Shooting Film.

Eirebear

Digital got me into photography, as much as some people dont like to admit it, im more than happy to.
Without digital i wouldnt have bothered all that much with photography.

Recently however ive started thinking more and more about messing about with film.
The mrs hasgot a couple of old cameras kicking about with a few lenses that ive never used...as well as a few Lomo type ones. Shes pretty much given up on photograpghy to concentrate on her sketching and suchlike...so theyre sitting there wasted.

This might sound really stupid, but i honestly dont know where to start with them.

Anyone got any tips on the kind of thing i should be looking to get out of them, how to have some fun with them?
I dont feel as comfortable with them in my hands as i do my trusty Dslr

theshiels

get yourself some neopan 400 iso film in 120mm (for the holga) and 35mm presuming you have a 35mm camera. It's a workhorse film, good range and nice in terms of contrast. I know it's an "obvious" choice, but it's a great film for starting off with. Cheap as chips too in gunns. colour wise, i quite like fuji pro 400 and portra nc. the pro 400 is versatile and gives nice results, the portra nc gives Natural Colours. Portra vc will give vivid tones, havent tried that yet though... 7dayshop for online or gunns for brilliant service and a good range of film and accessories

Looking to get something out of them? with a holga you'll be lucky to get a good image, every one is different... mine was awfull. used a friends and it was perfect. Seriously though, have some fun, don't get down if the exposures are off at the start it's less instantly gratifying than digital. Film is great though, love the stuff. Nothing like the feel and sound of a real shutter and waiting to get prints back (or printing and developing your own.. wonderfull stuff)

kumate_champ07

as far as 35mm slr's its easy enough if you've used a dslr. the thing you need to get used to is that once you have film in the camera you cant change the roll till its used up so your stuck with 1 film speed

it would be handy to have different cameras with different iso film loaded.
It can be frustrating when your camera is loaded with b&w film and there happens to be an amazing sunset forming but you cant capture it


I use a ricoh xr-1 fully manual slr. I find it much more comfortable to use than my modern canon eos300v.

Eirebear

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

film makes you think more about the photo than the camera.

I think thats why ive suddenly become aware of the cameras gathering dust in the cupboard.

m_s_nixon

I'm thinking of going down the same route, I have never shot film apart from holiday snaps on disposable cameras . I'm doing some research to try and get some degree of lens compatability between my current digital and whatever film camera i go for. Whenever i get the film camera i plan to put the digital camera on the shelf for a while, I have a terrible habit of snapping the same scene over and over and picking whichever one is slightly better, the great thing about film is that it forces you to really think about composure.

Ghost Train

I'd do a search for the user manual of one of the cameras and have a look through it. If its any good it will give basic tips and might give you a bit more confidence getting started with the particular camera

AnCatDubh

I think film is great in terms of learning more. Your DSLR spoils you and means there is a lot that you don't have to think about.

I think the further you go back in time the better. Something with no meter, manual winds, manual ISO setting - none of that fancy DX encoding, etc...,

I think eventually I do want to get back to doing pin hole stuff for the craic.

kumate_champ07

Eirebear wrote: »

I think thats why ive suddenly become aware of the cameras gathering dust in the cupboard.

lol I edited that part out when I realised that Im always thinking about the camera! you dont need to go thru menus on a screen to access settings on a manual slr, so thats what I kind of meant

kumate_champ07

AnCatDubh wrote: »

I think film is great in terms of learning more. Your DSLR spoils you and means there is a lot that you don't have to think about.

I think the further you go back in time the better. Something with no meter, manual winds, manual ISO setting - none of that fancy DX encoding, etc...,

I think eventually I do want to get back to doing pin hole stuff for the craic.

Im gonna try my ricoh with the batteries out some time, tho the sunny16 rule will be hard to master now that winter is arriving!

theres something special about making photographs with no battery power

ThOnda

Well, don't try to check exposure with the film camera :-)
Didjital has many advantages. You are going to appreciate them more having the film experience.

It is only camera. You cannot check anything, you cannot change ISO in the middle, you have to change film every 36 exposures, you should not mix exposed and unexposed rolls of film in your pockets/bag, you will have to wind film after every exposure or to carry many AA batteries for the motor, you will spend a fortune on buying films on-line (still cheaper that in stores here), you'll spend fortune on developing them, you'll get frustrated how grainy scans you'll receive, you'll be frustrated how narrow is the dynamic range of the lab scanners when comparing it to RAW or DNG...

Go for it, it is worth every single penny and the experience is fantastic. Even the sound of winding the film will grow on you and you'll miss it on DSLR.

Ghost Train

Picked up a (sticky) zenit 3m cheap on ebay, first time working off sunny 16 rule and no metering, definitely makes you think more about light levels and the type of scene being shot. Do think starting out it might be better to have some sort of metering built into the camera, just so the light metering is consistent and you get easier use of all shutter speeds and apertures.
Here are the photos (overused chemicals=bit grainy) http://pix.ie/ghosttrain/album/356425

kumate_champ07

I would recommend buying a cheap flatbed film scanner for scanning negatives/slides. you get much better results than cheap lab scanning,

If you want the best quality you will pay a very high price for drum scanning but its only really needed if you want huge prints and you used a fine grain film and sharp lens perfectly

try out some fuji provia 100f, its not as overly saturated as velvia. seeing high quality exposed slides for the first time is a wonderful experience!

AnCatDubh

On the metering experience, I'd recommend picking up a manual light meter - something that works off dials and text. Absolutely no batteries. Only recently did I get one. I haven't used it in anger as yet but up to now, having used DSLRs, I actually realised that I didn't understand/appreciate the formal relationship between ISO/Aperture/and Shutter Speed.

Sure I've read the Patterson book and sure I know lots about ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed and what they all do (very functional stuff), but until I had this 1953 manual light meter in my hands looking at a dial which was printed rather than a lcd and when turned alters the aperture and shutter speed readings in a manual and physical way, that I actually realised the closeness and impact that these rather basic concepts have.

I guess its good to be learning all the time but my point is that using the DSLR had me oblivious to the actual manual relationship of the three basic concepts. Kinda funny now that I think about it.

duffarama

Plus 1 for fuji pro 400h film, it's probably my favourite film. Also don't be afraid to push the ISO on film. Sure the results may be ridiculously grainy but you may like that when you see it printed.

I've a few film cameras, currently shooting 800 ISO colour film in one and 100 ISO ektar colour film in another which I've been pushing to 400 and can't wait to see how grainy/ungrainy are.

I started with film P&S's and my first SLR was digital but I love my film SLR and RF.