First roll of 35mm film!

PoleStar

Just shot my first roll of 35mm film today!

Nikkormat FTn with a 50mm f/1.4 lens.

Gonna get it developed hopefully tomorrow!

Anyone know any good resources for film photography and guides perhaps for developing?

PoleStar

Anyone?

magicbastarder

there's not a huge difference in the principles of photography between film and digital; there's getting to know your favourite films and how best to use them, though. i love delta 3200 for portraiture, but it's a bit fast for outdoor work.

Fajitas!

If it's your first ever roll, you might be as well to drop it into a lab, that way you'll know your shots are ok, before moving on to developing - Nothing worse having no idea where something went wrong.

www.apug.org is a great forum for film resources.

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php is another handy list of all your dev times. I don't have my other links to hand at the moment, but get Googling, there's loads out there.

Enjoy

Ghost Train

youtube has a few videos showing whats involved

magicbastarder

i remember being told to expose for the highlights with slide, and expose for the shadows with negs; if you blow the highlights on slide, they're irrecoverable.

charybdis

magicbastarder wrote: »

there's not a huge difference in the principles of photography between film and digital; there's getting to know your favourite films and how best to use them, though. i love delta 3200 for portraiture, but it's a bit fast for outdoor work.

Do you rate it at ISO 3200?

magicbastarder wrote: »

i remember being told to expose for the highlights with slide, and expose for the shadows with negs; if you blow the highlights on slide, they're irrecoverable.

I think the exposure rules of thumb are usually: expose slides for the highlights, expose B&W negative film for the shadows and develop for the highlights, and expose colour negative film for midtones and let shadows and highlights fall where they may.

Digital is probably most similar to slide film in that they both have a very sharp highlight shoulder and need to be carefully exposed highlights-wise.

magicbastarder

charybdis wrote: »

Do you rate it at ISO 3200?

yeah, i've never tried pushing it.
reason i like it for portraiture is that it's forgiving on slight focus errors, and it's flattering to skin tones.

charybdis

magicbastarder wrote: »

yeah, i've never tried pushing it.
reason i like it for portraiture is that it's forgiving on slight focus errors, and it's flattering to skin tones.

I was actually more interested in whether or not you've pulled it. Apparently its "true" speed is about ISO 1000 so rating it somewhere in that neighbourhood would probably make it still good for portraiture but with reduced contrast and more usable for outdoor work.

DaireQuinlan

I've done that before (delta 3200 @ 800 or so). Not a good result. Everything ended up the same dull mid tone grey. There was only so much you could do even in post to try and get decent tones out of it, and the grain was pretty objectionable.
If you want to get a good mid speed low contrast B&W that still has great tones you could do worse than push tri-x to 1000 or 1600 and develop in diafine. My stream has a few examples.

PoleStar

Ok so, went to camera store eagerly awaiting my new roll of perfectly exposed film from my 1960's camera and lens.

Imagine my disappointment when with raised eyebrows the guy reels out the roll in front of me and says "nothing on it".

Hmm ok so I went back to my camera, the loading mech is a bit dodgy so mustnt have grabbed the film when winding on film.

Trial 2. Got the loading right but this time all images underexposed. I assumed that the meter (yes it has a meter and a battery!) just wasnt working but then realised that my first roll of film was ISO 400 and the second roll ISO 200. There is a little dial on the camera to set the ISO of the loaded film. I forgot to adjust it for the slower film.

Dammit!

Anyway wish me luck with roll 3!

salamanca

PoleStar wrote: »

Ok so, went to camera store eagerly awaiting my new roll of perfectly exposed film from my 1960's camera and lens.

Imagine my disappointment when with raised eyebrows the guy reels out the roll in front of me and says "nothing on it".

Hmm ok so I went back to my camera, the loading mech is a bit dodgy so mustnt have grabbed the film when winding on film.

Trial 2. Got the loading right but this time all images underexposed. I assumed that the meter (yes it has a meter and a battery!) just wasnt working but then realised that my first roll of film was ISO 400 and the second roll ISO 200. There is a little dial on the camera to set the ISO of the loaded film. I forgot to adjust it for the slower film.

Dammit!

Anyway wish me luck with roll 3!

I got a film camera recently also and I managed to lose 2 rolls of film through loading/rewinding "incidents" ... good luck with the next roll!

Simplicius

PoleStar wrote: »

Ok so, went to camera store eagerly awaiting my new roll of perfectly exposed film from my 1960's camera and lens.

!

what type of camera is it?

PoleStar

Its a Nikkormat FTn.

A budget version of the Nikons around that time with similar build quality. The model I got has a 60/40 centre weighted meter but otherwise is fully manual.

Recently found a lens for it. A Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens for a total of 60 euro incl delivery! In good condition too!

Simplicius

PoleStar wrote: »

Its a Nikkormat FTn.

A budget version of the Nikons around that time with similar build quality. The model I got has a 60/40 centre weighted meter but otherwise is fully manual.

Recently found a lens for it. A Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens for a total of 60 euro incl delivery! In good condition too!

before you shoot it again, test the meter using another camera on centre weighted by aiming at the same points a few times...
If the next set of negs come out overexposed or black then the shutter curtain is sticking and is in need of a service.

I have one of these too, they are a great camera, a real tank. I especially like the meter readout on the top plate which I find great for street as it lets me pre-meter as well as pre-focus without lifting the camera to catch a subject.

I'd say 60 is a bargain.:cool:

Heebie

I've used Delta 3200 shot at speeds from 800-6400.. it's good for all of the above if it's processed well.

PoleStar

BTW just to clarify, the lens was 60 euro (camera was 80 I think)!

PoleStar

Finally!

Right, third roll sent for development today.

Remembered to set the iso dial for the film used, and: Hey Presto!

Right, so got the exposure right. Have to say, there were a few nerves going to collect the developed film!

Anyway, metering is actually perfect on the camera, despite the fact its 40-50 years old!

What I did find however is that a lot of shots are out of focus, I think its because I am so used to having the quick auto focus on new dSLRs!

Have to start thinking bout developing my own now! Can anyone recommend a good site introduction to B&W development?

I plan just to develop the film and scan the negs. Can anyone also recommend a good dedicated film scanner? Dont have enough space at the mo to do my own prints!

ellieswellies

What sort of budget do you have in mind for a film scanner?

Heebie

Yes, what sort of budget. If you wanted a "dedicated" film scanner you can go super cheap (and get super cheap-looking results) or you can go pretty expensive.

Most of the scanners in between will be flatbeds with transparency adapters.. of which there are definitely some good choices.

I've got an Epson V500 Photo, someone on the boards here just bought a V700 or V750, someone else mentioned a Canon that he has & likes.

Back when I was doing scanning and printing professionally, I had a super nice Nikon film scanner for anything up to 120 6x9cm (excluding APS, had a different Nikon for that.. and LS-2000)

There are 35mm only versions of the LS-2000 nowadays (I don't know the numbers) that would be a bit more than a flatbed, but a lot less than something like an LS-9000 HD.

You should definitely check out the several threads on scanning from the last couple of months!

PoleStar

Well, I don't want super cheap results for starters!

I don't really need anything other than a scanner for 35mm film.

Budget of around 100 euro and willing to buy something without bells and whistles, second hand and couple years old to go for better quality scanner but not brand new.

Any suggestions? Or is my budget unrealistic.

PoleStar

Any takers?

DaireQuinlan

PoleStar wrote: »

Any takers?

€100 isn't going to get you much in the way of quality scanners unfortunately. It might get yyou one of the entry level canons or epsons that can do film, but not much more. Do do a search on the forum for scanner threads. There are one or two that go into some detail. I'm on myy phone atm so I can't dig out links.

ellieswellies

I use a canon 8800f which is about 200euro...the nice thing about it is that you can scan prints, 120mm, 35mm, and slides, so you can keep your options open...plus the quality is pretty good for that price too.