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Well, the old film thread is 15 years old and most of the links in the OP are broken so it's time to begin again. Why shoot film? There was a large resurgence in film photography around 2019 when all of a sudden it became hip and cool to shoot film again. People were chasing tones and vibes and prices went absolutely bonkers. A lot of these trend followers have since gotten out of the game and now what's left are the diseased in the head purists who'd sooner coat their own plates than pick up a digital camera, but why are they still holding on to this format? I can't speak for anyone but for myself, as a professional computer toucher, I want my hobby to be not interacting with electronics. The physicality of film, the development and printing process are what appeals to me. Other people like the look, or the fact that film makes them slow down and more actively consider their photography and how they engage with it. For others it's format dependent. Shooting large format is still a very attractive way to get into camera and lens movements. You won't know if it's a good fit for you until you try it, and I heartily recommend it. Is shooting film expensive? Generally yes, prices aren't getting any cheaper. On top of the price for the film itself you have development and scanning costs. Prices can be reduced greatly by home processing and bulk loading but that involves a quite large investment into gear and skills. In Australia, if you're shooting colour film you're looking at around $20 for a 36 exposure roll then $15 for processing and scans. If you can take care of it yourself at home, and shoot black and white, costs can come down as low as $4 a roll and 10c for processing. We all know your time is worthless. OK, I still want to give it a go, where do I start?  Well, you're going to need a camera to begin with. 35mm is the most affordable format and you can get a body and lens for as little as $30 to free if you can rummage around in your parents cupboard. There's a million choices out there but some beginner friendly cameras that won't break the bank are: SLRs with auto exposure modes (usually aperture priority)
SLRs with Light Meters but no auto modes
Notice I didn't include Nikon and Canon in these lists as they generally command a higher price than other brands due to the recognition. If anyone else has cameras they'd like to add to these lists or lists of rangefinders / point and shoots they think would be good to add let me know! You mentioned other formats, what are those?  There used to be hundreds of film formats to shoot but not any more. The film formats are broken into categories that distinguish them from 35mm. Subminature, medium format, large format and ultra large format. The biggest way formats differ is the negative size they produce, here's what you can commonly shoot today, from smallest to largest size
Generally the larger the format the more expensive it is to shoot, with the exception of 110 which is more expensive than 35mm. The larger the format the higher the resolution you can get out of the photo but also the bigger the camera. There's a lot of fun to be had shooting different formats and each give a different look. Wait, what's medium format about, why are there different sizes? Medium format is the 2nd most shot format and is a different to the others in that the camera is what sets the aspect ratio. In centimeters the common formats are 4.5x6, 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9. The larger the negative the fewer shots you get per roll out of your camera. It's the format I shoot the most of personally. Should I shoot colour or black and white? What's a good film to start with? There's 3 main styles of film development process type:
Colour negative is probably the most commonly shot type. It produces a negative image on the film base which is then scanned and inverted, colour negative also covers some special black and white films like Ilford XP2 which uses the colour development process. Colour reversal is slide film, after that's developed you have a positive image and this can be projected or scanned like colour negative. Black and white is as it sounds and also produces a negative image. There's also ECN2 process which is for cinema film and not something you generally need to worry about. Cinema film has a coating called remjet on it which needs to be removed before processing. Whenever you buy cinema film you need to know if this coating has been removed or not, and this should be clearly labelled on the film or the website you're buying from. If it hasn't been removed you need to send it off to a lab that does ECN2 processing, if it has been removed it can be processed in C41. Most importantly they're all good* and there's no best film! I recommend looking up photos online of what different film stocks look like and giving it a go. For affordability however you can't go past Kodak Gold 200, Fuji Superia, Ilford black and white films and Foma black and white films, so try starting there. There's no cheap slide film. You'll shoot a lot of different stocks before you find the ones you like the most. *except for Cinestill, you should never buy Cinestill, they're actively hostile to the community and you can read about their bullshit here. If you want to shoot cinema film you should support Reflex Lab Ok, I wanna go bigger, what medium format camera should I get? Medium format is a very different beast to 35mm, with cameras made for specific purposes. You're going to have to start thinking about things like what aspect ratios you want to shoot, how you like to compose, are you doing studio work and so forth. If you have a bit of an idea what kind of stuff you want to shoot then ask us in here and we can point you in the direction of some cameras based on what's important to you. But, there are a few cameras I really love that are generally cheap to pick up and use. Note that none of these have light meters. Most medium format cameras don't. These are:
Alright, I love film and I want to make it my personality, but how can I do it cheaper? Most of the film process you can do at home, this falls into 2 major parts, developing and scanning. How do I develop at home?  This will cover black and white development only. In my opinion (and my part of the world) C41 and E6 development is rarely worth it at home. Unless you shoot a lot of colour, about 20 rolls every 3 months or save up 20 rolls to do it all at once, it will not be demonstrably cheaper than getting the lab to process your film develop only and scanning it yourself. C41 and E6 were made to be machine processed so let the machine do it for you. For black and white development you need a few things:
For the fixer and stop bath you can buy whatever is cheapest, they both do the same thing no matter what brand you buy, same for your rinse aid. For developer I recommend Kodak HC-110 and Rodinal as they both have shelf lives into the decades do you never need to worry about your developer going bad. Developing at home is a lot easier than you might think, the black and white process was pretty much made to be done in your kitchen and by hand. Here's a video that'll walk you through the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPQ7OPy8T2w Note. DO NOT SQUEEGEE YOUR FILM, IGNORE THAT PART OF THE VIDEO YOU WILL SCRATCH YOUR FILM If you want to know times for any particular film and developer combo then the Massive Dev Chart has you covered. What about scanning? What scanner you buy is going to be largely dependant on what negative sizes you want to scan. If you want to scan 35mm only then your best bet is a Plustek Opticfilm series. The 8000 series is the latest and is the best thing in affordable scanning for 35mm and subminiature film. If you want to save a buck you can buy second hand, then anything from the 7200i onwards is fully compatible with modern scanning software. Older and more esoteric scanners like Nikons and Minoltas can take some computer fuckery to get working, some only working under XP and relying on virtual machines. If you shoot up to medium format then the Epson V600 series can be had brand new or second hand, while it won't give as good as a result for 35mm as the Plustek it will give good results if you spend some time messing with the film height to get it just right in the narrow focus band of the scanner. This too can be had second hand. If you shoot large format, or want a nicer scan than the V600 can give you than the Epson V700 and V800 series are the way to go. The V850 is the latest and provides great results but the film holders are dogshit and you'll want to change them out ASAP to something else. Alright what's next? God you're keen, but darkroom printing, large format and alternative printing comes after all of this. There's some links below that cover those topics. But, this is still only really scratching the surface of film photography. It's a big world to explore, finding developer and film combos that work for you, push and pull processing, negative manipulation when printing, dry and wet plate processes and more. It can be pretty daunting to start with but we're here to help and answer questions so do drop in. Other Places The Medium and Large Format Thread The Darkroom Thread Mike Eckman's site is full of a tonne of camera reviews of weird and wonderful cameras, and well worth a look if you want to urge surf for something to buy that's strange and cheap. Megabound fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Nov 10, 2023 |
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Nov 10, 2023 01:43
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Wild EEPROM posted:few things to add: Thanks for that!
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Nov 10, 2023 02:23
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True, don't buy cinestill
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Nov 10, 2023 02:37
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Ziggy Smalls posted:ground floor etc general advice is underexpose by 1 - 2 stops to get texture in your snow on a sunny day but I've never shot in snow myself.
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Nov 10, 2023 03:03
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Recoome posted:Fomapan or bust That's right     
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Nov 10, 2023 03:15
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blue squares posted:you'd need a tent for the printing, though, (I think) which to me seems like the most fun part (speaking as someone whose understanding of film developing comes from watching movies where characters stand in a red-lit darkroom and hold up strips of negatives) Not necessarily, if your bathroom doesn't have windows, or you you can black them out easily then that's a great place to set up a temporary darkroom. You can fit everything you need on a small cart. If there's no strong light sources outside your window you can also just print at night in the dimmest room you've got. A darkroom doesn't need to be perfectly dark as paper is no where near as sensitive as film (about ISO 3) and has a hard time jumping over its base hesitancy. Also, I think scanning is fine. Just put on a podcast or YouTube and get through it. I don't really find it a hateful experience at all.
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Nov 10, 2023 22:00
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It's a far more rigid process with less opportunity for creativity than black and white printing. Dodging and burning a colour print introduces colour shifts and you can't change contrast. The whole process has to be done in complete darkness (unless you have a very expensive safelight). The process is essentially:
For me the additional effort isn't worth it for the reduced artistic input. I'd rather scan and edit the few colour photos I take and get them printed with a nice inkjet.
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Nov 11, 2023 22:28
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I would be very interested in this if you decide to let it go
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Nov 11, 2023 23:30
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That's very true but if you are some kind of sicko who likes that then buy Reflex Lab film cause it's exactly the same thing
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Nov 12, 2023 05:32
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carticket posted:Does anyone have a specific light meter app for Android that they find works well? The guy at the shop actually said that's what he uses for metering, but his was an iPhone app. This is the one I use when I don't have any other light meter on me https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.willblaschko.android.lightmeterv2.free
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Nov 12, 2023 08:24
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I've been shooting 16mm in this Minolta-16 MG and it's good fun. This is Double-X in HC-110, a bit overexposed.     
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Nov 13, 2023 00:23
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Thanks nerd!
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Nov 13, 2023 05:09
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big black turnout posted:You're welcome. I have the exact same one at home and the black one at work. Lol, I've got black with legends at work and white with blanks at home too.
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Nov 13, 2023 05:36
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big black turnout posted:How do you deal with inversions when it's going to be taking the film totally out of the liquid? It's fine, you're thinking too hard about it. I run single reels in my 2 reel tank all the time.
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Nov 13, 2023 05:37
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Counterpoint
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Nov 16, 2023 21:41
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carticket posted:This is awesome. What is it called. The light meter is a TTArtisans one, and it's a 3D printed cold shoe to NATO strap adapter.
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Nov 16, 2023 23:27
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The Minolta SRT series is ubiquitous, any of them will do, and while there were design revisions the fundamentals of them never really changed other than a bit more information in the viewfinder, a hot shoe and a film load indicator. The 201 is technically the more premium camera but not in any real way that will matter to you as a first time film shooter. However, for like a quarter of the price of a service you could get a known working SRT to cut your teeth on to see if you even get along with the camera. I'm a Minolta diehard and while I paid for my 303b to be serviced that's because it's a camera I'm never going to part with, I will absolutely not be able to recoup the cost of the service in sale.
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Nov 25, 2023 01:05
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I don't go to online shops, join your local film photography Facebook page and there'll be a bunch of photographers selling to other photographers, if you say you're looking for a starter SLR someone will probably offer you a great deal.
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Nov 25, 2023 01:32
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Canon VL and L are great and a lot cheaper than a P. Nikon SP (or any of their other rangefinders) if you want one of the prettiest cameras ever made. The Voightlander Bessa R2 is also phenomenal. And as mentioned the Minolta CLE, best paired with the lenses Minolta made for it.
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Nov 25, 2023 23:18
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Dr. VooDoo posted:Outside of Leicas what are some good rangefinders? I wanna get one for my carry everywhere camera since my Dynax 9 is a big ol’ tank that makes it hard to constantly have on me. I’m big into Minoltas so I was looking at the CLE but I’m open to all suggestions really. I want to compare my options before I drop money on one Oh, seeing as you're big into Minolta they did many other rangefinders if your ok with fixed lens. Their Minolta 35 interchange lens rangefinders are good but not as good as others mentioned. The Minolta V2 is probably my favourite fixed lens rangefinder of theirs and you also have the Olympus SP and RD for phenomenal fixed lens rangefinders too.
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Nov 26, 2023 03:11
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I think they're all seen as reliable and good and you just need to find which one has the combination of features you want.
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Nov 26, 2023 22:31
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I bought some point and shoots, one for me and one for a friend, ran a test roll through yesterday.     Very happy with both, the top one is the Fuji Cardia Travel Mini OP and the bottom one is the Fuji Cardia Mini Elite OP, and they have a push button switch 45 and 28mm lens. I really like them.
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Dec 10, 2023 09:49
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It's for the guy who designed and made this:     He came over and we both built those cameras, so I got him this one to take on his honeymoon, something nice and easy to use to make some memories with.
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Dec 10, 2023 10:03
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lollybo posted:Nice camera! I also got a iiif earlier this year. The shots I showed the last page was also done with this camera and Elmar 3.5. Another poster had Leica iii shots too to share. Soviet lenses are not totally compatible with regular LTM cameras. This is because as part of reparations, when the Germans handed over the factories to the USSR, there were 2 standards available for thread pitch available, Contax and Leica. Contax were bigger than Leica in the 40s so the Soviets used the Contax thread pitch on both their Contax mount and LTM mount cameras, instead of having to produce 2 different sets of lenses for the Kiev and the Fed. If you're after cheap LTM lenses that will focus perfectly across the entire focus range then your best bet is Canon.
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Dec 15, 2023 02:19
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The Jupiter is wide enough that while your critical focus will still be off your depth of field is wide enough to hide that fact. All of these lenses will have issues with critical focus wide open, and longer lenses will be more noticeable, but they can certainly be good enough if you're just zone focusing at apertures like f/8 and above.
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Dec 15, 2023 02:52
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Dec 28, 2023 10:28
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This is the mod cabal everyone is whispering about, dudes swapping hobbies
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Jan 5, 2024 14:15
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Yeah, just store your film separately and ask nicely, have it in your hands when you get to the front of the line. If they say no then that's that and let them scan it. Likely you'll have no issues even if scanned. Film from my Spain trip got hit by 10 scans and showed no obvious damage. CT isn't as scary as people make it out to be, at the most it adds some base fog but you likely won't notice anything tbh.
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Jan 12, 2024 21:32
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Over the past few weeks I've been taking the steps to get into dry plate photography and jumped straight into coating my own plates. I shot my first "successful" one today. Out of 4 plates I shot 1 exposure test (cause I need to figure out how sensitive my emulsion is) 1 photo and smashed 2 when they fell out of the holder in the camera.  I did a contact print cause I was in the darkroom anyway to develop the plates so I did a little bit of printing too. 
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Jan 13, 2024 06:22
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Ethics_Gradient posted:I am comparatively pretty cavalier with my gear so take this with a grain of salt, but a hood is usually all the protection I bother with when carry a camera around. It keeps your fingers/other objects off the glass, and provides some impact protection, while not compromising image quality (and helping with flare). About 1 but I didn't get to shoot enough to really nail it down. It'll also change with time of day and cloud cover thanks to the ortho emulsion
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Jan 14, 2024 22:24
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XP2 I think is the last one going so those are your options
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Jan 15, 2024 04:32
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Ethics_Gradient posted:Definitely - are you doing the step test method with the darkslide? Yeah, that was one of the two photos I took
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Jan 15, 2024 20:37
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Beve Stuscemi posted:They have cloth shutters? drat This is why the Canon VL is the superior LTM rangefinder
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Jan 16, 2024 03:41
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I'm just poo poo stirring Reccome as he's a Barnack boy but yes, shoot what makes you happy. I never got along with rangefinders in 35mm but use a Moskva-5 for 6x9 which has separate focus and viewfinder window and it's fine and good. Most importantly it's small for a 6x9 so I can carry it everywhere.
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Jan 16, 2024 04:42
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Rollers are the most usual culprit and should be cleaned with IPA and then a little drop of lube on the pinions
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Jan 16, 2024 23:20
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The Canon L1, VL and VI L are less well known and a lot cheaper than a 7 or P and every bit as good.
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Jan 18, 2024 23:39
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M41, K Mount and Minolta SR are the 3 I like for cheap quality lenses. And out of the cameras you're interested in the Spotmatic would be the most well regarded. Most M42 cameras have stop down metering, if you want to meter while full open just based off aperture selection I'd get a Minolta SRT series (303 or 303b preferably but they're all good) and then you'll have access to that sweet sweet Minolta lens ecosystem.
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Jan 19, 2024 02:44
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Minolta lenses extended all the way from the SR in 1958 to the MD in 2001, there's a tonne of great lenses. Basically any of the first party ones will be great but I have extra love for: 45mm f/2 MD 28mm f/3.5 MD 58mm f/1.4 MC 50mm f/1.7 MC or MD The differences are that SR (1958) lenses are not meter coupled so you're manually metering. MC (1966) is meter coupled and MD allows aperture priority on their later cameras and was introduced with the XD (1977). Coatings changed over the years but lens formulas stayed pretty much unchanged
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Jan 19, 2024 03:29
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Here's the secret, all cameras have good (prime) lenses and most (prime) lenses have been good for at least 100 years. Don't stress too much about it.
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Jan 19, 2024 03:33
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:46 |
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The reason why I recommended the SRT303 and 303b (seeing as you're Australian you'll also find the Japanese counterparts, the SRT Super and SRT505) is for their full information viewfinder. All other SRT models have only aperture in finder whereas these have aperture and shutter speed, and also a hot shoe.
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Jan 19, 2024 05:28
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