The OCAU "film is not dead" club

[Katunka89]

Originally Posted by esjay

As for film, which brand B&W would you guys recommend to start with?

Roll a dice.. it's an individual thing really. I'd go for some ISO 400 film for starters, it's probably the most versatile.. so that narrows it down some. Then you can choose between HP5, Tri-x, Tmax, Neopan, and various others.. you could even go for a C-41 film like XP2 or BW400CN (which I found quite alright). I personally like neopan, but the truth is that there's no "bad" film, each of them just has different characteristics. If you're just after a roll or two I'd go to the local and just choose whatever catches your fancy.

[MalcomX]

Originally Posted by scruff

Yes, but you can use a film camera without a lightmeter, can't you?

True, but shooting minus metering (or using another camera to meter) is quite painful, at least it was when my batteries died while I was deep in the country

[esjay]

yeah i dont want to muck around trying to shoot without a meter. Anyway Ill call around tomorrow, there should be somewhere in perth to get an equivalent battery.

[MalcomX]

Back when mine ran out, I was pretty new to photography, at least with fully manual bodies, I took it to a camerahouse and just had them look at it and then replace the battery, you probably have a different one (looked similar though), but it cant hurt to try?

[two40]

Originally Posted by Katunka89

Roll a dice.. it's an individual thing really. I'd go for some ISO 400 film for starters, it's probably the most versatile.. so that narrows it down some. Then you can choose between HP5, Tri-x, Tmax, Neopan, and various others.. you could even go for a C-41 film like XP2 or BW400CN (which I found quite alright). I personally like neopan, but the truth is that there's no "bad" film, each of them just has different characteristics. If you're just after a roll or two I'd go to the local and just choose whatever catches your fancy.

esjay

The Ilford XP2 Super is a great choice. it can be developed for next to nothing at most places and it scans very well. you get really sharp pictures out of it for a 400 film.

keep in mind with the other non c-41 films dev costs more than double unless you do it yourself.

[ehor]

Google for the Sunny Sixteen rule if you don't have a lightmeter

[onrelas]

Originally Posted by esjay

Obviously it needs a new battery. A quick google search says that it needs a PX 675 mercury battery, are any replacements/alternatives available easily in australia?

Nice little camera you have there, i got a Ricoh 500RF recently which is quite similar but with an added rangefinder.
How do the light seals look on it? They're easy to replace anyway if they're not good.
The shutter will work without a battery as others have said, and sunny16 rule will be pretty accurate if you're just using normal b&w film. Worth a try if you're getting impatient.
Those Wein Cell batteries are good and you can order them over eBay. Also by coincidence i saw one today at Vanbar in Sydney, but didnt look to see how much it cost..
Another common alternative is to use the 1.4v Zinc-Air hearing aid batteries. They're almost a perfect replacement except for the fact they might be the wrong size. People generally pack them in with some sort of padding so they fit, its very easy to do. Check this link out for more details. The good thing about these batteries is they generally cost less than $1 each and you can get them at most chemists, i bought 4 last week. They just dont last as long as silver or mercury batteries though.
Have fun

[scruff]

Originally Posted by ehor

Google for the Sunny Sixteen rule if you don't have a lightmeter

Heh. I googled that expecting porn to come up

[two40]

Originally Posted by scruff

Heh. I googled that expecting porn to come up

and i bet you were disappointed like i was

[ehor]

LOL.
I'm sure you don't need google to find porn

[scruff]

Originally Posted by ehor

LOL. I'm sure you don't need google to find porn

That's very true. But sometimes you get surprise porn and it's like ... unless you're at work, in which case it's ... unless it's qqqqq in which case you should be .

[chilloutbuddy]

I guess there is no hope for my bung shutter...

Next question, for those of you who scan film:
What kind of files does your scanner produce? Jpegs?
I read somewhere that there are scanners that spit out 16bit raw files.
If that's true I wonder how these files compare to the ones produced by your normal DSLR?

[-spam-]

Originally Posted by chilloutbuddy

Next question, for those of you who scan film:
What kind of files does your scanner produce? Jpegs?
I read somewhere that there are scanners that spit out 16bit raw files.
If that's true I wonder how these files compare to the ones produced by your normal DSLR?

With ours, i can tell it what files i want after it does its thing. Although, im really not liking it at the moment, so im "scanning" my negs with my 20D. It works alright and i get nice sized RAWs to work on in LR

[doigal]

Originally Posted by chilloutbuddy

Next question, for those of you who scan film:
What kind of files does your scanner produce? Jpegs?
I read somewhere that there are scanners that spit out 16bit raw files.
If that's true I wonder how these files compare to the ones produced by your normal DSLR?

My ebay "cheapy" (Plustek OpticFilm 7200) produces 7200 dpi tiffs or jpgs. Works out to be about ~63Mp on paper, although theres probably only 20~30Mp of actual data there.

Speaking of film and scanning:


Fed Square, shot on Ilford Delta 3200 a while ago.

[chilloutbuddy]

Doigal that's very impressive from a cheap scanner, great gradation and awesome tonality! I guess for such a fast film the grain is to be expected, I wouldn't put it down to the scanning.

I guess shooting your film is another option but you need a macro lens right?
And it seems a bit laborious although this guy says it suits him better. Includes a guide too.