35mm Camera (do any of you use them any more?)

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

I was talking about the A700 unfortunately!! :( ...

The larger branches of Jessops and branches of Jacobs have a good range of film.

Here are my current recommendations for colour print film:
1.)For a slow film with tiny grain, great colours and great sharpness in good light go for Fuji Reala 100. For best results get this film print on Fuji Crystal Archive paper. Usually if your minilab is using a Fuji Frontier system this is the case. The Frontier 500/550/570 and 590 are the newest Fuji minilabs.

2.)For a fast film in lovercast conditions get Fuji Superia X-TRA 400. Again it is better to get it printed on Fuji paper. If you want more punchier colours get Kodak Gold 400. This will look better printed on Kodal Crystal Archive paper. People who operate Noritsu based mininlabs tend to use this paper or the inferior Kodak Edge paper.

You can get ISO 200 film too but I prefer using either ISO100 for sharpness or ISO400 for speed.

Anything over ISO 800 tends to be bit grainy.

For portraits the Kodak Portra series films are good as these have different versions for different skins tones.

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Thanks for your advice, I've just spent just under £15 on some more film (I'm building up a fair collection now) I'd already bought a couple of Ektar Colour Negative films from 7dayshop the other day :)

I've got a few B+W C41 films that I got cheap from Boots (in their clearance - all quite long expiry 3 for £1.22) 1x Ilford XP2 and 2x Kodak 400CN

Will have to choose the right moment for loading those films I think :)

I'm quite looking forward to my ventures with my cameras (I'm quite keen on finding out what the photos come out like first) especially considering I don't have batteries to worry about :)

On a side note do any of you professionals have tilt-shift lenses, saw some nice info on them :D

can anyone recommend a decent place to get film developed? Is it worth sending off somewhere or are places such as Jessops good enough?

I have used the Elite Colour and Royal Gold series films which are the predecessors to the new Ektar range. They do print better on Kodak Royal paper than the Fuji equivalentisorry - in my last post I called the paper Kodak Crystal Archive but meant to say Royal paper). The Royal paper is also a bit thicker too. Like I said I tend to get them done at places which use Noritsu machines.

The Tilt-shift lenses are very expensive premium lenses. The 35mm ones are usually £1000+!!

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Originally Posted by YorkieBen

can anyone recommend a decent place to get film developed? Is it worth sending off somewhere or are places such as Jessops good enough?

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The only way is to actually test prints done at any local places. I had very good experiences at one Snappy Snaps. However as Snappy Snaps are a franchise quality can hugely vary from one place to another. At the one I used the machines were well maintained and the guys liked photography anyway so they cared about the quality of the prints they produced. They had newish machines and they had the best non-pro quality of any lab I have used in the UK. Bootsas well as the larger Jessops are the are usually a safe bet.They are not the best but I have never had any major issues with them for basic snaps. Don't expect pro quality prints though.

Thinks to look out for:
1.)If the place stinks of chemicals - avoid them!! This indicates that the processing chemicals are going off and are not well stored.
2.)The place is warm - all the good labs are temperature controlled or air conditioned. Since processing films involves chemicals a baking hot lab is not really a good thing!!
3.)The equipment looks old or worn out!! This indicates that the establishment is running the equipment into the ground without proper maintenance or a replacement.The technology has also moved on the last few years too.
4.)The place is dusty. Dust in prints is really annoying.
5.)The employees should have an interest in photography or at least like what they do. People who have a bad or negative attitude will not be bothered to process the film properly.They will do a rushed job.

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

I have used the Elite Colour and Royal Gold series films which are the predecessors to the new Ektar range. They do print better on Kodak Royal paper than the Fuji equivalentisorry - in my last post I called the paper Kodak Crystal Archive but meant to say Royal paper). The Royal paper is also a bit thicker too. Like I said I tend to get them done at places which use Noritsu machines.

The Tilt-shift lenses are very expensive premium lenses. The 35mm ones are usually £1000+!!

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I wasn't insinuating buying one for myself (or for others), I was just wondering whether anyone had been able to mess around with one before, as they do seem to do some funky stuff!

I'm sorry to bump this...

But after going around a few processing places;

For the best compromise between price and quality I have just tried http://www.thewholepictureonline.co.uk - they use Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, and everything that came was Fujifilm branded so I can only imagine its a fully authorised Fujifilm outlet. The colours were good, and the print quality was very good (only using a cheap tester film - which I tend to do to put my feelers out to see what they are like); it's only £6.50 for 36exp for return delivery and a CD with picture scans at fairly high resolution (1.08mb files - I believe around 3000x2000 res - much higher than the 1024x... that others offer) and they came to me the day following they received the film PLUS they let me know when they had received the film - very highly recommended if you have some holiday snaps - I don't know how they compare to the £15+ developers, but for the price I really cannot fault them! :) Give them a try if you can!
Ones to avoid...

Charles Eagles & Sons (local to me in Durham): they use colorama, and both the films and photos had distinct scratches on them, and some photos came back with bent edges, I only wish that I had checked the photos in store; at first I thought it was the cameras, but no just their old machinery. so DO NOT USE THEM [plus they really don't know anything about customer relations]
Tesco Instore - Admittedly it was 1hr processing, but still, photo quality was rubbish, it looked as if I had printed them on my inkjet printer at home, but worse! You could see the colour droplets with lots of white surrounding them, so I was really disappointed by the photo quality - but they were cheap £4 inc CD...

My comments on Ilford (B+W):
Ilford I bought one of those pre-paid processing envelopes, the Oyster/pearl finish is gorgeous, but whether it was the processing or the film (Kodak CN400) there was a distinct lack of detail in the clouds :( But overall very nice, crisp fairly professional pictures.