Who still shoots film? Lets see your gear!

My wife wanted to buy a new(er) digital camera so off we went to the camera shop that I have done business with for over 20 years.

BAD idea...

My wife got the camera she was after, she's very happy.

I haven't run film through my SLR for probably 15 years.

I can't believe how cheap vintage camera stuff is now. Consequently, I ended up buying the zoom lens I always wanted, plus a couple rolls of Fuji Superia film and a roll of Ilford Delta 400. All came to under $100.00

I went home, dug out my stuff, checked it all over and gave it a good cleaning.

We're headed out tomorrow afternoon to play around, looks like I may be dragged back into the hobby again.

I'm tempted to go back and have a good look at the Minolta X-700 body they have. Always wanted one but never bought it.

Here's my stuff:

Minolta SRT-200 body x2

Minolta MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 x2 (one has a bashed filter mount, came to me that way but the lens is great)

Minolta MD Zoom 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 (Has a macro function but more like a close-up function)

Minolta MD Tele Rokkor-X 200mm F4

Kitstar MC 28mm F2.8 wide angle (This and my zoom both have a 1:4 macro function but this one works better.

Kitstar MC doubler

Minolta Auto 132X flash

Sekonic Auto-Lumi light meter. So old, I think Jesus might have had one but it works fine.

Assorted filters and other gak not pictured.

What do you guys run?

I still run film. I will have to take a picture of the gear later. For bodies I have the Nikon FM, FM2, FE and F3HP along with motor drives for the F3 and FMs. For lenses I still have a hand full of primes and a couple variables.

Film wise, I have a Yashica 124 (non G) TLR, Yashica 35 GSN rangefinder, and an Olympus XA rangefinder. Here's the 35, don't have pics of the rest

Here's a link to my flickr album for film shots Flickr

I love film. I love the process, the ritual, and the image quality. I love the suspense of waiting to see what prints or slides I get back from the lab, especially looking at the slides under a loupe on a light table. I have the equipment to develop at home, but not to scan (yet).

I don't care much for Fuji Superia, don't know how to explain it but the color case and balance just seems off to me. The 400 speed is ok. I MUCH prefer Kodak Ektar 100 and Kodak Portra 400. The former is $5 a roll and the latter is $7 at B&H Photo. I still love slides, especially the good Ektachrome EPP100 and Velvia rolls I have, but at $20 a roll for processing...

Of course, what would GRM be without enablers... a local pawn shop has a TON of minolta stuff in their basement for dirt cheap. Most of it is crap, but there are some good Vivitar Series 1 lenses and fast primes for Minolta and Olympia... I think they're closed on sunday but would be happy to go check out some gear if they're not. Let me know what you're looking for.

Great...

Enablers..

I'll try the Kodak next time 'round, I got the superia because it was cheap and I'm probably a bit rusty at this point.

As for gear, the only things I'm looking for would be an SRT-102 or 202 body, a 400mm + telephoto (vivitar or minolta) and possibly a working X-700 or X-570 body. If the X-series units have the Motor Drive 1 or the Power GripII, I might be in trouble.

Don't go out of your way just for me but if you need an excuse to go....

I did very well with my Canon A1 back in college, with a nice handful of Canon lenses, but I haven't shot much since then.

skierd wrote: I love film. I love the process, the ritual, and the image quality. I love the suspense of waiting to see what prints or slides I get back from the lab, especially looking at the slides under a loupe on a light table. I have the equipment to develop at home, but not to scan (yet).

This is why. Without the college darkroom at my disposal, I'm missing 90% of the fun. It's awesome to drop a seemingly-blank sheet of paper into a tray and watch an image come up. Test strips, contrast filters, big honking prints. I really miss all that.

I'm a sucker for Kodak T-Max - it just kicks the Ilford stuff to the ground. I still think there's nothing like a T-Max print with just a touch of selenium toning.

Shouldn't it take a week or so to get these pictures back from these film guys?

I've pared down my film gear lately since C41 developing costs have gone through the roof, and I just don't have time to scan negatives anymore.

I still have a packfilm converted Polaroid 110a that takes wonderful photos. Unfortunately the film is quickly going away.

I also have a couple Kodak Retina rangefinders that are little jewels. That's way down from the 20+ film bodies I used regularly before switching to digital.

I shoot about 80 or 90% film, which amounts to maybe 100 rolls a year; I still shoot more 35mm, but I've been doing more and more medium format lately. I've got a good place nearby for C-41, and I develop B&W myself in Caffenol, which is a homemade developer.

As for cameras, it's probably better if I don't count them. In 35mm I prefer rangefinders - I primarily use a pair of Canon rangefinders (a P and an L1) with a collection of lenses (in focal lengths ranging from 21 to 135), a FED-2, and an Olympus 35SP. In medium format, I switch back and forth between folders (several, ranging between 6x4.5 and 6x9) and TLRs, my favorite of which is a 1933 Rolleiflex. I even mess around with pinhole cameras every now and again.

A couple of samples:

I recently got some stuff from my family: From my dad: Canon A1, 50mm/1.4, Vivitar 80-200 zoom (nothing special), Sears 28mm macro

And then my uncle found out I was interested and gave me: Canon EOS Elan II (no lenses, but I have EF lenses from my digital that will work), Western daylight film loader (with 10+ year old film in it), nice old leather camera bag

There were at least 5 exposed undeveloped rolls with all of this that are getting developed now, along with a half used roll that was in the A1 (apparently my dad switched to digital in the middle of a roll??)

And then I have some other stuff left over from high school photo class, like some old metal reloadable film cartridges and a developing tank with no reels or lid. We'll see where this all leads.

Oh, and I tend to agree on the preference for Kodak over Fuji film. While I have gotten good results from Superia (mostly 200, not 400) in certain cameras with certain lenses, it doesn't do terribly well with the vintage lenses I favor. Ektar is wonderful but a bit more picky about exposure than Portra. For monochrome, Tri-X is my go-to, but the price for bulk rolls has skyrocketed in the last couple years, so I've been using more and more HP5+ in 35mm; in my MF gear I love the look of Pan F+.

And I second the old Retinas as great little cameras. I've got Type 010 that I still enjoy using, and it's tiny enough to stick in a pocket and carry everywhere.

A cannon AE-2 got me through my AS in photography. Including scanning my negatives in my digital class. Unfortunately I need to get it fixed as it isn't working with a new battery.

Yup but there's no lag when trying to take the picture.

My wife has a lot of pictures of animal butts thanks to using a digital camera.

Datsun310Guy wrote: Shouldn't it take a week or so to get these pictures back from these film guys?

Trans_Maro wrote: Yup but there's no lag when trying to take the picture. My wife has a lot of pictures of animal butts thanks to using a digital camera.

Datsun310Guy wrote: Shouldn't it take a week or so to get these pictures back from these film guys?

Get her a DSLR. No lag. You know, one that works like a film camera

Datsun310Guy wrote: Shouldn't it take a week or so to get these pictures back from these film guys?

The local mega store still has 1hr processing scans and prints for c41 and I can usually convince them to cross process my e-6.

Slides and MF take 2 weeks thanks to shipping.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

That's what she has.

She just upgraded from a Nikon D40 to a D3100.

There's still lag from the AF system, I'm trying to get her to wrap her head around DOF so she can use it on full manual and be faster with it.

There's also still a lag from writing to the card. Even with a fast card, it's slower than a motor drive on a "proper" camera.

Set it to the "action" setting and you'll get closer but you'll still only get about 5 frames before it lags from writing to the card.

DSLR's still have lag.

If we spent $3000 on a DSLR, maybe not but that's not in the budget for a good hobby camera.

I still shoot (some) film, mostly B&W that I then develop myself.

I have a couple of Yashica/Contax bodies with prime lenses and a Bronica 6x4.5cm. Finally need to get my act together and develop the film in that one to see if it was cheap for a reason...

Don't have any pictures of it, but I have a Canon AE1-P with the Canon 50mm and 28mm wide-angle, plus a 70-200mm Toyo zoom lens. I'm out of practice and haven't put a roll through it in a while, but my daughter shot a lot of b+w with it over the last couple years.

Over the past week, found out that my FIL has an old Petri 2.8 Color Corrected camera. Pretty cool, especially with the "focus" ability of the system. His camera has a problem with the winder/trigger- when you wind it, instead of using the button to trigger the shutter, it does it when the advance hits the end- so the top of the camera needs to come apart to fix that.

My dad has an old Leica camera of similar vintage. His shutter sticks.

To me, those are mid old school.

My late 80's era Minoltas are still pretty modern- both have sensors to detect appropriate shutter speed based off of light, apature opening, and film type. But I've not used either for at least 15 years.

I've often wondered of anyone has made a digital sensor plate to replace the film on some of the old cameras.

alfadriver wrote: I've often wondered of anyone has made a digital sensor plate to replace the film on some of the old cameras.

I'm not sure about some kind of home built setup, but as far as commercially, everything has been failed kickstarters and vaporware based off of one prototype from over 10 years ago. But once it gets worked out, those will be a hit.

No photos of it from work, but I still have a double-camera bag with 1/2 taken up by my Nikon F3 and MD-4 motor drive, with some older Speedlight as well. I can't remember who was president the last time I put a roll through it, but I hope I remembered to remove all the batteries.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Nice to see the Minolta love. Most of my film gear is Minolta, for manual focus I have an XE7 and an SRT-202, with MC Rokkor 50/1.4 and Vivitar Series 1 70-210/2.8, plus a Vivitar 28/2.5. For autofocus I have a 600si and a Maxxum 5, plus a handful of lenses that get shared with my Sony DSLR.

For rangefinders I have a Minoltina AL-S, and Hi-matic models 7, 7s (x2), 9, and E (which shares a lot of DNA with the Leica CL). I have some other rangefinders too including an Olympus XA, Canonet QL 17 GIII, old Voightlander, some Yashica(s), etc. I also have a Leica Mini which is really a point & shoot and not a rangefinder.

And then finally I have my Mamiya RB67 ProS, or as I like to call it my "Texas Hasselblad." I don't take it out as much as I should, but it really does take nice images. I actually hurt my back one time hiking with it and an appropriate sized tripod in a backpack. It's a BIG camera.

For film I mostly use Ilford HP5+, it is interesting to see some of the opinions on film here, particularly some who like a product I swore off of 25 year years ago. In any case it's been about that long since I really compared B&W films so maybe things have changed.

I like HP5+, although I pretty much replaced it with Tri-X at some point because I preferred how the grain came out in Agfa Rodinal. It's a fine film, though, and I like it better than the newer T-grain films.

I had taken a four year hiatus from B&W film photography and was surprised how many films had disappeared while I wasn't looking, especially the old school really slow ones.

neon4891 wrote:

alfadriver wrote: I've often wondered of anyone has made a digital sensor plate to replace the film on some of the old cameras.

I'm not sure about some kind of home built setup, but as far as commercially, everything has been failed kickstarters and vaporware based off of one prototype from over 10 years ago. But once it gets worked out, those will be a hit.

I'd love to be the one to affordably figure that out for 35mm... the problem would be stuffing the brains in to a 35mm film canister and finding a way around removing the pressure plate so there's room for the sensor. Maybe a complete new door and back?

Medium format has this tech though with removable digital backs from Leaf, Phase One, and Hasselblad. They're new car money though, nice car money.

Here's a very GRM approach to the film-to-digital conversion: https://frankencamera.wordpress.com/

For those who've been away from film for a while, things have definitely changed. HP5+ and Tri-X have gone through development over time that makes them considerably different than the emulsions sold under the same names years ago; the same is true for others, both monochrome and color. And some of the emulsions out there are remarkable in their tolerance - Portra comes to mind.

Hey 02Pilot, which Caffenol are you using? I was reading up on that, seems like something I want to try. (I read elsewhere that I should start with caffenol-c)