Film isn't easy!

alpina

alpina

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Andy
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What a day!. Went out with my ETRS and spent ages composing and waiting for the perfect shot. Climbed, slid, tripped and fell, but felt delighted with what I was doing.

Then I noticed I had the iso set at 400 instead of 3200!. Oh well never mind bash on. Unloaded the film at home and stuck it in my breast pocket whilst I got the tank ready etc. Reached into my pocket and the film had unraveled itself.

Undeterred loaded another film and nipped round to the local park. Great I thought lovely last light and quickly exposed the film. Got home and guess what? The dark slide was still in!!!!. Somehow the ETRS shutter still trips with the dark slide in!! Not to be today. I love my d300.
 
Hey Andy, sorry to hear that.

I think you were just too excited about the camera

Ujjwal
 
****Somehow the ETRS shutter still trips with the dark slide in***

You put it in upside down, the little circle on slide has to match circle on body.
 
Its all the stuff you take for granted shooting digital.
It picks you up, mops your brow, makes you a cup of tea, wipes your arse, in fact everything except press the button.

Sometimes its nicer to take complete control.....of all cock-ups.....:)
 
excalibur2 said:
****Somehow the ETRS shutter still trips with the dark slide in***

You put it in upside down, the little circle on slide has to match circle on body.
Click to expand...


Great info, thanks muchy:thumbs:
 
joxby said:
Its all the stuff you take for granted shooting digital.
It picks you up, mops your brow, makes you a cup of tea, wipes your arse, in fact everything except press the button.

Sometimes its nicer to take complete control.....of all cock-ups.....:)
Click to expand...

Must admit though, even with digital I can still cock up, wrong iso & white setting etc. I feel like I wasted the day:shake:
 
joxby said:
Its all the stuff you take for granted shooting digital.
It picks you up, mops your brow, makes you a cup of tea, wipes your arse, in fact everything except press the button.

Sometimes its nicer to take complete control.....of all cock-ups.....:)
Click to expand...

It's only Joxers who can wrap up digital photography quite so eloquently :clap:
 
My first two rolls of film was ******d too.. It's normal! The good news are that you'll start using the camera with more atention. Nothing will miss you. With digital in general, we like to shoot, shoot, and shoot...

With film you think, think, and shoot...
 
film is like golf so many things to remember everytime you take a shot and if you forget one element it just doesn't turn out right
 
ekimeno said:
It's only Joxers who can wrap up digital photography quite so eloquently :clap:
Click to expand...

I know....I can't even spell eloquently without copying...
I'm not allowed out in public very often either..:(


Seriously though, has anybody noticed how seriously peeps take their digital, the one medium where it doesn't actually matter too much if things don't go perfectly @ actuation #1.
Where as film shooters have all the pressure and constraints but much more of a c'est la vie, ah well stuff it, win some lose some, maybe next time....:lol:....type attitude.
Maybe there is less expectation....I dunno..:shrug:
 
Still seriously peed off with myself, been shooting some shoes for a still life brief, got the strobes, soft box, gel,laptop connected to the d300 blah blah blah.

And then remembered that the Konica has a pc connection so happy as a sand boy again:clap::clap:

Determined to develop some film today
 
Welcome to the club, cock ups are all part of the "learning experience".
 
I think you learn to take the rough with the smooth with film. My first two were an utter disaster too :)

Cock ups in film loading, check (you don't get that with digital)
Cock ups with ISO, check (done that too with digital)
Cock ups getting the film ON THE RUDDY SPOOL, OH HECK YES!
Cock ups in developing, if you can call blowing up the water heater, check
Losing film, running out of film, check

Don't panic Lensflare, I'm taking very good care of your x-pan :)
Made most of my cock ups with the Mamiya 645 :)
 
alpina said:
Still seriously peed off with myself, been shooting some shoes for a still life brief, got the strobes, soft box, gel,laptop connected to the d300 blah blah blah.

And then remembered that the Konica has a pc connection so happy as a sand boy again:clap::clap:

Determined to develop some film today
Click to expand...

Quiz question for you Andy.

What does PC in pc connector stand for?

No googling :D:D:D
 
Ah we did this in theory class.... Prontor - Compur, I saw a Compur shutter on a Leica.
 
alpina said:
Ah we did this in theory class.... Prontor - Compur, I saw a Compur shutter on a Leica.
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Ah, thats interesting. I thought all leicas were cloth plane shutter. Are you sure it was a compur shutter on a leica? was it on the body or on the lens?

If it was on the lens - and I havent seen of any such leica lens with a leaf shutter, this must have been Leicas answer to Zeiss flash synchronisation advantage.What mount was the lens ( LTM i am guessing)

If its a leaf shutter Leica lens; its must be rare as a hens teeth. I wonder how much they will go for.

Can you tell me a bit more about it; and any photo if possible?

Also I wonder how the mechanism will work. Did it have an external plunger like some Alpa lens I have seen? Hmm....got to get a book on Leica cameras...Can't learn a lot rummaging through second hand shops - no matter how friendly the owner is
 
You have me doubting myself now:thinking:. I will see it again on thurs and will get all the details and some pics for your perusal.

And no:nono::nono: He wont sell it to you:D
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Are you sure it was a compur shutter on a leica? was it on the body or on the lens?
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LeicaCompur.jpg


Horrible isn't it?


Steve.
 
Huh..interesting. A collapsible leaf shutter lens, on a rigid body. That must be Leica I. That must date it to the early-mid 30s. I am assuming the lens is removable. Which means Leica had found a way for high speed flash synchonisation;and a removable lens but never followed through. While Zeiss stole the march with a leaf shutter camera. How very interesting

How come then Zeiss never got into interchangeable lens leaf shutter and stuck with a vertical focal plane shutter? and a front removable leaf shutter as late as 50s. What was the technical glitch? cost, i am guessing.

So a great camera would be a Leica IIIf body, with vertical moving blind type shutter; with a choice of normal and leaf shutter collapsible lens and wide rangefinder base for 200 mm focussing accuracy. all at the cost of box brownie. Oh what stuff dreams are made of.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Huh..interesting. A collapsible leaf shutter lens, on a rigid body. That must be Leica I. That must date it to the early-mid 30s. I am assuming the lens is removable. Which means Leica had found a way for high speed flash synchonisation;and a removable lens but never followed through. While Zeiss stole the march with a leaf shutter camera. How very interesting

How come then Zeiss never got into interchangeable lens leaf shutter and stuck with a vertical focal plane shutter? and a front removable leaf shutter as late as 50s. What was the technical glitch? cost, i am guessing.

So a great camera would be a Leica IIIf body, with vertical moving blind type shutter; with a choice of normal and leaf shutter collapsible lens and wide rangefinder base for 200 mm focussing accuracy. all at the cost of box brownie. Oh what stuff dreams are made of.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
Click to expand...

Mad as a box of frogs my friend:bonk::bonk:
 
I think that's the main benefit to using digital - it takes almost all of the worry and stress out of photography and allows us to just get on with the image-making...
Film used to make real men of you - you knew who the 'real' photographers were - the ones who could do it all in their sleep, time and time again and always come back with the image in the bag.
We used to sit and practice blindfolded with our kit - take a setting and chnge it to another without looking - you had to know how many clicks from wide-open or fully-stopped down it took to get to f/5.6, f/8 etc, as well as how many clicks the shutter wheel took to get from B to 500th sec...

And then learning how to read from a neg without recourse to making a test strip - just looking at those greys and knowing that you'd be able to make a good print from it...

I did a job the other day - out on a patrol...and it was all so easy - there was no challenge - the light was OK-ish, the subjects were OK-ish, but the camera was amazing - I had no worries at all - as soon as it was barely light, I knew I could start making images - none of that "will I be able to hand-hold it at 1/4 sec and nobody move?" stuff...

Film takes effort...it takes time, it takes planning and thought...
Digital...? Yeah - it does wipe your **** for you...lol
 
Not to mention changing 35mm film cassettes while on the run chasing after a shot! LOL Now that thought takes me back! :)
 
awp said:
Not to mention changing 35mm film cassettes while on the run chasing after a shot! LOL Now that thought takes me back! :)
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Oh blimey - yes! The best thing about the motordrive on the F3 was the auto-rewind, just flip the two switches and as it was whirring, you'd be dragging another cassette out of your pocket and getting the leader the right length...

And try doing it on a bloomin Leica M6...bits dropping everywhere...lol
Dropping the bottom-plate in a crowd was always a heart-stopper...
 
My first Nikon - the 'F' had a back that came right off - what a pain that was for fast changes - the F3 was the first I had with a hinged back - heaven! :)
 
Hi all.

Forgive me for butting in on your thread.

But I stumbled across it, and reading your posts made me wonder, what are you hoping to gain from shooting with film that you can't gain from digital? If you know what I mean?!

Film just seems to be so much hassle and stress.
But for what?

Not being funny, just curious as I've never 'done' film!
 
andy_fozzy said:
But I stumbled across it, and reading your posts made me wonder, what are you hoping to gain from shooting with film that you can't gain from digital?
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1. Better dynamic range
2. Better image permanence
3. Better quality of black and white images (colour is very good with digital now)
4. No computer involved (one of the main reasons for me)
5. Access to some great equipment which we could only dream of owning a few years ago.

And it's not that difficult really. People of all abilities have been using it for 100+ years.


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
1. Better dynamic range
2. Better image permanence
3. Better quality of black and white images
4. No computer involved (one of the main reasons for me)
5. Access to some great equipment which we could only dream of owning a few years ago.


Steve.
Click to expand...

Cheers Steve, good answer :D

I must admit, I was looking at some B&W film shots recently, and they really were amazing.

Very interesting.
One of the reasons I love photography is the fact that I like editing on the PC!!
 
andy_fozzy said:
One of the reasons I love photography is the fact that I like editing on the PC!!
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It's good that we are all different. The editing on the PC is the reason I gave up digital and went back to film. I'm sitting here in front of a PC all day (and I'm supposed to be working with it, not writing on a forum!) and I don't want to be doing the same thing when I get home.


Steve.
 
andy_fozzy said:
Hi all.

Forgive me for butting in on your thread.

But I stumbled across it, and reading your posts made me wonder, what are you hoping to gain from shooting with film that you can't gain from digital? If you know what I mean?!

Film just seems to be so much hassle and stress.
But for what?

Not being funny, just curious as I've never 'done' film!
Click to expand...

Well I don't use digital so I'm no expert, but film, particularly using medium and large format cameras, are capable of producing extremely high quality images/prints. I personally use 35mm which I process and print myself (black & white) and thoroughly enjoy doing it. That's the main reason for me - the pleasure of the process. I'm not sure whether a computer printer will match a good wet (darkroom) print, but I'll leave that for more experienced digital photographers to verify.
 
for me, all the aforementioned faffing, and having to remember things just makes me SLOW DOWN. While thats happening, I find that I've had a little longer to consider exactly where I'm going to put the tripod, just how i'm going to frame things, I've seen that coke can in the grass in front of me, and moved it out of shot (real analog re-touching :lol:) and all round I end up with a better, more considered picture. The real test is my keeper-rate. I still shoot digital, and on a days photo-walk I may take 200 shots - i'll probably be happy with maybe 10. On the same walk with a 35mm film camera or two (one for BnW, one for Tranny) I might take 30 shots, of which i'll be happy with 10-15. The rest won't be bad shots necessarily, maybe 10 out-takes for bracketing, and a handful of fluffed shots. If i've scrounged my mate's Bronica for the day, it'll be 12 shots tops, with a higher screw-up rate as I'm not as familiar with the camera and so forth. But if I get a single shot on the roll i'll be as happy as a dog with 2 dicks about it!
 
Carl V said:
I'm not sure whether a computer printer will match a good wet (darkroom) print, but I'll leave that for more experienced digital photographers to verify.
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Obviously I'm biased but I would say that a proper darkroom produced black and white print will beat a digitally produced black and white print every time.

With colour, it's not so easy to judge. Digital colour printing is very good and I think can be just as good as an optically produced print. The optical print probably has the edge when produced by a master printer but it would be marginal now. The only questionable area would be permanence. Digital prints seem to fade a lot quicker than chemical prints in daylight but this may just be a general view. The very best pigment inks may equal optical prints in this area but it's not something I know much about.


Steve.
 
TheBigYin said:
If i've scrounged my mate's Bronica for the day, it'll be 12 shots tops, with a higher screw-up rate as I'm not as familiar with the camera and so forth.
Click to expand...

A few years ago I built a 5x4" camera. At the time I only had two film holders which meant that I took it out with just four sheets of film.

I did a lot of thinking about what to shoot then!


Steve.
 
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