What should I get?

[KendraJ.K.]

Hope I'm not breaking the rules by posting this? I didn't see anything about it so I don't think so. lol

okay, I'm trying to decide what to ask for for christmas (if i don't my boyfriend will get my something crazy lol)
i have several points/questions

1- I've been thinking about getting a Modified Holga (so it shoots 35mm) for a while, but while looking into it again recently and talking to people who own them, I've noticed a lot of people suggest getting a film scanner for them. Right now when i take photos on my 35mm SLR, i have the store i get them printed at put them onto CD's for me. But a lot of people said most places will cut off the sprocket holes (or the machine will and they can't stop it) and when shooting 35mm in a Holga, the image bleeds over beyond the sprocket holes.
Film scanners are pretty expensive from what I've seen. So my question, have you worked with a holga without having a film scanner and just getting prints on a CD from a store? Would you suggest I get a film scanner too or should I be okay without one?

2- I've been wanting to try some Velvia 50 for a while...in 35mm. Any suggestions on some cheap places to buy it? And any other fun films you can suggest for me? bw, color, infrared, etc.

3- Should I get a light meter?? and if so, which one? I looked over and BH and there's like 6 different kinds at least and I'm not sure which kind or which brand to get.

4- I have a Nikon D70s with the 18-70mm lens (DSLR). I have macro filters, a ND4 filter (i dont think its that good of quality), a circular polarizer, and a UV filter. I have a nice tripod as well. Suggestions on filters maybe? or good, cheap macro lens? My other camera is a Nikon N50 (35mm SLR) with a 35-80mm lens. Any suggetions for that as well would be nice.

I'm looking for something to enhance my work or something diffrent to try (hence the Holga) so any other ideas or suggetions you have for me would be great.
View http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=88569&page=2 or http://flickr.com/photos/kendra-j-k/ if examples of my work would help with your suggestions.

I don't really want anything expensive, nothing over $200-$250 at the very most if possible.

I tried to include all my questions and info to make it easy to answer lol.

Thanks so much in advance!
-Kendra

[samsite999]

having just moved over to B&W film as well my digital side i went out and got a film scanner. the first one i got was a HP, and this was terrible. I spoke to a old friend at epson who managed to get me a perfection 4490 scanner. This is a flatbed scanner but has a film section. it will scan to cuts of 35mm at a time, slides, and medium format 120. its also one of the cheapest scanners that come with digital ice to remove dust and scratches.

in short i highly recommend the epson line of film flatbed scanners, if you can go for the higher range. This one cost me around 100 uk pounds

[KendraJ.K.]

hmm..

ill have to look into it thanks :)

[Mr. Mu]

Kendra,

I think it's hard to give recommendations without knowing what you want to achieve.

Example: I bought a light meter when I had read Ansel Adamses "The Negative", because I wanted to practise Zone System photography, didn't have a spotmeter (which was suggested for it) and knew it should feature a zone scale, too.
So, this (together with my budget) also brought up my desired specs and I knew which model to look for.

So, any info on what you actually want the gear for? Then, the thing might answer itself.

[KendraJ.K.]

I don't think i really want to do anything specific.
i'd like different types of film becuase i just want to experiment more with the look of my photos on film.

i think a lot is that im trying to find a more personalized style and have something different in my photos.
hmm..
ill try to think of something better becuase i dont think that really helps either lol

[KendraJ.K.]

i guess for now the main things im looking for are some suggestions for some different film to use. and where a cheap place to buy it from is. (35mm please)
and i was thinking of a light meter because i'm always unsure how what to set my film camera to and sometimes i just want to bring that and not my DSLR as well, but i usually bring both becuase i take a photo with my d70s then use those settings (or close) on my N50. so. suggestions for that?

and what are some fun filters maybe to use? i don't really like the ones that blur or the ones that make multiple images.

i also would like a nice macro lens becuase right now i just have filters and i love doing macros but i can't always get the results i want with the filters.

i hope that helps a bit. :)

[MSS1209]

If I were you I would definatly get a holga but DONT get it to shoot 35mm.. if your planing on shooting Veliva 50 your going to have to take it or send it to a place that develops E6 (or slide film) why shoot 35mm when you can shoot 120 and get that wonderful vignetting. By the way I'm an avid holga shooter and almost always shoot velvia 50 unless i shoot black and white in which case I use Hp5. go to http://www.lomography.com/ and get a fish eye or that long exposure cable for the holga instead of buying one modified to shoot 35mm.

As far as getting light meter I would tell you to not worry about it, you already have one! your D70s is one of the best light meters you can use it even gives you an exposure to look at! go to this link it teaches you how to use it in that fashion http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/meters-digicam.htp hope this helps.

[Mr. Mu]

light metering:
I don't know what kind of analogue camera you got, but most do have a light meter. If it's not older than 25 years it should at least be using matrixmetering or center weighed metering both of which are methods for averaging the luminances of a subject.

If you have a subject which is predominantly dark (black leather jacket against dark wall) or predominantly light (polar bear on ice...:D ) you would have to dismiss the metering for a darker or lighter exposure so the dark comes off as dark and the light as light.

Other than that you are fine with the in-camera meter, imo.

Should your camera model not feature any metering at all (like, IIRC, the Pentax K1000) you could go for old analogue meters by, e.g., Gossen (Profisix, Lunasix 3S or Lunasix F which is the one I got)

It features incident light metering, object and flash metering.
Together with a spot attachment you can use those models as a Spotmeter, too.

35mm films with a special look:

infrared...:

- Kodak HIE
this is the classical infrared look! You can check a few examples of this film in my thread... I always noted the film I used.
You only need a dark red filter #25 to produce the infrared effects (if you want to know more about it search this forum for the "infrared thread").
But you have to hurry, Kodak stopped making it and sells the last charges this December (AAARGH... why God why?!?)

- Rollei IR 400
extended red-sensitivity. Not as practical or even ir-sensitive as teh Kodak, but definitely gives IR effects. Examples both in the ir thread in this forum and in my thread. It's cheaper than the Kodak, too.

- EfkeIR
haven't used it yet, but there's examples on flickr which look promising. It is very very insensitive, though. Someone said it's like shooting with your lense cap on.

For the latter two you would have to buy a dedicated IR-Filter (possibly cokin, coz it's cheapo)


Color:

- one of the easiest things to do with color photography is to take a color slide film and cross process it! That is, you let the laboratory dip it in the wrong chemicals, those that are not meant for slides, but for negative film. Again, examples in my thread. The icon for my thread in the forum overview is a cross-processed slide. Check examples on flickr.
Normally, you get a color shift and strange saturation shifts. It's a very exciting method with hard to predict results. I used Fuji Sensia 200, btu a lot of the Kodak slides produce interesting results, too, when crossed.

- If you, otoh, want to go for rather subtle colors (which can be as striking as blasting the viewer's mind with highly saturated 70s-disco-colors) try Kodak Portra 160 NC. (Not VC!) The NC is for natural colours. In portrait, but also in landscape or generally outdoors work this is a very silent film which you can use to go for subtle and soft work.

Hope it helps - keep the film industry alive! (Otherwise, I'm screwed, LMAO)

[KendraJ.K.]

mss1209-
is getting 120 film more expensive than 35mm? and a store can scan them and put it onto a cd right?
and my D70s does have a light meter but a lot of the times i just want to take my 35mm SLR

Mr. Mu-
my 35mm is a Nikon N50, from the mid 90's sometime. I don't have an actual manual but i found a pdf version of the manual online a while ago, and i just did a search on it and found nothing with either 'light meter' or just 'meter'. so im not sure if it has it?? and if it does i dont know how to use it?? and do those work in Manual mode, i hate using anything but full manual.
also do you have a suggestion on where to get one of those light meters if i actually need one??


thanks so much for the suggestions on the film!
i would love to try so IR and i just might, i think i would have to borrow my dads 35mm SLR tho, i was told the N50 won't shoot IR? i dunno if you know anything about that lol.
Where do you buy your film from? and where do you take yours to get it cross processed. the film i use right now isnt that good and i just get it printed at walgreens and they dont do E6.

thanks so much for the help :)

[Mr. Mu]

Hi,

http://www.camerareview.com/templates/camera_details.cfm?camera_id=11

has an overview of your cam's features and it says center matrix. This means that your cam has a light meter which meters several points of the view through the lense averaging luminances giving extra emphasis on the center.

If you use aperture priority or shutter priority the light meter is used.
Example: you choose the aperture and let the camera suggest the right shutter time for that aperture... it decides on the right shutter time with its center matrix light metering.
If you choose a shutter time and let the camera decide on an aperture the same thing happens.

I don't know if the camera has any fully automated modes for portrait or landscape situations, but those are mostly unnecessary, anyway, imo.

So, bottom line: you have a light meter! Use it!

I mostly let my camera choose shutter time while I handle the aperture, because the DOF is for the most part the more important aspect for image creation.
But there are pics where I go fully manual. For example the massage flyer pics I shot (last page of my thread at the time of writing this) I shot fully manual after havuing metered ambient light and flash light with incident light metering.


I got my Gossen Lunasix F from ebay. I got it together with a Tele/Spot attachment for 75€. (The spot attachment narrows the meter's range down from roughly 30° to 7,5° so you can meter smaller areas in your subject area)

My films I mostly buy online. Shops in town only have the standard films (if at all). Check google for online photo supply stores in the UK, maybe?

I did find a photoshop in my hometown which cross-processes color slides for about 6€. I don't know where you are in the UK, but if you find someone on these forums from the same area (or on other forums) you might ask for a shop near your place.

[KendraJ.K.]

thanks for the link :)
i'm gonna have to buy a roll of film and just play around with it becuase like i said, i dont like using anything but Manual. It just doesn't feel right and i the photos never come out how i want.

i'm acutally from teh US. There are several photo sites i know of but i wasn't sure if you knew of a cheaper one :)
thanks so much again i really appreciate it

edit:
one more thing, i was just looking around at places to buy the Kodak Portra 160 NC . is there a difference in the 400 and the 160? is it personal preferance?

[eazym]

I also suggest getting a good handle on the sunny f/16 rule. Once you get it down it works really well. I don't own a lightmeter, so all of my film shots have exposures estimated by that "rule." Look it up, it works surprisingly well, though it will take some trial and error.

[Mr. Mu]

heck, I could have sworn it said UK, heh...:bashful:

i dont like using anything but Manual

in that case... argh... eazym beat me to it... yes, sunny f/16. There are also tables of suggestions for different weather/light conditions somewhere on the web for fully manual "override" of light metering.


RE: 400/160 Portra... as with anything else, the higher the ASA the more pronounced the grain you get.
From what I have heard, people use the 400 when shooting indoors with available light only, e.g.
As I said, the important thing is to watch out for the "NC" as opposed to "VC", because only the "NC" line features the subdued saturation.

[KendraJ.K.]

eazym-
thanks for the suggestion ill look it up :)

mr. mu-
hmm okay. well i think im gonna get one of each and try them out and see which i like better :)

if anyone has any other suggestions regarding anything let me know

[KendraJ.K.]

having just moved over to B&W film as well my digital side i went out and got a film scanner. the first one i got was a HP, and this was terrible. I spoke to a old friend at epson who managed to get me a perfection 4490 scanner. This is a flatbed scanner but has a film section. it will scan to cuts of 35mm at a time, slides, and medium format 120. its also one of the cheapest scanners that come with digital ice to remove dust and scratches.

in short i highly recommend the epson line of film flatbed scanners, if you can go for the higher range. This one cost me around 100 uk pounds



I've been looking into the Epson 4490 and heard very very mixed reviews on it. Some say it works well enough for web viewing. Some say they love it, some say it broke on them only weeks after getting it, etc etc.
I don't want anything more than scanning a neg./slide for the web. I don't intend to make prints from my scans or anything like that. In your experience, is it a good enough machine for that??
Can I see some of your photos scanned with it?

thanks so much :)