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Nightski Got a Film Camera!
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Aug 3, 2015 15:24:21   #
Nightski
 
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that has so many people that "shot film", I should get with it and do some work in that area so I have some experience to draw from when looking at the film shots people have posted. I have shot up a roll and have had it developed. Now I have a few questions.

When I had my film developed I got a CD with the pictures and the negatives. Do you get more detail if you scan the negatives yourself? Is scanning the negatives like getting a RAW file on a digital?

Has anyone compared the light metering on their digital to the light metering on a SLR camera of the same brand? Is the way that the light metering works pretty much the same?

Is 35mm the same as full frame? Do you get bigger prints from a full frame camera, or does that depend on how many megapixels it is?

Do you get more out of your film if you develop it yourself?

I actually found a Walgreens that does the "wet" processing so I can get negatives. I was informed that all Walgreens are going "dry" though, and there will come a day where I can only get my pictures on a CD. Does anyone have a favorite online place to get their pics developed?

I have viewed my pictures on the CD, but I don't know how to scan my negatives yet. It seems like they get a little pixelated if i zoom way in ... is this because the files on the CD are small?

One more question My settings aren't listed in lightroom on my film pics ... how the heck am I suppose to remember what my settings were? I mean, I know I used 400 film, so thats' my ISO, but how do I know what my shutter speed and aperture were set at?

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Aug 3, 2015 15:33:46   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
Nightski wrote:
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that has so many people that "shot film", I should get with it and do some work in that area so I have some experience to draw from when looking at the film shots people have posted. I have shot up a roll and have had it developed. Now I have a few questions.

When I had my film developed I got a CD with the pictures and the negatives. Do you get more detail if you scan the negatives yourself? Is scanning the negatives like getting a RAW file on a digital?

Has anyone compared the light metering on their digital to the light metering on a SLR camera of the same brand? Is the way that the light metering works pretty much the same?

Is 35mm the same as full frame? Do you get bigger prints from a full frame camera, or does that depend on how many megapixels it is?

Do you get more out of your film if you develop it yourself?

I actually found a Walgreens that does the "wet" processing so I can get negatives. I was informed that all Walgreens are going "dry" though, and there will come a day where I can only get my pictures on a CD. Does anyone have a favorite online place to get their pics developed?

I have viewed my pictures on the CD, but I don't know how to scan my negatives yet. It seems like they get a little pixelated if i zoom way in ... is this because the files on the CD are small?
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that... (show quote)


Oh, my. Be still my heart!!

What have we film users unleashed on UHH?

Sandra, this is super news. Yes, Full Frame DSLRs are extremely close in size to a 35mm negative. If memory serves they are 1 row of pixels short of the 35mm negative dimensions of 24mmX36mm.

I generally scan my 35mm negatives at somewhere around 600spi (Samples per Inch), I reduce them to 300ppi (pixels per inch) to meet the requirements of my printer. For posting I reduce that image to 72dpi. I hope that is clear.

So, depending on what the settings were when they were scanned, they might be quite all right for posting here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
--Bob

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Aug 3, 2015 15:38:23   #
Nightski
 
Thanks Bob, here is an image from my first roll. I was just keeping it simple at first. Kodak 400 something or another film.

Sunflower on Film
Sunflower on Film...
(Download)

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Aug 3, 2015 15:41:58   #
Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN
 
Yay!!! Settings don't really matter much. I have been writing down settings when working with 4x5 and sometimes with 10 exposure 120 when working in the landscape. For 35mm shots I don't bother, too much to bother with that happens too quickly

Reply
Aug 3, 2015 15:43:52   #
Rongnongno Loc: FL
 
What is the point of having a film camera if you digitize the pictures?

*puzzled*

Reply
Aug 3, 2015 15:45:51   #
Nightski
 
Darkroom317 wrote:
Yay!!! Settings don't really matter much. I have been writing down settings when working with 4x5 and sometimes with 10 exposure 120 when working in the landscape. FOr 35mm shots I don't bother, too much to bother with that happens too quickly


I have another flower that isn't sharp in the center and I'm not sure if it's camera shake or if my DOF was too shallow. That's why I was wondering. I like to learn by my mistakes.

Not so sharp .. :-(
Not so sharp .. :-(...
(Download)

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Aug 3, 2015 15:47:52   #
Nightski
 
Rongnongno wrote:
What is the point of having a film camera if you digitize the pictures?

*puzzled*


Me too, Ron ... are the pictures digitized when they put them on CD? Are the pictures not digitized when I scan them and put them on my computer? How do you NOT digitize them? I've never shot a SLR camera in my life and I know almost nothing about it.

Reply
 
 
Aug 3, 2015 15:48:25   #
Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN
 
Nightski wrote:
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that has so many people that "shot film", I should get with it and do some work in that area so I have some experience to draw from when looking at the film shots people have posted. I have shot up a roll and have had it developed. Now I have a few questions.

When I had my film developed I got a CD with the pictures and the negatives. Do you get more detail if you scan the negatives yourself? Is scanning the negatives like getting a RAW file on a digital?

Has anyone compared the light metering on their digital to the light metering on a SLR camera of the same brand? Is the way that the light metering works pretty much the same?

Is 35mm the same as full frame? Do you get bigger prints from a full frame camera, or does that depend on how many megapixels it is?

Do you get more out of your film if you develop it yourself?

I actually found a Walgreens that does the "wet" processing so I can get negatives. I was informed that all Walgreens are going "dry" though, and there will come a day where I can only get my pictures on a CD. Does anyone have a favorite online place to get their pics developed?

I have viewed my pictures on the CD, but I don't know how to scan my negatives yet. It seems like they get a little pixelated if i zoom way in ... is this because the files on the CD are small?

One more question My settings aren't listed in lightroom on my film pics ... how the heck am I suppose to remember what my settings were? I mean, I know I used 400 film, so thats' my ISO, but how do I know what my shutter speed and aperture were set at?
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that... (show quote)


Walgreens will not return negatives. I develop my color film myself as well as b&w. But I only print b&w in my darkroom. If I wanted true color prints I would use a good lab that still does RA4 printing. Most labs that print RA4 use a lightjet system which projects a digital image on the paper though.

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Aug 3, 2015 15:50:42   #
Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN
 
Nightski wrote:
Me too, Ron ... are the pictures digitized when they put them on CD? Are the pictures not digitized when I scan them and put them on my computer? How do you NOT digitize them? I've never shot a SLR camera in my life and I know almost nothing about it.


You use an enlarger to project the negative on color photographic paper and then process it. I have a color enlarger that I use for b&w contrast control but I don't print color as I have heard it is difficult and a pain.

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Aug 3, 2015 15:50:51   #
Dan821 Loc: Traveling........
 
Nightski wrote:
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that has so many people that "shot film", I should get with it and do some work in that area so I have some experience to draw from when looking at the film shots people have posted. I have shot up a roll and have had it developed. Now I have a few questions.

One more question My settings aren't listed in lightroom on my film pics ... how the heck am I suppose to remember what my settings were? I mean, I know I used 400 film, so thats' my ISO, but how do I know what my shutter speed and aperture were set at?
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that... (show quote)


Welcome to the wonderful OLD WORLD of FILM! :)

You won't have the DIGITAL settings in Lightroom, because there ARE NO DIGITAL settings. A film exposure is exactly what the camera "sees" through the lens!
What I do is record in a little pocket notebook the exposure settings for each frame of a given roll. I number the rolls and the sheet in the notebook for each roll. Then when I get the negatives back from the lab, I can compare notes for each frame.
That's the way we did it in the OLD Days!
Have fun! :)

Reply
Aug 3, 2015 15:53:49   #
Nightski
 
Dan821 wrote:
Welcome to the wonderful OLD WORLD of FILM! :)

You won't have the DIGITAL settings in Lightroom, because there ARE NO DIGITAL settings. A film exposure is exactly what the camera "sees" through the lens!
What I do is record in a little pocket notebook the exposure settings for each frame of a given roll. I number the rolls and the sheet in the notebook for each roll. Then when I get the negatives back from the lab, I can compare notes for each frame.
That's the way we did it in the OLD Days!
Have fun! :)
Welcome to the wonderful OLD WORLD of FILM! :) br... (show quote)


Thanks for the great suggestion, Dan. I am really having a great bit of fun with this. :-)

I have noticed something special about the quality of the image I took with film. I have a feeling I am in for a real education.

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Aug 3, 2015 15:57:33   #
WOLFF Loc: So. Cal.
 
Welcome to the OLD DAYS. I always kept a notepad with me
to keep track of the roll # and exposure info for each shot,1-36.Takes a lot of time, but that's the nature of film. Very nice shot... Best of luck...

Reply
Aug 3, 2015 15:59:13   #
Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.
 
Nightski wrote:
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that has so many people that "shot film", I should get with it and do some work in that area so I have some experience to draw from when looking at the film shots people have posted. I have shot up a roll and have had it developed. Now I have a few questions.

When I had my film developed I got a CD with the pictures and the negatives. Do you get more detail if you scan the negatives yourself? Is scanning the negatives like getting a RAW file on a digital?

Has anyone compared the light metering on their digital to the light metering on a SLR camera of the same brand? Is the way that the light metering works pretty much the same?

Is 35mm the same as full frame? Do you get bigger prints from a full frame camera, or does that depend on how many megapixels it is?

Do you get more out of your film if you develop it yourself?

I actually found a Walgreens that does the "wet" processing so I can get negatives. I was informed that all Walgreens are going "dry" though, and there will come a day where I can only get my pictures on a CD. Does anyone have a favorite online place to get their pics developed?

I have viewed my pictures on the CD, but I don't know how to scan my negatives yet. It seems like they get a little pixelated if i zoom way in ... is this because the files on the CD are small?

One more question My settings aren't listed in lightroom on my film pics ... how the heck am I suppose to remember what my settings were? I mean, I know I used 400 film, so thats' my ISO, but how do I know what my shutter speed and aperture were set at?
I decided if I'm going to hang out on a forum that... (show quote)


Congratulations! So what camera did you get?

>> Do you get more detail if you scan the negatives yourself? Is scanning the negatives like getting a RAW file on a digital?

Probably. The negative is the equivalent of a raw file, you can process it / scan it so many different ways. For top quality results you probably want a specialist processing shop, not the local drug store who just deal in snapshots and will supply you with JPEGS on a CD set at whatever level of detail they choose to give you. If they don't give you the negatives back then there is probably no point in using film for someone like yourself.

>> Has anyone compared the light metering on their digital to the light metering on a SLR camera of the same brand? Is the way that the light metering works pretty much the same?

It can be. I had (still have) a Canon T90, and it's meeting, shutter priority, and aperture priority modes are very similar to modern Canon Digital cameras, even the P&S types. That is one reason that I stuck with Canon, all the controls and user interface are familiar and the T90 was introduced in 1986, just before Canon switched to the EOS autofocus system.

>> Is 35mm the same as full frame? Do you get bigger prints from a full frame camera, or does that depend on how many megapixels it is?

35mm and full frame sensors are the same size. Bigger prints depend upon all sorts of quality variables, not just megapixels, but noise (grain with film), lens quality and so on.

>> One more question My settings aren't listed in lightroom on my film pics ... how the heck am I suppose to remember what my settings were? I mean, I know I used 400 film, so thats' my ISO, but how do I know what my shutter speed and aperture were set at?

You mean that film doesn't have EXIF metadata magically imprinted on the negatives? Rats!

I think you might need to resort to a notebook and pencil for each exposure. Then, once you have the negatives digitized you could manually edit the EXIF data with something like EXIFtool. It's a little bit like using old manual focus lenses on a modern DSLR. If the lens has a chip, then the camera can record the data it has - shutter speed, ISO, max aperture, focal length etc., but not anything that isn't instrumented such as actual focal length on a zoom lens or the actual aperture value used because there is no automated system to collect that data. It's laborious, but I think it's what Ansel Adams used to have to do....

Good luck, it would be great to get updates on your experiences with this project....

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Aug 3, 2015 16:05:41   #
Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.
 
Nightski wrote:
Me too, Ron ... are the pictures digitized when they put them on CD? Are the pictures not digitized when I scan them and put them on my computer? How do you NOT digitize them? I've never shot a SLR camera in my life and I know almost nothing about it.


You print them on paper if negatives or project them if positives (slides).

Anything that goes near your computer has to be in digital form, which of course means some kind of analog to digital translation, usually termed scanning.

There are all sorts of film scanners of varying quality, even relatively inexpensive flatbed scanners from Epson and Canon frequently can be used to scan negatives at various quality levels and then fed into your favorite PP software.

Unless you want to stay with chemical processes from shot to print there is probably very little point in using film other than as an interesting intellectual exercise.

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Aug 3, 2015 16:09:17   #
Nightski
 
Hi Peter. I got this camera. I got it because all my lenses fit on it, and it was inexpensive. The kit lens that came with it focuses faster that I thought it would .. it's nice. I was pleasantly surprised.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002XRWRY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

Peterff wrote:
You mean that film doesn't have EXIF metadata magically imprinted on the negatives? Rats!


I guess I had that coming ... lol ... okay .. a notebook it is. There'll be no GPS data with this one!

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