Comment by JKCalhoun
7 hours ago
Nice explainer for someone wanting a brain dump for analog (film) cameras.
I am old enough to have grown up with film. I learned to use a darkroom when I was in 5th grade. I used one again in middle school, high school. I even worked at a "1-Hour Photo" out of high school.
But my cameras were typically the Instamatic™ kind. My mom had a Canon AE/1 and borrowing it from time to time was my only experience with a "real" film camera.
I was at Apple, working in fact on the ColorSync team when cameras went digital. I didn't throw the kind of money some of my coworkers did at the early entries into digital from Nikon, Canon, but I dabbled in it.
But it was when my daughters, born very much in the digital camera era, started to show an interest in film cameras that I also dove into them again. This time I could learn about film cameras on the internet, could by film cameras on eBay. My disposable income meant I could get some decent hardware — and then of course it was a lot less expensive than when it was new because it was used, "obsolete".
I learned at last about "medium format" and was able to get into it with a surprisingly modest amount of cash. A Yashica 635 for example was a fine medium format camera and fairly inexpensive on eBay. Often there are sellers from Japan that seem to give you an honest assessment of the camera they are selling — I have rarely been disappointed.
120 film for medium format cameras is still readily available. Finding a place to develop it and make prints easy as well (in Omaha, Nebraska there is at least one store, thankfully). I even learned to develop my own B&W and color film (it's just a bit tedious though).
I confess though that once developed, I tend to take the digital path — scanning the photo digitally and then adjusting levels, etc. in the computer.
In any event, more than ever, I really got to learn the clever relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture — and appreciate them when going with film. I encourage everyone to try it.
A photo from the Yashica 635: https://imgur.com/BNdbzjC
Also Yashica 635: https://imgur.com/o4eYteG
Minolta Autocord: https://imgur.com/oQgXjW0
(Cameras get a little pricier from here down.)
Mamiya C220: https://imgur.com/nL9JjPl
Me (Mamiya RB7): https://imgur.com/Y49UxLQ
Bronica SQA: https://imgur.com/ZMJ3SGq
If you’ve gone all the way to shooting medium format and learning how to develop film, I can’t help but encourage you to get into printing black and white as well.
(color is IMO less interesting - more finicky, less creative latitude)
It’s a minimal investment of time & money (even simpler if you have a community darkroom near you - there are more than you might think!), and it’s both more creatively rewarding as a process than what you get working digitally, and for IMO a better result (you need a really high quality printer to match what standard b&w printing gives you).
Prints also make for great gifts - people just aren’t used to seeing 8x10 printed portraits anymore, and I’ve had friends/family members moved to tears when presented with a framed print of their family.
Oh and there’s also always large format ;)
Oh, for sure I shoot B&W. I think I do prefer it to color. I just don't make prints any more. I think I am too spoiled by the tweaks you can do with levels/curves in the digital domain.
And then I have also dabbled this year in dye-sub prints on metal — and that also begins with a digitized image. (I have found friends and relatives really like the dye-sub prints.)
Large format is still in my future. I do have a few pieces of hardware is all (a Copal shutter, etc.).