My take on the Film-Look

Film Simulation: the process of obtaining the film-look from images obtained by digital means.

There are two  kinds of film-looks: the cheap-lens look and the expensive-lens look.

The cheap-lens look can be found in old family albums, pre-2000 snapshots. Typically, these photos were taken with consumer cameras with plastic lenses, using film of varying quality, film-processed in  chemical soups in different states of freshness, in thousands of developing labs where film-processing protocol weren't always followed. Finally, cameras were used with primitive focusing systems. So-called auto settings  were imprecise, let alone accurate. A decent lens inaccurately focused is a lousy lens.

The expensive-lens look is what is found in publications and photo exhibitions.. The tools used were not accessible to the average consumers. Films exposure had a narrow latitude, which necessitated accurate metering. Lenses were colour corrected and sharp (read: expensive). Films went to Labs with  precise processing. For example, Steve McCurry used Kodachrome that could only be processed in a handful of labs in the United States.