Film Camera interest

So I asked my GF if she would like to start taking photos with me so that I would have some one to take pics with. Much to my surprise it was a yes! It turns out that she wants to shoot film so that she can just send the film away to have the prints made and sent back to her (she doesn't want to do the editing). Now which camera? I have owned the EOS rebel K2 and hated it, I was comparing it to my XTi though

I was thinking the Elan 7NE.

BH has a kit with it and a 28-105 f/4-5.6 USM lens for $490, good deal? Good Lens?

Another problem is the film...the only experience I have with film is Kodak Tmax100, I have heard that there are many more much cheaper, faster and with smaller grain then this. Any suggestions?

 

I don't know a whole hell of a lot about the mid-grade Canon 35's so I'll leave that to someone else.

As for the film. No, there isn't anything faster and with smaller grain. There's the same speed with bigger grain, faster with bigger grain, slower with smaller grain, and (arguably) the same speed with smaller grain.

 

good to know thanks

 

grab some velvia 100 or velvia 50! Those films are godly. I can't wait to pick up a film body to shoot a bazillion rolls of that stuff.

 

I have no experience of the Elan 7E either, so can't help you there. If your girlfriend wants a really easy life with B&W film, try one of the dye-image B&W films, also known as chromogenic films. Ilford XP-2 or Kodak BW400CN.

XP-2 tends to be better for printing onto real silver-image B&W paper, BW400CN is designed to be printed onto colour paper as a B&W image, or onto chromogenic B&W paper (I think that there is still some around). These films scan very easily, and they can give the appearance of being smooth and grain-free thanks to the dye image. They are rated at ISO 400, but you can expose them at EI 100 or EI 200 without changing the processing times. The more exposure you give them the less grainy they are: they behave like colour films rather than B&W films in this respect.

They are developed in the standard colour film process, so they can be done at any one-hour lab, but the quality of the prints varies, as does the colour.

For colour I prefer negative film over reversal (aka slide) film. It is much more forgiving of incorrect exposure, can cope with a much greater brightness range and is easier to get processed. The outstanding colour negative films nowadays are the current Portra films from Kodak. Even Portra 800 has relatively low graininess.

Best,
Helen

 

wow, sorry I should have said this, especially after only giving a B&W film name. She will most likely only want to shoot color...

 

Kodak Portra gets a big, big thumbs up for color neg.

 

cool.

so no one has experience with the camera?

 

I think that with the price of used film cameras in the basement, you could get a heck of a deal on a top shelf pro film camera for the money you are talking about. A friend just sold a mint Nikon F5 and only got $320 for it on ebay. There is a lot of great gear out there going for pennies.

 

Tomorrow I'm buying a Pentax LX in pristine condition for $150.

Edit: sorry. After reading the above post I just had to throw that in.

 

You can get a 28-105 on KEH for 180, then a EOS-1N for 300.

Thats if you wanted that particular lens.

 

I also show my support for the Pentax line of SLR. I've got a K1000 and it's an amazing camera. You're going to have to understand how it works to use it well, but once you do, it's your best friend. I've also got a Nikon FE2 that's pretty bad-ass.

I figure that if you go with a well-known film SLR from the '70s or '80s (Pentax, Nikon, Minolta, Canon, etc) with a metal body, you'll do just fine.