Got myself a film Camera

Georges

Georges

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Georges
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Hiya All,

Back in the 80s I used a Canon A1 when it first came out. A cracking camera at that time; alas I sold it to finance my education. 2 years agao I got my self a Canon 60D and i love it.

Recently I find myself missing a film camera and also I noted that I used to take better picture with the Canon A1 for some reason. I can't understand this :)

So I went ahead and got myself a Canon T90 with 50mm 1.8 lens (both excellent conditions and serviced recently). Am I daft? What do you think of it

Which film do yo guys use? I will mainly be using it for portraits and indoors.

and I shamefully admit I did not search the forum. doing this at work (shhhh).

Thanks.
 
Had a T90 - quite liked it, sort of a manual focus FD lens version of my EOS-3. Sadly, it had been butchered by someone who'd "repaired" it, and 2 rolls in, it got a case of the "never get overs" so it went back to it's seller, and I decided to stick with my minty A-1 for the FD lens collection.
 
TheBigYin said:
Had a T90 - quite liked it, sort of a manual focus FD lens version of my EOS-3. Sadly, it had been butchered by someone who'd "repaired" it, and 2 rolls in, it got a case of the "never get overs" so it went back to it's seller, and I decided to stick with my minty A-1 for the FD lens collection.
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That is terrible :'( I love the A-1, my first camera ever and I had no idea what I was buying :lol: at that time. I had some money and the local shop said it is a nice camera and you can change lenses. I thought wow that is cool. I bought it with a lot of ignorance (ah what would I give for those years :lol: ) on my side but I learned and I loved it.
 
I've still got the A1 I bought new in 1981 for £210 at McKinnon's in Bayswater. It's still going strong and has had a CLA. It's my favourite camera and the FD lenses are top notch. I have a spare (tatty) A1 for knocking about use. I bought a T90 a couple of years back and it was excellent for the 6 rolls that it took before succumbing to the all too common 'EEE', 'Help', jammed shutter problem.

Apparently they sulk and do this if you don't use them. I'm not sure that I'll get it repaired if it's likely to do this again? In the past I've worn self-inflating life jackets and parachutes; I never had occasion to use them but I like to think they would have worked if called upon.

Best of luck with your T90 and try and fire the shutter every week or so if it's left empty. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do if you have a half used roll in it though.
 
NickT said:
I've still got the A1 I bought new in 1981 for £210 at McKinnon's in Bayswater. It's still going strong and has had a CLA. It's my favourite camera and the FD lenses are top notch. I have a spare (tatty) A1 for knocking about use. I bought a T90 a couple of years back and it was excellent for the 6 rolls that it took before succumbing to the all too common 'EEE', 'Help', jammed shutter problem.

Apparently they sulk and do this if you don't use them. I'm not sure that I'll get it repaired if it's likely to do this again? In the past I've worn self-inflating life jackets and parachutes; I never had occasion to use them but I like to think they would have worked if called upon.

Best of luck with your T90 and try and fire the shutter every week or so if it's left empty. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do if you have a half used roll in it though.
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TRUE about the "EEE" thingy. The guy I bought it from, he actually services them and he made sure it is serviced and free of this problem, and the same for the lens as well. he is "grandad_dave" on Ebay.
 
Georges said:
Am I daft?
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Not in this section of the George, as far as folks in the world of f&c are concerned you've seen the light :thumbs:
 
TheBigYin said:
Had a T90 - quite liked it, sort of a manual focus FD lens version of my EOS-3.
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I'd agree with that, possibly a little closer to the EOS 650, especially its feel in the hand.

I certainly enjoy using mine, though the A-1 gets out more often, partly because it's a body that packs better in a small bag than the T90 and partly because I rather prefer the manual film advance and better tactile experience with the A-1. The better grip on the T90 helps when you're using larger and heavier lenses, though.

I bought my T90 a little over a year ago as a cosmetically superb working model at a pretty good price, but it arrived with the dreaded EEE fault. Got a major discount from the seller which paid for having it serviced by Miles Whitehead and meant it ended up costing me under £60 all-in for a CLA-ed body. Very happy with it for that figure. :)

I just make sure that the shutter gets exercised once a month if I've not put a roll thought it and it's holding up well so far.
 
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Canon A-1 was a revelation when it came out. I never owned one but borrowed one on a number of occasion in my youth and got some great shots with it. Indeed back in the late 70's early 80's I worked in a large independant camera shop (now long since vanished) and I remember selling A-1s by the shed load in spite of the relatively high price. Sorry a bit of nostalgia seeing this thread!
 
Georges said:
Hiya All,

Which film do yo guys use? I will mainly be using it for portraits and indoors.

Thanks.
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Take your pick, have a look through Flickr to see what others are using for your style. I use Velvia for landscapes, Provia for a natural look and XP2 for B+W..
 
Another vote for XP-2 here. Beautiful results and always in the 3 for 2 at Boots (or £4.99 each at the moment in their summer film offer).
 
I've been favouring Kodak BW400CN lately, but I'm going to have to have another play with XP2, especially given the way Kodak are going lately. And XP2 is available on 120.
 
The Canon T90 and Canon A1 are excellent cameras...I've had the T90 with flashgun 300tl for about 3 years now with no problem (maybe it's because I fire the shutter about every two or three weeks). Both cameras have a few annoying things for me, but is any camera perfect for everyone.
 
Yeah guys thanks for the insight/tips. I will try those films.

The seller assured me that the camera does not have the "EEE" problem as he serviced it and changed some seals as well. It will not sit around without being fired. Specially now since I will have to relearn taking pictures with films. Can't waste those films.

BTW< perhaps I should open a new thread :-)

1. Does any one use negative scanner?
2. At what resolution do you scan? I will not print larger than A4 but I want to scan the maximum resolution I can/afford for archiving.

Thanks.

cheers, glad to see so many people still using the A1/T90.
 
Georges said:
Yeah guys thanks for the insight/tips. I will try those films.

The seller assured me that the camera does not have the "EEE" problem as he serviced it and changed some seals as well. It will not sit around without being fired. Specially now since I will have to relearn taking pictures with films. Can't waste those films.

BTW< perhaps I should open a new thread :-)

1. Does any one use negative scanner?
2. At what resolution do you scan? I will not print larger than A4 but I want to scan the maximum resolution I can/afford for archiving.

Thanks.

cheers, glad to see so many people still using the A1/T90.
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Please dont open yet another "scanning my film thread" - just have a search, it's been answered hundreds of times.

Gist is - yes, almost all of us use neg. scanning - either on our own scanners (epson v500/v600 seems to be a popular choice, the £30 Maplin ones are bloody awful) or by getting "dev and scan" at processing time. Personally, I scan 35mm films at 4800dpi on my Canon 8800F scanner, though if the neg's don't look particularly well exposed, or if it's just a test roll, I may do a quick scan at 2400dpi to save time and space on the machine, returning to the occasional frame that I really like, and doing a higher res. version. A quick rule of thumb is to allow 150-300 dots per inch of eventual print. A frame of 35mm is 36x24mm A4 is 297x210mm or 8.25x the frame. So you want to get between 1238 (150x8.25) and 2475 (300x8.25) pixels at the longest side of the frame if you fancy an A4 print.

2475x1650 is only about the equivalent of a 4mp digital frame btw, so it's not particularly pushing the technical boundaries all that hard. a 4800dpi scan comes out at around 6800x4500 (30megapixels), which is probably overkill in all honesty, but I'd rather have extra information and resize down... Other people on here will have their own ways of working, just as we probably all worked differently in the traditional wet-darkroom ;)
 
I shot Nikon in the film days and still have/use my F2 and FM, but I've used Canon too. Never really got on with the A1, and I don't know anything about the T90, but the F1 was something! That would have been my pick if I'd gone with Canon.
 
Wish my modern (?) Canons had some of the metering functions of the T90!
 
Just arrived yesterday. The camera is in fantastic condition, not a single scratch anywhere and I mean anywhere, super shiny :-) with canon 50mm and again not a single scratch. Next is the flash 300TL, a nice piece and all manuals. Seller threw in a remote cable 60 T3. Have been testing and it is flawless.

So versatile that I don't miss my Canon 60D. It fits beautifully in my grip. It has everything I would use. I love the manual focus which I was a bit not sure but I love it and I can do it quick now. Slimmer than my 60D but slightly taller, cause of the film drive I guess. Did I say it is fast at 4.5 frames /s. I put an out of date film in it and it is damn fast for a film.

That will keep me busy for the next few months :-) I will post some photos taken with it.
 
Georges said:
That will keep me busy for the next few months :-) I will post some photos taken with it.
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Please do!

I came across a tip for storing a T90 on APUG a couple of days ago: put the shutter on B, open it, then take the batteries out. Allegedly, this avoids the sticky magnets problem as the mirror is kept out of the way of the magnets that hold it in its lowered position. It's when those refuse to part that the EEE error occurs.

Haven't put this idea to the test myself, though.
 
Georges said:
Just arrived yesterday. The camera is in fantastic condition, not a single scratch anywhere and I mean anywhere, super shiny :-) with canon 50mm and again not a single scratch. Next is the flash 300TL, a nice piece and all manuals. Seller threw in a remote cable 60 T3. Have been testing and it is flawless.

So versatile that I don't miss my Canon 60D. It fits beautifully in my grip. It has everything I would use. I love the manual focus which I was a bit not sure but I love it and I can do it quick now. Slimmer than my 60D but slightly taller, cause of the film drive I guess. Did I say it is fast at 4.5 frames /s. I put an out of date film in it and it is damn fast for a film.

That will keep me busy for the next few months :-) I will post some photos taken with it.
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Congrats..Having a mint camera can be as disadvantage as I use my T90 less cos I don't want it scratched in my back pack cycling or get beach sand in it from dusty places on holidays.
 
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