zenit 12 for niece

david1701

david1701

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I'm thinking of giving my niece (8 but more grown up than me) a camera for crimbo, I've been looking for a 300d/350d but its miles out of my budget (I think I might save and make it a birthday in a year or two).

Anywho I have several zenits and the usual suspects of m42 primes and I was thinking about setting her up with a zenit 12 (nice easy ttl metering) a 35/2.8 a 58/2 and a 135/2.8 along with a little shoulder bag, blower and half a dozen rolls of film. Thinking to teach her how to use it then teach her dev and printing alongside my dev and printing (right now she can come use the uni darkroom, but long term I intend to have one at home either over christmas hols if all goes well or sourcing my own stuff and doing it over the summer)

She really is a grown up little girl but without a lot of confidence and I was hoping that if she got into this it would give her some, and she can play with my toys too :D
 
what I didn't mention was I am about to wrap it and wanted a bit of confirmation that this wasn't a terrible idea first :D
 
Well you're never too young to learn, and the Zenit 12 with the three lenses you mention are a good introduction to 35mm SLR photography. At least with this camera being manually operated, she'll learn about focussing, shutter speed and aperture combinations (let's hope she's not put off by it). :LOL:

If she really shows an interest, then by all means show her how to develop and print films. After all, that's part of the magic of photography.
 
thats great idea! i was wanting to do same thing with my gf's 7 year old sister but think she would take one look at it and the manual focus and say forget it.

its worth a go is it not? if she doesnt like it, maybe in a few years time!
 
sorted, what do you think of my film choice?

1x panf, 2xfp4, 2xhp5, 1xdelta3200 i have more of each I'll give her but that lot all wrapped up

also any other accessories I should be putting in?
 
what about a flash? does it have an exposure meter?

as for film, i dont know what the differences are, i just buy whatever i can get my hands on an and is cheap!
 
Ilford films are perfectly good. As an introduction, I'd start off with FP4 or HP5 first just until she gets the hang of it. These films have a reasonable exposure latitude and are fairly forgiving, so will allow for any errors she may make with meter readings.

Other accessories to consider would be a small flashgun and a tripod.
 
built in ttl meter (v flash) film is all home dev black and white in speeds from iso 50 (grainless) to iso 3200(buckets of grain)

I have a small flash but its unmetered (all manual calculations) and I find the dammed thing a pain so don't think she'll like it
 
tbh, there is prob more than enough there to get her started, id maybe even just stick the one lens on and get her to learn about exposure/setting etc to begin with before you start adding more things!
 
meant it long not v long :confused:

also weirdly 135 won't focus past 40' so have reshuffled to cam, 58/2, 35/2.8, cloth, blower, 3xfp4 and 3x hp5
 
david1701 said:
maybe a good shout, I reckon 90% of the time it'll be the 58/2 on there but it is v long for landscapes
Click to expand...

how many landscapes do you reckon a 8yo will get the chance to take?

most pics will be of things in their immediate area and totally random unless shes getting taken away by her uncle-the one trying to force her into photography... :D
 
well what else you gonna do over christmas break? im planning on shooting my fashion brief for college on my rb67, cant wait to get started. who needs digital! :eek: :D
 
I thought I'd tell you all that she only put it down once and that was to play on her new bike. All day I've taught her focussing but KISS for christmas day I metered for her. No worries about it being too complicated. Wonder if I shoulda hunted for something smaller as its awful big in her hands :D
 
David, thats really good to encourage a youngster to start off on film with a manual camera. I cant help but think that those starting out with digital cameras are missing out on a wonderful experience, I'm sure we all remember the first time we developed our first negative, and our first print :).

Being of a certain age :)lol:), I've never enjoyed using digital and as for using photoshop, forget it!! It's always (IMHO) better to take a 'photograph' as opposed to a 'digital image'.

Well done, keep up the encouragement!

Nigel.

PS If a Photographer takes photographs, who takes 'digital images'? Digital Imagers? ;)
 
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