First ever attempt with a 35mm SLR

[chrisfowler]

Evening all,

I recently bought a Zenit E and have just put a roll of film through it. In my eagerness to play with the 'new' toy I used a roll of very expired 400 iso film....

I had the film developed and scanned at my local Tesco... the results were mixed but I'm now not sure how to tell which of the bad photos were due to my ignorance with the camera and which were due to old film

So here's one of the better ones:

Less better ones:

And truly shocking:

I'm horribly aware of my ignorance at film photography and I'd like to avoid making more of the above mistakes. Can anyone help??

 

[F1.2]

Hi Chris

1st image " I'm stumped "

All I can say is get a roll of in date film , SLOW down and do it by the book

Pick different apertures from F16 down too F2.8 on several different subjects from landscape s at F16 to some close up image making sure the focus is correct at F2.8 say a flower

Have a crack at it

Good luck

 

[robhooley167]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the second one personally, it's a bit grainy but that's ISO400 film for you.

The third is underexposed and the scan has boosted the exposure making it grainier.

Doesn't seem to be anything sinister

 

[chrisfowler]

Thanks chaps - my biggest issue at the moment is picking the right shutter speed using the built in Zenit dial - 200 and 400 iso are tough to get right when it's only got marks for 65, 130, 250 and 500!

 

[ChrisR]

If you picked 250 or 500 instead of 200 or 400, you'd only be a third or so of a stop out. The aperture and/or shutter could easily be that much out. Most black and white film, and many colour negative films should be fine with that kind of variation... but I'd steer clear of transparency film until you're more confident in the camera!

 

[pingu666]

they look fine to me, just the grain from the old film, maybe newer iso 400 film would be less grainy?

 

[chrisfowler]

I've just got some cheap Kodak Color Plus 200 so will run that through all at 250 and see. I think my biggest problem was constantly playing with the settings so i can't compare!

 

[s162216]

Check whether your Zenit E light meter is marked for ASA/DIN or for GOST (the Soviet standard), from what I remember export ones were marked in ASA/DIN and domestic models in GOST although there was some variation in this, it should say around the dial. It sounds like your one is in ASA though as the dial was simply marked with converted figures from standard Soviet film speeds (so the same dial could be used on domestic/export models without re-calibrating), hence the odd film speeds. It should show intermediate marks for the other speeds (if its anything like my Zenit EM)

Try using some new, in date film and remember that negative film is the opposite to digital/transparency: overexposure is good, underexposure is bad.

 

[Mr Bump]

they look fine for first time, my first one was terrible, take your time, nail your focus and think about your aperture a lot more than digital, like others have said check your light meter it may be wangy mine was spot on in my F65.