yashica fx-2

[kevinblahh]

So this is my dads old film camera and after seeing a lot of people use film when it comes to urban exploring photos, ive slowly become interested in trying some film stuff. First of all, i really have no experience with shooting film. If anyone wants to throw out any sort of tips that would be great. I understand that everythings manual compared to digital, and how to set the appropriate aperature and speed, but im wondering about types of film and such, here it is.

 

[elemental]

Nice lookin' camera. Don't know much about the Yashicas, but I have a few manual 35mm SLRs and love them (to the extent that my DSLR sees almost no action these days).

As far as film goes, I think the big question is black and white or color. For me, shooting color in most situations seems like a waste, since I can shoot digital color and generally get better and more tweakable results at a considerably lower cost. For color, you have plenty of film options in all speeds, and can get developing and printing done at the local grocery or drugstore.

Black and white, however, is a whole different animal. This is 95% of my film work, and I love it. Almost no stores develop black and white anymore, at least compared to color, so you will want to learn to develop it yourself. This is not nearly as intimidating as it sounds- everything you need to get started can be had for about $50, and your running costs will be much lower. This will get you set up to develop to negatives, which can be printed at the grocery or drug store, scanned at many locations (or by you if you have or get a film scanner, which is not as expensive as it sounds), or print them in a darkroom. To set up your own darkroom to do analog prints, you'll need more experience and equipment, but this is doable too. For me, the best compromise is developing my film, then scanning it (my apartment is not big enough for print darkroom equipment). If you're interested in homemade black and white, there is plenty of information available, an it really isn't that difficult.

As for film, I found 400 ISO film to be a good general-use starter film. You have many options in black and white- Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP5+ are more "vintage" style, while Fuji Neopan, Kodak T-Max, or Ilford Delta are more "modern" style, with less grain and different tonal characteristics. I can't help you much with color film- I usually shoot Fuji Superia 400 because it's cheap and available anywhere, but like I said, I don't do much color.

Most of all, I say dive in. I started shooting film this summer on a whim, and I've had more fun and learned more than I could have ever imagined.

 

[kevinblahh]

alright thanks. I think i wanna try out color because a lot of place i go shooting are abandoned buildings(hospitals and such) and the decay of paint chips offer great color and texture, that ive seen film pull a lot of details out of. And id probably just get some cheap rolls to get used to everything first, but thanks for the info

 

[bhop]

400iso film is great, but if you're going to be shooting in bright sunlight, you should get an ND filter or polarizer to decrease the light since it'll be too much for that camera to handle with it's max shutter speed of 1/1000, or you can use slower film such as 100 or 200 iso. If you're going to be shooting lower light or shadows, 400 will be fine without filters. Personally, i'm not a huge fan of Superia, it seems a little more grainy than other 400 iso films, such as Kodak Portra 400 or Fuji 400h, but Superia is cheaper than both of those options.

For abandoned buildings, the color hues of Fujicolor 200 might be a good film for you to test out. You can find it in most drug store photo labs. Or if you want to pay a little more, Kodak Portra 160 NC has a nice neutral color. You'd probably have to go to a camera shop for those.

 

[doctormark]

I'm in the same boat. I just picked up an old Ricoh kr-30 slr. Just experimenting and seeing what it can do, at this point.

 

[wan-yee]

hey kevin, is kind of late to reply a 2007 dec post..
i do have the same cameras from my dad yesterday.. no idea how to use that as well... may be u have the clues already?

contact me at yeongchiwan@hotmail.com, msn, facebook as well.

Thanks