I want to shoot some film in the near future and would like recommendations for film cameras, budget would be under £40 I guess.
Built in light meter is a must.
Shoot speed is of no concern.
There's so many old film cameras out there and I just don't know which are good.
which lenses do you have / want / have access to? Is the prime consideration
also, what environment to be using it in? i.e. does it need to be partic robust?
also, what kind of pics - studio or outdoors etc? would affect how much you need things like autofocus / what flash sync preferred etc
One can never stop saying Thank You
If you are looking for an autofocus film SLR I would look at a Minolta Dynax 5. I have one and it is a very well specified body and can be had very cheaply secondhand off websites like Ebay. It has an excellent autofocus and is very well specified.
Alright Blastuk.
You're a Canon digital guy, so get an EOS film camera to use your current lenses. Ignore the Canon FD range - they might be Canons but your lenses won't fit!
I can't pretend to be an expert on budget Canon film cameras, but I have shot a lot of film in the past. You want a really solid centre AF point - the DoF on film cameras is a lot shallower than on APS-C so using things like your 85 1.8 will be tricky without that. You don't want drive speed at all, film is too expensive to machine-gun, but you do want a long shutter speed range - you can't change ISO without changing film so if you want to use say some Delta 1600 outside with your 85mm you have to use a fast shutter speed - 1/2000 might leave you limited.
Had a quick trawl of ebay and Canon do a Rebel which looks decent - one here for 50:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Canon-EOS-300-...item1e59bad630
but tbh your best bet is Bobster - I bet he used Canon film stuff before he got his 20Ds.
If you want a film SLR though, you do have a few options not available to your average digital shooter. How about:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRONICA-ETRSI-...item53dee9c000
? :E
well i was going to say get one of these > http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Holga-Camera-1...item3a562c7b05
the only film camera's i've used are my mums minolta - the Pentax @ college, a Mamiya RB 67 and one of these > http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CANON-EOS-1N-1...item588523c4c7
| Photographer |
I have a Canon EOS 300 body which is not ever going to be used again (we actually have two so even if I wanted to play with film again I still have one left). It was working fine when it was last used over 2 years ago. Since then it has been safely tucked away in it's box.
Let me know if you are interested.
Last edited by stavroshamster; 31-12-2009 at 02:18 PM.
Will be used outdoors, flash sync not too important.Originally Posted by fuddam
Autofocus would be nice, I don't really mind having to learn how to use manual focus though.
A bit out of budget, and it looks like digital shooters are competing for those lenses.
I'm aware of the FD lenses, but if they're cheap enough I wouldn't mind getting them.
I just noticed the shutter thing, I might want to shoot wide open a lot so a fast shutter might be better.. or else use nd filters..
Now that Bronica looks interesting! (though out of budget too)
Looking for something a bit more advanced than a Holga
The best bet so far seems to be the Canon EOS 300.. they seem to be going for about £10 on ebay without lenses.
Any other suggestions?
No real suggestions for an actual model - as I said I've never played with low-end film kit before. I wouldn't reccomend an FD camera. You might have access to some interesting primes, but they'll only be a bit cheaper than the EOS version and there's no way to mount them without splashing out/DIYing on an expensive/tricky mount conversion (you need to trim 2mm off each lens to get infinity focus) or with an adaptor with glass in it - never a great solution. I converted a 58mm f1.2 before from MD to A mount - sold it very quickly afterwards!
Personally I'd go for an EOS just so you can keep on using your lenses. I did a Dynax 7d/7 combo for a while and it was fun - your 85mm for example would be a 136mm f2.6 or 85mm f1.8 (in DoF terms) depending on which body you mounted it on.
If you really don't care about this then I'd go for an MF simply because it'll give you such a different look. Be a bitch to process though - are you going to do it yourself? Pro shops won't give much change from a tenner for develop only MF film. Most of the flatbed scanners will do MF, but you'll need a very expensive dedicated film scanner if you want maximum quality - with a 40quid budget for the camera itself I guess this won't be a problem though. You won't get that particular Bronica on-budget, but hunt around and you'll get something.
Otherwise... Probably an old-school Pentax, simply because you can get so much on the M42 mount.
What do you want this for? Enjoy
Blastuk (03-01-2010)
Interesting..No real suggestions for an actual model - as I said I've never played with low-end film kit before. I wouldn't reccomend an FD camera. You might have access to some interesting primes, but they'll only be a bit cheaper than the EOS version and there's no way to mount them without splashing out/DIYing on an expensive/tricky mount conversion (you need to trim 2mm off each lens to get infinity focus) or with an adaptor with glass in it - never a great solution. I converted a 58mm f1.2 before from MD to A mount - sold it very quickly afterwards!
Personally I'd go for an EOS just so you can keep on using your lenses. I did a Dynax 7d/7 combo for a while and it was fun - your 85mm for example would be a 136mm f2.6 or 85mm f1.8 (in DoF terms) depending on which body you mounted it on.
If you really don't care about this then I'd go for an MF simply because it'll give you such a different look. Be a bitch to process though - are you going to do it yourself? Pro shops won't give much change from a tenner for develop only MF film. Most of the flatbed scanners will do MF, but you'll need a very expensive dedicated film scanner if you want maximum quality - with a 40quid budget for the camera itself I guess this won't be a problem though. You won't get that particular Bronica on-budget, but hunt around and you'll get something.
Otherwise... Probably an old-school Pentax, simply because you can get so much on the M42 mount.
What do you want this for? Enjoy
From what I deduced I have the following options:
- Stay with the EOS system
- Medium format (I do not have the knowledge nor facility to process my own film)
- Pentax
This is mostly for my own fun, I jumped into photography at the digital end and I like the look of film, haha.
I'll have to find out more about the M42 system and see what options that gives me.
I'm guessing I'd stick with a 50mm prime and if lenses are cheap I'd get a wider prime and one at the longer end too.
Yeah, that sounds good. The great thing about Pentax Vs the dead systems (FD, MD, Contax, Konica etc) is that M42 has become a kind of evergreen standard - you're not limited to Pentax glass on M42. Zeiss even still releases its manual focus glass in M42 mount. You'll also be able to adapt the glass to EOS (or anything else for that matter) using a simple, glassless adapter.
Going for a living system is fine, but I don't see any point in getting say a Minolta or a Nikon - the glass still carries a premium because you can still use it on a Sony or a, ummm, Nikon, and you can't use it on your 450. It would be like buying an a230 to go along with your 450D - they both do pretty much the same thing but they won't play together. If I was going to go for a living system then I'd only want one spread across film and digital - EOS in your case.
MF is always cool - totally different look there. Learning to process B&W is very simple, but you'll have to get hold of a darkroom somehow. You can buy the kit to do it in your own bathroom, but it's more expense, or you could join a club and have to drive around to process your shots. I wouldn't really reccomend sending MF film off to be developed if you're on a budget. MF is doable, but it's a bit tricky. You could even possibly scrape large format kit together if you found someone wanting rid of it and put the budget up a bit... Film stuff is dirt cheap nowdays.
Couple of reccomendations on films - I really like Ilford's Delta 1600 and Fuji's Neopan 1600. These are both very contrasty, limited dynamic range films - with these you really do get black and whites very easily. Some of the slower films - Ilford Fp4 for example - are so malleable that unless you know what you're doing in the darkroom you often get greyscale. Both of those will be very high grain - it's stylised, but if you wanted neutral files you'd be using your 450D no?
I'm not really a fan of slide film myself, but if I was forced I'd go with Provia in 400 - can't see the difference between that and 100 for my usage and I prefer the colours to Velvia and Ektachrome.
Colour film? Controversial, but something crap like this:
http://www.badlyspelt.co.uk/ebay%206...d/DSC_2334.jpg
which I tended to get for free when I handed in a roll of B&W before I did it myself. Why? Because it's awful - grainy and with an almost cross-processed colour cast with normal developing - very warm and green.
And why did I stop shooting film? Too expensive and digital became too good. If I could afford it I'd run a Dynax 9 and Delta 1600 alongside my a900, but it costs too much in terms of time and money.
Blastuk (03-01-2010)
Dynax 5 (not 5D which is a DSLR) bodies usually go for~£25 or less ...
I bought a Praktica MTL 50 off ebay for £13.50
Still need to hunt for a lens.
Any thoughts on this? http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/prod...oducts_id=6073
They process the film and send back 4x6s
At that price I guess I can't go crazy but 1 roll a month wouldn't hurt, heh.
As for colour film choice, I'm not sure where to start.. there seems to be a lot of choice :s
Fuji Reala is a good ISO 100 print film to try:
http://fujifilm.co.uk/film/films/SUPERIA_REALA.html
Blastuk (03-01-2010)
I usually went kodak (gold/t-max) for reds and fuji (velvia/reala/superia) for greens. My most used was Fuji Superia which I was very happy with.
I have been looking into slides and boy are the processing costs high...
I don't have a slide scanner either. This looks like a pretty steep hill.. lol.
I saw some scans of Provia 100F and Ektachrome 100 which I like the looks of :/
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