Y’see, I just inherited my FIL’s Minolta Freedom Tele 35mm from the late 80s. My old rangefinder was a Yashica Electro 35 GSN. Awesome, fast lens, but the focusing system on that was always a major pain. I like rangefinder cameras (they’re lighter) and always wanted a Leica, but could never afford one. Until now, since Leica pretty much rebadged the Minolta as their AF-C1 so they’d have an auto-focus with a normal/telephoto lens. So I dropped $12 on a battery and $12 for a four-pack of cheap Fuji 200 which I started using years ago because I like Fuji’s colors. I prefer 100ASA, but Walmart doesn’t carry it, and with this slower lens faster film is good.
Except…why? I have a nice digital bridge camera. Digital is ever so much cheaper to use. I can take a million shots and throw them all out for free. That may be a point in film’s favor, because it requires me to work on each shot and do it right the first time. But ten bucks to develop a roll of film versus free? Why would I be looking forward to taking this antique to the company picnic? What am I, nuts? But then I pick it up and it has just the right heft and balance and I start getting stupid ideas again.
I picked up a “hefty” Canon 32 mm camera at Goodwill the other day (sorry I couldn’t remember the model - EOS perhaps?). They were asking $4.99 for something that probably cost 50 to 100 times that much when new. So do I find some film and have fun with it?
One reason I ask is we had some awesome auroras this week, and all I had with me that day was my Samsung Galaxy smartphone - it has a camera y’know but it was shit for taking night pictures. I was longing for something that could handle a timer, a bulb release, a tripod and lots of setting options. Should I go back and splurge on the $4.99?
I wouldn’t want to go back to film. Apart from how cheap each shot is, and how many shots you can take on one card, to me the big advantage is that you can get instant feedback on how the picture turned out, rather than waiting until the whole roll has been used up then developed and printed. That’s very useful when you are taking a difficult shot in a situation that you can’t recreate a day or more later. It’s also nice to be able to change ISO between shots: that’s impossible with film, unless you have multiple cameras or a camera with multiple backs.
I picked up a Yashica Mat 124 G 120mm camera at a government auction for next to nothing - complete with several lens filters, a working flash and padded hard case. I think I paid $20 for the whole shebang. I ordered a roll of color 120 film and a battery online (the battery is for the built-in exposure meter). It took almost a week for the stuff to arrive. I loaded the camera and shot the whole roll around my yard. Took about 30 minutes, everything works flawlessly. Found a drugstore that would develop the negatives, then had to send them off to be printed and put on CD. That was another week or so.
About 2 weeks elapsed time (and about $40) from film order to results, but dayum that thing takes a fine picture. I’ll likely order more film and experiment some more. There is something to be said for anticipation…
There was a cartoon in the NewYorker magazine not long ago that showed a modern apartment with a huge audio system set up–turntable with delicate counterweights, pre-amp, power-amp,disc preener with cleaning brush, long shelves of records, etc…
Two guys are chatting, admiring the equipment.
The caption reads : “What really attracted me to vinyl was the expense and inconvenience.”
Be careful on that. If this camera has the meter designed for the 1.3 volt battery (that you can’t get anymore), and you have to substitute one with a different voltage, the new battery will likely give incorrect exposure readings. My 70s Minolta has that issue. There are ways to compensate.
Get yourself a developing tank and a changing bag. Developing your own black and white 35mm and 120 is easy. Then, scan your negs! Best of both worlds.
Um, no. Been there, done that. While I’ll admit to hipsteritis, that’s more effort than I care to put into it.
Now for a true hipster camera, the old man also had an Adox Golf 63 in nearly perfect shape. The slowest effing lens in Christendom, the absolutely worst viewfinder I have ever experienced, and the original, classic reddish-brown case, it’s calling for me to get some of that new C41-compatible b&w film. Color film in an old German medium-format is an abomination.
I’m betting that bridge has a crop sensor, concider the leica a pay as you go full frame. Use the film camera all summer and see if you perfer it to the digital.
Learn to track a subject awaiting the perfect moment. ( “Decisive Moment” ).
Keep your finger on the shutter button so when the moment occurs you do not suddenly jar the body by shoving down on it.
Force yourself to NOT check the screen on the back after taking every photo. Unless you’re shooting architecture, you are very likely to miss the next best moment because you’re staring at the last frame.
I used to shoot 120 Kodachrome in an old Zeiss Ikon folder.
Heck, we even made our own film (copper based) for an experiment in one of my classes mid 70s. 8X10 pinhole camera. Learned a lot.
I highly recommend taking the Old School approach as far as you can go in order to learn as much as possible about the process of photography. You reap real benefits even when using a digital P&S afterwards.
Carl Shipman’s 1974 book “Understanding Photography” might be a fun read for you. Here’s a poorly done PDF file of most of it I found recently.
I grew up on old school, and I currently use mostly digital. Primarily APS-C size DSLRs. I also still shoot B&W 120 in an old Agfa folder when the mood strikes me. It’s ALL fun!
Now, don’t get me wrong. The film cameras are just for fun and because I’m, on the one hand, kinda intimidated by all you can do with the bridge, and OTOH it annoys me with what I can’t do with it. They’re comfort cameras. And the Adox is, at heart, not a very good camera. More like what you’d get at http://www.lomography.com than Doctor Jackson’s TLR, which is highly desirable.
Twenty-five year old POS was recalcitrant at times. Likely I should RTFM to see how to turn off the nanny controls. I don’t care what its programming says. Fast enough film and lens, plenty of light, and I didn’t/rarely want to use the flash. It should take the damn picture when I tell it to.
In 2001 I bought a Canon EOS 1v 35mm body as an upgrade (quite an upgrade, I might add) to my pair of (film) EOS 7’s.
The 1v is a very complex camera. After shooting a few dozen rolls, I decided to buy the newly-released EOS 1D, which shared the same body as the 1v but was digital, so I could become familiar with the camera without the need to develop film and also get immediate feedback (although my local non-chain instaphoto was nice enough to let me come in and use his processor whenever I wanted in exchange for a few prints now and again).
The problem with sensors is some junior grade starfleet engineer will always be trying to realign them. That or some Borg cube comes along and tries to assimilate them.
Good point. I use a readily available (online) 1.35 mercury battery by Wein Cell designed to replace the original PX13. The extra .05 volts don’t seem to make a difference.