Looking for my first camera, gotta few questions

[larsy]

Hey guys

Well, I really want to get a camera. I
think I also want to go the film route as opposed to digital. here are my
questions ahah

1) Is it bad to by a vintage camera even if it is properly
functioning? will it be hard to find film for it/ get it developed?

2)
What does SRL/SLR stand for? I'm seeing it everywhere haha

3) I stumbled
across a few pictures that I absolutely love. They've got a dreaminess about
them that I really want to capture when I start taking pictures. The lady who
took them says she puts a layer over it? what does that mean and how would I do
it?

4) what camera would you recomend that uses film and turns out
vintage-y looking pictures?


Thanks a bunch guys

Lars

 

[Solarflare]

1. Of course you still can shoot film.

Ken Rockwell has some of them in his list of recommented cameras.

Its much more expensive and you dont see the result until much later, though.

2. SLR stands for Single-lens reflex camera and means theres a mirror in the way to the fotoprocessor and you can see what the camera sees when you check the viewfinder.

3. I'm fairly sure she refered to GIMP or Photoshop.

4. Film doesnt do effects by itself.

 

[Designer]

1. How "vintage" are we talking about? If you mean way back in ancient days of yore when people regularly used film, say about 20 years ago, then by all means those are mostly still in fairly good shape. If you mean "vintage" like my father and grandfather used, I wouldn't bother with all that.

1. (cont.) Yes, you can still buy film and get it developed, however I recommend that you stay away from the local drug store that has its film marked way down on clearance, because it may be outdated. You can do all your film aquisition and processing by mail.

2. (answered)

3. FWIW; these shots are really nothing special. If the lady is doing "post processing" on her computer, then she could be talking about working with individual layers in the photographic data. But without more specific information, that is just a guess.

4. If you want "vintagey" looking pictures, then get a cheap "point and shoot", such as an Instamatic, providing you can still find film for it. You could easily find one at the local thrift store for about $1.00. And even then, it is overpriced. Those things had plastic lenses that weren't very good when they were new.

 

[Atari1977]

If you wanna learn the basics of photography I would recommend getting a Pentax k1000 or a similar camera. It's a fully manually, they do nothing automatic and they force you to think about each shot. What's your budget? Film looks great but it also comes at a higher price in the long run. With dslr you can afford to experiment a lot more. As for film, depends on what you want. There's film for just about everything. I would however stay away from cheap consumer film, you'll get better results with Ektachrome and Fujichrome. If you want that lomography style though then it'd be best to either used expired film or cross-process your film(process it in a different way then what it was designed for). I would look and see if there is a lab near you, or the closest one you can mail your film to. Before you shoot though, look up all the basics of photography. Namely shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Also I gotta say, I don't really like those pictures, they're not particularly interesting and there's way too much grain.