Dug my old film cameras out !! Now what??

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I was clearing out a cupboard over the weekend, and came across my old film bodies, which although I knew they were there, I had kind of forgotten about.
I have a couple of Nikon F90x bodies, an FM2, and an F3. (I also have a couple of 120 camera's too, but I'll start with the 35mm for now)
Apart from the F3, they all seem to be working fine.

This has re-kindled my interest in film, and I have decided to get some film and give the cameras a bit of a workout.

So, I am after a bit of advice about film stock/developing etc.
It has been a long time since I did this, so I am keen on finding out what colour film is available nowadays. I would be mostly (although not exclusively) shooting people. Also same question for B&W really.
When I was shooting film, I used to all my own dev/printing,as I worked as medical photographer, and we did it all in-house, but now I would need advice on where to send films to be processed, and preferably scanned at the same time if possible.
Finally, what is available in transparencies now? I used to shoot mostly Ektachrome, with some Kodachrome thrown in the mix too.

Sorry for all the questions, but would appreciate any advice given.

Thanks in advance,
Gary.
 
Welcome back from the dark side ;)

Nice stash that, good to hear you're getting them back into use.

For photographing people in colour, there is probably one choice above all others these days: Kodak Portra. Either 400 or 160 speed (but with amazing exposure latitude) and both render lovely skin tones. Bit pricey...at the cheaper end of the scale I like Fuji Superia films, and the £1 Agfa stuff from poundland isn't all bad either.

In black or white, there are perhaps more choices to make, depending on the result you're after. In slower fine grained film, Fuji Acros is a personal favourite, but there are lots to choose from. For faster film I like HP5 or TriX. There are traditional emulsions (like HP5, FP4, TriX) and modern cubic grain emulsions (like TMax or Delta) which are generally finer grained but to some eyes not as appealing.

Personally, part of the fun of film is trying them out for yourself, so I would probably start with a couple of different films and take it from there.

Not much choice in transparency film these days: basically just Fuji offerings left. For people I would go with Provia, perhaps Velvia for other stuff. There may still be stocks of Kodak in some places, if so I like the E100G, which is the modern day Ektachrome. Sadly Kodachrome is no more.

For getting film processed: Asda on the cheap for colour print film (especially if you go for cheap scans), or for more professional service maybe sending away to a lab (esp for B&W or transparencies). I like Peak Imaging in Sheffield, but there are others.

Enjoy!

By the way, what's the matter with the F3? Have you tried changing the battery?
 
That's a fantastic trio of some of Nikon's finest cameras, including the seminal F3 (although the FM2 is certainly no slouch).

I'd put a test roll of Agfa VistaPlus 200 from Poundland through each first just to confirm everything is working - they are all pretty tough cameras, but it never hurts to test them beforehand.

We have a thread at the top of the forum with a whole plethora of places that you can send your film for development - people have their own personal recommendations but in general most of them listed will offer a good service for a reasonable price.

Transparencies as a photographic market has declined significantly - many of the people who bought and shot E6 are almost entirely digital shooters now, and it's very much a niche (within film photography, a niche in itself). Given the cost of a fresh roll of slide film, I'm not convinced it has much life left as a market... and the Kodak Portra line of films mean that C-41 offers a serious professional alternative to transparencies.
 
Would just add on the transparencies discussion two further comments:

1. Kodak Ektar is probably the nearest thing to using transparency film in terms of the result, though obviously you can't project it, since it is a colour print film! It scans well too.

2. Agfa CT Precisa 100 is a transparency film which costs a lot less than other options, and is rumoured to be Fuji Provia 100 in disguise. I bought 10 rolls recently and have only used one so far, but was very pleased with the results.
 
TheGreatSoprendo said:
1. Kodak Ektar is probably the nearest thing to using transparency film in terms of the result, though obviously you can't project it, since it is a colour print film! It scans well too.
Click to expand...

Whilst I get the point of this, especially with the cliché of what slide film is like (i.e. Velvia saturation and "pop"), there were so many different slide emulsions - including many which had very very muted palettes - that it's difficult to give a comparable film like that. Ektar itself acts quite differently to a lot of other colour negative films, let alone slide.

(IMO)

Just out of interest, where did you pick up the Precisa 100 from? I do remember AG Photographic stocking it but their stock page is empty for it.
 
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Well Ektar 100 was designed to try and replicate the look of Kodachrome so it's probably fairer to compare it to that than all the other slide films.
I do agree there is no single slide film look but the only offerings left are Velvia and Provia, and people tend to use Portra or Ektar over Provia for general purpose or portrait stuff since it scans better with higher dynamic range so that leaves only Velvia which has now become the go to film for saturated colours that colour negative can't do.
 
freecom2 said:
Whilst I get the point of this, especially with the cliché of what slide film is like (i.e. Velvia saturation and "pop"), there were so many different slide emulsions - including many which had very very muted palettes - that it's difficult to give a comparable film like that. Ektar itself acts quite differently to a lot of other colour negative films, let alone slide.

(IMO)

Just out of interest, where did you pick up the Precisa 100 from? I do remember AG Photographic stocking it but their stock page is empty for it.
Click to expand...

That's where I got it from. Also available from discountfilmsdirect:

http://www.discountfilmsdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Agfa_Photo_Precisa_Colour_Slide_Film.html
 
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