Fujifilm PRO400h (newbie Q, sorry).

Nawty

Nawty

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I've had a minty Nikon FM2n sat on my shelf for a year or so now and have just got hold of a lens that will go on it (50mm 1.8 AF-D) and I'd like to take some shots.

So, I've ordered some batteries (my manual exposure setting estimation is non-existent) and now I want to order some film...

The question is, what film? I see 7dayshop have Fujifilm PRO400h but from what I remember of using film back around '93 (with an Oly PaS) ISO 400 was pushing it a little in terms of grain, especially with the cheapy films I was using. Has film technology moved on since then or is there a better general purpose film I should look at for general "having a try" snapping?

Thanks :)
 
You can still get bad grain on negative film if you underexpose....a very good all rounder is Fuji superia 200 asa, or something faster? A nice bargain film is Kodak Ultramax 400 asa for £1 in Poundland shops.
Oh and for the bright summer days Fuji Reala 100 asa is my favourite.
 
Thanks, the Superia is £1.79 for 5+ on 7dayshop so I ordered 5 rolls - I'm excited to try now :D

With regards to developing, is the best thing to do get negs+files and then select which to print from that? I very much doubt every shot will be a keeper :lol: That said, I used to quite like the duffers in a roll when looking through them on return.
 
Nawty said:
Thanks, the Superia is £1.79 for 5+ on 7dayshop so I ordered 5 rolls - I'm excited to try now :D

With regards to developing, is the best thing to do get negs+files and then select which to print from that? I very much doubt every shot will be a keeper :lol: That said, I used to quite like the duffers in a roll when looking through them on return.
Click to expand...

Best to find a large Asda and get your film dev and scanned to CD for £2.96, in the weekday they will do it in 1 hour while you shop..you might have a few spots here and there on your shots, depending on the low paid staff's skill :bang: but if your happy with the camera working properly etc you can use somewhere better (but more expensive).
Once you have the jpg files you can download the ones you like to e.g. Aldiphotos for prints
http://www.aldiphotos.co.uk/
 
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Sounds perfect, many thanks.

Don't suppose you know if Asda sell film? there's a megastore nearby and it might be quite fun to try over Christmas (as God awful as ASDA will be tomorrow!).
 
my local asda usually has twin packs of some fuji c41 film or other - usually somewhere on the aisle ends, nearby the battery bins...
 
Nawty said:
Sounds perfect, many thanks.

Don't suppose you know if Asda sell film? there's a megastore nearby and it might be quite fun to try over Christmas (as God awful as ASDA will be tomorrow!).
Click to expand...

Just to add:- I used to use Tesco but now they send the film away, but who knows the results might be very good if you don't mind waiting. Also the Asda scan to CD will be about a 3-4mp in digital language.
 
If you are just having a try, just buy the cheapest film you can find and save your money for decent film.
100 Ektar is very, very good :) I'll be trying Kodak 400 Portra next year for my 400 speed film. Grain these days is a lot better than it used to be, although I guess we are at or near the end of film technology advancement.
 
As long as film rolls through motion picture cameras then still film will advance. About every technology originally researched for motion picture film is eventually applied to still film, the new Portra 400 for instance has technology from Kodaks latest Vision3 line of motion picture film. Despite 'digtal' being the latest thing to shoot cinema films on, a lot of prominent directors and cinematographers still prefer to shoot on film as it gives much better quality.
 
Thanks all, I picked up some film from my local Boots this morning, it wasn't exactly cheap vs. online but £10 for three 36exp Superia didn't seem like the end of the world.

Something that was encouraging though was that the chap who runs the developing section seemed to know his stuff and was handling someones negatives very carefully with white gloves etc - might be a convenient (if not cheap) place to get my first shots exposed :D
 
I've got to be honest, my local branch of Boots was pretty much spot on for my first couple of films when I decided to get back into shooting 35mm again. After that I decided to bite the bullet and learn how to process my own B&W, my company needed a new scanner, so I picked up a transparency capable one instead of a bog-standard version, and it's sort of mushroomed from there - I now process my own C41, E6 and Black and White, and though i'd love to go over to wet printing for the B&W at some point (when I finally clear all the crepe out of the loft and so forth) I'm really happy with my Hybrid process for the colour side of things.
 
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