Film (Analog) Photography Thread

84westI would make some test prints first to see if it is fogged/expired. Storage is a big deal with paper, and that looks like old stock (although I may be wrong). I’m not the most familiar with Agfa products, we had to be on top of our fuji stock when I was printing commercially.

@PacificRimJob and anyone else who wants to mess with ra4 the real trick is sourcing good original chemistry. I am constantly disappointed by the results with the kits available for retail. If you can find an original starter kit or even replenisher cartridges you can do some math and will get way better results. If you have a local lab you can see if you can talk them into ordering extra for you next time they put in an order but that may be against their contract so it helps if you know someone/work there. It’s key that they know you can read directions and won’t screw up and mix the starter with the bleach fix and chlorine gas yourself with concentrated ra4 starters.

**This post was edited on Jul 6th 2021 at 10:55:41pm

WoFlowzI see why some of you love shooting to film and almost exclusively do it. And I think imma start leaning that way after my road ride around town. Just stopping and tryna take photos on my Fm2. Super fricken fun

DingoSeanOh damn that is possibly my dream camera. Such a good one.

I have an F2 which is a beast in comparison.

WoFlowzJust got two rolls of Kodak 400 developed sorry about the hair in some of the shots. And I got a cool double exposure on one of these.

graveldope stuff bro keep gettin it

WoFlowzTwo questions for Film/Analog NS as I have no clue what I’m doing. What type of manual zoom lense would be best for a Nikon FM2 I’m assuming some old nikkor but idk maybe there’s a less expensive option or something? Also how difficult is developing and scanning your own film and does it require a actual dark room? Or make shift dark room?

DingoSeanFirst things first - I am jealous of your FM2...

Now..


If youre looking for a zoom lens, that completely depends on what youre going to be using it for. for film, I like to keep my lenses pretty compact, so I usually use primes.. But you can find some really nice old zooms for cheap (under 50$ or so).

One of my favourite lenses ever is the Nikon Series E 75-150 f3.5. It is compact, sharp as shit, built well, and fixed f3.5 aperture. It was sold as an amateur lens, but professionals loved the thing.

However, 75-150 is only for telephoto... if youre looking for a do-everything walk around zoom, you have two solid options... the Nikon Series E 36-72mm f3.5 and the Nikkor 35-105 f3.5-f4.5. Theyre both good options - the 35-105 being a little bigger and zoomier. Id get the 35-105 if I was just looking for one lens to do everything, and the 36-72 if youre also going to pick up the aformentioned 75-150, since they work together extremely well and both have fixed f3.5 max apertures (and both are useable at that aperture)

If you want a wide-angle zoom, you dont have a ton of options on the cheap unfortunately, but the FM2 takes Nikkor AF and AFD lenses, so you could go with the Nikkor AF/AF-D 24-50 f3.3-4.5. I dont know how great this lens is - It is most likely just okay at best, but I know you can get them pretty cheap (under 100$ for sure) and they work great on that camera, so there you have it.

I used to have the nikkor 28-50 f3.5, and would use that as a walk-around option along with the 75-150 f3.5, and that was an absolutely awesome lens, but it will surely cost a lot more.

For wide angle stuff I would probably stick to a prime, since zooms tend to make the widest angles real fucking distorted unless youre willing to fork out some serious cash. I love my Nikkor 24 f2.8 for a do-everything wide angle. You dont need wider than 24mm for 98% of anything.

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As for developing and scanning...

You dont need a fully dark room to do either.

For developing, you need a changing bag, and a developing tank. Youtube has an absolute plethora of information on this.

For scanning, that depends on how youre going about it. If youre using a flatbed then it doesnt matter at all (although it is slow, and stupid and you end up with a big honking scanner in your room all the time and I hated that). If you are using a DSLR and macro lens to scan like I do, you dont need a dark room, but you definitely dont want a specifically well lit room with an overhead lamp, since you might get reflections on your film that will mess up your scans.

WoFlowzOk thanks so much for the help. I’ll look into the developing tank and changing bag etc on YouTube… As for scanning I would end up using a DSLR. I’ll look into that more also..

Lense wise I’m looking more toward the Nikkor 35-105 f3.5-f4.5 as just a do it all type lens like you suggested. I already have a Nikkor 24mm lense that came with the camera when my dad bought it. But since I already have the wide angle 24mm would the Series E 75-150 be more appropriate?

WoFlowzLense wise I’m looking more toward the Nikkor 35-105 f3.5-f4.5 as just a do it all type lens like you suggested. I already have a Nikkor 24mm lense that came with the camera when my dad bought it. But since I already have the wide angle 24mm would the Series E 75-150 be more appropriate?

84westI have the chance to shoot with this monster if i want to pay for materials. 11x14 deardorff studio camera (pictured with 8x10 lens board and back (although you can't see the back). Obviously it is not very mobile so it would have to stay in place at the studio. But the owner has the original ground glass and a ton of lens options. I guess i need to save some money to order film for it. (and think of a portrait series worth doing)

h

And here's a picture of a different one in use since i wasn't able to do much besides grab a couple quick phone photos while i was there:

WoFlowzMy dad just gave me my grandpas old Pentax k2 with 9 lenses as a gift. Fuckin stoked to have this and a FM2 and get to mess with some film that hasn’t been touched since the 90s. Probably won’t turn out great but oh well

DingoSeanOh jesus... what a score... 9 lenses? Youll never need to buy a thing.

The K2 is one of my favourite SLRs out there since its fully mechanical with Aperture priority auto exposure...

Can I have your FM2, though? since you obviously dont need it or anything with that pentax... ;)

84westI have the chance to shoot with this monster if i want to pay for materials. 11x14 deardorff studio camera (pictured with 8x10 lens board and back (although you can't see the back). Obviously it is not very mobile so it would have to stay in place at the studio. But the owner has the original ground glass and a ton of lens options. I guess i need to save some money to order film for it. (and think of a portrait series worth doing)

h

And here's a picture of a different one in use since i wasn't able to do much besides grab a couple quick phone photos while i was there:

graveldoes anyone have a large format (4x5) developing tank they want to sell me?

got developing chemicals in SLC in august and was finally able to develop my first 35 negatives the other day, some b/w and color. they came out really good! some had some mineral spots from where the water dried off, the water is pretty hard here at home. used photoflo and distilled water for the final rinse though so maybe i just didn’t rinse them thoroughly enough with that. looking forward to doing the same with my 4x5 once i can get a tank for those. looking at the sp-445 since it takes less than 500mL per develop.

i’ll post up a bunch of them later can’t seem to pull the urls from my website to embed them when i’m on mobile.

graveldeveloper fucked up my large format pictures

CabbyArrantFor some of these Large format cameras I’ve heard of people shooting directly onto the print paper before instead of negatives.

DingoSeanThe top one looks more like a light leak to me... or maybe an agitation issue?


The bottom definitely looks like a developer problem though.. was it fresh dev?

DingoSeanYeesh.. yeah don't go back to that darkroom.



If you want a good suggestion for a 4x5 lab, if you dont want to mess up your expensive portra shots, send it to thedarkroom.com

gravelyeah, lesson definitely learned. but it's fine and i'm not bummed much, fun to learn and also kind of fun to ruin what you spent some good time and coin on. which sounds backwards, but i like to get comfortable with ruining some of them through mistakes.

thanks for the recommendation. at this point, i'm planning to just buy a developing tank for the 4x5 soon. i'm feeling confident about working with the chemicals at home so i just need the tank to put them in. it's easy to ship out the 35mm film but honestly doing the same with 4x5 would make me anxious since they're not already packaged in a lightproof container. and i worry about black and white getting switched up, someone opening the box not in the darkroom, whatever... some irrational anxieties in there of course. either way, i've got the chemicals and stuff to do it at home now so i want to keep going further down that route.

WoFlowzAnyone know if you can use any LR44 battery for a Pentax K2?

WoFlowzCame here for help cause most stuff in a Google search is bs or super confusing. Is there any lens that would fit a Nikon FM2 and replicate the 180 degree image of a Nikkor 7.5 f5.6 fish eye. From what I have found is that it will only fit a F2 and F because of its primitive part of the lense that sticks all the way back to the mirror. Just wondering if anyone knows and cheaper options and options that’ll fit a FM2.

different note: does anyone know any free software to colorize film once scanned with a DSLR. Tryna save myself a few bucks since my parents won’t let me develop my own film. Would take my costs of developing and scanning from about 11$ To 3/4 per roll. Thanks for any responses

DingoSeanFirst question... why would you want a lens that wide in the first place?

I mean, I have a hard time composing with a 17mm lens on full frame... fish eyes are just ridiculous to me now.



You can use Darktable. I use it, and it works pretty well.



https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1028799/How-to-Convert-Film-Negatives-With-Free-Program---Darktable-Negadoctor-Tutorial-2020

WoFlowzCame here for help cause most stuff in a Google search is bs or super confusing. Is there any lens that would fit a Nikon FM2 and replicate the 180 degree image of a Nikkor 7.5 f5.6 fish eye. From what I have found is that it will only fit a F2 and F because of its primitive part of the lense that sticks all the way back to the mirror. Just wondering if anyone knows and cheaper options and options that’ll fit a FM2.

different note: does anyone know any free software to colorize film once scanned with a DSLR. Tryna save myself a few bucks since my parents won’t let me develop my own film. Would take my costs of developing and scanning from about 11$ To 3/4 per roll. Thanks for any responses

84westRokinon/Samyang makes (or made, but they look like they are available new on b&h) an 8mm 3.5 f mount fisheye. Nikon also made an 8mm 2.8 fisheye for awhile but i'm sure those are insanely expensive. I would try and look for a rokinon used on ebay. Make sure it is a FX (nikon digital for full frame) rather than dx (aps-c) lens or it might have issues mounting on your f2. as long as it has an aperture ring and manual focus you should be good to go.

Do your parents not want you developing film because they are scared of the chemicals or because they don't want you making a mess in the house? Either way you should look into if your school or more likely a local community college has a darkroom you can pay a fee to get access too. You might need to take a class, but you'd learn a shit ton. Unfortunately community darkrooms are tricky to find these days but do some googling and see what you can find.

WoFlowzChemicals and mess. Sadly my school got rid of their dark room around 2018, against the teachers will. Two colleges and one highschool kinda close have dark rooms. I think only one I could possibly get access too

84west

I’m as guilty of this as anyone but it’s still funny.

No.QuarterWorking through scanning 11 rolls that span over about 6 years, trying to get back into shooting film.
Last night, for the first time since I picked up a camera, I was happy with every single shot on the roll. It was such an awesome feeling to see those shots for the first time and not have that disappointed feeling that a frame is not very good. Looking through this roll for the first time felt almost poetic for me, as it spans over several experiences that really exemplify the experiences that I seek out the most, and spans through several seasons. While not every shot is perfect or my best photography, this is a truly unique feeling for me to be happy with every shot on the roll. Sure is an effective way to get me stoked to shoot film again.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/109027560@N03/0LovzrH89c

WoFlowzI have to get 6 rolls developed and I’m literally tryna convince my parents I should just get everything to develop stuff on my own because it’s cheaper over time, but they still think it’s unsafe 😐. Boomer ass mentality. Thinking I might get prints instead of scans cause it’s the same price at the shop I go too. 10$ a roll for dev plus scan or prints. I tried scanning them using the dark table thing and they all turned out pretty blurry and looked kinda ass. Used a printer to scan and a DSLR and after I cropped neither looked good. So I think it’s gonna be 60$ which won’t feel good on the wallet even if I get payed today.

WoFlowzI have to get 6 rolls developed and I’m literally tryna convince my parents I should just get everything to develop stuff on my own because it’s cheaper over time, but they still think it’s unsafe 😐. Boomer ass mentality. Thinking I might get prints instead of scans cause it’s the same price at the shop I go too. 10$ a roll for dev plus scan or prints. I tried scanning them using the dark table thing and they all turned out pretty blurry and looked kinda ass. Used a printer to scan and a DSLR and after I cropped neither looked good. So I think it’s gonna be 60$ which won’t feel good on the wallet even if I get payed today.

gravelgimme their number i'll tell em how easy it is and how i get chemicals on myself half the time i develop my photos and i don't have cancer yet.

but fr, you could start by cutting out the scans/prints. have the shop develop them and send the negatives back to you, you can capture them with a DSLR but you would need to get like a light box or something. at the very least that will start to make it cheaper until you can convince them it's safe to develop at home.

WoFlowzProbably my issue. I just used my phone with a thing piece of white paper on it when I took the scans with a dslr. I also didn’t have a macro lense could that be it?

graveli've never scanned with a DSLR and i don't have a light box either, i just use a flatbed scanner epson v650. but i guess a macro might be important, didn't think of it. look up some videos and i'm sure there's someone knowledgeable with info about it.