Treated myself to a new camera, and it uses film

[Wozy68]

First new camera in over 10 years and it's a Nikon F6.

Brought it with me on holiday so no film developed yet. The town I live in still has a traditional camera shop and when I asked if they could still get film developed; the reply was drop it in on a Saturday and the prints will be back on the Thursday. Would Sir like 6x4, 7x5, Matt or gloss. I haven't heard those words for many a year. The shop even still sells film.

Blimey, for the first time in over a decade I'm going to have to wait nearly a week to see how my photos look. .... And then I guess I'll be throwing most away. Even so, I can't wait.

The F6 really is a beautiful camera to use, with possibly the finest sounding shutter in existence. I'm enjoying every moment of using it, and for the first time in years I'm truly enjoying composing and taking photographs.

Utter madness maybe, but hey ho

[ExPat2B]

I love my F5, favourite camera to use by a long way.

Some things I have found to do :

Buy Portra 400. Over expose by 1-2 stops on the meter ( or just set it as ISO 200 manually ) gives great colours and dynamic range.

Scan the negatives with a Macro lens and DSLR, then reverse and white balance to 2550 then colour correct in photoshop.

Enjoy building an album out of 6x4's

[_dobbo_]

Funnily enough I just got a few rolls of film back, and remembered why I stopped shooting film! Long delays and £1 per picture puts it into the "unjistifiable" category.

Never got on with Portra. Fuji Provia all the way. Albeit all the way to bankruptcy.

[Wozy68]

_dobbo_ said:

Funnily enough I just got a few rolls of film back, and remembered why I stopped shooting film! Long delays and £1 per picture puts it into the "unjistifiable" category.

Never got on with Portra. Fuji Provia all the way. Albeit all the way to bankruptcy.

It is an expensive hobby that's a fact. However back in 2005/6 I sold all my film gear and went out and bought a D200 and a couple of pro lenses with the sale proceeds. It came as a bit of a shock the following year or so that the D200 was 'bettered' by the D300 and obviously the sales guy took great pleasure in telling me this. ....... Something new to hear in the camera world as back in the day it was 10 years before a 'better' model normally came along. My £1.2K camera basically became obsolete (in certain eyes) overnight........ Mind you I still own it though it's rarely used.

I'm paying around six quid for 36 exposure film plus another six quid to get it developed. So yup it's going to around 33p per 7x5. In these days of taking hundreds of images going for one decent shot and then post processing (which I understand can be a hobby within itself) digital all the way on photo cost.

Problem there for me is that is was what killed the enjoyment of the hobby in the first place...... Now back into film I'm loving every minute of it. I m finding it so enjoyable again.

At this rate I'll be back into buying vinyl next

[_dobbo_]

When you get it right then shooting film is way better, that's for sure. I always switched between film and digital and could never adjust my workflow enough to slow down when shooting film, hence my terrible success rate!

Holding some freshly processed slide film in your hands and looking at what you got is a lovely thing to do! Enjoying it is what matters.

[Wozy68]

I always used slide film in the past, Sensia was my preferred favourite closely followed by Valvia.. Can you still buy them?

[_dobbo_]

Velvia got discontinued a while ago. Provia is by all accounts better if you are scanning. The film was in my experience less saturated than Velvia. Mostly I was working with expired 120 film when I was using it so I couldn't offer an expert opinion on the differences, particularly as my Velvia was all 50ISO which made it hard to work with in anything other than very good light.

Provia 100F is still around, but expensive at £9 to £10 for a single 36exp roll. Provia 400 got discontinued as well, shame really.

[Wozy68]

Good to know and thanks.

I used to use Valvia for macro, I loved the way it (more) saturated colour.. Sorely missed here.

[Mr Will]

Wozy68 said:

I'm paying around six quid for 36 exposure film plus another six quid to get it developed. So yup it's going to around 33p per 7x5. In these days of taking hundreds of images going for one decent shot and then post processing (which I understand can be a hobby within itself) digital all the way on photo cost.

The cost per keeper isn't as bad as you'd think...

[Elderly]

I still keep three film cameras but I'll never use them again;
they're lovely objects but give me digital any day.

For me the cost of film and it's processing, was way more expensive
than the lack of depreciation of most of my film camera bodies;
they inevitably got bashed, dented and 'brassed' with heavy use
and were pretty worthless compared to the price of servicing
clutches, shutters, motor drives etc.

All types of film for all eventualities had to be bought and kept refrigerated.
The kind of jobs I did required many different types/formats of film stock
and much bracketing, or clip tests.

The film had to be biked to the lab and I would usually then go
and look at the clip tests and decide if the E6 process needed pushing
or pulling.

I doubled up on everything and always held the other half back just in
case there was a crash at the lab - the jobs could never be re-shot.

The transparencies would then be biked back to me and I would then have to mount them.
Label the mounts, visit the Post Office and send (half of) them off to the client by 'Special Delivery'. etc. etc. etc.
It was a very expensive and time consuming business.

[Simpo Two]

Wozy68 said:

However back in 2005/6 I sold all my film gear and went out and bought a D200 and a couple of pro lenses with the sale proceeds. It came as a bit of a shock the following year or so that the D200 was 'bettered' by the D300 and obviously the sales guy took great pleasure in telling me this...

Love the way you sold your obsolete 2005 camera and bought a 2004 one

[Mr Will]

Elderly said:

I still keep three film cameras but I'll never use them again;
they're lovely objects but give me digital any day.

For me the cost of film and it's processing, was way more expensive
than the lack of depreciation of most of my film camera bodies;
they inevitably got bashed, dented and 'brassed' with heavy use
and were pretty worthless compared to the price of servicing
clutches, shutters, motor drives etc.

All types of film for all eventualities had to be bought and kept refrigerated.
The kind of jobs I did required many different types/formats of film stock
and much bracketing, or clip tests.

The film had to be biked to the lab and I would usually then go
and look at the clip tests and decide if the E6 process needed pushing
or pulling.

I doubled up on everything and always held the other half back just in
case there was a crash at the lab - the jobs could never be re-shot.

The transparencies would then be biked back to me and I would then have to mount them.
Label the mounts, visit the Post Office and send (half of) them off to the client by 'Special Delivery'. etc. etc. etc.
It was a very expensive and time consuming business.

Shooting for work and shooting for fun have a very different set of priorities. Shooting film is (as you rightly note) impractical for professional purposes but can make a good hobby.

It's a bit like classic cars. You'd be crazy to try and use one if you were a taxi-driver doing airport runs every day, but lots of people enjoy having one in the garage for sunny Sunday trips to the pub.

[Bring on the clowns]

Wozy68 said:

I always used slide film in the past, Sensia was my preferred favourite closely followed by Valvia.. Can you still buy them?

I still manage to get Velvia new, mostly buying from Nik and Trick in Folkestone - from 35mm & 120 roll film + have a freezer full of 4"x5" Readyloads. These days my taste is going more to Portra which is lovely for floral/garden work and landscapes (more subtle than Velvia) and Ektachrome, though I only wish Kodachrome was still available.

I saw some fantastic, gorgeous work taken on Kodak cine film recently with wonderfully rich but not garish colours. I also like Agfa Scala - a black and white slide film! Fridge is full of that too.

[Wozy68]

Bring on the clowns said:

Wozy68 said:

I always used slide film in the past, Sensia was my preferred favourite closely followed by Valvia.. Can you still buy them?

I still manage to get Velvia new, mostly buying from Nik and Trick in Folkestone - from 35mm & 120 roll film + have a freezer full of 4"x5" Readyloads. These days my taste is going more to Portra which is lovely for floral/garden work and landscapes (more subtle than Velvia) and Ektachrome, though I only wish Kodachrome was still available.

I saw some fantastic, gorgeous work taken on Kodak cine film recently with wonderfully rich but not garish colours. I also like Agfa Scala - a black and white slide film! Fridge is full of that too.

Thanks for that, I'll give them a go

[ian in lancs]

Hey, fantastic! Ive recently bought an F6 to add to my two F5s an F100 and an OM2n. All fantastic cameras! Take a look at my college blog and select 'analogue / film' category.
Blogs about using film and digital on the same fashion shoots and how they differ and what I learnt.

Like a lot of things combining modern technology with classic materials give a fantastic result. Modern lenses / optics with film emulsion, scanned to hi-res digital files to allow fine tuning in post edit is an unbeatable classic look and I am very pleased with the results.

Enjoy! We should start a film pic topic!

www.ianwalkerphotography.wordpress.com/

Edited by ian in lancs on Wednesday 25th May 19:00