getting into film

[paigew]

I got a minolta x-700 for christmas. along with a 35-200; 35; and 50 lens. (and a fully manual flash too). This stuff is was my dads in college and the lenses are all manual focus. Anyway I have NO idea where to start, what film to buy or even how to load the film :er:. (I am a product of the digital era ) anyway I'm excited to get started, can someone point me in the right direction? I want a fast film with high iso.

 

[gsgary]

I got a minolta x-700 for christmas. along with a 35-200; 35; and 50 lens. (and a fully manual flash too). This stuff is was my dads in college and the lenses are all manual focus. Anyway I have NO idea where to start, what film to buy or even how to load the film :er:. (I am a product of the digital era ) anyway I'm excited to get started, can someone point me in the right direction? I want a fast film with high iso.

Ilford HP5 is a nice fast film, i use it just bought 100 feet a nice slower film is Ilford FP4 also Ilford are still investing in film and have no intentions of giving up on film

 

[Mully]

You can push TriX asa 400 to 1600 without problems ...the grain is nice

 

[nycphotography]

For 35mm... TMAX-3200... very grainy, which may be the whole point of getting into b&w for it's appeal in 35mm.

In Medium format, I used to love llford Delta 100. Extremely fine grain and detail.

The real question is what to do with it after you shoot it?

 

[Derrel]

For 35mm... TMAX-3200... very grainy, which may be the whole point of getting into b&w for it's appeal in 35mm.

In Medium format, I used to love llford Delta 100. Extremely fine grain and detail.

The real question is what to do with it after you shoot it?

YES, indeed!!! Whatcha' gonna do with the images once they are on film???? THAT is the $64,000 question!!! Scan the slides/negatives? Make inkjet prints from the scanned images? Have traditional "wet" darkroom prints made at a lab? A combination of prints and scanned images???

Scanning film at home is a pretty slow process...it's just not a quick process. Scans take time to pre-scan, to scan, and then to retouch and eliminate dust on. The bigger, better labs can offer high-quality scanned images at the time of developing, and even if it costs more money, having truly high quality scans might be worth the price.

Film is an odd bird these days...it can be converted to prints, both darkroom or inkjet, or printed "wet" or printed "digitally", and so on. So, as nycphotography said, the real question is what to do with the film after it has been shot!!!!

 

[JAC526]

For color negative film I love Fuji 400 ProH.

 

[paigew]

hmmm. what will I do with it? I figured I would send it to a (pro)lab for prints/scans. I will just be shooting family snapshots. I'm starting to think there may be more to it than I thought . I had a film camera as a kid and just got prints from walgreens etc.

 

[StoneNYC]

hmmm. what will I do with it? I figured I would send it to a (pro)lab for prints/scans. I will just be shooting family snapshots. I'm starting to think there may be more to it than I thought . I had a film camera as a kid and just got prints from walgreens etc.

Th scans from a lab will never be as good as the digitals you are used to, a pro lab will have much better scans but its expensive or you can get your own scanner someday.

"Fast" in the film world is slower than digital usually, 400 is really fast in the film world.

Just pick up a cheap roll to start from Walmart and play around with it, remember you only get 36 shots so make them count.

After you can understand things further, then get nicer film.


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[StoneNYC]

The comment about the scans was just so you know, I don't want you to get the scans back and be disappointed and think film is junk. It's not, but most labs have crappy equipment because its fast and cheap, so you don't get as good an image. Film is awesome.


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[paigew]

I have an epson artisan 800 photo printer/scanner. Do you think that would be good enough? I mainly would want them scanned for online sharing/backup

 

[timor]

I got a minolta x-700 for christmas. along with a 35-200; 35; and 50 lens. (and a fully manual flash too). This stuff is was my dads in college and the lenses are all manual focus. Anyway I have NO idea where to start, what film to buy or even how to load the film :er:. (I am a product of the digital era ) anyway I'm excited to get started, can someone point me in the right direction? I want a fast film with high iso.

Start here:
Amazon.com: Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual Third Revised Edition (9780316373050): Henry Horenstein: Books
Or check your local library. Knowledge is important as just by trying just something you WILL get frustrated. The second thing is a question if you want to be different from the mainstream and endure sometimes mocking. The third thing is if are you an experimenter, an empiric who will take a failure as a motivation. Camera nowadays is only a small beginning. 30 years ego there were labs to take your film to, now what left is C-41 process (color negative), black and white photography is becoming more and more specialized, niche thing for hard core amateurs of silver halide imaging who are doing lab work by themselves (which I think is very exiting). It will take some time and some expense before you become confident in exposing, developing and eventually printing your pictures. That is why I suggest some reading before you start. And don't worry, despite predictions we are not running out of film, there is still enough for the next 20 years or so (if the production would stop today).

 

[gsgary]

Ask around if anyone has old b+w films going free, i get loads given to me from members of our club that went digital years back but still have film in the fridge

 

[bhop]

If you're going to develop your own b&w, tri-x/hp5 is great stuff.. you can't go wrong with either. If you want color film to take down to walgreens or a pro-lab, then i'd recommend Kodak Ektar 100.. probably my favorite color film. If you want something faster, then maybe give Portra 400 a try. If you want cheap, then Fuji's Superia line is pretty good for the price.

Here are a few examples.. all developed and scanned by me. (color too)

Ektar

Impalas by bhop, on Flickr

Portra 400

New Friend by bhop, on Flickr

Tri-X

Dance by bhop, on Flickr

HP5

Only Cost Me A Dollar by bhop, on Flickr

Fuji Superia 800

Cat Life by bhop, on Flickr

 

[StoneNYC]

Ask around if anyone has old b+w films going free, i get loads given to me from members of our club that went digital years back but still have film in the fridge

Oh what club I want some!! Haha


~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[StoneNYC]

I have an epson artisan 800 photo printer/scanner. Do you think that would be good enough? I mainly would want them scanned for online sharing/backup

Epson in general makes the best scanners for normal folk (I have an Epson v750 that costs about $800 new, and that's considered a "mid grade" scanner compared to the $2,000-$8,000 scanners) but I'm not familiar with your scanner, however I've found that lab scans are just so bad, but who knows, just try and compare, if the lab scans are good enough for you, that's a good start, it's easy and not as frustrating as doing it yourself. And when starting out you want to have as little distractions as possible, all I mean is hold onto the film, "bad scans" are ones with blurry lines where the focus is crisp and foggy images, if it looks crisp it's fine. The better you get the more particular you will become but film can be re-scanned later as you advance.

Also if you ever take some AMAZING shot, you can ask the lab if they will make a High Rez (high resolution) scan for you for that image only, usually costs about $10 per image.

All food for thought. Just get out there and shoot for now, see what you get, and post some results here so we can see


~Stone

Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1, 5DmkII / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk