New to Photography, sorta

[stickboy]

Hello all. I have been a casual photographer for most of my life but have yet to venture into the realm of SLR and the more advanced techniques. I do a lot of travel by motorcycle and love taking pictures of the places I have been. I have been doing this for the past few years with a basic point and shoot digital camera, and things were fine, but I figured it was probably time to get more serious about photography. A couple months back, I picked up a Minolta RZ430i off ebay and started to learn the basics. I have watched a lot of youtube videos and done some experimenting but learning to do things on a film camera is somewhat frustrating. About a week ago, a friend of mine sold me his Monolta Maxxum 7d for cheap so I have been messing around with that, although the battery is shot and the memory card is tiny (both are in the mail as we speak!) I have watched enough videos to make me dangerous, so now I figured it was time for me to join the forums and get some actual advice and feedback. So here I am!

 

[Sw1tchFX]

I know it's kind of expensive, but if you shoot better film than just the cheap Fuji Xtra garbage from the drug store, and send the film to a real lab, not Wal Mart, or the drug store you got your Fuji Xtra from, your film minolta will blow away a Maxxum 7D.

Trust me, shoot something like Kodak's new Portra 400 at ISO 200, and send it off to Richard Photo Lab over in L.A. When you see the results, especially if you shot any pictures of people, you'll probably quit using the Maxxum.

See:
http://stilllovefilm.com/page/2/

and i'd say most of that is straight form RPL. The first page and a half of my blog are all film, all up to the point of the mountain at night, than it goes between film/digital. Just because you run into a few bumps doesn't mean that it's not worth it, film is just as capable of a medium, it just demands more attention and finesse from the photographer sometimes.

 

[stickboy]

Thanks for the tip on film and processing. Right now I am still using the Fuji Xtra garbage and processing at Walgreens! I do fully intend to keep the film camera to use after I get some of the more technical stuff down. It's a lot smaller and lighter than the 7D and would be a lot easier to tote around on the bike.

I plan on using the digital to learn the more technical aspects of photography just because it's easier to mess around, experiment, and if I screw up shots I know right away and hopefully can correct on the next one. But once I feel more comfortable knowing how different settings are going to affect different shots and such, I am sure I will be using film a lot more.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Buy a Roll of Portra 400, or fuji 400h and shoot it at 200 speed. Just one roll, shoot some people pictures with it and send it RPL before you get too involved with the Canon. Trust me, it will look amazing.