OFFICIAL I HAVE A NEW (FILM RELATED) TOY THREAD!!

Okay what I think im going to do is :

Tomorrow morning I get out of my night shift

I will have to wait for my camera to arrive

When it does I will go to boots and poundland.

Since it's so cheap I will probably buy anyway the poundland Agfa vista 200.

Check what boots has to offer

And start shooting and testing the camera

Sometimes we get so focused with results and equipment that we don't even have fun in the shooting xD so I will just shoot shoot shoot and we'll see the results.

Definitely I will post the results on the forum. hope you guys comment on it cause feedback is making me a better photographer
 
No probs as we all make mistakes and started a thread something like:- "101 ways of ruining a roll of film" :eek:
 
I've just developed a test film from my new purchase, an Olmypus 35RC fixed-lens rangefinder. A bit strange that I bought it so soon after resolving to concentrate on medium format ... anyway here are a few images from the camera, with Poundland Agfa Vista home-developed in the Digibase C41 kit.



View attachment 37233 View attachment 37234 View attachment 37235


The camera was advertised on eBay as "not sure if it's working" and I was the only bidder at the starting price of £20 - I knew that would be a very good price if it was in perfect working order and a possible waste if it didn't work at all. The actual condition is somewhere in between in that it works fine except for two issues:

a) The rangefinder needs calibrating so unless I take the step of opening it up and trying to fix it myself then it currently operates as a scale focus camera
b) The meter underexposes although to a large extent this could be compensated for by adjusting the ISO. At least it has full manual control so I can get round this.

I'll probably use it occasionally to give it a break from display duty.
 
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narbs said:
Finished my first roll of 36 today. Amazing how much longer it takes when you stop to think about each image. Will drop it off tomorrow and (hopefully!) have something to share!
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I have to say I'm really pleased with some of the images. Was a Fuji Superia 200 film and the colours are very pleasing. They also have that clarity and depth which I just can't seem to get with my digital images.

Anyway, I've put a couple up over in the Photos from Film section for viewing!
 
Dont forget the rare and elusive 36 shot vista
 
Kevin Allan said:
I've just developed a test film from my new purchase, an Olmypus 35RC fixed-lens rangefinder. A bit strange that I bought it so soon after resolving to concentrate on medium format ... anyway here are a few images from the camera, with Poundland Agfa Vista home-developed in the Digibase C41 kit.



View attachment 37233 View attachment 37234 View attachment 37235


The camera was advertised on eBay as "not sure if it's working" and I was the only bidder at the starting price of £20 - I knew that would be a very good price if it was in perfect working order and a possible waste if it didn't work at all. The actual condition is somewhere in between in that it works fine except for two issues:

a) The rangefinder needs calibrating so unless I take the step of opening it up and trying to fix it myself then it currently operates as a scale focus camera
b) The meter underexposes although to a large extent this could be compensated for by adjusting the ISO. At least it has full manual control so I can get round this.

I'll probably use it occasionally to give it a break from display duty.
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Some nice pics there.

Not sure if you've seen this, but a guide on adjusting the rangefinder and the meter:
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-134.html
 
stevelmx5 said:
I apologise ahead of this but...it now looks "flocking" awesome ;0)

View attachment 36845

I've attached thin flocking to the film chamber to reduce flare and reflections. I've cut it short of the film gate so I shouldn't get any stray fibres showing on the negatives. I did the same on the Mat I restored and it definitely made a difference.

Cheers
Steve
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A little scruffy.
 
Danones said:
Okay what I think im going to do is :

Tomorrow morning I get out of my night shift

I will have to wait for my camera to arrive

When it does I will go to boots and poundland.

Since it's so cheap I will probably buy anyway the poundland Agfa vista 200.

Check what boots has to offer

And start shooting and testing the camera

Sometimes we get so focused with results and equipment that we don't even have fun in the shooting xD so I will just shoot shoot shoot and we'll see the results.

Definitely I will post the results on the forum. hope you guys comment on it cause feedback is making me a better photographer
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link?
 
happygolucky said:
link?
Click to expand...
Not yet!

So everything happened as i said.

Finished my night shift this morning, arrived home around 07.45. Did everything to keep me awake, and finally at 11.30 received my package

Tiny square box, and there was literally just the camera there.

First impressions: The camera is so small! Loved the size of it! It is so small I can even hold it and cover it with one hand.

Looked at the camera and figure it out where aperture, Asia, shutter speed and the rest of the settings were.

After reading the manual I realised that the battery was low so I immediately sent a message to the seller and he said that the camera had the battery replaced a month ago but if it isn't working he would send me new battery.

So went to the city but here in Southampton it's raining so not a good day, very cloudy and made my shutter speed very slow 1/30, 1/60 on the darker areas.

I bought 5 alga vista 200 in poundland for 5£ so I can try the camera.

Went also to boots to check the prices and its ridiculous expensive. 6 £ for a film of b&w.

Also followed your advices and went to the nearest shops to check developing prices.

Boots - around 8.50£ to get developed and copied to CD

asda - couldn't find the film developing department. Maybe this asda is not the biggest? Or maybe it only exists in a few city? A little help here.

Went also to a few store but they were even more expensive like 15£ and things like that...so just ignored that.

I know there's Costco here, will it make any difference there?

I will post pictures of my camera later this evening.

Cheers guys for advising me to spend money on this wonderfull machine
 
Boots has a permanent "buy one, get one half price" sale on film. If you can't see it mentioned, get the checkout person to scan a couple. £9 for 2 is a lot more bearable.

I think the only ASDAs that do it are big stores that have had their machines for a long time. They don't replace them when they finally break, and they don't put them in new stores.

Unfortunately, B&W developing is expensive, and all scanning is expensive if it's not ASDA. Most people round these parts seem to develop their own B&W and scan them themselves. A second-hand scanner can be anything from £30 to £120, depending on how lucky you get.
 
I'm affraid not. I live in Southampton but I go quite often to Bournemouth maybe I will do that. Every now and then,

Yes I read about developing my own films as well because even most of the big photographers do that because its so expensive.

I follow a lot Eric Kim Blog, for who dont know, go and check it out because he provides a lot of free resources about street photography and photography in general.

Regarding boots, yes you are right I forgot to mention. They do that promotion but I still find it expensive, I think its cheaper to order from Amazon

Tomorrow im going to go to another ASDA and have a look
 
A couple of new arrivals.

Yashica 12, in really good condition and a solid beast of a camera.
Yashica-12 by Andy, on Flickr

And a Voigtlander Baby Bessa 66, tiny little 6x6 camera and again in good nick for a camera made in about 1940. I suppose that makes it a product of Nazi Germany.... :oops: :$
Yashica-12 by Andy, on Flickr

Voigtlander-Bessa-66 by Andy, on Flickr
Films in both and hopefully I will get chance to get them tested this weekend in the Lakes.
 
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Danones said:
Yes I read about developing my own films as well because even most of the big photographers do that because its so expensive.
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Well, how much cheaper was your film camera though? You could shoot and develop a lot of film for the price differential in most cases.

Digital photography has much higher costs upfront, but is cheaper to maintain, whereas film photography can be very cheap to start out, but has higher ongoing costs. Neither is necessarily cheaper or more expensive than the other.

For me, I really don't think film and development are the places to skimp. People spend ridiculous money for 'full frame' and now even 'medium format' digital sensors, so I can't see how it's unreasonable for film photographers to invest their money in good film, development, and scanning.
 
skysh4rk said:
Well, how much cheaper was your film camera though? You could shoot and develop a lot of film for the price differential in most cases.

Digital photography has much higher costs upfront, but is cheaper to maintain, whereas film photography can be very cheap to start out, but has higher ongoing costs. Neither is necessarily cheaper or more expensive than the other.

For me, I really don't think film and development are the places to skimp. People spend ridiculous money for 'full frame' and now even 'medium format' digital sensors, so I can't see how it's unreasonable for film photographers to invest their money in good film, development, and scanning.
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Not everybody has the money to spend £13/roll on premium film and premium dev/scan. I skimp on film/dev because I want to shoot film but I'll learn a hell of a lot quicker shooting a lot at £3/roll than a little at £13. Maybe when I get good at it, I'll treat myself.
 
skysh4rk said:
Well, how much cheaper was your film camera though? You could shoot and develop a lot of film for the price differential in most cases.

Digital photography has much higher costs upfront, but is cheaper to maintain, whereas film photography can be very cheap to start out, but has higher ongoing costs. Neither is necessarily cheaper or more expensive than the other.

For me, I really don't think film and development are the places to skimp. People spend ridiculous money for 'full frame' and now even 'medium format' digital sensors, so I can't see how it's unreasonable for film photographers to invest their money in good film, development, and scanning.
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It doesnt matter how much the film camera was to me...I m not comparing with digital because i m not going completly film. I still shoot digital, and Im quite amateur on it so i want to try and in order to try different stuff and possibilities, It can't be expensive as hell

That's why im starting to shoot with cheap films and I want the process to be as cheap as I can.

I thought about a scanner to copy the photos to the pc because at long term it will be cheaper but I dont know if I love enought film to invest on that. I thought about developing my selft at home but i need a dark room and my house doesnt have a compartiment that is completely dark. xD

abdoujaparov said:
Not everybody has the money to spend £13/roll on premium film and premium dev/scan. I skimp on film/dev because I want to shoot film but I'll learn a hell of a lot quicker shooting a lot at £3/roll than a little at £13. Maybe when I get good at it, I'll treat myself.
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this
 
abdoujaparov said:
Not everybody has the money to spend £13/roll on premium film and premium dev/scan. I skimp on film/dev because I want to shoot film but I'll learn a hell of a lot quicker shooting a lot at £3/roll than a little at £13. Maybe when I get good at it, I'll treat myself.
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Well, philosophically, I think it's better to invest less in equipment (e.g., choose a Yashica Mat over a Rolleiflex) and more in the film/developing end, whether that means going for reliable (not necessarily expensive) film and chemicals to do everything at home or sending it away for professional development. I can see, however, that many on the forum disagree with me on that approach.

Danones said:
I thought about developing my selft at home but i need a dark room and my house doesnt have a compartiment that is completely dark. xD
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You don't need a darkroom to develop black and white film. I use the spare bathroom.
 
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Aye but RJ you bought a spare bathroom, never mind a scanner that's over kill! :D

Largely I agree cheaper light tight box and better film. Though I'd probably get by with just gp3 if it ever come to that! I still prefer to do my own b&w and scanning, I don't see the need in spending more than is needed and sending out for B&W gets expensive quick.
 
abdoujaparov said:
Not everybody has the money to spend £13/roll on premium film and premium dev/scan. I skimp on film/dev because I want to shoot film but I'll learn a hell of a lot quicker shooting a lot at £3/roll than a little at £13. Maybe when I get good at it, I'll treat myself.
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VG self advise......get to know what say Agfa Vista can achieve on a subject and if not suitable move on to another film. I'm using OOD Superia 200 and Reala (cost 35p and 75p respectively a roll) when I go to somewhere important (inc holidays) and I'm happy with the results, so don't ignore bargains for OOD film.and also am amazed how "tough" neg film is when I buy say OOD Kodak colorplus for 10p a roll at the bootie and find on the right subjects, give VG results....but do have an arbitrary cut off point of not buying anything before 2006.
I have so much film in the freezer and have only spent some money on Vista to see what it's like and I suppose eventually when the 35mm film in freezer runs out will start buying new film like Portra or Superia 400 for MF use.
 
steveo_mcg said:
I still prefer to do my own b&w and scanning, I don't see the need in spending more than is needed and sending out for B&W gets expensive quick.
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There's a bit of complexity in home developing, but not a lot in home scanning black and white. If you use Peak, getting a medium scan (around 2000 ppi) costs over £10 MORE than the dev costs. So 20 films later you would have more than paid for a decent scanner...
 
ChrisR said:
There's a bit of complexity in home developing, but not a lot in home scanning black and white..
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I'd put it the other way round. It's not easy to see much of a difference in the end result from almost any combination of black and white film and developer (at least, not unless you print reasonably large (this means 10x8 from 35mm in my opinion). After my first failure (due to not reading the instructions and loading the tank incorrectly) I've not found much of a problem with the developing side. Scanning is another matter; it's not simple to get the best possible scan, and there are far more variables. Well, that's been my experience.
 
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My impression is that there are so many variables on film that scares me . I feel like I want to take the perfect shot. But i know that I need to work a lot and I need to try and keep shooting but another question I have is: if I decide to process and scan at home I need to invest in equipment to process and how much would it be? And would it be cheaper? Than sending it to the store?
And scanning I need to buy a scan basically because I don't want to use my dslr to scan it
 
There are variables (and many of them) with everything. With film, you have the choice of black and white, slide or colour negative. Looking at black and white, the only variables are film speed, size of grain and acutance (think unsharp mask in PhotoShop, a term that came from the darkroom anyway). Once you've decided which matters to you, it's simple to choose accordingly.

I take a very simple approach. I've used a number of black and white films over the years, but far fewer developers. Apart from almost one off tests, my developers have been Unitol, Acutol and Rodinal. Most of the time I use FP4 in 5x4 and PanF in 120 (with FP4 in 120 when I want a fast film). My choices are determined by wanting to print at a reasonable size (12x16/A3 upward) and hating the appearance of grain.
 
Danones said:
My impression is that there are so many variables on film that scares me . I feel like I want to take the perfect shot. But i know that I need to work a lot and I need to try and keep shooting but another question I have is: if I decide to process and scan at home I need to invest in equipment to process and how much would it be? And would it be cheaper? Than sending it to the store?
And scanning I need to buy a scan basically because I don't want to use my dslr to scan it
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Don't worry about the variables. Every time you mess it up, you'll learn something. This forum is full of "what went wrong here?" posts, and knowledgeable answers and advice. Forget about taking the perfect shot, and enjoy the process.

There's a sticky/tutorial here - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-develop-your-first-b-w-film.114/ - to give you the basics of what's involved. You'll need a tank (£10+ on eBay), a changing bag (£10+ on eBay), some jugs (£1 each at your local bargain shop/Poundland), and a thermometer (£3+ on Ebay = make sure it goes as low as 20 degrees C because not all the cooking ones do), a pair of scissors, and something to measure small amounts of fluids (I use a plastic measure that came with medicine - ask your pharmacy). You'll need some way of hanging them up to dry - special clips, or laundry pegs if you're cheap like I am. Then you need chemicals - developer, fixer, and optionally a stop bath. Maybe £30-£40 for the equipment, and £20-£30 including postage for the chemicals.

Developing B&W at home is easy, fun, and *way* cheaper then sending it off. It doesn't take many rolls to pay off the costs of the equipment, and the chemical cost can be as little as 10p a roll if you're really stingy.
 
Danones said:
My impression is that there are so many variables on film that scares me . I feel like I want to take the perfect shot. But i know that I need to work a lot and I need to try and keep shooting but another question I have is: if I decide to process and scan at home I need to invest in equipment to process and how much would it be? And would it be cheaper? Than sending it to the store?
And scanning I need to buy a scan basically because I don't want to use my dslr to scan it
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If you want to reduce the variables in the first instance, while you get used to film, then use a commercial process and scan. If there's an ASDA nearby that still does it, that's a good option, although it's generally to be expected that the scans will be over-sharpened, There's a thread in the Resources Sticky about processing services, That links to the nifty price estimator I put together, which gives you an overall view of costs among the process ors that folk around here use. It doesn't tell you about turnround times, which are quite variable.

If you're shooting 35mm C41 (eg that Poundland film) then my recommendation would be Photo Express, which in my experience does a first class job, gives you a medium res scan (eg 2000 ppi), gives a 50p per film discount for TP members (just ask and quote your forum username), and is very quick (averaging 2.9 days post box to door mat for me). (For some reason it's the blank name on the spreadsheet, I'll try to fix that.) £5 per film process and scan (less 50p) plus £1 for return postage, but it will cost you £2.80 or £3.20 or so to get your films to them.

As they say, don't worry, have a go, we'll try to help if needed, as you can see!
 
abdoujaparov said:
Don't worry about the variables. Every time you mess it up, you'll learn something. This forum is full of "what went wrong here?" posts, and knowledgeable answers and advice. Forget about taking the perfect shot, and enjoy the process.

There's a sticky/tutorial here - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-develop-your-first-b-w-film.114/ - to give you the basics of what's involved. You'll need a tank (£10+ on eBay), a changing bag (£10+ on eBay), some jugs (£1 each at your local bargain shop/Poundland), and a thermometer (£3+ on Ebay = make sure it goes as low as 20 degrees C because not all the cooking ones do), a pair of scissors, and something to measure small amounts of fluids (I use a plastic measure that came with medicine - ask your pharmacy). You'll need some way of hanging them up to dry - special clips, or laundry pegs if you're cheap like I am. Then you need chemicals - developer, fixer, and optionally a stop bath. Maybe £30-£40 for the equipment, and £20-£30 including postage for the chemicals.

Developing B&W at home is easy, fun, and *way* cheaper then sending it off. It doesn't take many rolls to pay off the costs of the equipment, and the chemical cost can be as little as 10p a roll if you're really stingy.
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Ok I mean after a couple of films it would start to be worth it.

Im just not sure if Im ready to do that jump.

I rather spend a bit more and have things made for me.

I went today to ASDA, the biggest one in town and they dont develop film anymore so I guess im stuck with boots around here. I still have to check costco.


ChrisR said:
If you want to reduce the variables in the first instance, while you get used to film, then use a commercial process and scan. If there's an ASDA nearby that still does it, that's a good option, although it's generally to be expected that the scans will be over-sharpened, There's a thread in the Resources Sticky about processing services, That links to the nifty price estimator I put together, which gives you an overall view of costs among the process ors that folk around here use. It doesn't tell you about turnround times, which are quite variable.

If you're shooting 35mm C41 (eg that Poundland film) then my recommendation would be Photo Express, which in my experience does a first class job, gives you a medium res scan (eg 2000 ppi), gives a 50p per film discount for TP members (just ask and quote your forum username), and is very quick (averaging 2.9 days post box to door mat for me). (For some reason it's the blank name on the spreadsheet, I'll try to fix that.) £5 per film process and scan (less 50p) plus £1 for return postage, but it will cost you £2.80 or £3.20 or so to get your films to them.

As they say, don't worry, have a go, we'll try to help if needed, as you can see!
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Right I had a look already on that threat.

But after checking the photo exxpress i realized that they dont develop only. They always print it and I dont need that. I need them to be developed and copy to CD

Another thing: I have got here the photos of my new baby











 
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Danones said:
But after checking the photo exxpress i realized that they dont develop only. They always print it and I dont need that. I need them to be developed and copy to CD
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Numerous forum members have used Photo Express for development and scanning, just as you're looking for, so I can assure you that they do it. See here: http://www.photo-express.co.uk/films-to-cd.php
 
Ok maybe it's me so but I can find prices for developing lol
Anyway shot my first film roll today. Feels so nice to change films on the camera. It's a lot different from shooting digital and I'm quite enjoying it!
 
Danones said:
Ok maybe it's me so but I can find prices for developing lol
Anyway shot my first film roll today. Feels so nice to change films on the camera. It's a lot different from shooting digital and I'm quite enjoying it!
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The price is in the very link I provided in my last post. It's £5 per film plus postage. Forum members are also eligible for a discount on these prices, as @ChrisR mentioned previously.
 
For one film you pay them £5.50 after claiming your 50p discount... but you pay Royal Fail £3.20 to get there first class, because obviously you want to see your babies soonest, yes? :) (It's seriously annoying, they changed the dimensions a year or so ago to be just smaller than a film cassette, so we went from paying first class letter to first class parcel overnight. Grrrr.)
 
I mean I don't mind waiting because of one thing...
The longer I wait to see the photos I shoot, the less emotionally attached I am to them, and so I can criticise more and judge them better xD só I would pay 5.5?
 
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