First film for over 20 yrs

Dangermouse

Dangermouse

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Going to put my first film in for processing for over 20yrs in the morning, I last shot a roll of film with a canon T90 in 1986/7 cant really remember but it was a new to me camera and about a year old and I had to sell my old Nikon fm and Ricoh kr10 to buy it.............memories eh, anyway I didnt have any metering when shooting this film and have no way of processing it myself so its off to our local kodak lab for its final prep in the morning, wish it good luck and if I get one decent shot I will be happy(y)
 
I wish you all the best.

I'd be (and I mean me) expecting total disaster. I always had a poor hit / miss ratio so I'd fear the worst after a few years of digital.

If it wasn't for the cost I would love to go out and shoot film and see what I end up with.

I found a small privately run camera shop in Perth and the guy would take time to do each shot individually rather than 24 or 36 all the same. It was still just through a bog standard machine but it helped a bit.

If money was no option I would love to go back to shooting & developing my own but I know for a fact that high street results would kill me lol
 
dinners said:
If money was no option I would love to go back to shooting & developing my own but I know for a fact that high street results would kill me lol
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The results from high street labs could be very hit and miss. When I started out in the early 80s I used to shoot in colour, and my prints were extremely varied even when using the same lab. Sometimes they were fine, other times the prints were too dark (even three or four rolls together), and on other occasions the colours were all 'washed-out'.

This was one of the reasons why I learnt how to do my own processing. However, I began with black & white and found I enjoyed working with this better than colour, so I've been sticking to it ever since.

I don't honestly know how the cost compares to digital photography as I'm still working with film, but there's no doubt in my mind that if you have the time and money, you can't beat doing your own developing and printing.
 
Carl V said:
I don't honestly know how the cost compares to digital photography as I'm still working with film, but there's no doubt in my mind that if you have the time and money, you can't beat doing your own developing and printing.
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With digital, all the cost is up front. With film, it's an ongoing small amount.

I don't really think it's that expensive. Digital shooters often equate the number of shots they fire off with the number they would use with film. In reality, film users tend to think a bit more before pressing the shutter as they know that every shot has a cost and the roll will run out after 36 frames (or 12 or 10 or 8).

Also, I don't consider £2 to £3 for a roll of film and processing by Peak Imaging (or black and white at home) to be expensive.

You can buy a lot of film, processing and a few nice film cameras for the cost of a reasonable DSLR.


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
I don't really think it's that expensive. Digital shooters often equate the number of shots they fire off with the number they would use with film. In reality, film users tend to think a bit more before pressing the shutter as they know that every shot has a cost and the roll will run out after 36 frames (or 12 or 10 or 8).


Steve.
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Thanks Steve. Yes I see what you mean - I'm assuming you can take a couple of hundred pictures or more on a memory card and can then delete what you don't like afterwards. Sadly, we don't have that option with film.

To tell you the truth, I do my own processing for the satisfaction and enjoyment of it rather than trying to save money. I just don't see much point in going out of your way trying to get a decent photograph, and then having a high street lab make a mess of it. Of course, I'm not saying all labs are like that, there are some good ones out there. Although I haven't used them personally, I've seen black & white prints from Ilford's own lab and they are superb.
 
Hey Pete good luck and i'm sure they will be fine, I still use my A series cameras from time to time and they always seem to turn out shots fine to me. It is amazing just how you convert back to taking your time and choosing your shots carefully while making sure the camera is set right, well I seem to revert to that mode when using film. ;)
 
Leaving aside the cost I'm finding the ratio of keepers/losers to be a bit of a red herring.

I shot my first film in 7 years a few weeks ago on a rangefinder (a camera type I'd not used before), unmetered (something I'd never done before) and using TriX (a film I'd never used before).

I've now had three films back - 120ish shots - and I reckon I'm happy with about 40 of the images and satisfied with about half of the rest. The remainder are either not quite there in terms of interest or out of focus.

If I had that kind of hit ratio with digital I'd be giddy with delight. Taking fewer shots and thinking harder before pressing the shutter is definitely helping me overall!
 
Carl V said:
I've seen black & white prints from Ilford's own lab and they are superb.
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I have heard lots of good things about Ilford's service too. I have not used them myself yet but I do intend to.

One by-product of the Ilford service is that digital users can send in converted digital files and get real black and white prints on proper paper.


Steve.
 
gingerjon said:
I've now had three films back - 120ish shots - and I reckon I'm happy with about 40 of the images and satisfied with about half of the rest. The remainder are either not quite there in terms of interest or out of focus.

If I had that kind of hit ratio with digital I'd be giddy with delight. Taking fewer shots and thinking harder before pressing the shutter is definitely helping me overall!
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You never know, keep this up and you may return back to film permanently. :D

Seriously though, I appreciate the main advantage with digital is the convenience I guess, although I'm not knowledgeable enough about it to make any further comments, but it's nice to use both digital and film as you are doing.
 
I'm thinking of buying an old Minolta film camera as they're quite cheap on ebay and then the lenses will be cross compatible with my A700 which will be nice :D Where can I get 35mm film developed though? Will boots do it?
 
George7 said:
I'm thinking of buying an old Minolta film camera as they're quite cheap on ebay and then the lenses will be cross compatible with my A700 which will be nice :D Where can I get 35mm film developed though? Will boots do it?
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My local Boots here in Northwich do it, so I'd imagine most of their branches (except perhaps the smallest ones) will offer a D&P service.
 
Well I know boots does film for my mums kodak but wasn't sure about anything else :p There's also a shop near me called picturesque who do all sorts of photographic stuff and I assume they also do development! I'll have to ask around I guess. Also, where would I buy the film from? Because the only film I ever seem to see is the Kodak advantix film. Or is this what you use with SLRs? I'm a complete noob so sorry if this is a stupid question :p
 
George7 said:
I'm thinking of buying an old Minolta film camera as they're quite cheap on ebay and then the lenses will be cross compatible with my A700 which will be nice :D Where can I get 35mm film developed though? Will boots do it?
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Our local Tesco does a good service. The quality of minilab processing though really depends upon the quality of the people working there. If you can find a good one that is great.

The processing of the film should be a standard process so shouldn't really vary from place to place. It's the printing where the staff have more input and therefore, potential to mess it up so if you are planning to scan yourself anyway, just get them to do processing only.

If you can't find a good local minilab, it would be better to use a mail order lab such as Transpacolor or Peak Imaging.



Steve.
 
George7 said:
Also, where would I buy the film from? Because the only film I ever seem to see is the Kodak advantix film.
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Try 7dayshop, Silverprint, Jessops and Boots. Strangely, Boots usually have a better selection than Jessops!


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
Our local Tesco does a good service. The quality of minilab processing though really depends upon the quality of the people working there. If you can find a good one that is great.

The processing of the film should be a standard process so shouldn't really vary from place to place. It's the printing where the staff have more input and therefore, potential to mess it up so if you are planning to scan yourself anyway, just get them to do processing only.

If you can't find a good local minilab, it would be better to use a mail order lab such as Transpacolor or Peak Imaging.



Steve.
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Well the photos from boots always turn out well so I guess I'd go there first of all :D
 
That's a lot of camera (and other stuff) for £21. Have fun with it!

I think the lens will fit the A700 (if you think you ever want to use it again!).


Steve.
 
A Minolta 7000 - that takes me back to my happy (and younger) days in retailing. I remember it's launch in around 1986. They also had the 5000 and 9000 models. If everything works OK, you've got yourself a decent camera and for £21 including filters - can't be bad.
 
I have the film back and as I thought, not good news Im afraid it looks like the camera is an exibit in my cabinet as it was intended....nevermind

001.jpg


Its the same througout the whole roll apart from one shot when the winder didnt feel gritty

001-1.jpg
 
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