Film - talk to me!

Shadowness

Shadowness

Shadowness

Soldato
Joined
17 Sep 2006
Posts
4,261
Location
Gloucestershire
So I've had a craving for ages to get into film photography. But being born in the digital era, I know next to nothing about it.
So I would literally be starting from scratch.
So I guess I start with.....what body should I get, are they all pretty much the same? How do they differ?

I would want one lens to start with, I guess a 35mm 1.4 or similar.

I know 'of' many films, mainly from playing about with VSCO. So I'd love to try Kodak Porta, Tri-X and a few others. I didn't realise film as so expensive too from a quick search earlier.

I presume you can send the film away to companies to produce digital scans etc?

So I guess the first hurdle is, lens and body......what would you recommend? I presume you can pick up a good second hand body these days, as they don't really 'age' at all.
 
Thanks for the thorough reply!

Like you, I'm a Fuji shooter. Currently have an X-T1 and X-T2 (with various X lenses).

I thought the whole point of film is that is was manual everything (I know some have light meters built in etc)

I'm happy with auto focus lenses, I guess having some exposure help in the body would be great, but without it is all part of the fun no?
 
GTRacer said:
Honestly a camera is just a light tight box, they all function pretty similarly so get one that works smoothly or where a seller has a good return policy in case it needs a costly repair.
Click to expand...

I think that's the hardest thing! I'm looking at all these 35mm bodies, and asking....how are they really different?!

I've read good things about the Canon AE1 (and is pretty cheap)
The Olympus OM series seem good too (I like the one in the link I posted before)
The K1000 is meant to be a bullet proof and good choice too

I'm looking a lot on ebay, but I doubt I'll actually get it from there, as the camera could be in any condition, and I'd be none the wiser. LCE offer a guarantee with them so might go down that route.

Thanks for the help so far!
 
Excluding the camera, the costs seem to add up quickly!

Rolls of film aren't exactly cheap, and the cost of processing......~£15 to scan to CD per roll! So you're talking at least £20 per roll to actually see the photos at all.

It certainly makes you appreciate how easy things are with digital!
 
Is £200 a reasonable price for the Olympus I posted before?

I'll do some research on scanning later on. I'll get over the first hurdle first!
 
Thanks again. I don't think medium format is where I want to go.....maybe later on if I get on with a standard 35mm camera.

I'm away for a couple of weeks, so I'll do a lot of reading a see what seems sensible.

Is it worth considering a plustek scanner if you're getting into film? The 8100 can be had for £170, so it doesn't seem 'so bad'
 
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