Film Photography

[John Doyle2]

Film Photography!
Your replies posted to ' What was your first proper Camera' Begs me to ask, how many of you still use film cameras regularly? And as a follow on – How many of you still have a WET Darkroom?

[greypoint]

I think the last time I used film was around 2001. Having sold my gear and used old Canon MF for around 10 years on the grounds of not really taking many photos at the time and it was as good as anything, I bought a new Minolta SLR. I then got hold of a 2mp Kodak compact and decided digital was the way to go. 

[picsfor]

as mentioned in an image posting making high iso(asa) comparison tests - finished with film during the summer!

As for a wet dark room - it was the one great regret tha ti never had the opportunity to have one...

[SimonW]

I used a wet darkroom a great deal, up till about 1974 when wife and children, and the resulting lack of time, money and space came along and I just had to pay for processing until the digital revolution.  In some ways that cannot beat the magic of watching a picture appear on a white sheet of paper below the liquid in a dish under a red light, but is sure beats the mess and inconvenience.

(In the late '60s my work overseas included receiving pictures from other countries by HF radio. A drum of paper rotated for 15 minutes while a light beamed on it responded to the signal, and also any interference and drifts in tuning, synchronisation and so on. I often didn't even know what the subject of the photo was, never mind what the quality would be like, until it emerged under the safelight. It often did seem like magic.)

[chris@seary.com]

I have some film cameras, which I use occasionally.

Here is the gallery of one of my flickr contacts - look at the lovely colours:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minka6/sets/72157616976314056/

[Malcolm1938]

When you process 10 36Exp Colour neg films on a Thursday evening and print 10 sheets of contact proofs on a Friday Morning - Get your Orders from Customers on Friday Evening and spend most of the next three days printing the orders onto 10x8 paper 1, 2 or 4 prints per sheet and processing them 14 sheets at a time in baskets in a deep tank set up the romance of a wet darkroom tends to depart, and I did this for years.

Digital has brought the fun back into photography for me.

[MikeE]

I was an early adopter of digital but gave up chasing the next best thing. Around 2000, I became interested in classic cameras and then began processing my own b/w again. I guess that I've shot several hundred rolls, mostly b/w, since 2000.

I've also been processing my own E-6.

[John Doyle2]

As I had expected most of you have switched to digital, more convenient and possibly less expensive too. I continue to use film on occasions but much less nowadays. I have now moved back to U.K. and no longer have access to a wet dark room, I will not be setting up a darkroom here either, much easier to shoot in digi or have the film processed in a lab and then scan, no headaches from fumes!

[Hybridphotog]

As I've got a good few usable film cameras, ranging from the Russian Zenits, Kievs, Zorkis and FEDs, to a couple of Leica LTM cameras, I've slowed down with my usage. One reason being a distinct lack of shops that sell film that can be developed at home (i.o.w. black and white film)... the only b+w film widely available around Clacton is the C41 process stuff. However, I'm determined to put a colour film through one of these cameras soon, as I don't have any means, at the moment, to develop film.

Wet darkroom? I had one, complete with a monsterous MPP multi-format b+w enlarger. However, my attempts at using the thing only got me average results. So I resorted to home-developing the b+w film, using a Rodinal-based developer, and using a film scanner to get the results from the developed negatives.

Hence my username... "Hybridphotog", and my weblog... "In both worlds".

[Malcolm1938]

Hi Dave

7dayshop.com have 40 different B&W films on offer and only 4 specify C41 processing, and they are all quoted at post inclusive prices.

C41 can be a 2 bath process carried out in a normal developing tank with an extra stabiliser bath at the end so it's not really any harder than B&W chemicals.

[vxisme]

Hi Dave, i use Peak Imaging for my colour and B/W processing, reasonable prices and scanned to disc if you dont have a scanner of your own,
Donny

[Hybridphotog]

Hi Dave, i use Peak Imaging for my colour and B/W processing, reasonable prices and scanned to disc if you dont have a scanner of your own,
Donny

Hi.

The flatbed scanner I use is an Epson 4490. It's not a dedicated film scanner, but it's sufficient.

Hi Dave

7dayshop.com have 40 different B&W films on offer and only 4 specify C41 processing, and they are all quoted at post inclusive prices.

C41 can be a 2 bath process carried out in a normal developing tank with an extra stabiliser bath at the end so it's not really any harder than B&W chemicals.

Hi.

As my dad also used the film developing equipment, as well as the makeshift darkroom I'd set up back in Bolton, I felt it only fair for that to remain there when I moved 'darn sarf'. So as yet I've no film developing equipment... hopefully that'll change, but without the enlarger setup. For now though, using the local 1-hour d&p "minilab" place is enough.

[picsfor]

Yes - there does seem to be a bit of a void of specialist tog sops around that way.
I was lucky enough to have an old school friend who turned pro based round the corner and he done most of my processing - but i see he has gone full digital as well.

Bit out of touch as to what is still there now...
S'pose it would probably be in Colchester up by the old Town Station