Cameras With Film

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Does anyone here still use a camera that must be loaded with film?
I was somewhat of a novice photographer when I lived in FL. I owned a Canon EOS Rebel 2K 35mm with a 28-80 lens. I went through A LOT of 1K speed film, taking pictures at Daytona Raceway, Desoto Drag strip, and Showtime Drag strip. It's been almost 7 years since I have used a film camera.
I bought my 1st digital camera when I moved back here to La. In fact, it was supposed to be for a g/f but that didn't work out and I now own the camera.
I use my phone camera about 90% of the time now.
 
Like you, I used to take a lot of pics with my Canon EOS 650 with several lens....bag full of stuff been laying in closet for years now. Prob $1000 worth of stuff originally; now about $25!
 
I've got 2 - Pentax K1000 and a Super Program. I use them from time to time now. I did buy a used Pentax K20d that sees a lot of use. All my old stuff still works on it, except the cable release. I'm glad Pentax didn't change everything up.
 
Minolta A mount film cameras went to A mount digital and then Sony bought them, so all the lenses fit the Sony digital's. I still have two Minolta film bodies. Have on with film I need to get out and developed ...
 
Originally Posted By: Wheel
I've got 2 - Pentax K1000 and a Super Program. I use them from time to time now. I did buy a used Pentax K20d that sees a lot of use. All my old stuff still works on it, except the cable release. I'm glad Pentax didn't change everything up.

I had a Pentax Sportmatic 2 35mm camera at one time. I actually bought that camera when I was in high school. I was on the football team AND, took pics for the school newspaper. It was for the KEY CLUB, which I was a member of.
 
I have several: One of the old SR-T series Minoltas and a Minolta X-700 with lenses, as well as a Canon and a Minolta viewfinder camera (Both were gifts.) I also have a Canon Elph and a few years ago went out and bought a Nikon 5100 and an assortment of lenses.
With all this, I still would rather be shooting with my X-700, and use my iPhone for pictures, more than anything.
 
I regularly shoot 35mm, 120, and 4x5. I shoot B&W(develop at home) and E-6(sheet film at home, roll film at a local lab) primarily, although there are some good C-41 films out now. Ektar 100 is great.

I'm a Nikon guy and own an example(if not multiple examples) of NEARLY every Nikon 35mm SLR made. Offhand, I'm missing a few Nikkormats, some of the 90s low-end cameras, an FM3a, and an F6. My most used bodies are my F100, F4, and any of the various F2s. I also use FM2s a lot.

If a rangefinder mood strikes me, I have a Leica IIIc and a Canon 7. The Leica is nice and solid, but not the easiest camera in the world to use. The split rangefinder/viewfinder is a pain, the rangefinder is dim, and both it and the viewfinder are small and squinty. Also, it needs an external finder for anything other than a 50mm lens(I have a Leitz finder, which is good but not great). The Canon, by contrast, has a nice, bright combined viewfinder and rangefinder with projected frame lines for-I think-28mm to 135mm, a swing open back, and a bunch of other stuff that makes it really nice to use. The problem is that it's massive. I use my Leica lenses on it, and the little collapsible 50mm Elmar is comically small.

I have 3 medium format systems-I use the Pentax 645 for 645, a Hasselblad 500c for 6x6, and a Mamiya RB67 for 6x7. My Mamiya is the most "complete" of the three, but the Hasselblad gets used the most.

For B&W roll film, I mostly shoot Tri-X and develop in D76. Ilford FP4+ is my go-to for sheet film, also in D76. I MOSTLY use Velvia 50 for color, but use Provia 100F if I want something a bit more controllable or even will use Ektar 100.

I was given a Pentax Auto-110 outfit not too long ago. It's a neat little camera, and I need to get some film for it(new 110 is, surprisingly enough, still available). Supposedly, this was the smallest SLR ever made. Also, out of curiosity, I picked up a Nikon Pronia 6i a while back. This is an APS SLR and can a pretty good selection of F mount lenses. My first roll, using film that expired in 2008, was pretty bad-I'm going to try again one of these days with the exposure compensation set to +1 and see if it improves any.

Also, while we're at it, can we PLEASE strike any use of the word "analogue" in reference to film itself out of the collective vocabulary?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: nthach
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Who develops colour 35MM?

https://thedarkroom.com/

They'll develop and scan(with returned negatives/slides too) for under $20 when you include return shipping.



Ouch! That's expensive next to Dwayne's

https://www.dwaynesphoto.com/

It's also a lot more expensive than my local lab-C41 with scanning(which I rarely get) is like $7. C-41 develop only is $4.50 for 35mm or 120, and $8 for 220. E-6 is $10.50 for 35mm(mounted) or 120, and $14 for 220.
 
I still use a Nikon F100 + TTL flash + several lenses from time to time. Also have several Minolta bodies from years past when my vision allowed manual focus. Loaded up the F100 recently to take pics of neighbors grand-daughter playing in the yard, on the swing, etc. Gave them copies. They were rather stunned at the picture quality. They were too used to looking at iPhone-only photos. Not even close. I'm also an experienced photographer and consider background, DOF, focus, lighting, shadows, and framing key to an excellent photo.

Also used to do alot of both B&W and color darkroom work. Still have a Lici Colorstar analyzer + a couple of Bessler drums. Sold the JOBO processor & drums last year. Time gone by....
 
I'm on vacation now, and here's my "grab and go" bag.


The film camera is an F100 with an accessory battery grip(I wish I'd remembered to bring the standard battery holder with me so that I could ditch it) and the digital is a D800. At the moment, the D800 has a 24-85 f/3.5-4.5 VR on it, while the F100 has the old and poorly regarded 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5. Jammed in the center is an AF-Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 and Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D. The 120 film in the front pouch is for the Hasselblad that might be slung over my shoulder-I pulled some of my precious stash of 120 Plus-X and E100G out for this trip.

I have an "overflow" bag that has a bunch of MF lenses, an F2, a few FM2s, and an FA along with bunches of other accessories. The F2(sb) is loaded with a fresh roll of Kodak TMX P3200(TMZ), while the FA has Provia, one FM2 has Tri-X, and the other has Ektar 100. My much loved 14-24 f/2.8 is also in there. It mostly stays put away, though, because it's heavy and not readily amenable to filters. It works perfectly with the F100(and a couple of other film cameras) but can only work at minimum aperture on my other cameras.

The filter thing is actually the biggest reason why the 18-35 is in my bag instead(the other reason is that it will meter on everything but my F2sb, and I'll get around to adding a metering shoe one of these days)-I generally shoot Velvia with an 81A filter(if Ektachrome ever comes back and I use it, I'll need to be sure I have an 81B or 81C with me to get over the "Ektachrome Blues" since I doubt my preferred E100GX will be available). As a side note on that, when I'm shooting film only or mixed film and digital I've swapped all my polarizers for Hoya "Moose" warming polarizers-they're easy enough to correct for on digital, and saves having to stack filters on film(most polarizers shift the color balance a bit cool for my taste). I bought my Moose polarizers used, but was surprised that they're still available new since they are pretty much a film item.
 
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial


It's also a lot more expensive than my local lab-C41 with scanning(which I rarely get) is like $7. C-41 develop only is $4.50 for 35mm or 120, and $8 for 220. E-6 is $10.50 for 35mm(mounted) or 120, and $14 for 220.

That's pretty darn good - but do you get the negatives back and are they using a mini-lab like a Fuji Frontier or Noritsu or they do dip and dunk?
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial


It's also a lot more expensive than my local lab-C41 with scanning(which I rarely get) is like $7. C-41 develop only is $4.50 for 35mm or 120, and $8 for 220. E-6 is $10.50 for 35mm(mounted) or 120, and $14 for 220.

That's pretty darn good - but do you get the negatives back and are they using a mini-lab like a Fuji Frontier or Noritsu or they do dip and dunk?


They do it on-site so they do whatever I want with the negatives. Needless to say, I get them back-and per my request they leave them uncut so that I can cut them myself to fit my Printfile pages.

All three of their processors(E-6, C-41, and B&W) are continuous. I have no idea what brand they are-the B&W is irrelevant to me since I do it at home. Unfortunately, it's hard for anything but a big pro lab to justify dip and dunk these days...the last local one was C-41 and they went out of business 10 years ago(their E6 was continuous also).
 
Just shot a few rolls today.

With relatively modern Nikons(and I think also Canons) you can also grab the shooting data and tag it to your scans as the EXIF with the right hardware/software.

Unfortunately, data recording was turned off in my F100, and I couldn't turn it on mid-roll. That has now been corrected.

 
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
I'm on vacation now, and here's my "grab and go" bag.
That's "quite a bit of kit" for a G&G. You must be in excellent shape.

BTW, I have the accessory batt. + vert shutter button unit for the F100 as well. Really like that I can use AA's from anywhere rather than some unique, OEM, $$$$ battery that will eventually die and become unobtanium maximum.

Rather amazing how film 'sees' colors and often needs correcting as the human eye is the ultimate arbiter.
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver

BTW, I have the accessory batt. + vert shutter button unit for the F100 as well. Really like that I can use AA's from anywhere rather than some unique, OEM, $$$$ battery that will eventually die and become unobtanium maximum.


The F100 doesn't require special batteries without the grip-it just uses 4 AAs instead of 6. It takes the same battery holder as the N90 and N8008. My main reason for using it is that it gives me a vertical shutter release.

If you move down the line a bit to the N80, you DO need CR123As, but I don't see those going away any time soon. They're just expensive compared to AAs. There is a grip that will let you use 4 AAs in the N80.

Interestingly enough, the only film camera Nikon still makes-the F6-uses CR122As also. I think there's an accessory grip that will let you use AAs.
 
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
Originally Posted By: sleddriver

BTW, I have the accessory batt. + vert shutter button unit for the F100 as well. Really like that I can use AA's from anywhere rather than some unique, OEM, $$$$ battery that will eventually die and become unobtanium maximum.
The F100 doesn't require special batteries without the grip-it just uses 4 AAs instead of 6.
I understand. Again that was a key feature when considering it. The previous owner had the grip, and threw it into the deal.
 
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