Newbie here

[jaystekan]

Greetings all. I am brand new to Medium Format film. I have been shooting on a Fuji X-t1, and a Fuji X100s. Anyway, found a Yashica Mat 124G that caught my attention at an old thrift store. Took it home for a few dollars, cleaned it up and shot 3 rolls of film with it.

Now my question.... I am a film novice, not shot an actual roll of film in years.

Should I invest in a Paterson tank and do the processing myself, or send it away to be done? If I send the film to be done, whom do I use thats economical and makes nice prints? If I like a print, to whom and how do i send it for enlargement?

If I go for the home processing route, how do i get the picture online? How do I order prints from home processed film?

Sorry for all the questions, I recently returned from a weekend getaway with my cameras, and didn;t touch the digitals all weekend, the yashica was that much fun. I grabbed an RB67 from the same thrift store for $27.00, but I didn't get a chance to clean it up before going away for the weekend. I must say, I really enjoyed shooting film.

 

[Designer]

If you're just curious about how all the stuff works, then you should process the film yourself. It can be fun and rewarding, although you'll have additional costs getting started.

Then there is B&W vs. color. B&W may be somewhat more forgiving of a newbie, as color is more sensitive to light and temperature of processing.

Or if you just want to make photographs, then send the film out for processing.

Some labs offer scanning as part of the processing, so you get your negatives and the electronic files. And prints if you order prints.

You can also scan your own negatives if you invest in a scanner. That way, if you want to process your own film and scan the negs, then the film stays in your possession.

 

[480sparky]

Check your local area for a lab that is capable of developing 120 film. Don't be surprised if there isn't any.

If not, you're down to either souping it yourself or mailing it off to a lab somewhere. If you're going to do it yourself, I wouldn't recommend trying color until you've mastered black & white.

To convert to digital, you can either have the lab do it, or get yourself a scanner.

 

[snowbear]

Welcome aboard.

 

[kdthomas]

Man I'm in the same boat I'm a film newbie as well and loving it.

Now that I've kind of gotten going, I really enjoy the processing of the film myself, it is just so great to get those sheets (I do 4x5) out of the final rinse and hold it up to the light, and know --good or bad-- that it's really truly all mine. But I actually did drop the first 10 or so sheets off to a lab (photographique in Dallas, great folks)

I wish you the best of luck, I would say to read all you can, take some classes and experiment!

 

[Brundo]

The process of developing film is quite interesting and a lot of fun imo. I started out developing color film. It's really not that difficult. Yeah the temp is somewhat high to boot (102º F) but you don't need to keep everything at that temp. That being said this is my opinion. Welcome back to film

 

[cgw]

First things first. Any labs nearby that can develop C-41(color neg) and/or b&w film? Seems critical to me to make sure your thrift store treasures have accurate shutter timing and non-stick apertures before you load up on chemistry and tanks. If either camera produces negatives that are wildly off exposure-wise(BTW, how are you metering?), you're looking at servicing them to make them functional. Some labs will do medium/low resolution scans cheap; otherwise, it's a flatbed scanner or playing with your XT-1 to scan negs. Some labs will still do proof prints from 120 but many don't. Since you're shooting digital, you likely have editing software you can use to process your scanned film files into printable form. Places like Costco can often crank out OK prints.

 

[timor]

Sorry for all the questions, I recently returned from a weekend getaway with my cameras, and didn;t touch the digitals all weekend, the yashica was that much fun. I grabbed an RB67 from the same thrift store for $27.00,

Where is that thrift store ? !

 

[jcdeboever]

Sorry for all the questions, I recently returned from a weekend getaway with my cameras, and didn;t touch the digitals all weekend, the yashica was that much fun. I grabbed an RB67 from the same thrift store for $27.00,

Where is that thrift store ? !

I know, right?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[timor]

Sorry for all the questions, I recently returned from a weekend getaway with my cameras, and didn;t touch the digitals all weekend, the yashica was that much fun. I grabbed an RB67 from the same thrift store for $27.00,

Where is that thrift store ? !

I know, right?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Yup !