Film Photography

Hey CF!!
I know a lot of people on here are into photography and was just curious to know if anyone was interested in film photography?

Recently I was looking for a digital camera and some how ended up reseraching film photography and it looks really interesting, especially developing the film at home. Also looking around on ebay film cameras seem to have shot down in price and are really cheap. Looks like something fun to do.

What does everyone else reckon?

Nobody at all interested? :/

Anyhows I hunted down a Yashica J2 film camera and bought some black and white film, just been at a friends house and taken some photos. Will probably take some of the family tomorrow.

I'm not completely sure if I'm gonna try developing them myself this time as I'm not completely confident on what to do and don't have any equipment. Oh and once developed I would also need a film scanner to scan the negatives which I don't have (I think there is one at the college I go to, which I maybe able to use).

im curious as to why you would bother with a film camera. the quality is very good for digital now with lots of features. i bought a cheap nikon cool scan for $800. that was the cheap model. not for the negatives but can. it was for the slides mostly. digital is not expensive with great results for digital.

tremmor said:

im curious as to why you would bother with a film camera. the quality is very good for digital now with lots of features. i bought a cheap nikon cool scan for $800. that was the cheap model. not for the negatives but can. it was for the slides mostly. digital is not expensive with great results for digital.

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Erm I'm not completely sure myself Tremmor, mainly just for fun- and nostalgia; I was looking through some really old photos of my family ranging from 10 to 60ish years old and there's something about the photos shot on film that you don't really seem to get with digital. Oh and film slr cameras are really cheap, on ebay they're going for barely nothing and they're good fun for me to play with, unfortunatley a D-SLR would be way out of my budget.

I do need to buy a decent digital camera as the one we have is a really cheap vivitar camera we originally bought (when digital was fairly newish) to put stuff on ebay. I reckon it would still cost me around GBP £100 for a decentish digital camera.

Thanks I'll look into the nikon scanner.

scanning slides and negatives. i did a big slide show for family years ago. it might not be necessary. the family chipped in and payed for it. my dad only had slides but was very good about dating each slide, year and where.
lots of flat bed scanners might work. might want to do some home work on that one. my microtek scans them. never used it for that. didn't have to.
My thought unless you have money to burn then look at a flat bed that does it all. which one i do not know. i do not have to. its just another idea.
Like you, i could not afford the SLR at the time. im using a Cannon S3IS with every attachment they make. works for me. i know they have the S5IS and likely newer. others will reply. takes time. they will find it.
cheers......

tremmor said:

scanning slides and negatives. i did a big slide show for family years ago. it might not be necessary. the family chipped in and payed for it. my dad only had slides but was very good about dating each slide, year and where.
lots of flat bed scanners might work. might want to do some home work on that one. my microtek scans them. never used it for that. didn't have to.
My thought unless you have money to burn then look at a flat bed that does it all. which one i do not know. i do not have to. its just another idea.
Like you, i could not afford the SLR at the time. im using a Cannon S3IS with every attachment they make. works for me. i know they have the S5IS and likely newer. others will reply. takes time. they will find it.
cheers......

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I've tried scanning some negatives with the scanner built into my canon mp640 all in one printer and the colours don't seem to come out right- might be worth investing in a flat bed that specifically says it can scan film...

Thanks I'll look into the camera.

Fine Art

Hello Salman

Film is good to start with if you're interested in photography. You'll learn the basic, the how-tos, the shadows, the aperture/shutter settings esp. when you're dabbling with manual shooting and not rely on something automated where the 'bot' gets to do something preset all the time.

Another good way of looking at "traditional" photography as it is now perceived by the 'digital masses' is the ability to process your own films, and learning how light is captured and then how images are revealed in the 'dark'-room metaphorically speaking as that too will widen your scope in your solitude about the reality within oneself.

Besides manipulating your images by hand and time in the process is more fun than zapping Adobe Photoshop to "touch-up" your images.

I highly encourage you to contemplate the idea, and perhaps indulge in the fine art of photography.

If you need a quick pick-me-up, there's always "digital"

salman said:

Hey CF!!
I know a lot of people on here are into photography and was just curious to know if anyone was interested in film photography?

Recently I was looking for a digital camera and some how ended up reseraching film photography and it looks really interesting, especially developing the film at home. Also looking around on ebay film cameras seem to have shot down in price and are really cheap. Looks like something fun to do.

What does everyone else reckon?

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