After seeing so many repetitive questions in the film photography thread on facepunch I've decided to write a bit of a crash course into film photography. I've been using film for about a year now, and I'm loving it; most of what I'm going to say is based off either what I've discovered, or what far more experienced friends have taught me.
Some parts such as reccomendations are going to be, by nature, biased, as I'm inclined to reccomend stuff that I've used and can trust. Don't think that because I haven't listed something that means it's instantly terrible.
The first question when looking at getting into film photography is which camera should I buy? This answer will vary from person to person, situation to situation, so I'm going to try to give a bit of a rundown of the various different types of cameras, and situations where they are best used.
This is the main group that you would probably be looking into; many of the characteristics of DSLR's that you know and love, but instead using film. They almost always have interchangeable lenses which gives a high degree of flexibility.
SLR's from this era generally have the quintessential retro chic and generally are best used in their manual modes. Manual focus is basically common across all of the cameras from this era and often manual exposure proves to be a neccessity due to either a lack of electronics or general innacuracy of the light meters in these cameras.
- Olympus OM 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
- Pentax MX / ME Super
- Canon AE-1 / AE-1P
- Nikon FE / FM
- Canon EOS 3
- Nikon F5
- Olympus XA
- Yashica 35 GSN
- Voightlander Bessa
- Leica M1~7
- Yashicamat 124G
- Mamiya C Series (C2/3, C22/33, C220/330)
- Rolleiflex
- Mamiya RB67 / RZ67
- Mamiya 645
- Hasselblad 500c/m (a god among cameras)
Due to common technical limitations in older cameras, the automatic modes are often distinctly lacking, unless you purchase a newer model camera. Generally speaking SLRs from the early 1980s onwards had some form of automatic mode, but at times the accuracy of it was questionable. Because of this there's a large need to understand how to correctly manually expose.
The first step for manual exposure is to meter the scene that you're shooting; there are three main approaches to tackle this, the first is to use the integrated light meter of the camera, the accuracy of which will vary model to model. The second is to use a dedicated light meter, and the third is to use a nifty rule called sunny 16.
Light meters generally use either a sellenium cell or are electronic. Sellenium cell meters are an old technology and work by having a light sensitive strip detect light which then move a needle to indicate which settings you should use. The issue with sellenium cell meters is that even when they were new they weren't entirely accurate, and as the age the reactive compond inside them degrades causing it to become even more innacurate. They're generally as accurate as someone who is good at guessing exposure, using something like sunny 16. Electronic meters for the most part don't suffer from any of these issues, and can be considered accurate enough for the overwhelming majority of photographers.
- Kodak Ektar is a wonderful ISO 100 film
- Ilford FP4+ sits at ISO 125
- Ilford HP5+ is ISO 400, but can be easily pushed up to 800 or 1600, and beyond.
This is the widely used standard type of film that comes in a reusable metal cartridge and generally comes in either 24 or 36 exposure varieties. Negatives will normally measure 24x36mm
These formats are used by medium format cameras, and is generally used to create negatives of either 6x4.5cm, 6x6cm, 6x7cm or 6x9cm (there are others but these are the main ones). These formats allow for 16, 12, 10 and 8 shots respectively per roll of 120, or double that for a roll of 220.
- Developing Tank Generally something that seals well and has room for two spools will do the trick
- Changing Bag These are very useful for loading film onto the spools of the developing tank
- Various Measuring Containers - I have a 1 liter jug with 50ml increments on the side, and use it for measuring out either 300ml or 600ml, I also have a much smaller one that I use to mesaure out 10-15ml with 1ml accuracy as the developer (that I use) is very concentrated.
- Thermometer It's important to have the various liquids at the correct temperature, as it effects the developing time
- Ilford LC29
- Ilford Rapid Fix
- Epson V500
master class - Canon 9000F
Mechanical cameras need to be cleaned and maintained, which sounds like fun (except for the sound of the shutter). As capture gears explains The film is also more expensive than memory cards that come with a digital camera.