Disposing of old film cameras?

[tyred]

I still regularily use a 35mm SLR.

I only use digital when I plan to email the photos to someone. If I want to print them for me, I use film or slides. I just think it's nicer somehow.

 

[blockend]

Old thread revival. For screen sharing a digi compact is great but I spent so many years making film brews that I missed it. The reasons may not stand up for everyone but film works for me, I like the silver print and the whole alchemy bit. Plus you can buy those great bits of mechanical engineering you always wanted for buttons.

 

[Night Train]

My Dad likes his old film cameras. He even had one of those big old glass plate ones with the mahogany box, brass lens cap and black sheet complete with tripod.

 

[amnesia]

Bodies no, lenses yes - what have you got ???

 

[John the Monkey]

Does anybody, anywhere in the world still want old 35mm film cameras?

YES!


Two of my favourites - Nikon FE & F3HP

I love them.


Taken with a Canon Canonet GL19 QII and Agfa Vista 200

Especially '70s compact rangefinders, which are belting little cameras. Some of the '80s compacts are nice too, the Olympus XA series, and the Mju in particular are fantastic, and with nice film will beat the arse off a digital compact.

My Film Pics

 

[goo_mason]

I really need to dust off my OM4 and my Bronica ETRSi, load 'em with mono film and see if the Leith Camera Club's still on the go. (When I joined it about 5 years ago, the only members were the old guy that ran it, his even older mate (who died shortly afterwards) and me). After teaching me how to develop & print my own films, he left me to it and I'd just turn up week after week and make prints.

Then my dad found a big bag of his late uncle's mono negs and I spent months going through them all and printing many that showed the family & local landmarks / events back in the 1950s. It was an utterly magical time finding all those old treasured moments - especially the pics of my late great and great-great grandparents at home, doing ordinary things like reading the paper, or making tea on the range in the kitchen - things you don't get in staged portrait shots.

I still don't think digital comes even close to the richness & depth of a good monochrome print.

 

[Alan Whicker]

I've got about 20 cameras, all but two are film. Everything from a Diana toy camera up to a Bronica SQ. I especially like Holgas and pinhole cameras. I'm on the look out for an Olympus XA.

I still don't think digital comes even close to the richness & depth of a good monochrome print.

It's becoming very, very close. I had a bit of an epiphany a couple of years ago when I looked at the digital 'noise' on high-iso images from my new DSLR and realised it was a lot like high-iso film grain rather than horrible pixels that were a feature of my old D70. I'd still rather shoot on say, Tri-X to get the Tri-x effect than shoot on digital and spend hours piddling about in Potatoshop.

Some pics
_________________

 

[John the Monkey]

I'd still rather shoot on say, Tri-X to get the Tri-x effect than shoot on digital and spend hours piddling about in Potatoshop.

Nail on the head right there.

Put the right film in, and you know what look is coming out, no muss, no fuss.

 

[blockend]

Film has become a craft skill like etching and embroidery, no point comparing with digital, it's not about efficiency. While ever they keep making the stuff, I'll keep putting it through the cameras.
Time in the dark with a beer and some negatives is never wasted.

 

[blockend]

Bodies no, lenses yes - what have you got ???

A corner of the 35mm collection. All used continually, none of yer display case nonsense.

 

[kyuss]

I bought a Fuji s200 digital a while back and was so disappointed with it I gave it to my nephews to play with. I just can't afford a decent digital SLR so I've got a Canon A1 and recently borrowed a Lubitel, which is pretty crap technically, but damn the results are good. You just can't beat medium format film.

 

[John the Monkey]

Lovely shots Kyuss - I could never get my head around composing for the square frame, should give it another go.

And those Nikkormats...blockend, you are a lucky fella.

 

[kyuss]

I could never get my head around composing for the square frame, should give it another go.

I love the square format. This is my first shot with a medium format camera and I don't know if it's just because it's different or because I have a 'square' brain, but I'm finding it much easier to compose than with 35mm. I may never go back! I wish you could get square format digital.

 

[Crankarm]

I've got about 20 cameras, all but two are film. Everything from a Diana toy camera up to a Bronica SQ. I especially like Holgas and pinhole cameras. I'm on the look out for an Olympus XA.



It's becoming very, very close. I had a bit of an epiphany a couple of years ago when I looked at the digital 'noise' on high-iso images from my new DSLR and realised it was a lot like high-iso film grain rather than horrible pixels that were a feature of my old D70. I'd still rather shoot on say, Tri-X to get the Tri-x effect than shoot on digital and spend hours piddling about in Potatoshop.

Some pics
_________________

Tri-X .

 

[Andy in Sig]

I've got a couple of Contax G2 Rangefinder bodies, an SLR and two 5 x 4 large format cameras (as in chuck a blanket over your head while sorting out the shot). The last two really do slow down your photography and make it more thoughtful. I've also just bought a digital (an Olympus Pen EP1) and I just can't feel any affection for it. Maybe it's the fact of contemplating the pics on the camera screen. They just look so uninspiring, I don't have the urge to get them printed.

I think that it is the disappointment of digital that has just led me to my first experiments in developing black and white. So far the results have been flawed but it is just incredible fun to do something which feels like there is a bit of craftsmanship involved i.e. you have to put some effort in to get some results out. The next thing will be printing as soon as I've produced a useable neg.