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Why I prefer Film Photography and how to get started with it


Corgis

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Since this community seems to be quite interested in art related hobbies, I thought I'd make a post about why I like Film Photography and how you can get started with it.

 

To start with, film is inferior to digital in almost every way. Even some cell phones these days have camera's that rival most film cameras. If film is obsolete then what is the point of still using it?

 

One major reason why I like film is because it physically limits the amount of pictures you can take on a vacation or on any other sort of outing. With digital you can take hundreds of pictures with no additional cost and I see this being abused very often. This means that you end up with a bunch of poorly done pictures that are very hard to organize and take ages to look through. With film though, you are limited in the amount of pictures that you can take so you are forced to make those shots count. This forces you to only go for the good shots and not take hastily set up pictures of anything you find remotely interesting. With some film cameras, a fair amount of setup is required so you are forced to spend a bit longer thinking about how to make the picture look nice and make all that time that you spent setting up the camera worth it.

 

Another fun part of film is that you can never be sure as to how the pictures will turn out. With digital you get to see the pictures right away and there is no mistery in how they will turn out. With film though, wacky things can happy which leads to some funny pictures. You can have overexposed pictures which looked faded out, double exposed pictures which overlap each other, light leaks which smudge out parts of the picture and many other aspects which lead to unique photos which would be very difficult or even impossible to get with digital cameras.

 

One other thing I like about film is that you get to see all the pictures that you have taken at a later date and not right after the fact. I know many people who just look at their pictures right after a vacation and don't look at them much after that. With film though, it can take weeks to finish off the rest of the roll and it can take weeks to get around to sending the film off the be developed. This way you can relive the memories from your vacation after the fact and not a few days after you get back.

 

Onto part 2: How you can get into Film Photography.

 

There are 3 major types of film still being made right now: 35mm, 120 and Polaroid. 35mm is the most common type of film and each roll has 24 or 36 pictures on it, you should be able to find it at major photography stores like Henry's. 35mm has been around in movie format since the early 1900's and was adapted for still photography in the mid 1930's. 120 film is a bit harder to find and most older camera's take 8 rectangular pictures per roll while newer ones (1950's or 60's) take 12 square pictures, there are also numbers for 16 pictures per roll but I have not found a camera that does that. 120 film has been around since the turn of the century and is very similar to 620 film which is no longer being made. Polaroid film comes in all sorts of different formats so you need to research what film you need for a specific Polaroid camera. If you are lucky, you might find the film you are looking for in a photography store but you may have to buy certain types online. Polaroid film develops and prints instantly which means that you don't have to spend any money on developing.

 

Before you get a camera and film, do online research to make sure there are places that you can get film developed. A fair amount of small towns don't have places that develop film anymore so you may have to make a trip over to a larger town to get film developed. Before you go out an buy a camera, try asking family members if they have any film cameras available, I've gotten 4 35mm cameras and a Polaroid from family members so it is definitely worth asking since they probably won't use them again.

 

120 cameras are a great way to start off if you can get film for them. My favorite type of 120 camera is the box camera. You can probably get one at a local antique store for about $20 in working condition. Test the shutter, ask if you can open up the camera so that you can be sure that everything is in place, make sure there is a spool in the camera and check for light leaks. Since the old box cameras are so simple, not much can break on them so they are extremely reliable and my Brother has used one's from the 1920's and the 1910's without any major issues. These box camera's don't require much knowledge to use and most only have 2 aperture settings, 1 shutter speed and no focus. Just about all you need to do is set the small aperture setting for bright days and use wide settings for dull days. You won't be getting the clearest pictures with these things and I find ISO 400 film to look the best since it has a nice grainy look to it.

 

35mm camera's are a step up in complexity from the simple box camera's but newer models have automatic features which makes things easier. However, I would advise against using automatic 35mm film camera's since one major advantage of film camera's is that you can control the settings. 35mm camera's vary widely in prices, automatic ones from the 1990's only cost a few dollars while really nice ones from the 1950's or earlier can be over $50. Automatic camera's are a nice place to start off with 35mm but investing a bit of money into a nice old 35mm camera can be a lot of fun if you like to be hands on.

 

This is my all time favorite camera and was bought for around $40. Camera's like these are great since they are fully manual, do not need batteries (a lot of old camera's use weird batteries that can be hard to find), fairly inexpensive and has a built in light meter that gives a reference on what settings should be used for the light conditions. External light meters can also be purchased at antique stores if a camera does not have a built in one. It is highly recommended that you have some sort of meter when you start out or a table for different light conditions.
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Polaroid camera's are quite different from the other 2 film types and there are a lot of varieties out there. Polaroid cameras, like vinyl records, have had an increase in popularity recently so the prices for these can range from $20 to $100+ depending on condition and rarity. Film is available for almost all Polaroid camera's with the exception of the original models from the 1940's and 50's. Some film comes with a battery pack so they can be quite expensive, a single cartage of 8 pictures can cost $25 while some of the more common film without a battery only costs $10 for 10 pictures. Polaroid camera's are mostly automatic and easy to use, older models often have automatic aperture settings and models made after 1980 have auto focus so all you need to do is aim and shoot. Polaroid camera's often produce wacky looking photos which end up even weirder then 120 cameras so don't expect to get top notch quality photos with these ones either.

 

This was another really long post but I tried to go over the basics of film photography. If you have any questions then feel free to ask me since I really love this stuff and would be more then happy to help out!

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