Anyone still using these film based products these days? I have a 35MM camera and a Polaroid somewhere buried in the basement however I left the batteries in the 35MM and have not replaced them in ages so the camera probably has acid in the battery compartment. Back in 1999 everyone used these formats but these days I doubt they are used much if at all.
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35MM and Poloroid
- Thread starter jwolf6589
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A full frame sensor is 35MM in actual size. It is designed that way intentionally. Hence "full frame."
Perhaps you were talking about film. Although most of us have gone digital there is still a lot of film out there. It has a certain inherent "feel" that can be simulated in digital post processing, but some folks prefer the real thing. It's much like vinyl records vs digital audio formats. I know someone that only shoots film, and there are people in this forum that still use film periodically.
While the Poloroid company is long gone, instant cameras and film are still being made by Fugifilm and Impossible Project (who owns the rights to the Poloroid name.)
As for the batteries, you have only yourself to blame. I've taken the batteries out of my 38 year old Nikon FG. It is ready to go if I ever decide to use it. If not, I'll give it to my son. He shoots digital and film.
Perhaps you would benefit from 10 minutes worth of research before posting a question.
Film still exists, you just have to hunt for it. Now the question becomes do you shoot B&W and develop it yourself. Or shoot color and have it developed. I had a photography teacher in college tell me that if you don't develop it you didn't create it. This was back in the days where digital was just a dream, 2001.
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Coming from the world of film I don't miss it. I've done both B&W and color printing. Digital editing vs dodging and burning with color filters is so much easier. If you only do it occasionally you have to worry about chemical life. Sold all my darkroom equipment in the early 2000s when I could still get a decent price for it. It would be almost worthless now.
Some of the habits I learned from film still carry over. I tend to be intentional in the pictures I take as opposed to taking a bunch and hoping something sticks. Only having a 36 shot capacity makes you do that.
Some of the habits I learned from film still carry over. I tend to be intentional in the pictures I take as opposed to taking a bunch and hoping something sticks. Only having a 36 shot capacity makes you do that.
All the time...although not Polaroid. Polaroid cameras were always crap, although Fuji FP100c shot in a proper camera could be amazing.
I regularly use a Nikon F2 and a Nikon F6. I have a whole pile of other cameras, including nearly every film Nikon made, but these are the two I come back to most. My F2sb has an amazing meter and gives full metering support with nearly every Nikon manual focus lens ever made. For times where I want to use something the F2sb doesn't work with, I have an F2AS that works with every AI-compatible lens. The F6 works, including full matrix metering and full feature support, with every AI, AI-s, AI-P, AF, AF-D, AF-I, AF-S, G, and VR lens made. It can't operate the aperture on E lenses, or focus with AF-s lenses. Since I don't have any of those, though, that means I can stick it in the bag with my D810 or other DSLRs and use all the same great modern lenses(aside from the current gen f/2.8 zooms, which outside the 14-24mm f/2.8 are all E aperture).
Tri-X, FP4+ and HP5+ are all easy to get and I will never let someone else develop my B&W. Provia 100f, Velvia 50 and 100, and Ektachrome E100 are all easy to get, and Dwayne's Photo in Kansas does a great job processing roll film. If you want negative film, the modern Kodak products, including Ektar 100 and the Portra line, are excellent.
For serious work, though, forget 35mm. My Hasselblad and Pentax 67 are the tools of choice. I dabble in 4x5 a little bit and have a Calumet monorail(I sold my Speed Graphic as I found it too limiting and not that much easier to carry around than the Calumet). I've done E6 sheet film at home, but it's a royal pain and I need to dedicate an entire day to doing nothing but processing since the chemistry is good for about 24 hours once mixed(and that might be stretching it). 4x5 B&W is in a way even easier than roll film-I have a processing tank whose name I can't remember, but it was a kickstarter project that came to fruition a few years ago, and is a nice daylight tank that holds 4 sheets and 16 oz. of chemistry. 4 sheets of 4x5 are about the same surface area as a roll of 120 and a little less than 35mm-36, so that's good for something like D76 1:1. The old hard rubber tanks with hangers are easier as long as you have a real darkroom.
I love printing in the darkroom too, even though I'm not great at it. I've given a few 16x20s(printed from 6x6 Plus-X, which I have a big stash of, using the Hasselblad) I was quite proud of as gifts, and given that my darkroom was set up to handle 11x14 at the largest, getting that developed properly and then washed(I used good fiberbased paper) was fun. I did a bunch of 6x6 and 6x7 contacts on the beautiful discontinued Kodak Azo, and I always loved those but I only have grades 2 and 3 so I almost had to shoot with the intent to print on it(I normally end up at about a grade 1 or even .5 on multigrade paper).
Film is fun.
I regularly use a Nikon F2 and a Nikon F6. I have a whole pile of other cameras, including nearly every film Nikon made, but these are the two I come back to most. My F2sb has an amazing meter and gives full metering support with nearly every Nikon manual focus lens ever made. For times where I want to use something the F2sb doesn't work with, I have an F2AS that works with every AI-compatible lens. The F6 works, including full matrix metering and full feature support, with every AI, AI-s, AI-P, AF, AF-D, AF-I, AF-S, G, and VR lens made. It can't operate the aperture on E lenses, or focus with AF-s lenses. Since I don't have any of those, though, that means I can stick it in the bag with my D810 or other DSLRs and use all the same great modern lenses(aside from the current gen f/2.8 zooms, which outside the 14-24mm f/2.8 are all E aperture).
Tri-X, FP4+ and HP5+ are all easy to get and I will never let someone else develop my B&W. Provia 100f, Velvia 50 and 100, and Ektachrome E100 are all easy to get, and Dwayne's Photo in Kansas does a great job processing roll film. If you want negative film, the modern Kodak products, including Ektar 100 and the Portra line, are excellent.
For serious work, though, forget 35mm. My Hasselblad and Pentax 67 are the tools of choice. I dabble in 4x5 a little bit and have a Calumet monorail(I sold my Speed Graphic as I found it too limiting and not that much easier to carry around than the Calumet). I've done E6 sheet film at home, but it's a royal pain and I need to dedicate an entire day to doing nothing but processing since the chemistry is good for about 24 hours once mixed(and that might be stretching it). 4x5 B&W is in a way even easier than roll film-I have a processing tank whose name I can't remember, but it was a kickstarter project that came to fruition a few years ago, and is a nice daylight tank that holds 4 sheets and 16 oz. of chemistry. 4 sheets of 4x5 are about the same surface area as a roll of 120 and a little less than 35mm-36, so that's good for something like D76 1:1. The old hard rubber tanks with hangers are easier as long as you have a real darkroom.
I love printing in the darkroom too, even though I'm not great at it. I've given a few 16x20s(printed from 6x6 Plus-X, which I have a big stash of, using the Hasselblad) I was quite proud of as gifts, and given that my darkroom was set up to handle 11x14 at the largest, getting that developed properly and then washed(I used good fiberbased paper) was fun. I did a bunch of 6x6 and 6x7 contacts on the beautiful discontinued Kodak Azo, and I always loved those but I only have grades 2 and 3 so I almost had to shoot with the intent to print on it(I normally end up at about a grade 1 or even .5 on multigrade paper).
Film is fun.
In high school in the 60's I shot a lot of Polaroid for our paper and year book. They always had more snap than regular prints when reproduced. When I went to RIT in photography I shot 35mm, 4x5 and later 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 in my Hasselblad. Later I got a job as staff photographer at RIT for awhile. Did all my own B&W film developing and printing. Even did some color printing on a borrowed Kodak drum for an Alumni exhibit. I did have a summer job at a commercial studio where I developed 8 x 10 B&W film. Needless to say the first couple of tests turned out pretty bad with scratches all over them. Didn't take long to get the knack. 8X10s were used for catalog and magazine product shots.
Non technical differences between film and digital. With 35mm film, you would have your negatives developed, choose they ones you wanted to print, then store the negatives. When photographing family events or special events it was always nice to go back and check negatives for something you missed or a relative that might have passed later on. With digital, we dump the unwanted shots and they are gone forever.
