Let me find my first love

[alaios]

Hi,
I am shooting the last year with a nex camera which I think is a great way to learn photography.

When I was younger, well something like 15 years ago I was shooting film with my Zenit 122 camera.
That age did not know many things apart from look at the internal light to find the correct exposure and then shoot.

Most of my shots were looking terrible and they were times I was feeling frustrated that is the camera not me.

I saw the body on ebay and I just remembered the the model and how it was that days.

I felt fall in love again and I am thinking giving it one more try.

What do you think? What is your personal story? What is your love affair?
(and how expensive can be shooting film?)

Regards
Alex

[nurkov]

shooting film is a wonderful experience and cannot be compared to digital AF, plus it is not that expensive. Developing film only plus scanning it later on is cheap, film cost some money nowadays but 36 exposures with manual focus, manual all film camera is plenty and you will think about each frame. Plus every film is different and gives you different results. You can always develop film by yourself and that is an exciting thing. Keep shooting film folks !!!

[cyrano]

I'm yet to find or see it myself but plenty of people have said that poundland sells rolls of colour film for....£1. The choice and perhaps (?) quality won't shine through but it's as good excuse as any to get out with an analogue camera again.

[alaios]

Thanks for the answer.
Two things bother me currently

1. How much will it cost to process negatives and get the prints. Cant do that alone so I have to go to professional
2. If my Zenit I wrote is too bad camera. Price range is excellent but I think I should have a very good viewfinder and a very good light meter. There is another thread on this forum that they are discussing on best viewfinders but all the cameras there are over 150euros. I am sorry I can not give more than 30 euros.. That is a lot already

A.

[Lloydy]

Poundland film is Agfa, and ok, and processing can still be done for 99p at some Tescos, but that is process only. You can get the neg's scanned to disk for a few pounds. But, the quality is variable - it depends whether the processing machine operator has been properly trained to use the machine, or whether their skill lies in stacking shelves. I will only use one operator at our local Tescos, who knows what she's doing and wears cotton gloves to handle the neg's etc.

I've also got a bunch of Zenits that I don't use, all cheap!

[kansalliskala]

Where do you live?

Here processing negatives only is about 10 € and prints about the same. Cheaper films about 5 € but better ones 10 €.

[alaios]

I live in Germany but I do not speak German (how exciting the world can be)
(please allow me more questions so I can start earlier with film shooting)

1. What about lenses? I have so many manual lenses are there adapters or I have to stick to the same manufacturer? Yashica camera needs Yashica lenses and so on

2. Mostly have minolta lenses and a few auto revuenon and I am buying soon the Helios 44 and one Tokina.

3. What is your after shooting processing? No I am not making a dark studio. What can I do in the computer with the scanned negatives?

Have fun

[nurkov]

have minolta lenses get minolta body I do have 4 if them I think all superb and lenses too, cheap at the same time

[alaios]

so then the answer is "no you can not use any adapter for different bodies"

Is that right?

Alex

[eddieitman]

Adaptors you could use a M42 to Pentax K mount,
Bodys, I would recomend a nice cheap Minolta something like the X300-500-700 as these are some of the latest models expect to pay £20-£40-£75
for those models most of the time less,

[philslizzy]

Minoltas, Pentax K and Canons can all use M42 lenses with adapters.

In fact you can get adapters for almost anything. The best film cameras for you would be anything that can take M42. There is a lot of lenses out there with M42 mount including many classics not made in any other fitting. The three brands I have mentioned allow you to use. Old Pentax Spotmatics use M42 as their native mount.

Only Canon EOS cameras are really versatile as far as lens mounts are concerned. Minoltas would have to be the old non AF type.

[alaios]

Hi
thanks for the nice answers (as always)
A relative of mine offered him the following camera to use and I might give it a try.
You can see the camera with the lenses here

http://alexpal.smugmug.com/ToShare/MirandaCamera/n-kJzSm

1. Not sure about the quality
2. Feels kind of heavy at the hand (these prime lenses feel terribly heavy)
3. I would like to also be using my minolta lenses

[nurkov]

I have never used Miranda cameras but that one looks like a nice one and you have 17mm F4 lens which could be a lot of fun.
As for Minolta what lenses do you have? Just get old MF Minolta, newer X700 or something older like XG2

[philslizzy]

If the Miranda is M42 fitting it will be fine but if its bayonet fitting beware, adapters will be very rare. if it comes with an M42 adapter then why not!

My Argus SLR has an M42 adapter. Its the only thing that makes me keep it as lenses in Argus fitting are like rocking horse poo.

[Aanything]

The sensorex should be a very good camera, it was one of the best japanese cameras of its time (in the late 60's - early 70's it used to rival nikons and topcons, just to say).
The bayonet mount is a bit unconvenient, as said, but that 17mm sounds like a lot of fun.
It's a very nice kit, I'd try it, and then if you want something for your minolta lenses you can grab a cheap body - there are plenty of them available, both in sr or in later af mount.

[alaios]

Hi
How I can find that the m42 mount is there?

Alex

[skida]

From what I have read, doing a quick search, all Sensorex models were Miranda-Mount, and so not M42.

[alaios]

Hi
I have spent some time on google and I found this article

http://www.mirandacamera.com/_modelinfo/_sensorex/sensorex.htm

I also had a first look on the camera's body.

1. I was not able to find how to turn the aperture ring
2. I could not understand how focusing works
3. I was not able to do all major stuff I have learned to do.

it looks like though (according to the link above) that it can take adapters.

It also looks damn heavy camera

Alex

[LucisPictor]

Have a close look here:

http://filmshooterscollective.com/

http://believeinfilm.com/

http://istillshootfilm.org/

http://www.shootingfilm.net/

Some nice websites...

[alaios]

Hi
thanks for the provided links and the overall support I get to start shooting with film.

few more updates:

I was able to do almost all the functions and understand how light metering works (I could not imagine that a light meter can not work without batteries )
I was not able though to remove the view finder (this model supports that and try to clean it)

Few things that I did not like

1. too heavy body and not a body to take around every day. With the wide lens it feels like very very heavy. Do other models like minolta x-500 are so heavy?

2. view finder is very dark for my taste and impossible to achieve good focus. To be honest this can be the reason to not shoot with this camera....

More feedback is always welcome

Alex

[NikonAIS]

My very first real camera was a Minolta SRT-101 with the 50mm f/1.7 lens. I expanded my collection quite a bit over the next few years with an XE-7 and then an XD-11 and about 7 Rokkor-X lenses. I learned a lot with that camera but eventually felt like I was outgrowing Minolta and switched to Nikon. And as they say, the rest is history. I sold all of my Minolta gear and got a Nikon F2 (which is my Avatar and still going strong!) and 35mm f/2.8, 50mm f/2 and 105mm f/2.5 Nikkors. I gave up a lot of optical horsepower, at least in the beginning, but I have never regretted the switch and never looked back.