Film SLR

[Don Simon]

When i'm out with my "old" slr's and a normal or wide lens people look at me, watch me, and sometimes follow me and try to see what i'm doing.

Yes, those people are called "Police". Or thieves

 

[Frequent Traveler]

Ho!! Ho!! Ladies and Gentlemen we have a comedian in the house!!!

Fffff! Ya know, i ALMOST mentioned a "incident" involving some help the local policija GAVE me when i walking around a city that was largely unknown to me. Kinda like, "yea, don't spend too much time down there....." (speaking about a scary looking alleyway - and i am a larger-size, non-giggly-type person). Also, i was helped by his colleague later that evening when onlookers were a little more curious than the foot-patrolman preferred and ordered them to move on and leave me to my "work".

ft

 

[Don Simon]

Ya know, i ALMOST mentioned a "incident" involving some help the local policija GAVE me when i walking around a city that was largely unknown to me.

Yes, you almost did. That was a close call

All I can say is your police force sounds great! Want to swap?

 

[Frequent Traveler]

I don't think my experience in that moment was atypical..... the policija here do not have very good reputations at all (crooked, corrupt, etc). A reputation i constantly use to rub a good friends nose in whenever the opportunity arises (by the way, my friend is the head of the Department of Criminal Activity in our county!!!!). Yikes!!!!

 

[JonnyVPA]

I have a billion friggin 35mm as shelf pieces... 90% of them still function correctly.

On a normal day i use 2 Nikon N90s bodies, and for exposures longer than 30seconds i use a Nikon FE because of the cable release socket.

 

[sothoth]

What do I use them for? Why, photography, of course.

I use a Pentax K1000, its the only 35mm film SLR I've used regularly. I have a 50mm prime, 24mm prime, a 2x teleconverter, and a 70-200 zoom. I used my father's Minolta (manual SLR) on several occasions but never liked it as much. It had too many new-fangled gizmos on it, like a functional light meter, and I felt so confused by it, I had to switch back to my broken K1000.

Now that I switched to digital, I use my K1000 for night photos with very long exposure times, I've never been happy with how those turn out on DSLRs and it depletes the battery FAST to have the shutter open for 10s of minutes on a digital. On occasion, I've also used my K1000 to klonk people over the head if they harass me, but frankly the film DSLR spends a lot of time in the closet on a shelf needing repair but not getting it.

 

[Jeremy Z]

How many of you still have a film SLR and what do you use it for?

I have my grandpa's Olympus OM1n. The Zuiko optics are as good as the best in the world. Look starting at Post #10 in this thread for some pix of it:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68326

I had a nice 50mm f/1.2 for it for about a week. But it wasn't as sharp as the f/1.4 or f/1.8, so I sold it.

I just bought a Pentax K1000 on ebay a couple days ago. This was my first serious camera, and I have missed it since I sold it off for a Nikon FM many years ago. The Pentax just seemed to have more character, or maybe it is just that it was my first. I don't know.

What do I use it for? Not all that much any more. Sometimes, I am overcome with passion and break it out for some shooting. But then I remember what a hassle it is to actually get pictures from it. I have to have film, then I have to shoot it, drop it off, pick it up and see that most labs don't care as much about my photos as I do, get discouraged when I have to throw out so many shots... But you know what? Shooting with film still feels like "real photography" to me. I think more about my shots. I compose them more in my head ahead of time, instead of messing around. Knowing that there is actual film moving around, light hitting it, doing something magical and waiting patiently for the results... It just makes me feel all warm inside.

I also read the other day, (and I believe it) that digital cannot match the tonal range of film just yet. It said that digital sensors only have about a 5 stop range, while film has a lot more. (10?)

There are still a lot of good reasons to shoot film. Now espicially, the cost of entry is very cheap, and you just "finance" the hobby through film & finishing purchases. With digital, you pay all up front, and it is oftentimes a painful payment, hehehe. It's just so darned convenient that it cannot be resisted.

Typing this all out makes me want to snap up someone's darkroom kit and change the spare bathroom into a darkroom, where I would spend hours on end developing and printing B&W.

Thanks for the post.

Side Track - You know what camera I miss the most? My Rollei 35. That camera could be a right pain in the butt if you couldn't judge distance accurately.

 

[table1349]

The Nikon F2 is one of the great mechanical marvels in the history of the photographic industry. It ranks with the Leicas, Linhofs and Alpas for pure wonder in terms of quality and fit and finish. I've owned several of them over the years. Truly amazing product. I really regret having sold my F2AI with the upgraded metering prism. I miss that one a lot.

You sold a F2AI with the upgraded metering prism????????????? My God Man, You should be SHOT!!!!!!!!!!

The venerable F2 was in all probablity produced in more different body configurations than any other camera in history. Including a wooden body camera for high humidity locations, special made bodies for NASA including Apollo missions, Special high speed bodies and a special body for the Olympics to name a few. It redefined 35mm photography and in doing so captured my heart. Now I'm going to have to go get some film and break them out again. :thumbup:

 

[usayit]

My film cameras outnumber digital 10 to 1. Most work some could use a CLA.

 

[smyth]

I have an old Yashica FRII with a 50mm 1.8f prime, and a 28-90mm f2.8 Vivitar Zoom lens. I don't use it all that often, but when I do, I take extreme care in not wasting one of my 24 shots, because I don't have a lot of film laying around.

 

[myopia]

i have 3

-minolta X370
-minolta srT100x
-mamiya 645

 

[e999sam]

Er... isn't the Minolta 5D digital? Minus the D would be a Dynax or Maxxum 5. I have one too and also carry it around most of the time, since it weighs virtually nothing. Also just picked up a Dynax 7 for a pretty good price. More dials and functions than you can eat.

Plus a couple of manual focus Pentaxes, I tend to take one along with the dSLR for a combined digital/film kit. And a Fujica for M42 lenses. Other than that the SLR collection is fairly thin at the moment, had some others at various points which I either sold or gave away, which of course I regret now.

Surprisingly I use mine for photography too some people don't believe it's possible. But you can usually avoid standing out with an SLR. Try walking around with a 50-year-old TLR or zone focus camera though and you get some funny looks. My view is, if they still work then use them.

Yes you are right it's a Dynax 5.

 

[fmw]

You sold a F2AI with the upgraded metering prism????????????? My God Man, You should be SHOT!!!!!!!!!!

I agree. I used to be Nikon collector. I had a mint or near mint example of almost every camera Nikon ever made - even the rangefinders. I had a new-in-the-box FTn and a new-in-the-box early Nikkormat. My collecting philosophy was that it wasn't worth doing unless I actually used the collected products (except for the NIB ones.) When I abandoned 35mm film in 2000 I sold the whole lot and used the proceeds to buy a decent DSLR and a new car. I still have a little Olympus OM2 system that belonged to my uncle but I rarely use it. When I want to shoot film now, I use something bigger than 35mm. Digital for me is better than 35mm.

My first F2 was the standard meter prism model. Later on I bought the F2 with the non metered prism mostly because it "looked" right to me. I got the F2AI with the LED meter in the mid 90's so that I could use my new lenses with it. That was when Nikon stopped putting the meter indexing shoes on the lenses. Yes, I had a couple of F3's and an F4 but there was nothing like those F2's. My original F2 got a crack in the film counter window and a dent in the side one day when I dropped it from a ladder but it always worked flawlessly. I used to use it to shoot horse shows. I would go to the hotel at night covered with dust but the camera interiors were just fine. The last great mechanical Nikon. The FM2 was a good camera but it was no F2. That's for sure. Sorry, I don't mean to hijack the thread. I was just reminiscing.

 

[ksmattfish]

I still have a few. I use the medium format SLRs more often these days. Digital has replaced 35mm for most of my applications. Sometimes I use them because they are enjoyable cameras to use. A fully mechanical camera is still nice when I have to shoot in the rain.

35mm
Nikon FM2n
Nikon FM2
Nikon FE
2 Pentax ME Super
Pentax K1000
Pentax Spotmatic 500
2 Pentax Spotmatic 1000
Canon AE-1
and scads of vintage 35mm SLRs: Kodak, Exacta, Zeiss, etc...

medium format
Pentax 67II
Hasselblad 500c/m
Norita 66

I assume that Ladyphotog meant that her Calumet 4x5 was a film camera, and not an SLR? The only 4x5 Calumets I've seen were view cameras. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I've been coveting a 4x5 SLR for a long while now, and thought my only choices were a Graflex RB (and a few other similar era cameras) or a Ron Wisner home made camera.

 

[fmw]

I've been coveting a 4x5 SLR for a long while now, and thought my only choices were a Graflex RB (and a few other similar era cameras) or a Ron Wisner home made camera.

I don't know. BIG mirror. It might be more hassle to use than a view camera.