Anyone shooting film?

[Harley]

After many years without film, I am back into it.  I still have my Canon Rebel 2000 and recently acquired a Mamiya M645 1000S.  I wish I had gotten into medium format years ago but better late than never!

The oddity is i balk at the cost of film/developing/time yet dont think twice about a $3500 5d3....  Dont ask me how that is. 

Yeah, not to mention the costs for software, memory, printers & ink, etc!  Shooting film is really quite affordable.  Really good equipment is available and inexpensive and the film and developing is not hard to come by. 

[BillyBean]

Couple of examples, just for fun - they are a little compressed, so the fine details will suffer, but trust me, these in full are really nice.

A black and white from Yosemite, using a 1970s Canonet QL17 GIII, and Fuji Acros 100 film, developed by myself in R09, and an EOS 3 photo on Fuji Velvia. The latter is pretty much as it came off the scanner - unprocessed.

Both taken in the last 2 years.

I'm sure there are better photographers out there, but hopefully this gives you a taste.

[SandyP]

I have the 80mm f/1.9, amazinggggggggggggg love it! Definitely something special about it. I too shoot a few rolls at most weddings during the portraits.

I'm hecka jealous! I've had my eye on that lens for a while now, so much dof, it's insane! Makes my 1.2 on 5d3 look like a cheap nifty fifty!!

-Scott

It's so bad ass!!! Get one!

I apologize for these (not so great, cause I did them) scans of the film, but I've seen a drum scan of one of these and it blewwwwwwwwwwwwww me away like no tomorrow.

[mws]

I've recently taken to collecting older range finders, so I shoot a few rolls now and then to try them out. I Recently discovered Illford Pan 50, this stuff is amazing! Either that or Tri-X 400, since it's easy to find. I also just bought a entire dark room set up (a color one too) from some guy on craigslist for 50 bucks. Just have to find some room in the basement for it, and see if I can't remember how to develop film/prints.

[DanielW]

@RLPhoto: love the pic and the dog!
@7enderbender: will try harder not to call film cameras "old days stuff" from now on... (I'm 33, and shot film cameras until my 20's! Does it mean I'm old days stuff too?)
@BillyBean and SandyP: Wow, amazing pics!
Any recommendations for a 35 mm camera? (I'm already looking for an EOS3 on eBay! Thanks BillyBean, hpmuc and EYEONE!)
Thanks everyone!

[Pyrenees]

Sold my Mamiya RB67 kit last year. I really miss it, though - dumb decision to sell.

I still have my 35mm Pentax KX200 with a 50mm lens, which I've owned for many years. I still shoot with it, but mainly in B&W these days.

It's funny how the odd person will spot that you're using film and will totally freak out.

I immensely enjoy using it, and the simplicity of the whole process. The way it forces you to slow down and *think* a bit more about things, your composition.

Fancy being stuck on one ISO for large chunks of time and with only avg metering.

Not as many places available anymore who employ adequate quality control when it comes to wet film processing / wet printing. At least, here in Melbourne.

[RLPhoto]

@RLPhoto: love the pic and the dog!
@7enderbender: will try harder not to call film cameras "old days stuff" from now on... (I'm 33, and shot film cameras until my 20's! Does it mean I'm old days stuff too?)
@BillyBean and SandyP: Wow, amazing pics!
Any recommendations for a 35 mm camera? (I'm already looking for an EOS3 on eBay! Thanks BillyBean, hpmuc and EYEONE!)
Thanks everyone!

Thanks. It goes to show that bodies still don't matter as much as your lens selection. Mounting the 50mm 1.2L on my thrift store rebel 2000 just makes it feel stupid! Invest in glass, bodies will come and go...

[SandyP]

I have a Canon EOS 10s (3 AF points! Haha!) and was using a Canon EOS 1v (last 1 series film body they made, pro film body, etc.)...

The 10s is really just light and fun for basic stuff, I take it with me when I go out for coffee or with the girlfriend somewhere cool, or just with me in general, usually with the 50L on it. The focus is fine in daylight, but if it's pretty dark, then the AF sucks bad, and manually focusing isn't too accurate on it.

The 1v, I shot a lot of documentary work in Cuba, 3 trips altogether over the last year, the 1v was a blessing for that, the AF was better than my Mark II, and really snappy, but not perfect, of course since it's an older AF. But it was great, and obviously built like a tank, and had lots of pro features (for a film body).

Personally, later this year I'll get a Mamiya 7ii (6x7 in a range finder! Haha awesome), and a really tiny rangefinder, like a Canonet or something. I don't like 35mm film too much to be honest, 645/6x6/6x7 is really where it starts getting "Sexy".



But what I mostly use 35mm film for, is what I mentioned above, especially just going out with friends, coffee, walks, bike rides, whatever fun moments (like at the fair, or festivals and such), I shoot about a roll of 36 exposures every two weeks, and just go get it printed, if I like a few of the shots to show on the web, I'll just scan the print. It's really fun, and to be honest it makes me feel good to take all those shots, sorta forget about some of them, get them printed (that's neat) and have them to physically look at. It's a fun way to shoot lots of film without any pressure.

But my main passion is medium format film for portraits. My 645 and my 6x7 are my babies. I love them, dearly. I use them about once a week or so.

[EYEONE]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good negative scanner? And perhaps one that isn't super expensive. 

[7enderbender]

The problem really is that finding places that develop and print traditionally is close to impossible.

b/w - do it yourself ! You don't need a darkroom, just get a 'changing bag' - you stick your hands in to reel the film onto the developing tank spool, and then the tank is lightproof and pour the soup in to develop and fix. Easy. Of course, you can't see what you are doing, but that's ok.

Colour, yep, that's harder. I use peak imaging in the UK, who I can highly recommend. http://www.peak-imaging.co.uk/ They usually turn stuff around in 2-3 days door to door, which is amazing.

I don't analog print though - develop only, and then into the negative scanner. If I print, I print digitally on an inkjet (Pixma 9500).

But that's exactly the point I was trying to make. Sure, developing b/w is pretty easy. But that doesn't help with making the prints - which is the whole point of the exercise. Scanning and then printing on some inkjet is where the bad things are starting to happen. Same with DSLRs though.

[Pyrenees]

b/w - do it yourself ! You don't need a darkroom, just get a 'changing bag' - you stick your hands in to reel the film onto the developing tank spool, and then the tank is lightproof and pour the soup in to develop and fix. Easy. Of course, you can't see what you are doing, but that's ok.
[/quote]

I have an aversion to carcinogenic chemicals, though.

[BillyBean]

But that's exactly the point I was trying to make. Sure, developing b/w is pretty easy. But that doesn't help with making the prints - which is the whole point of the exercise.

Sure, but I had to compromise somewhere. I used to wrap up a room in blackout, and print using an enlarger, many years ago, but the hassle and level of investment is huge. This way, I still get the creative joy of film, and of developing, and the smell (which is somewhat addictive by the way) but not the darkroom hassle, which is hugely disruptive, especially now I have kids. It was that or go 100% digital, and to be honest, I don't miss the printing - I find I get as much creative joy from Nik and Lightroom these days. I'm sure a purist would hate it, but it works for me.

Sometimes it's amusing as well - some guy asked me the other day if my EOS 3 was a new DSLR he hadn't heard of. ha!

@SandyP: love those pictures! Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

[SandyP]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good negative scanner? And perhaps one that isn't super expensive. 

One of the best cheap scanners you can get is the Epson v700, it's very cheap in comparison to anything in the leagues above it, and it can produce professional results to be sure. I use the Epson v600, it's a hold over from a year ago when I started my love affair with film, and I plan to get the v700 by summer time.

[DanielW]

@ RLPhoto: Agreed! Will look for Canon film cameras so I can use glass on both film & digital. Thanks!
@ SandyP: Do you have a website where we can see those pics you take? And about medium format, too big a step for me as a beginner right now...
@ BillyBean and 7enderbender: will develop my own b&w then!

[BillyBean]

I have an aversion to carcinogenic chemicals, though.

I read a study recently (sorry, don't have the link, but maybe Google will find it) where they looked at photographic industry darkroom staff, who had been up to their necks in darkroom chemicals their whole life, pretty much. I think they were expecting some crop of weird diseases.

But in fact, they lived longer, and were healthier than the control group.

Fixer is a little nasty, if you do something stupid like drink it, but developers such as Xtol are mainly vitamin C, and stop bath is essentially vinegar. You use nastier chemicals cooking, frankly. Of course some are nastier, but it's not like you will be touching them, if you are reasonably careful and/or wear gloves (which I don't).

Let's not fall into the 'if I don't understand it, it must be dangerous' model of thinking, please!!