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Frank J Casella

4 Years Ago

Best Film Cameras For Beginners In Every Format

Many photographers who've grown up with digital may not know how to start with film, which is finding a resurgence. Film photography is also a wonderful hobby, but researching which camera to start with can be intimidating. After all, there's more than a century's worth of film history to consider and figuring out which model is right for you might seem like a sisyphean task.

I started with film decades ago, and found this article relevant. Enjoy!
https://www.keh.com/blog/best-film-cameras-for-beginners-in-every-format

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Chuck De La Rosa

4 Years Ago

There wasn't as much in that article as I thought there might be. I learned on a Canon AE-1 but was away from it for so long I had to start over when I got my first digital camera, an Oly C-4000 Zoom.

 

Bill Swartwout

4 Years Ago

Heh - I learned on a Kodak Brownie box camera. My folks gifted me with a home darkroom kit (contact prints only) when for my 11th birthday. I've had many a film camera over the years - even an old Beseler Topcon, the first TTL metering camera on the market - mid-60's if I recall - I was senior in high school and worked at the local camera shop. I still have an old Nikon around here somewhere - that hasn't seen use in a decade or more. Also had Honeywell Pentax gear and even a Mamiya TLR (120 film) with interchangeable lenses. I sold a Canon to buy my first digital - an Olympus with .8 MP - yes, point-8, with internal memory only. I could shoot a couple dozen px then had to download and reset the memory. I never looked back.

One of my best selling photographs of all time (for me) was shot with an OLY with 1.6 MP - 5 shots stitched into a panorama of downtown Baltimore. The City even used it as a large display piece at Sister Cities program in The Netherlands. Link: https://bill.pixels.com/featured/baltimore-inner-harbor-panorama-bill-swartwout-fine-art-photography.html

Now, I'm shooting, almost exclusively, with an Oly OM-D Micro 4/3 and some with my iPhone 6. The Nikon gear sits in the closet. Getting old - need less to carry. LOL

---------------
~ Bill Swartwout Photography

 

Brian Wallace

4 Years Ago

I guess I'm different. I grew up with film as well but if I were to get a camera for a beginner, I would recommend a digital camera since the price of film and development wouldn't be wasted. The basic fundamentals would still apply to film or digital plus you have a whole new technical processing era that allows so much more versatility and without a darkroom. I have ON1 plugins that simulate just about any type of film look and even era that you could ever want but I can't see myself ever having much of a need for them beyond an attempt to recapture some type of nostalgic ambience.

Hey, I have no problem for those wishing to dabble with film if that's what they want to do. Vinyl records has made a resurgence too but I have no plans to to increase the noise element that science worked so hard to eliminate for my listening pleasure.

 

Rich Franco

4 Years Ago

I think I agree with Brian about WHY get a film camera, unless you're taking some classes and need film to develop or make prints from. I learned on a gifted Konica T3 and had 2 lenses, I've had that and just about everything in-between that camera and an a wooden 8x10. Miss my Toyo 4x5 and probably my Mamiya RZ67ll, Mamiya 7 and that's probably it. Mostly miss my huge darkroom and 2 4x5 Enlargers.

Would NEVER go back to film, no reason to, everything gets scanned now anyways,

Rich

 

Frank J Casella

4 Years Ago

You know, I went back to where I went to college a faew decades ago, and first year photography students start out with film and processing in the 'soup'.

There is a place called Indie Flim Lab that I subscribe to their newsletter, and it seems like they are really busy processing film again.

https://www.indiefilmlab.com/

Chuck, I thought this was too basic also, but anyone just getting to know about film it might by just the right amount of 'seasoning' if you will.

 

Rich Franco

4 Years Ago

Frank,

WHY? Why film? What would you learn using film and not learn the same with digital? Possibly "exposure"??? Not composition, lens choice, what? How about getting typewriters back.....?

Rich

 

Christi Kraft

4 Years Ago

I still have my AE-1 and my Holga. :) I have another Canon film body in the case, too. It might be another AE-1, but I don't remember offhand what it is.

Rich, you asked why and what would you learn... lots! When you don't have the benefit of unlimited SD cards of space, you learn to really consider what you're shooting, both composition-wise and exposure-wise, as you only have 24ish frames to do what you'd like. You take your time and make selective choices. Also, hand processing in a darkroom is one of my favorite experiences. Seeing a blank page materialize into a photograph that I created, right before my eyes, never gets old. Plus, knowing what I know about editing on film informs many of my edits in the digital darkroom. And it's fun. LOL

 

Brian Wallace

4 Years Ago

The same could be said for digital Christi. I took a basic camera course and also a film developing course. At the time I really wanted to do darkroom work but I didn't have much choice in those days as it was well before digital cameras. I lived in an apartment and didn't want to set up in my bathroom and take everything down each time I wanted to develop film. I finally bought a house but by then I was back doing painting. (Now there's where I developed my eye for composition).

This may be the unconventional way but, I believe in most cases speed is more important than making sure my camera settings are perfect. I personally prefer to get the shot(s) and take my time later re-composing the image and improving it without other distractions or pressure. These days I even take multiple shots, later stitching them together for anywhere from a slightly wider angle to panoramic views. Something I "shutter" (pun intended) to think about with film.

 

Frank J Casella

4 Years Ago

I mostly shoot digital today because of the expense of film, and when I shoot film the prints are digital. However, because I started in photography with film, and understood the process, I believe it makes me a better digital photographer. In fact, with my digital camera I have the shutter set at single exposures (not continuous shooting), and I have the screen on the back of the camera turned off. I don't look at the images until back at the computer. So I use a digital camera like a film camera, and thus what works for me is to consecrate more on my craft and the subject I'm making pictures of.

Here is a blog post that says it better than I think I can do -- The Feeling of Shooting Film in a Digital Age: https://www.keh.com/blog/the-feeling-of-shooting-film-in-a-digital-age/

 

Rich Franco

4 Years Ago

Christi,

I agree on a couple of your statements. Having a SINGLE roll of film will indeed slow down that process, but I don't know any photographer that EVER went out with a single roll of film! LOL! I never did!

If you REALLY want to SLOW DOWN THE PROCESS, shoot with a 4x5 film camera! EACH SHEET COSTS almost $5 to buy and then get processed!!! And that was YEARS AGO!!!

I do miss my great darkroom I had, but wouldn't go back, since with just basic digital software, I can improve on ANY print that came out of my darkroom, easily with digital files now.

And any good photographer will self-regulate the number of images captured, regardless if film or pixels.....

Frank,

If you shoot film just because, then fine, more of a hobby than a serious pursuit. I don't know WHERE I would even take the film, if I still had a film camera!

Rich

 

Ed Taylor

4 Years Ago

So true when it comes to film cameras but a camera is only a box that keeps the light out. What made the image was the lens (and I guess film quality and processing also played a roll). With medium format cameras I almost always shot Kodak but when shooting 35mm I normally stuck with Fuji.

Regarding the article I've always believed I am a better photographer that I would have been because I started with film. It forces you to get away from the "auto everything" way of shooting. Good thread Frank, thanks for starting it. Brings back memories.

 

Rich Franco

4 Years Ago

Ed,

Not sure it has anything to do with the "substrate", whether film or digital. When a person KNOWS composition, then just a few clicks on any camera is all that's needed. Looking at some of the images every night, uploaded to Instagram, discounts that theory. Most if not all, phone-based and beautiful! Many, simply impossible to do on film.

Nothing o better than looking through the back of a 4x5 or 8x10 camera, image upside down and like looking through a window! Shot ALL my Architectural stuff on those cameras, mostly the 4x5. From the contact sheets of 4x5 images to the 4x5 enlargers used to make giant prints, just amazing, but still wouldn't GO BACK!

Rich

 

M G Whittingham

4 Years Ago

Sadly, if I wanted to go back to film all that I would have to do is open my closet door.

I'm not going back to film....

 

David Smith

4 Years Ago

The two main reasons to shoot film these days would be to shoot black and white of either very high contrast scenes using compensating development or very long exposures in the 20 minute or more range.

A third reason would be certain depth of field effects from larger formats and a fourth would be greater resolution from 8x10 or larger film.

 

Edward Fielding

4 Years Ago

For a fine art photographer selling limited edition prints - the attraction is the "authenticity" of an old school process which makes one stand out to collectors.

For the amateur, it makes no sense to shoot and develop film unless you like dealing with stinky chemicals.

Film might make one slow down and think more but digital allows one to make mistakes faster.

Best film camera in my option is the very basic Pentax K1000 - every high school photo class had them. Only a needle meter and that is about it.

 

HW Kateley

4 Years Ago

As a couple of you who know me are aware, I work mostly in film. For me, I have maybe a couple of dozen reasons. To me, it lends itself better to what I want than digital most of time. Having said that, were I shooting wildlife, nature macros, or astrophotography, I would undoubtedly use digital. Were I doing service photography like events or weddings, I suspect it would be the same. On the subject of resolution, I have to disagree that 8x10 is needed to beat digital in terms of resolution. I can beat most affordable digital cameras with medium format. That's not really what I'm trying to be about, but it's still the case. It's even possible with 35mm if the film and everything else is just right. Resolution is however, simply a technical aspect, and definitely not the most import thing most of the time.

I looked at the article. It's not a bad list, but is limited as there are actually a lot more cameras in every category that would work just fine. Cost and availability being factors I would tend to describe a camera by features rather than make/model. It's kind of like asking what is the best car to learn to drive in. Better to have an idea of what you want it to do, and then see what you can find. It's not like any of this stuff is being manufactured now.

A few years ago, when I got back into film, the camera that started it was a kodak retinette shooting 400 iso c41 film. All manual, focus by guess, no lightmeter. Small, light, sharp lens, perfect. (for me at the time)






 

HW Kateley

4 Years Ago

Mr. Whittingham, If you want to clean out that closest, I'll send you my address. ;)

 

Don Northup

4 Years Ago

I think KEH is trying to sell off some of its film gear. ;-)

https://www.keh.com/shop/cameras/film-cameras.html

I still have an AE-1 and some not so great Canon glass. I also have a couple of Minolta film bodies and plenty of glass for them but the bodies are being used as paperweights.

I can see some reasons for people to still shoot film but not very many these days. I haven’t shot any film since like 2002.

We had a small home darkroom back in like 1975 and if I was to buy another film camera today it would probably be the Minolta Maxxum 9.

I do have Maxxum straps on my digital bodies... :-)

Cheers

 

Marcio Faustino

4 Years Ago

I honestly think any full manual camera is a good start. The rest, such as the lens quality and how strong is the body I think i just details. Even Kodak box is a good camera o start. The point is that the manual and limiting options factor stimulate us to think and really understand the exposure process and calculation. The fact that there are more room to errors (despite the higher tonal range in film negatives), allow us to learn from them.

 

HW Kateley

4 Years Ago

Well, I won't argue with that.

 

This discussion is closed.