New to film, a little fretful

viper_biker

viper_biker

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Gareth
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I've started my AS Photography course a few weeks ago and part of the course is to shoot with film. I bought myself an F80 and and F60 for my partner (she's doing the course with me) and I must admit, I'm a little worried about the results. I bought some HP5 Ilford 400 film (is that right?) today as we're shooting in b+w. I tried mounting my lenses onto the F60 and seems like very little I have will A/F. I understood that the 18-70 DX lens would not A/F but I thought the 70-200VR and 300/4 would (but don't) I've downloaded both manuals to have a read tonight and see if I can start to work my way around them. Can someone help me with the following focusing lenses,

Nikon 50mm f1.8 - F60 Yes F80 Yes
Nikon 18-70 f3.5-4.5G ED - F60 No F80 Yes
Nikon 28-80 f3.3-5.6G - F60 Yes F80 Yes
Nikon 70-200 f2.8G VR - F60 No F80 Yes
Nikon 300 f4D - F60 No F80 Yes

Also, will a SB-600 mount and work correctly, or do you need special film based flashes for film camera's?
 
Not sure about the lenses thought they'd all work on both bodies :thinking:

HP5 is good film use FP4/delta 100 if you want finer grain but you should get some good negatives with that, that you can enlarge to 12x16
 
You can't use the 18-70, its a DX lens for crop cameras only.
There's no special flash for film, nor is there special flash for digital, flash is flash.
I would have thought the SB-600 would work fine with both cameras, maybe the SB instructions have a compatibility chart.
I would also say the lenses should AF with the F60 too....:shrug:
 
From the list it looks like there's a problem with the F60 focus when using AFS (in lens motor) lenses. Is your 300f4D an AFS lens? (The 70-200 is AFS) It will have "AF-S Nikkor" or similar on the designation plate if it is. There is an earlier 300f4 which is not AF-S.

Try cleaning the contacts on the camera - i've heard of people using pencil top erasers for this, and isopropyl alcohol (not vodka!)

Your 18-70 should focus (as above, it's an AFS), but you'll get vignetting (black edges) as the lens is designed for crop sensor cameras which have a smaller sensor than the negative frame of a 35mm film camera.
 
Yeah, all the lenses are AF-S. I did try cleaning the contacts but no joy :( The 2 lenses that are auto-focussing on the F60 both have 5 contact pins but the rest have 10
 
viper_biker said:
Yeah, all the lenses are AF-S. I did try cleaning the contacts but no joy :( The 2 lenses that are auto-focussing on the F60 both have 5 contact pins but the rest have 10
Click to expand...

Yup - just did a little googling, and it seems like the F60 wont autofocus AF-S lenses... although the information actually came from Ken Rockwell's site but he is normally technically accurate.
 
OutLore said:
Yup - just did a little googling, and it seems like the F60 wont autofocus AF-S lenses... although the information actually came from Ken Rockwell's site but he is normally technically accurate.
Click to expand...

In my haste to read up on things before reading all the posts first, I discovered this too. The F60 will NOT autofocus AF-S lenses...

"For instance, the obsolete Nikon N60 has only one focus sensor, has no compatibility with AF-S lenses, no depth-of-field preview and a slow motor drive. The new N65 has five useful AF sensors, works with AF-S lenses, has a 2.5 FPS motor drive and has a useful DOF preview button."

Just having a quick look there are a few f65's going for around the same price as the f60's.

I know it's a bit of a pain, but if i where you, i'd get the f60 back on ebay and buy one of the f65's. Problem solved with very little (if any) money lost.
 
Ah, thanks for the info. I don't mind that the AF-S' won't A/F. The F60 was bought for my partner for our AS level and I have a D70 as a 2nd body for her to use when we move from film to digital. The 28-80 and 50 the do A/F on it will do the job for now and I'll happily donate the F60 to the college when we're done. I'll keep my F80 though just to have in the bag. Thanks again everyone.
 
Just a little update. Fitted some HP5 film into the F80 on Saturday for a 1 day photography course which allowed us to shoot, process and develop our images and I must admit I'm hooked. We weren't taking anything specific but when in the dark-room and seeing how digital and film compare, I'm liking both as much as eachother. So much so that I went out and bought 2 more rolls of HP5 for Clare (my other half) and me to use. How does night photography translate in B+W? Has anyone any examples to share?
 
Most ISO400 B&W films can be pushed quite a lot when shooting dark or night scenes.

Are you talking about long exposure landscapey shots or, say, night scenes lit by streetlights?
 
More landscape stuff. Tri-pod and long exposures. I'll try and get out tonight and bring the digital camera with me to see how it looks on that first before I pop the film one out of the car.
 
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