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I shoot digital, but I still love my Pentax K1000 and Yashica TLR. Here's one of my favorites. Probably not very good to many, but still one of my favorites.  Now for my question- what's a good starter large format? I don't care how big it is, and I just want something that lines up with an old Pentax SLR. I'm not really brave enough to buy one off Ebay.
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Jun 2, 2008 03:20
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:51 |
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I can't for the life of me remember where I bought my Yashica TLR. It was used, and not from B&H or Adorama. Where do you guys recommend looking for used gear? If I'm lucky I can find the same retailer again.
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Jun 2, 2008 04:50
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What's the process for dealing with light leaks on a large format's bellows? Also, here's a picture because I keep asking questions   Also, as I step from medium to larg(er) formats, should I try the 4x5 or jump straight to the 8x10? It's hobby only, and I am not looking for anything but bigger negatives.
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Jun 2, 2008 05:24
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What's a good rangefinder between the FED's and the Leicas? Although the Leicas are beautiful, optic-clockwork-jewelry beauties, I'd like something cheaper if I can get it without sacrificing too much in quality.
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Jun 3, 2008 04:03
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Seconded (or whatever number this is). I am admittedly a fool, and pay $10 for each roll of film for negatives and contact sheets. Then again, I shoot maybe 8 rolls a year, have no safe place for the chemicals and suck balls at loading 120. If you have a place to keep the chemicals, have some basic dexterity and patience and do any kind of volume on film, buy the stuff. Edit: This page needs more pictures! 
hybr1d fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Jun 4, 2008 |
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Jun 4, 2008 04:52
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If you don't get the film seated perfectly in the rolls, it will bow out and touch the adjacent film in the row/spool thingy next to it and get that result. I'd suggest at least a couple more rolls of film using test subjects. If I remember right, my college photog class had us shoot nearly ten rolls of film over a week's time to get us into loading it in the dark. Also consider a 'sacrifcial roll' that you'll not make any prints from and just practice loading, loading, loading. After you load it, take it out and examine it and see if you got it all loaded right.
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Jun 9, 2008 16:18
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dahkren posted:Thanks for the advice guys, I'll keep searching for an OM-1 since that seems to be the most suggested. Could anyone suggest some starting lenses if I can only get a body off ebay? Clayton Bigsby has offered some great advice- but don't go without if you can't find an OM1. I learned on a K1000 and bought one 3 years back to reminisce and I love my Pentax with the 50mm lens. I have a question for the group- what do you guys keep your cameras in? I have a pelican case that holds my Yashica 124G and Pentax K1000, but I'd like to display them without letting them get all dusty, which my house gets quite quickly.
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Jun 10, 2008 04:23
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I am looking into getting my 4x5 soon, and like a dumbass I waited until this point to think about developing the negatives. What gear do you recommend, and is there a solid book or site that covers the process? I am willing to burn through negatives and such, as this is more about learning and fun than immediate results... I just have no background in large format anything.
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Jun 12, 2008 06:46
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drat you film thread! I bought a Graphlex 4x5 off Ebay, should get it in a week or so. I also just bought my first batch of film chemicals and tanks in god knows how long, primarily because the local shop nearly doubled the price of their already expensive developing fees. As for the 4490, I have had mine and been very happy with the speed and quality, mostly with 35mm and 120 scans. My question is- are there any benefits of using bulk loaders, or has that died off with digital? I loved the bulk loader we had for film, and I don't need 80 million 35mm cannisters floating around.
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Jun 17, 2008 06:18
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Yeah, I just remembered the bulk loader right after ordering a bunch of rolls of Tri-X. How does everyone store their beauties? By no means do I have anything that I'd want to show off to others, but I do enjoy looking at the cameras when they're not in use. Does anyone have the same lust for their older gear, and how do they handle it? Thanks!
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Jun 19, 2008 03:17
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I just got back from the Sequoias this afternoon- I didn't have a chance to shoot any 35mm, but I shot 5 decent rolls of 120 and already have a couple keepers on my D80. Upon arriving home, I found the newest and by far the most complicated member that wanted to join my camera family, my 4x5 Century Graphic. Also pictured, my beloved Pentax K1000 and well-travelled Yashica 124G.  EDIT: Looks like the image attachment barfed. Any resident mods that can remove the attached image?
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Jun 28, 2008 04:56
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I use a mini igloo cooler for just that. I just got back from the Sequioas and used it with my film and one of those cooler gel packs inside- I never froze the gel pack, just got it cold in the hotel fridge.
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Jun 29, 2008 14:16
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My 4x5 came to me with a dirty lens- it took me nearly a half hour to figure out how to open it  . I have two questions about it: Is the flash assembly worth salvaging or collecting? It's referred to as the "star wars" handle and uses GE flash bulbs. Second question- it turns out the camera was from an estate sale and the film holders all still have film in them. I accidentally exposed one pair, but considering the camera box hadn't been used in 20+ years, do you think there's anything still on the negatives, and are they still good?
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Jun 30, 2008 00:57
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Reichstag posted:You should just send the flash handle to me is what you should do. Star Wars junkie! Graflex.org mentioned the handles were often bought off ebay so they can be modified and resold as light saber replicas. It came with the camera, so I feel like I need to keep it safe from people like you I was delighted to find a Sekonic 86 in the bottom of the box as well. Now all I need to do is apply some kind of chemical to the camera body so it doesn't smell like eau-de-old-man's-garage.I shot 4 rolls of Fujichrome 120 in the Sequoias this last week, along with two rolls of Ilford B&W- I am really excited to see what I got- there should be a keeper or two since I looked for keepers with my digital camera and then bracketed the poo poo out of everything. My previous rolls came back from the shop very under-exposed which tells me I need to learn the light meter in it better or just use a modern one.
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Jun 30, 2008 06:42
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1600 will experience some loss in the passenger screening X-Ray, as will anything over 1000- but some people report it's not bad enough to be noticeable. Checked bags get several times higher the dose of radiation each time they are checked, and 1600 in a checked bag means you are more likely hosed. I don't ever check film into bags, and once more I save my 1600 boxes and keep all my film in them. The idiots at the TSA won't "hand-check" them otherwise. How they hand check them without reading the ISO 100's are in 1000 boxes, I have no clue.
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Jul 1, 2008 15:36
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My Pentax K1000 isn't moving the film correctly from the cannister to the right hand reel. I had first assumed I had just not seated the roll correctly and the film was just slipping- then I ran a roll in the daylight and found the spindle with the teeth 'slips' and as such doesn't always pull the film forward all the way to the next frame. I suspect one of the gears has missing or worn teeth, and it only slips when I get to that side of the gear. Does anyone think this sounds like something different, or have any idea how much people charge to repair a K1000 these days? I bought it mostly as a collectible and have taken good care of it, and after a dozen rolls this is the first sign.
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Jul 1, 2008 21:17
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I want a working K1000, not that I wouldn't mind a working OM1 either I'll surely replace the K1000, I'd like to have one that works, even if it only sees light and occasional use. It's the camera I learned on some years back, so the particular one I have means little to me compared to the model in general. I developed 2 rolls of Tri-X 400 120 today, one was horribly under-exposed with nothing but black squares. The other one has one or two on it, this being one of them:  My Epson 4490 doesn't seem to scan negatives as negatives- when I tell it I'm scanning film, it takes 20 minutes to give me an ugly black strip- not of the negatives. I have to put them in the holder, tell it to preview in photo mode then scan the negatives at 3200. Does anyone out there have any better luck?
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Jul 2, 2008 23:55
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The vuescan software shows the same image for "transparency" images- a gradation of grey/black no matter what negative is loaded. The Epson software does the same thing. Maybe the analog gods are unhappy with my unhappy alliance of film and digital?
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Jul 3, 2008 02:51
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Luxmore posted:This is a stupid question probably but you do have the backlight exposed, right? Doh! Nothing like making an idiot of myself in the forum I said out loud, "Backlight, there's a backlight? I suppose there has to be one here somewhere" and found the handle for the cover about 10 seconds later.I don't have access to a darkroom and don't have the resources to make one- so a scanner is as close as I will get for a while- is there a better than the 4490 or 4990? I know drum scanners are supposedly the best but insanely expensive.
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Jul 3, 2008 05:22
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Here's one I just took yesterday for a test roll- no touch ups or editing with balance- just a scan at 3200 dpi. I don't like posting full res pictures of anything online, but I did zoom in so you can get a feel for clarity. Even with a substantial crop it still looks awesome at 600x600, but I am going for work that can go on prints larger than 30x30.  This is the first sign of the grain, which still looks cooler than pixelation any day!  I think scanners are like any other camera gear- go with what you can barely afford I am wishing I had the 4990 so I can do 4x5 negs from my new camera, but I'm not ready to sell my 4490 yet. Overall it's a decent scanner, although I haven't really used the Epson software for anything serious- I just use the imaging app in OSX.
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Jul 4, 2008 04:23
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johnasavoia posted:Wanna scan 4x5 negs? Just shoot paper negatives and scan them like any other piece of paper, plus its cheap and fun to shoot at ISO 3 I'm not familiar with paper negatives- do you have a recommendation on a place to start?
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Jul 4, 2008 14:38
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Krispy Kareem posted:Aaargh, I think my 120 film reel might be defective. Even watching videos on how to thread the film I can't get it the film to roll up properly. The spring loaded clip doesn't hold the film and the spool itself seems a smidge too small for the film size. The end result, whether I'm in a changing bag or testing it with a dummy roll is film stuck on film which is resulting in horrible developing results. While the clip is very helpful, you may find that it's not needed 100% of the time. You can load the roll by putting a finger in there to create the same tension and then wrap the film around the "ridge", just enough to get tension to keep rolling. It would be easier to show you, but when you get it going you should be able to compress the film as you roll it in, and as it expands it will kind of lock in place. I personally hate the plastic ones, and 99% of that is probably because I never learned to use them right. I learned on the metal ones, and never looked back. It sounds like you need a new roll, and you may get different recommendations based on everyone's preference... and I have no idea if the plastic rolls fit in the metal tanks.
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Jul 5, 2008 01:35
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Does anyone have experience with these guys for film developing? http://www.protekcolorlab.com I like the ~$3 per roll of 120, compared to the $15 of the local shop. Can you guys recommend a place for me to send my color 120?
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Jul 5, 2008 20:07
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What mail-in service do you guys use? I have some color rolls I'd like to try out on a new vendor. Also, came across this today: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/techtips_filmdev.php
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Jul 7, 2008 16:50
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Pay very close attention to your temps- I was an idiot on a couple rolls and developed with 80 degree B mix of MC110, and all my negatives were waaaay too dark. I use the recommended 3 minutes or so at 78 degrees and am very happy with the results.
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Jul 16, 2008 19:50
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I'd like to play around with some polaroid medium or large format film. I am looking at MF bodies, and already have a Graphlex Graphic 4x5. Can anyone make a recommendation on a camera/back/film combo that's reasonable? I'd really like a recommendation for a back/film pair for my existing LF, but I haven't found many guides/recommendations online that help.
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Dec 26, 2008 23:09
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My 124G has been pretty decent, but it's a very basic meter. For important stuff I bracket the hell out of it, and when it comes to film costs I probably would have been better off getting a dedicated meter sooner than later.
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Dec 29, 2008 18:31
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Edit: Nevermind.
hybr1d fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Dec 30, 2008 |
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Dec 30, 2008 04:53
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The Yashica 124G is a great model, and can be found reasonably many places including https://keh.com.
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Dec 31, 2008 03:57
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le capitan posted:This would be my first camera, I don't have a DSLR or any other camera. Also this would be my first lens. There's nothing wrong with either choice- depending on what you want to get out the purchase. I would generalize it and say that a point-and-shoot will give you mediocre pictures right out of the box, and that you will fight to get creative control over it the whole time you own it. This includes exposure, focus, depth of field, etc etc etc. A film camera of just about any kind will challenge you to learn the process, and will result in many failed photos- but that is part of the learning process for film. You don't see many (or any?) famous photographer's early screw-ups, because they learn from them and throw them away.
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Dec 31, 2008 19:27
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le capitan posted:hybr1d: Yeah that's basically what's been going through my head. My parents have the 590 and i've had a chance to mess around with it. It is nice and exactly as you said. I've been doing some searching on craigslist and found a canon AE-1 with a 50mm f1.4 lens. Best case scenario would be for me to get lenses that i could keep and get a better body after I get some more experience. Lenses pretty much rule the day on film cameras. What is your budget? One thing to consider is going with a manual focus camera- you can sometimes get a 'better' (I know, I know, it's subjective) camera if you go with a slightly older model that doesn't have AF. I'm not sure how much of a return you will see trying to keep lenses across camera types, but hey- whatever works. I would recommend for your first time out getting a single (50mm?) lens and using that to get to know the camera. I've learned more about my DSLR from sticking to a 50mm for a while than the confusion of multiple lenses.
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Jan 1, 2009 01:52
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Can someone recommend someone that can do mail-in LF drum scans (or someone in the SoCal area that does walk-ins)? I just went and shot my first 10 4x5's today, using Arista 100. My light meter told me that at f64 one of them was an 8 minute exposure, so we'll see how that comes out. I sent them off using my local camera shop (Oceanside Photo & Telescope), but they wanted $10 for each scan and the lady helping me had no idea if they were drum scans. I'm not paying $10 each for flatbed scans. It was an interesting perspective shooting 4x5, and I really enjoyed it. There was a purpose and a rythm to it that reminded me of when all I had was a Pentax K1000, a couple bottles of chemicals and a college darkroom. It also made me appreciate digital too- like the fact that it will be days before I know if it completely sucked, so I have to rely on copious notes. I think I would kill for a LF camera that encoded the aperture and shutter speed on the edge of the negative. For those considering LF, it was fairly simple to load, but instead of just picking up a roll and throwing it in, I had to make a darkroom just to load the negatives. It took me about a minute for each one, which is not bad, but it's not going to allow you to catch that 'quick shot' if you don't have any handy. I'd love to find a polaroid back for it, but I am having trouble finding a back for my Speed Graphic that is both obtainable and for which they still make polaroid film. I also developed 3 rolls of 120, and will post later when they're dry.
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Jan 11, 2009 02:50
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Thanks for the suggestions- I will stick to contact sheets except when I want something printed huge. Looking at some of the colors in large format photos taken, I think I am going to shoot some color next. Quick question: With extremely small apertures like 64, and exposure times running in the minutes, should I expect to see softer pictures of truly stationary objects like buildings, mountains, etc?
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Jan 11, 2009 17:17
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johnasavoia posted:Because 4x5 is such a large format, diffraction is waaaayyyy less of a problem than it is on 35mm or other small formats. For instance, whereas with your average 35mm lens, the optimal aperture is f8 or so, it will often be f22 or f32 on a large format lens. Unless you were talking about motion blur, in which case no, so long as the camera and the subject are still, you will get sharp results. This is great news It was fun going outside of my norms that I am used to with digital or 35mm, and it was pretty weird using my watch for metering shutter speeds.Clayton Bigsby posted:Nah, you'll be fine. One thing you'll find though is that you generally won't see any people since they don't stick around long enough to register. This has some really cool potential, but I am actually looking at doing some modelling with some color film and the same camera. I think some bright lights and larger apertures are probably in order
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Jan 11, 2009 21:48
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Can you be more specific about reciprocity? There's a very good chance that none of my first 10 shots on this format and this camera came out as usable negatives, but we'll have to see what the results are. I intentionally went for different shutter speed and aperture combinations, so we'll see if the 8 minute shot really came through or not.
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Jan 11, 2009 23:34
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I managed to badly fog my first batch of LF 4x5. At least the shop didn't charge me for the first batch. I have some things I know I did wrong, so I am going to go after my 2nd attempt this weekend.
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Jan 15, 2009 17:34
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Pompous Rhombus posted:You know what sucks? Finally getting an OM-4T, and having it drain a pair of fresh SR-44 batteries (:tenbux: at Radioshack) within 3 days/20 shots. At least KEH takes returns... glad I didn't get it on eBay. The rest of the roll should be fine. See if you can get the shutter to close, or just put the lens cap back on. Remember when you roll the film back in the cannister that it all has to pass by the shutter assembly one more time, so just do what you need to make sure there's no light in front of the shutter when you wind it back up. Also for my screw ups- I had assumed that the black bag for 4x5 negs was enough, but alas I have been informed they need to stay in the bag AND the box. I am looking forward to trying to take some photos tomorrow!
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Jan 16, 2009 05:45
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brohammed ali posted:Learning large format is all about making tons of mistakes. Keep making them, you'll get it. Thanks for the encouragement. I'm learning how to actually use my Sekonic light meter, and mistakes there are temporarily making things worse. I went out and took 10 photos with the LF Saturday, then when I got back to the house I resumed reading about my meter and realized I had gotten shutter and aperture priority mixed up  That should make for an interesting batch!I snuck out to the beach today, and took another 10 with my logbook to record my settings. It will be cool to see how these come out, but I quickly found the limitations of a 40+ year old camera- the shutter speed only goes up to 400, so even with the aperture at its smallest I was still beyond the abilities of the camera for some of the shots. Overall, the work with film is doing what I had hoped- it is a means in itself, but the reason I went back to it was to focus more on the mechanics of photography, which I was not doing at all with my digital stuff.
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Jan 19, 2009 23:32
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This thread is one of my all-time favorites. Now for a mini-update. I found several screw-ups in my steps on doing LF film work, and I'll post them with my fixes: 1.) I assumed the bag inside the box of sheet film was lightproof. It's not, and doing a bit of keyword searches I found this to be a common mistake. Fix:I now keep my film in the bag AND in the box, or the film holders. 2.) I thought my master bathroom was completely dark at night. It has no windows, and I turned off the lights in the bathroom, the bedroom and the hallway. That was not enough apparently, because some screwing around with long exposures on my DSLR showed me light was still creeping in somehow. Fix: I use my changing bag for all my sheet film handling now. It's a little cramped, but works well. 3.) I thought I had bought a "simple" Sekonic light meter. Nope. Still cryptic, tons of settings to get me into trouble. Fix: I read through the manual, then a couple days later printed the PDF of it and highlighted and noted the parts I plan to use now. And it goes in my LF (laptop) bag. They seem like stupid mistakes now, but they are big deals when it's not solved by a camera less than 20 years old. I have 10 color, 10 b&w so far, and plan to shoot 10 more b&w early tomorrow when it starts raining here. Hopefully I get some useful ones out of this batch.
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Jan 22, 2009 06:19
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:51 |
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w_hat posted:I'm coming over to the film side; I just bought a Yashica Electro 35 GSN on ebay. I'd like to get into MF but I figured it'd be safer to start with 35mm. Anyone else have one? It looks like a pretty cool camera. According to here: http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?YashicaElectro35GSN.html~mainFrame It appears to be an aperture-priority camera, where you set the aperture and it uses the body's (not through the lens) light meter to decide a shutter speed. Unless you know the seller quite well, I would suggest a roll of b&w to start, and pick one or two simple subjects and shoot each aperture on the first roll of film. Get that one developed and see how they come out. There's lots of talk of using a pro lab for negatives, and it seems nearly everyone here ends up either using a pro lab or doing it themselves. I'd recommend a pro lab while you get to know the camera, then move into doing at least the negative processing yourself.
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Jan 23, 2009 16:11
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