First use of film

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David
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Hi all,

I am a dslr user and i have an eos 650 that i have inherited. I am considering having a go at film work, I am part of the photo society at university who have a dark room and students that can use it. I would probably just do black and white stuff or have colour developed, but for a lot of things i have digital and get on well with it.
How viable is playing with film as a hobby? Does it cost much to get into, i would need paper and film i suppose as some of my lenses will fit and the society buys in chemicals.

I suppose you must get loads of these posts but would like any informed opinions you may be able to offer.
Cheers,
David
 
Is it viable ?
Of course its viable, its not expensive unless you shoot 50 rolls a week :LOL:
You only need paper if you are going to print, scanners however, can be expensive.
 
Not expensive and deffo viable.;)
Film cameras and kit can be bought on ebay for peanuts, films can be £3 upwards - ish. And the fun you'll have in the darkroom will be worth the effort and going through 'the fear' - that moment when you're waiting for your negs to come out of the tank and you don't know whether you've buggered anything up or not..!:LOL:
 
Completely viable. I have recently discovered film after a couple of years of digital.

You can actually develop at home (you don't need a darkoom) to negative. Then you can scan in to a PC digitally or print in the darkroom.

Start off with B&W. The developing process is a lot less temperature critical than colour. Then see how you go. Quite a few on here have progressed from B&W to colour.

My recommendation as a first port of call is this excellent document on the Ilford website, follow the link to the PDF 'Processing your first B&W Film'.

Sounds like for you it won't be too expensive at all. If your society provide the Chemicals then the only expense for you is film (cheap on 7dayshop or even cheaper out of date stuff on Fleabay). Maybe some other gear - dev tanks, measuring cylinders etc but if your society has a darkroom you probably have all that stuff also.

Link to when I first had a go at this here:

HTH

Mark
 
cheers guys, I'll probably go for the printing route as if I'm gonna scan I might as well just shoot digital, but how do you work manually in film, with a light meter I suppose?
 
cheers guys, I'll probably go for the printing route as if I'm gonna scan I might as well just shoot digital, but how do you work manually in film, with a light meter I suppose?

Depends completely on the camera. With your EOS650 you have all (or at least most) of the metering options you have on modern DSLR.

Of course if you are shooting manual with a lightmeter you could do that with digital also :)
 
Scans aren't too bad, they still keep the flavour of film, if not the exact contents of a slide.
There are many reasons why you could want to shoot film, wet printing is only one.
Film cameras work in exactly the same way as digital, some have all the metering/af/programs, some don't, if you are using an all manual camera, you will have to sort out some way to meter so you can apply settings for correct exposure.
Or guess.....sunny 16 :)
 
didn't mean to sound trite sorry,
I shall hunt around for a manual, been googling the process for wet printing and it looks interesting.
Negative scanners are different to ordinary scanners i guess
 
Go for it! For me it's very satisfying and not very expensive :)

For film, try 7 Day Shop. Really cheap and free delivery!

For a scanner I recommend an Epson 4490 as it scans prints, 35mm negatives, slides and medium format negatives.

For developing materials, try Nova Darkroom

I also recommend the book Into Your Darkroom Step By Step by Dennis P. Curtin as it lists everything you will need to develop film and make prints and also shows you how to do it step by step.

(y)
 
didn't mean to sound trite sorry,
I shall hunt around for a manual, been googling the process for wet printing and it looks interesting.
Negative scanners are different to ordinary scanners i guess


Not trite at all :)
Knowing where you are going will help you decide what equipment you need at the first time of asking (y)
 
I shall sort myself out with a darkroom lesson (would be useful, and I need one to be allowed to use it under guild rules) after my next round of exams and grab some film and paper (probably a small pack from jessops or borrow off of someone to experiment, then hopefully make a massive 7 day shop order :D)
Thank you all for your help this certainly looks like a brilliant new way to experiment with photography
 
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