Er... Hi?

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RaoulDuke

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Kes
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Well, I would've posted in the 'Welcome' section first, but all the posh gear put me off, so I thought I'd just sneak in this way :cool:

After spending too many months wanting desperately to start taking proper pictures, but being unable to afford an ideal digital set-up, I've 'splashed out' on something a bit old:

kQJT1l.jpg



I thought it seemed a sensible beginners' choice, but please feel free to point out its inadequacies or ridicule it :D Some Agfa 'pro' film is winging its way to me as I type, so I should be shooting away merrily by the weekend (assuming the camera actually works...)

Just a couple of quick questions: Should I be using a light meter, or will it not make any difference as a novice? Also, can anyone recommend a decent introductory book/resource on photography that isn't heavily biased towards DSLRs? Even if unavailable new, one that I could probably track one down second-hand?

I'm liking the forum very much after a few days' lurking, and looking forward to having my efforts appraised :D
 
:wave: Hi! :welcome: to TP!

Really does'nt matter where you post, no gear snobs on here! (well, maybe the odd one!) Everyone is welcome no matter what you use! (even Nikon users) :coat:
Enjoy your stay!
 
Hello!

Looks like a nice bit of kit! :)

Not familiar with that camera, but does it have any kind of Auto mode? I'm going to assume it doesn't, If so Yeah you need to pick up a light meter so all your photos are properly exposed! You should be able to get one cheap off ebay :)
 
oooh another one has joined the dark side!
 
Thanks for the welcome guys!! :hug2:

In true n00b style, I should have RTFM before asking... it seems I do in fact have a 'semi-auto' mode which tells me whether I'm under- or over-exposing, with little lights inside the viewfinder :geek: yeah, you can keep yer LCD screen menus, I'm proper high-tech, me... :lol:
 
That has TTL metering so no external light meter is required.
Even if a camera has no auto modes, it doesn't mean that it can't have TTL metering, you just simply set the shutter speed and aperture by lining a needle or LED's up in the viewfinder.

That camera will be fine if it works properly for learning some simple essential photography techniques. It doesn't feature a manual mode as such (apart from the 1/60th flash sync speed), but the auto aperture priority (i.e you select the aperture, the camera selects the shutter speed) is fine for most subjects and allows you to experiment with controlling depth of field. The viewfinder LED's indicate the shutter speed that the camera is selecting and light up additional LEDs if the image will be over/underexposed as the exposure needs to be longer/shorter than the cameras range.

For now I would just get some inexpensive and forgiving black and white or colour negative film to allow you to experiment. For black and white, Kodak Tri-X and Ilford FP-4+ and HP-5 are good choices, for colour negative inexpensive consumer Kodak Gold or Ultra or Fuji Superia are good. Be mindful though that colour negative can be processed pretty much anywhere but it usually takes longer to do black and white as most places send it off.

For now I wouldn't get E-6 /"slide" films such as Ektachrome, Velvia, Provia, Elitechrome etc as they give great images but are more difficult to get developed and are very exposure sensitive so their not ideal for learnin.

There are plenty of decent books about film photography although I can't think of one off the top of my head. Look in a library as they will generally have quite a few books from before 2000 so there will be more of an emphasis on film in those.

Theres a manual here:

http://www.praktica-users.com/cams/bfirst/bcamanual.html#oprange
 
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Thanks for that info Samuel, it's a big help. The film I've ordered actually isn't Agfa :bonk: it's 'Fuji Pro 400' - hopefully that won't be too punishing for me? I don't mind sending my films off to a more specialist developer at slightly more expense (I guess that's the pay-off for spending so little on the actual cameras!) I'd love to start shooting in B&W, but I want to get some experience first, to get used to light conditions etc.
 
You can't really go wrong with C-41 print films like Fuji Pro 400H, its E-6 "slide" films where it gets difficult as you can't correct them when you print and you also have much less lattitude, i.e how much you can under/over expose before you lose detail in shadows/highlights.. All the pro means is that it has some newer/better technology and as so their a little more expensive.

Black and white is easy to shoot as well as you don't have to worry about colour casts etc, just get an inexpensive yellow filter to induce some contrast and stop them looking 'flat'. A lot of black and white shooters keep a yellow filter on all the time for this reason unless they want a more dramatic effect with dark skies etc and use an orange/red filter.

For processing, I use a pro lab, club 35 in London by mail order for my colour negative films as they have excellent quality and get my films back within 4 days for a good price.

http://www.club35.co.uk/35mmcolourdandp.html

They also do black and white but I've not used them. Others say good things about it though.

I tend to send my black and white films to Ilford Lab, which are fairly expensive but print on real black and white paper so the images look superb. Nearly all labs these days unfortunately cheat and print on colour paper but this can give slight colour casts and not quite as deep blacks or bright whites.

http://www.ilfordlab.com/
 
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Welcome aboard Kes, and don't worry about gear-snobbery around here - especially in F&C, where we all seem to delight in using terrible old rubbish cameras to take (in other peoples cases at least) inordinately wondeful photographs. Like a certain Lance Armstrong would have said - had he smelled of Developer rather than Embrocation and EPO - "It's not about the Camera!"
 
Well, I'm a fair way into my first roll of film, and frankly dreading what the results will look like :shake: I'm recording all the settings for each shot though, so I should learn what I'm doing wrong at least.

Anyway, finding the SLR a little heavy to take with me on random walks/rides, I recovered this from deep storage:

4b2XDl.jpg


I know it's not very special, even to Lomo fans, but I can't wait to start using it - I know the speed & aperture adjusters work fine, but I'll have 'fun' guessing the range :thinking: did I mention I have awful depth-perception?
 
Excellent way to go about things! Remember, when you see people elsewhere on the forum throwing their toys out of the pram, you're supposed to be doing it for fun (if you aren't a pro)! So don't worry about kit too much and go take pics that please yourself and (ideally!) others.
 
And who cares if it's special or not? My cameras are not special in any way, but they give me the results I want and that's enough :) hope your first roll turns out some nice shots!
 
i have that exact camera - got it given to me by a family member along with another couple of old film cameras!

i used it with a 50mm f/2.4 to shoot when i was on holiday a few weeks back but havent got the film developed yet - im just hoping it turns out alright because i havent ran a roll through it before!

its a nice camera from what ive seen of mine so far, just pop it on "auto" (which is really just aperture priority), set the ISO, adjust the aperture ring on your lens to what you need and snap away.
 
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