Have we talked about film cameras lately?

We talked about cassettes recently. What about film cameras? 

I dug out this the other day--so old that the bag contained my original GRM Readers Services business card (circa 1994). Battery is en route. 

Along with my D600 I have a N90s, a couple N65's, and an OLD Canon. Not sure what model it is.

I really wish I got out and shot more but after living overseas for 7 years nothing in the midwest looks that interesting.

I haven't owned an SLR since the already once repaired shutter started hanging up in my old Minolta.

While looking for the A-1, I came across a Nikon in a big--just sitting here in my office. Nikon!? I have never shot Nikon. Still can't recall how it got here. Very weird. 

Minolta SR-mount stuff here.

I have an X-570, X-700 and an XE-7 (budget friendly Leica) that see fairly regular use.

There are a few companies putting out good quality colour negative and slide film these days. I have a hoard of Velvia 50 in my freezer as well.

Ferrania is making an amazing black and white film based off of their old cinema film chemistry (the stuff Fellini used) and Cinestill is loading 35mm cartridges with colour cinema film that looks fantastic.

I also keep a little Minolta rangefinder in my truck, because.

Where is everyone getting film developed these days?

I still have the camera my dad got for his 21st birthday in Japan, which means 1962. A Pentax S1 that has an external light meter and screw-on lenses.  He gave it to me when I was 16 or so. He loved using Kodachrome 64 film too. Let me tell you, the combination of manual focus, manual metering and a low ASA really teaches you the fundamentals and how to be really, really smooth on the shutter. But you never had to worry about batteries!

That thing has been around the world at least a half dozen times. It went across Soviet Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1968 and I took it to the highlands of Papua New Guinea in 1990. It also went back to the factory for a refurb sometime in the 70s or 80s. It’s just sitting in the closet now, alas. 

Patientzero said:

Where is everyone getting film developed these days?

My kitchen.

You don't need a darkroom to process film, you can do it just fine with a developing tank and a dark bag. 

You need a darkroom with an enlarger to make prints.

I just scan my negatives on a film scanner and process with lightzone, print what's needed. For chromes (slide film) I mount the good ones in proper slide mounts because I still have  a projector and nothing looks as good as a projected slide.

There is a lab in the USA called "The Darkroom" They will process, scan and put it all on a USB drive for you as well as e-mailing a copy.

David S. Wallens said:

While looking for the A-1, I came across a Nikon in a big--just sitting here in my office. Nikon!? I have never shot Nikon. Still can't recall how it got here. Very weird. 

Does it have the motor drive that you need to reproduce the opening few seconds of Girls On Film? :)

Any Olympus fans out there?  I've got three OM-1n bodies, a variety of non-Olympus (but good) OM-mount lenses from 24 to 400 mm, an autowinder, plus a variety of darkroom equipment including a small Bogen enlarger, none of which have been used since I bought my first digital camera in 2003.  Of course, in their usual let's-start-with-a clean-design philosophy, when Olympus went digital they changed the lens mounting systems so none of the old lenses work with their digital stuff.

I've got a pile of them. Some get pretty regular use; others stay mostly tucked away for one reason or another. I'm mostly a Leica user - the early screwmount Barnack bodies - plus some TLRs and folders for medium format. I service them myself, so a fair number have been bought cheap and broken, then repaired and put back into service. This particular set dates from 1946 (needed CLA and new curtains, plus the lens cleaned).

I shoot mostly B&W, dev at home, and scan. Color gets sent off, though I've considered doing that at home too.

I have several film cameras, all Nikons from the 70's.  One I inherited from my dad that he bought new and I learned to use as a kid.   Other's I got from a family friend Kjell Sandved that was a nature photographer for the Smithsonian Institute, after he passed.  I use them, some cool telephoto and custom built lenses as knic knacks on bookshelves.

I use K-mount film cameras, not always Pentax, in fact usually it's a Ricoh XR7.  I've been trying to shoot a frame a day since a week or so before I moved from KS to MD.  Develop at home, digitizing negatives with a DSLR and macro lens over a light box.  I had a bathroom that I never used in the last apartment that worked well for developing space.  I get prints from mpix.com when I've wanted to; Negative Lab Pro plugin for Lightroom makes this process pretty easy to manage. 

I had wanted to make my way to the 2019 Challenge and shoot a bunch of film to document the thing but I wouldn't have had time for it.  Perhaps 2020...

I think shooting film has taught me a lot over the last year and a half or so that I've played with it.  I really prefer black and white photography to color with film but part of that is the development process and not having to reuse B&W developer vs. color.

My dad has a nice AE-1 kit with a ton of lenses (I think I posted about it on here years ago). I've been thinking about busting that out to take some pics of the Power Wagon lately and pretend it's 1979. I haven't shot on film in about 20 years!

I bought back my old Nikon FG from a Navy friend I sold it to when I replaced it with a new N8008 in the mid-late 80s.  The FG was a high school graduation present in 1985.  It's on a shelf and would probably take a decent photo today.

I still have an F3HP I bought used around the same time, with MD4 motordrive.  Hope I remembered to take the battery out, it's been a few years (when I bought a Coolpix 995 then D70).  Having two bodies was cool because I could load one w/ B&W and the other color, or have 35-70mm on one and 70-210mm on the other.

I've got a couple of Yashica Contax bodies with their great lenses, a Leica M2 and a Yashica Electro 35 that I keep meaning to clean up.

My Leica hasn't been used for a while so I should get a CLA done on that as well.

I mostly shoot B&W if I pull out the film cameras. Which reminds me, there are a couple of roles of film that want to be developed.

Wow.  Didn't know there were quite this many old photogs on this site.   I shouldn't be surprised.

From about 1990, I shot with a Minolta X-700.  Shutter quit working and rather than fix it, I bought a X-370-N body to use my lenses.  When I finally got around to sending the X-700 to Garry's for repair, he said it was too far gone.  The caps had leaked and corroded the main circuit board.  He said my camera was among the worst he'd ever seen.   I haven't had the X370N out in years.

I have a Yashica T4 with the Carl Zeiss lens that I need to auction off on ebay.  Those things are fetching crazy prices.

I picked up an old (1960's) Yashica Lynx 14E with the Yashinon f/1.4 45 mm lens.  I'm halfway through a roll of C41.  I'm probably wasting a roll and some time.  The shutter is bound to be slow.

There's a lab called Process One in Overland Park, KS that still does C41 color developing and printing.  I've used them.  They're fine.

B&W you can do at home.  The last time I made a few prints with my Beseler enlarger, I developed the prints in Caffenol.  Pretty amazing that you can develop film and paper in instant coffee. http://www.caffenol.org/recipes/

Process One is a great lab to work with.  They'll push or pull film if you ask.  It might take a day or two longer but they'll work with you.  They'll work with people via mail so they don't have to be there in person to have things done. 

Caffenol sounds interesting but I'm doing fine with Clayton F76+ which is pretty cheap liquid developer.  I saw very nice results with F76+ and Extreme Ultrafine 400 which is pretty inexpensive film.  Ultramax 400 C-41 film also works okay in F76+.  I would like to play with pushing film *a lot* with Kodak HC-110 eventually.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Props to Garry's, he's serviced a bunch of my stuff and I've been very happy.

I have a Minolta X-700 with a bunch of lenses.  I found the whole package at a pawn shop many years ago.  Seemed like a good idea at the time as it was just before digital cameras were becoming common and cheap (and long before your cell phone had a camera).  I ended up never actually using it and it's in the pile of stuff I need to sell.  It'll probably go on eBay with no reserve and sell for $1. 

In reply to Ian F :

If the X-700 body works, I'd be interested for more than a dollar.  Also any Minolta MD lenses such as 135 F/2.8 or f/3.5 and any MD wide angle.

I still shoot with a Canon EOS1. I miss my Yashica FXD and my YashicaMat medium format. 

Developing your own B&W film is easy! I used to go lock myself in the bathroom with the dark bag and get the film in the can. I still have all the tanks and what not. 

I just realized that there’s a room in my house that would make an excellent darkroom. Even has water. I haven’t developed film since I was in school. 

I belonged to the Camera Club of Cincinnati for many years, supposedly one of the oldest clubs in the country.  When I left, we had two studio spaces with Novatron lighting for each, a dressing room we put on wheels so we could move it out of the way when needed, and a darkroom in the basement. 

I spent quite a few Saturday's in there until the Epson 700 photo printer came out.  Thought "Why am I spending 2-3-4-5hrs on a handful of enlargements when I can just scan and print?"

Has anyone made a digital conversion back for any of the top 35mm cameras ?

I think there are full frame sensors now , 

It seems like the market for it would be decent