves, which is a reasonable position and one that keeps the content focused on what actually matters: making good pictures.

The editing is sharper and the pacing faster than most analog creators, which reflects a newer generation of YouTubers who helped make film photography feel current and social rather than purely nostalgic. Approachable enough for beginners, but with enough style and intention to hold the attention of anyone further along.

Find King Jvpes on YouTube and follow him on Instagram.

If Alexander and Keaton are your weekly analog news anchors, Nico Llasera is the one doing the deep research in the background. His channel, Nico's Photography Show, occupies a slightly different space from most of what's on this list: less personal narrative, more curated digest of what's actually happening in the film photography world.

New film releases, gear announcements, pricing shifts, community projects, industry developments. Nico tracks it, filters it, and presents it in a way that feels closer to a well-edited media outlet than a typical YouTube channel. In a space where most creators lead with personality or aesthetics, that editorial approach is rare and useful.

What comes through in interviews and across his videos is that the research side is taken seriously. This isn't someone skimming headlines. It's compiled, considered, and structured in a way that respects your time as a viewer.

For anyone who wants to stay informed about the analog space beyond what their favorite photographers happen to mention in passing, Nico's channel fills a gap that not many others are covering consistently. Think of it as the film photography newsroom of YouTube, which sounds dry written out like that, but in practice is exactly what you need when you want to know whether that film stock is discontinued or just temporarily out of stock.

Worth subscribing to on YouTube. He's on Instagram too, and equally worth following there.

Hunter Creates Things sits slightly outside the usual film photography channel template, and that's precisely what makes it interesting. Less gear, less technique, more an ongoing exploration of what it actually means to make something and keep making things when motivation isn't cooperating.

The photography is there, film walks, projects, experiments, but it's treated as one expression of a broader creative practice rather than the whole point. The questions Hunter tends to circle back to are less "what camera should I use" and more "why am I making this image" and "how do I stay creatively honest over time." Familiar territory if you've ever stared at a roll of undeveloped film and wondered what you were actually trying to say.

What makes the channel feel genuine is that creative inconsistency isn't hidden or glossed over. Stagnation, shifting interests, projects that don't quite land, it's all part of the content. That honesty gives it the feel of a real creative journal rather than a highlight reel, which is rarer than it should be.

The pacing is slower and more reflective than something like King Jvpes, and intentionally so. It's the kind of channel you watch when you want to think about your practice rather than just consume photography content.

If the other channels on this list sit firmly inside photography, Hunter's sits just outside it and looks in. Which turns out to be a pretty useful vantage point.

Head over to Hunter Creates Things on YouTube, and give him a follow on Instagram while you're at it.

Chris Chu is part of the younger generation of analog creators, and his channel is inward and mood-driven in a way that sets it apart from most of what exists in the analog space. No hype, no gear obsession, no strong hooks. Just a consistent and personal way of seeing.

The content revolves around street photography, events, and travels, shot on 35mm and medium format. He shares openly about his intent behind each shoot, his process, and the settings that worked and those that didn't, which makes the channel educational without ever feeling like a tutorial. Over time it accumulates into something that feels less like a YouTube channel and more like a long-term personal archive. Familiar locations revisited, subtle shifts in style across videos. You get the sense you're following a body of work rather than watching isolated episodes.

Where he really impressed me is how he handles sport and live events on film, which is one of the harder things you can attempt with analog, especially on the street. His basketball, breakdance, and rap battle videos show a clear pull toward hip-hop culture, and he pulls it off with a narrative quality that goes well beyond just capturing movement. His breakdance coverage in New York is a personal favorite, shooting in tough conditions and being honest about what worked and what didn't. The editing and soundtrack choices across the whole channel are also consistently strong, the kind of thing you notice without necessarily being able to explain why it works.

The quality of his output relative to how long he's been at it is honestly kind of intimidating. One to watch closely.

You'll find Chris Chu on YouTube, and his Instagram is worth following too.

Kyle McDougall is a Canadian photographer now based in the UK, and his channel covers more ground than almost anyone else in the analog space. Camera reviews, large format trips across Wales and Scotland, darkroom printing, film scanning workflows, photobook making, creative process. It's all there, and it's all treated with the same level of care.

His background in cinematography and television is impossible to miss. The production quality is a step above most, and the videos feel structured and intentional without losing the sense that you're following someone working through their craft in real time. He started the channel in 2017 during a year-long road trip across North America, and that spirit of slow, purposeful exploration never really left.

What stays with me most is his long-term documentary approach. His monograph An American Mile, five years in the making, documents small towns across the American Southwest with the kind of patience that's increasingly rare. Watching someone commit to a project like that over years makes you rethink what you're doing with your own work. That same patience shows up in the channel, where the question is less "what's new this week" and more "what am I actually trying to build".

He also runs a podcast called Contact Sheet and a Substack, for when YouTube isn't quite enough to contain everything he's thinking about.

His YouTube channel is the place to start, and his Instagram and Contact Sheet podcast on Spotify are worth your time too.

I found Pushing Film because Hashem McAdam shoots with a Leica M rangefinder, same as me, and has covered a solid range of M mount lenses over time. That's what got me in the door. What kept me was everything else. It's a Melbourne-based channel with a noticeably different energy from most of what's on this list. Less a personal creator brand, more a community project that happens to live on YouTube. The kind of channel where the point isn't the host, it's the conversation.

The content covers a wide mix: practical tips, film discussions, reviews, interviews, event coverage, vlogs, and general commentary on the analog world. Looking at the video catalogue, that variety is real: street photography in Dhaka and Hanoi, darkroom printing, anamorphic lenses, scanning workflows, light meter reviews, and meetups in Melbourne and Sydney. That breadth means the channel stays useful whether you're just picking up your first camera or have been shooting for years.

What sets it apart is how plugged into the real-world film community it feels. Not just talking about analog photography in the abstract, but connected to actual events, meetups, and conversations happening in the scene. The long-form "In Conversation" interview series alone is worth your time, featuring guests from across the analog world including Kyle McDougall and many others.

It's also refreshingly light on the gear ranking content that dominates a lot of analog YouTube. Film photography is treated here as a living culture rather than a consumer market, which gives it a broader and more generous feel.

One of the warmest corners of analog YouTube, and one I keep finding my way back to.

Check out Pushing Film on YouTube and give Hashem a follow on Instagram.

Kate H00k is a fine art photographer based in Brighton, and her channel sits in a very different corner of analog YouTube. Where most creators lead with cameras and film stocks, Kate leads with the image itself and the process behind making it. She started her channel to share creative techniques and experimental methods, and that intent has never really shifted.

Her work leans into experimental and surreal directions, especially in portraiture, and that artistic sensibility carries through everything on the channel. Double exposures, film soups, in-camera techniques, creative filters. None of it is done for novelty's sake. She doesn't rely on post-processing or editing, everything happens in-camera, which gives her work a commitment and consistency that's hard to fake.

She describes her process as rooted in the idea of "play" as a creative practice, which sounds simple but actually explains a lot about the tone of her channel. It's curious, generous, and never takes itself too seriously, while still producing work that is striking.

Her story is also worth knowing. She found solace in film photography during some of the darkest periods of her life, using the viewfinder to look for light when she couldn't find it elsewhere. That's not background noise. It's the reason the work has the warmth and color it does.

What I love about Kate's channel is the energy. There's a creativity and a playfulness to it that's completely her own, and it's contagious. You walk away wanting to try something you wouldn't normally try.

Head to Kate H00k's YouTube channel and give her a follow on Instagram too.

Parvec is Pablo Maraver's channel, and it occupies a niche that almost no one else in the analog space is filling: film photography as visual research.

The centerpiece of the channel is a long-running deep dive into the color science of 35mm film stocks. Not the usual "this one looks warm, this one is punchy" takes, but a structured attempt to understand why different films render color, contrast, and grain the way they do, and what that actually means when you're choosing what to load. The project comes with posters, presets, and structured comparisons that give the whole thing a reference-book quality. It's the kind of resource you don't just watch once and forget.

What keeps it from feeling dry is that the analytical approach coexists with real accessibility. A complete beginner workflow video covering everything from camera choice to scanning manages to be budget-conscious and approachable without losing rigor. The channel seems serious about making the technical side of film photography legible, not in gatekeeping it.

There's also a design thinking quality to how everything is presented. The question isn't just what a film stock looks like, but how color differences can be studied, compared, and communicated clearly. That's a different kind of ambition from most analog YouTube, and it shows.

His latest color science video blew me away. I can't imagine how many hours went into it, and the custom animations and graph visualizations are on a level you simply don't see on analog YouTube. It's the kind of work that makes you want to support a creator just because you can see how much they care.

Parvec is on YouTube, and Pablo is worth following on Instagram if you want more of the same.

Analog Insights is Max Heinrich's channel, based in Munich, and it has a distinctly European sensibility that sets it apart from most of what else is on this list. Measured, thorough, and visually polished in a way that feels considered rather than produced.

The channel started as a collaborative project between Max, Jules, and Greg, and that spirit of thoughtful exchange has always defined its tone. The focus is analog photography in the digital age, covering gear and film reviews alongside learnings from various shoots and insights on developing film, across formats from 35mm to medium format to 4x5. But the way it does all of that is what matters. Reviews here regularly run 20 to 35 minutes, and they earn the runtime.

What makes Analog Insights worth your time is the depth beneath the surface. The "Story Behind The Shoot" series is a good example: rather than just showing results, it unpacks the thinking, the concept, and the decisions that led to a finished image. That process-first approach is less common than you'd hope in a space that often privileges output over intent.

Max works almost exclusively on film, approaching even his digital work with a slow, analog mindset, and that philosophy carries into how the channel is made. Everything feels like it was worth making before it was recorded.

The kind of channel where you open one video and end up watching three. If you want to go deeper rather than wider, start here.

Find Analog Insights on YouTube and give Max a follow on Instagram.

Cody Mitchell's channel is one I'd recommend to anyone who wants to actually get better at photography, not just consume content about it. Where a lot of analog YouTube leans into aesthetics, gear, or personal journaling, Cody leans into fundamentals: exposure, metering, light, and the decisions that actually change an image.

The teaching approach is direct and efficient. Videos like "9 years of photography knowledge in 15 minutes" tell you everything about the intent. This isn't a channel built around weekly uploads or gear hype, it's built around high-signal lessons that respect your time and assume you're serious about improving.

What I particularly appreciate is how he handles the film versus digital question. He doesn't pick a side or turn it into a personality trait. The medium matters less than the photographer's intent, and he makes that argument through practical comparison rather than ideology. It's a grounded perspective that gives the channel a lot of credibility, and it makes his film content feel honest rather than nostalgic.

His channel runs under the Codacolor name and has a coherent identity across platforms, which reflects the same clarity that defines the content itself. Someone teaching from real experience rather than from enthusiasm alone.

If the other channels on this list make you want to pick up a camera, Cody's makes you think harder about what you do with it once you have.

His channel is on YouTube under the Codacolor name, and Instagram is worth a follow too.

Alex Botton's channel description does most of the work: "Cinematography, lighting, and 35mm film, exploring the craft behind great images." That's a different angle from most analog YouTube, and it shows in everything he makes.

He comes at photography with a working cinematographer's mindset, which means the conversation tends to be about light, mood, and visual intent rather than which film stock is trending or what camera to buy next. That background is real: alongside his film photography content he covers cinema cameras, documentary filmmaking, and lighting setups, which gives the whole channel a more production-aware sensibility than most.

There's also a 16mm side to his work that stands out. A long-form video on shooting with a Krasnogorsk-3 is the kind of content that only someone passionate about the moving image would make, and it gives the channel a depth that pure stills photographers rarely reach.

The result sits somewhere between education and creative essay. Less "here's how to do this" and more "here's how to think about this," which is a rare register in a space that defaults to tutorials and gear rankings.

I came across his Krasnogorsk-3 video by accident and ended up watching the whole thing in one sitting. That's the kind of channel this is. If you want to think more seriously about the visual side of photography, you'll feel right at home.

Alex Botton's YouTube channel is the place to start. His Instagram is worth a follow too.

Nick Carver is a working photographer and instructor based in Southern California, and his channel is one of the clearest examples of what happens when someone treats photography as a craft rather than a content niche.

The work is rooted in the American Southwest, deserts, wide open landscapes, quiet scenes with strong atmosphere, and it shows a photographer with a very specific and developed eye. His love for large format and panoramic work, particularly 6x17, gives the channel a slower and more expansive quality that feels almost like a counterargument to the rest of analog YouTube. Where a lot of creators are chasing the next gear drop or trending film stock, Nick is out in the Mojave thinking carefully about light and composition before pressing the shutter.

What keeps me coming back is how openly he teaches. The "Photography On Location" series takes you into the field and walks through the actual decisions behind an image, not in the abstract but in real conditions with real stakes. "Dissecting a Photo" does the same in reverse, unpacking finished work to show what made it land. Both formats reflect someone who understands the difference between showing results and sharing process.

He also covers the full arc from negative to final print, including fine art printing, zine making, and even organizing his own solo exhibition, which gives the channel a completeness that most photography creators never reach.

His videos have a way of slowing you down. You finish one and want to go outside with a camera and actually pay attention. That's a rare thing for YouTube to do.

His YouTube channel is well worth your time. Instagram too, if you want more of his Southwest work in your feed.

Caleb Knueven runs Bad Flashes out of Kansas, and the channel has one of the clearest visual identities in the analog space. The name gives it away: harsh direct flash, night shooting, bold graphic light, and a punchy aesthetic that makes his images immediately recognizable. Even when he shoots in daylight or travels, that same sense of visual boldness carries through. In a space that often defaults to muted tones and soft golden hour light, it's a genuine point of difference.

What makes the channel work beyond the look is how naturally Caleb balances personality with practical knowledge. The content is educational without feeling stiff, and he has a way of talking about film, cameras, and experimentation that makes the whole thing feel accessible and fun rather than gatekept. Whether you're just getting into film or already deep in it, the energy is the same.

His eye tends toward textured, overlooked, and slightly forgotten places. Abandoned buildings, decaying architecture, spaces with character and history. When one of his images shows up in your feed, you stop scrolling. Combined with the flash work, it creates a look that's instantly recognizable and hard to get tired of.

His background in filmmaking also gives the videos a narrative quality that sets them apart from standard how-to content. You get the sense that photography is part of a broader visual practice for him, not just a niche hobby, and that perspective shows.

And then there's Mamiyamigos, the podcast he co-hosts with Jason from Grainydays, which is an absolute must. Two people with strong opinions, genuine chemistry, and a lot to say about film photography. Highly recommended.

Subscribe to Bad Flashes on YouTube and follow Caleb on Instagra for the kind of images you don't often see in the analog space.

Twenty channels, and I genuinely enjoy every single one of them. Some I've followed for years, others I came across more recently and immediately wondered where they'd been all along. What they all have in common is that they make film photography feel exciting, worth learning about, and worth showing up for.

What I love most about this list is how different each channel is. Formats, aesthetics, priorities, personalities, regions. There is no single way to shoot film, and there is no single kind of person who does it. These twenty channels are a pretty good reflection of that.

If you find one that clicks, start with the back catalogue. That's usually where the real gems are hiding. And if there's a channel you think should have made the list, I'd genuinely love to hear about it.