going old school with film camera

lexie

lexie

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keith
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i've found myself looking the the local classifieds at old 35mm slr's lately and was wondering who uses film in the digital age we find ourselves in?
i've seen things like a canon eos 500 with lens, box and maual supplied for £30. eos 5 body for £55. a couple of minotla's with af lenses £40 each (which is tempting because i can use the lens from either on my sony).

now i don't know much about film cameras but i'm sure a lot of people on here will, so i'm after as much info as i can get. other than the initial cheapness of the purchase of the camera are there any hidden costs? obviously film and devloping costs, but what about maintainance and repair? what are the benefits of shooting film over digital?

if i go for something like a canon or nikon i can obviously get a dslr of the same brand at a later date and use the lenses, but what is the deal regarding af on the film models? when did it come in and are there many af lenses from the period before digital? i'm not opposed to manual focusing and have just bought an old helios and adaptor for my a390 to try my hand at it for the first time.

at the price these cameras are going for it is looking a very attractive proposition at the minute, especially the eos 500 for 30 quid.

any advice or info will be gratefully recieved
keith
 
lexie said:
but what is the deal regarding af on the film models? when did it come in and are there many af lenses from the period before digital?
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For Canon, the EOS line of cameras with EF-mount autfocus lenses was introduced in 1987. Their first digital SLR body was the EOS D2000, launched in 1998 with a lot of Kodak internals (it's essentially the same camera as Kodak's DCS 520).

They brought their first 'home grown' DSLR to market in 2000, with the EOS-D30 (not to be confused with the later 30D)

Anyhow, there's about ten to fifteen years of production of EF lenses before digital bodies really took off around 2003/2004. To the best of my knowledge, all of them will work on a modern Canon DSLR body.*

I could write a lot more, but I'm off to bed. :)

* Though I seem to recall there was one early 'L' wide zoom that doesn't for some reason.
 
As rob said, effectively any Canon EF lens that comes with a film EOS will work with either the crop sensor or full frame digitals. Personally, I'd steer clear of older third party EF lenses - Sigma in particular did a terrible job of reverse engineering the EF specification, and they managed to produce lenses that not only will not work with the modern digitals, but actually fail to work with the later EOS film cameras. If the EOS-500 has a canon EF lens, boxed and with a manual, it's a good buy. You could probably buy it, run a couple of films to see if film is for you, and if you don't like it, get enough money for it on fleabay to clear your costs :shrug:
 
At its most basic, film produces a solid object, a negative or transparency as part of the process. It does this by exposing light sensitive material which some people (like us) prefer to the virtual nature of digital image production. Film also has a look, an 'aesthetic' if you like, that differentiates it from digital photography.

Cost wise it's swings and roundabouts, a film camera today costs a fraction of an equivalent DSLR, though of course that wouldn't have been true when the camera was new. The market move to digital in the last ten years or so has ensured there is a mountain of well looked after film cameras. A film camera is also likely to be worth as much as you pay for it today in five years time (possibly more), a digital camera would be worth a fraction of retail then.
The other side is that unlike digital there is a running cost, not so much an issue if you're the sort who carefully composes an image but those used to leaving their finger on the shutter until the batteries cry enough might think it expensive. Home processing makes things a lot cheaper and is part of the experience.
 
***i've found myself looking the the local classifieds at old 35mm slr's lately and was wondering who uses film in the digital age we find ourselves in?****

Well I do, but you must try film even if it's just "been there done it"...you'll know if you will like or dislike the experience and move on from there. Try and pick up a working Praktica MTL3 or MTL5b body for about £4 to use your helios lens.
 
dont forget the cost of a 'decent' film scanner if you get in to it.

budget £100 -£200 as a reasonable starting point.

I bought a cheap rubbish one, and it's ... well ... cheap rubbish !
 
Tricky69 said:
dont forget the cost of a 'decent' film scanner if you get in to it.

budget £100 -£200 as a reasonable starting point.

I bought a cheap rubbish one, and it's ... well ... cheap rubbish !
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...or let Tesco scan to a CD for £3 (y) although for medium format it saves a lot of money.
 
There was a good scanner for sale two weeks ago, which a chap had bought specifically to digitise his old neg archive. £160 new last year, he got almost a hundred for it on ebay, so decent scanners obviously hold their value, at least until they become old tech.
 
could one of you guys id this camera, it's a praktica but i cant make out the model number.

praktica.jpg
 
lexie said:
would it be considered a 'good' camera?
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Cheap and cheerful. The lenses weren't bad at all, the bodies were a mixed bag. If you got a good'un it should be fine.
They tended to be bought by people who were more interested in the thing they were taking, trains, churches, the girlfriend in a state of undress, than photography fans per se. None the worse for that.
 
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here's the description in the advert:

"Praktica 35mm camera with standard 50mm Pentacon lens, 28mm Super Orion wide angle lens, 70-210 Sigma zoom lens, adjustable Luxon Phototechnics flashgun.
All in good condition with carry case and separate lens boxes also available."

£55 asking price but obviously i don't want to pay that, although it is close to me and i'd pay a little more than i want for convienience of picking it up.
 
As col says - if it hasn't died already, then it'll last forever.

I had its kid brother (MTL3) - it's meters grasp on reality was tenuous at best, after 4 films ruined, I embraced the sunny-16 rule and got on with things. I dragged it all over the lakes/dales/snowdonia and half way around the alps, before dropping it from a Bivi ledge half way up the Aig.du Midi. It didn't survive the 500+ metre fall, and I didn't go looking for it. Bought a Canon AE-1 instead and never looked back - I'm a sentimental soul when it comes to film cameras, but the Praktica's have never fired that "I'd like one again for old times sake" even if they are available for a handful of buttons at the usual pikey sources :LOL:
 
lexie said:
£55 asking price but obviously i don't want to pay that, although it is close to me and i'd pay a little more than i want for convienience of picking it up.
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Very much top dollar. You could pick up a better built manual camera, or more technically advanced camera for that price. I'd keep looking.
 
lexie said:
here's the description in the advert:

"Praktica 35mm camera with standard 50mm Pentacon lens, 28mm Super Orion wide angle lens, 70-210 Sigma zoom lens, adjustable Luxon Phototechnics flashgun.
All in good condition with carry case and separate lens boxes also available."

£55 asking price but obviously i don't want to pay that, although it is close to me and i'd pay a little more than i want for convienience of picking it up.
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Anything over a tenner and they're taking the hug and kiss... :thumbsdown:
 
I've started getting back into film with the birth of my daughter. I don't want to capture everything with digital and then later regret not using film.

I wonder what the best cheap Canon film body would be, with a budget of about £100 ?
Currently have a 500n but looking at 1/3/5's.
 
Lexie - If you want a quality camera on similar lines try a Canon FTb. Loads of luvverly lenses about and that really will go on forever. Shouldn't pay north of twenty-five quid for one either. Mine was £15 and it looks like it just came out the box.
EOS1 - Unless you are looking at professional bodies, a hundred nicker buys you a lot of camera. Someone who knows more about EOS era Canons will advise.

Edit: getting posters mixed up.
 
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eos1 said:
I wonder what the best cheap Canon film body would be, with a budget of about £100 ?
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You should be able to get a tidy enough EOS 3 body for around £100 if you keep your wits about you, though they usually go for a little more. It's a really lovely camera.

edit: An EOS 5 would be my second choice and they can be had for well under £100. Watch out for broken command dials as they're a bit delicate, though it can be fixed.
 
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eos1 said:
I've started getting back into film with the birth of my daughter. I don't want to capture everything with digital and then later regret not using film.

I wonder what the best cheap Canon film body would be, with a budget of about £100 ?
Currently have a 500n but looking at 1/3/5's.
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If you've got EF fit glass, rather than EF-S kit lens for the 400D, I'd say get yourself either a EOS3 or EOS1N. If you need to pick up some EF glass as well in the £100 budget, look at the EOS-30 - it's pretty much the EOS50D equivalent of its era.
 
Musicman said:
You should be able to get a tidy enough EOS 3 body for around £100 if you keep your wits about you, though they usually go for a little more. It's a really lovely camera.

edit: An EOS 5 would be my second choice and they can be had for well under £100. Watch out for broken command dials as they're a bit delicate, though it can be fixed.
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Can agree with that! I picked one up on here for £90...missing its eyepiece (which I could get for £10 if I wanted to) but all in all a beauty of a body, and wins points for having all the same AF settings as my 1D's... I'm in love already!
 
lexie said:
here's the description in the advert:

"Praktica 35mm camera with standard 50mm Pentacon lens, 28mm Super Orion wide angle lens, 70-210 Sigma zoom lens, adjustable Luxon Phototechnics flashgun.
All in good condition with carry case and separate lens boxes also available."

£55 asking price but obviously i don't want to pay that, although it is close to me and i'd pay a little more than i want for convienience of picking it up.
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Forget it at that price, although the Pentacon (same as Meyer) lens is excellent but still cheap to buy at boots sales.
 
lexie said:
thanks for all the advice guys and sorry for all the questions lol.

what is the general consensus on minolta slr's. i know the they use the same mount as the sony dslr system so that's got to be a consideration for me
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erm I don't think old Minolta manual focus lenses would work for that DSLR, but if you want to use a film camera with AF lenses then be prepared to pay a lot more money, as the digital guys are sucking the lenses up. The cheapest common lenses are Manual focus:- Hexanon (Konica) Canon FD and Minolta, because these lenses are more difficult for the digital guys to use, although some new digital cameras can use any old lens if the mount is available.
 
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lexie - when I'm done shooting a roll in my minolta 500si I could send it to you for postage cost ! :)

how about that for a good price ! :p . I believe it would end up in the bay anyway as I have 3 very nice film cameras.
 
Starastin said:
lexie - when I'm done shooting a roll in my minolta 500si I could send it to you for postage cost ! :)

how about that for a good price ! :p . I believe it would end up in the bay anyway as I have 3 very nice film cameras.
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Now there's a a generous offer! :clap:

Got to get back to playing with the F1N -just unpacked it and I think I'm in love. :love:
 
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Starastin said:
lexie - when I'm done shooting a roll in my minolta 500si I could send it to you for postage cost ! :)

how about that for a good price ! :p . I believe it would end up in the bay anyway as I have 3 very nice film cameras.
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that is a generous offer, do the sony mount lenses work on the old minoltas?
 
although lenses specially designed for cropped sensor will vignette heavily so they are not recommended.
like 18-55mm kit lens for example. the 18-70mm kit lens which is worse will stop vignetting after 28mm or so .
 
Starastin said:
lexie - when I'm done shooting a roll in my minolta 500si I could send it to you for postage cost ! :)

how about that for a good price ! :p . I believe it would end up in the bay anyway as I have 3 very nice film cameras.
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:clap:
 
Starastin said:
lexie - when I'm done shooting a roll in my minolta 500si I could send it to you for postage cost ! :)

how about that for a good price ! :p . I believe it would end up in the bay anyway as I have 3 very nice film cameras.
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Now, it may just be the Ageing Hippy in me coming to the surface here, but this is the kind of thing that I :love: Film&Conventional for...
 
It's hard to be macho and in your face talking about obsolete gear no-one else cares about. Film brings out the best in people, both sides of the lens.
 
I've got an EOS500n which I thought was OK - it's quite small and light so was a good way of getting me to use an SLR rather than a compact.

I recently bought an EOS 5 from these forums for £25 (right bargain!) which seems much more advanced than the 500 (although it is bigger and therefore not as portable).

Remember with film that it's the lens and the film that are more important than the body (as long as the body has all the functionality that you need).
 
eos1 said:
I've started getting back into film with the birth of my daughter. I don't want to capture everything with digital and then later regret not using film.
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Just out of interest what makes you not want to only use digital?
 
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