I'm a film noobie. With a film camera.

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kabooi

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So, after about a year (yes, a year...) of wanting a film camera to play with, I have three... An Nikon fm10, a Nikon FM2 and a Nikon FM, all in the space of a week. To be fair I didnt buy all three, the first was given...and the other two were bought. I have yet to receive the FM....but love the FM2...anyway, my point.

I know how to use the cameras. In fact I cant get over how simple it is and I havent touched my digital since. There are many things about the film and film developing I dont understand.

Whats the best film for high constrast, in colour, black and white etc...and whats a slide film etc. Eventually I would like to start developing my own prints, can I do this?
 
God you started big time! So many cameras already haha.

If this is your first time I wouldn't worry about what film you use, just buy any cheap one(e.g. Poundland) as there are high chances the photos might not be the best straight away.

Slide film is a film that after developing gives you a positive image instead of a negative like 'standard' film. So slide fils is usually projected with a dedicated projector as with negative film you make prints(inverted into a positive image when enlarging)

And yes you can develop your film, you need a darkroom and some chemicals of course, I'm not an expert on those as I only just started with that my self but others here will help you out!
Enjoy.
 
Well I'll answer some film questions..:)

Most popular b/w films are high contrast, the Ilfords FP4/HP5/Delta are, I suppose the question ought to be which are low contrast.
Contrast can also be affected by film processing and print processing.
Slide film or colour reversal or transparencies, 3 names all for the same thing is film that when developed produces a positive image on the film, its mostly colour and processed using E6 chemicals and designed to be projected rather than printed.
Print film or colour neg film is colour film processed in C41 chemicals that produces a negative image on the film, designed to be printed.

:)


snoozed and loozed..
 
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It's worth pointing out that there are two kinds of black and white film. Most are silver-based (eg Ilford Delt, FP4, HP5, Fuji Neopan and there are some Kodak ones I forget, and a bunch of weirdo names like Fomapan). Three I know of are based on C41 processes (the same as colour negative film). These are Ilford XP2, Kodak BW400CN and the Fuji is something like Neopan400CN. XP2 and BW400CN are available in Boots, currently at BOGOHP. The advantage is that more places (eg Asda, Snappy Snaps, and especially Photo Express) will process these C41 BWs; the disadvantage is that they are as hard to develop at home as colour film (ie harder than silver BW). As I understand it. I think.

It seems like Black and White (either kind) is the sort of arty/experiemental choice (like, proper film, man). Slide film used to be demanded in the sort of journalism that gets on the cover of National Geographic. Colour negative is for everything else. Sort of over-generalising a bit!
 
To understand what you have and want to use particularly I recomend the Ansel Adams set of Books
The Camera
The Negative
The Print.
They are about B&W shooting mostly but they are brilliant to help you understand each part of the process. I stiil use what I read in them 25 years ago.
 
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its a three stage thing
1 go out and expose the film
2 develope the film which gives you the negatives
3 then at your leisure print pictures from the negatives
when using black and white film meter from something in the frame that looks grey
and you dont need a darkroom , you can use a changing bag to develope the negatives ( it needs to be in total darkness when taking the film from the casette and putting it in the dev pot ) and a blacked out room at night for the prints
 
Bear in mind you don't have to print your negatives onto paper if you don't want to... I scan mine in (using this method: http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/shooting/scanning-negatives-with-your-digital-camera/ with a lightbox instead of a glass table) and then tweak them in Lightroom like you would with digital shots. This also negates the need for an entire darkroom - I just have a changing bag to transfer film from camera to developing tank.
 
Nice cameras..... be careful film can be addictive :)
 
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