The Photography Thread 2

[Anpanman]

That caterpillar pic certainly gives the desired effect - to me anyway.

I used to be really into the Lepidoptera when I was young. Red Admiral's were very rare up our way, now perhaps with climate change we do see them quite often later in the 'summer'.

[Anpanman]

Nikon announce the Z 6 III;

https://www.nikon.co.uk/en_GB/product/cameras/z6iii

[Brad]

Got a Canon T90 on the way to contrast with the immediacy of phone cameras. I'll let my local lab develop the first roll of kentmere pan 400 to be sure the camera works but after that I intend to dev myself using rodinal. I'm gonna try scanning using a light box and my phone. Hoping that'll be good enough for web publishing at least.

[MartyG]

Cool. I was looking at the new Pentax 17 which was released earlier this week (of June 2024). I don't think the price is completely egregious, but when you can pick up a Nikon FM2n or Olympus OM-4 Ti for less money, it's a little hard to justify spending £499 on a film camera, especially one that's technically limited.

It's clearly designed to appeal to the instagram-film resurgence crowd, and it's probably a better buy than the silly prices the Olympus Mju I & II are selling for now (well over £200 for something that isn't worth more than £50 tops), but you'd have to be pretty serious about film photography to justify it.

I think a T90 is way more sensible - and I really need to get the two rolls of film I've finished developed before they get colour casts.

[Brad]

Yeah. I had a T90 soon after they came out so I'm familiar with it already plus I have a 50mm FD that I used on my micro 4/3 with an adapter.

I'm really curious how good of a negative scan I can get using a smartphone and lightbox. All the results I've seen have been pretty dire but in my head it should be possyto get better results that what I've seen and the macro on my edge ultra 30 is really good and it's 200 megapixels so I'm hopeful I can buck the trend. I'll post what I manage to get here.

I've seen a lot of talk about the new Pentax, mostly disappointment from people because at its heart it's basically a point and shoot..I think you're right though, the target demo is people who are into retro film because it's hip as opposed to the more enthusiast crowd. Be interesting to see how it fares.

I was a bit wary with the T90 as it's soooooo electrotand complex and is now 38 years old. I know how to fix the standard EEE error and trh shutter blade goo but if anything else went wrong I'd be pretty screwed. I still want a New F1 at some point.

[wakka]

The only film camera I have is an Olympus Trip. I enjoy using it but my results are very mixed. My best shots have been with very contrasty monochrome film and strong sunlight.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned it in here before but I do also own a camera that I use especially when I travel. It’s a Ricoh GR2. I really like the results in the Positive Film setting in particular. I’ll post some of my photos one day.

[Brad]

I like the compact Ricohs. I had a GX100 some time ago. The image quality was a let down but it was pretty nice to use. The external digital viewfinder was a neat addition though I rarely used it.

[MartyG]

The GR series is a lot different from the GRd and GX. I have a GR1 with its APS-C sensor amd it's quite remarkable for its size. Nice thing is you can operate it single handed. Pretty price though and you have to like the 28mm focal length.

I do like the GRd and GX too (I have the GRd iii and GX100 and GX200) but the quality isn't as good.

The Olympus Trip is also a nice little film compact, but another that's gone up ridiculously in price. Worth getting one if you see it in working order for around £40, especially if it has a silver shutter button. No battieries required.

Negative "scanning" from a phone should work, but you'll want to tripod mount it really. Ideally you'd want a macro lens on a full frame cam. You can always get the developers to drum scan, but these are by default 2MP and you'll pay more for higher res scans. If you get some frames for holding negative film, that will also help a lot to stop it curliing and moving about.

[Brad]

Cheers for the tips. I've got a 12MP Lumix (G3 I think, entry level consumer thing I got for my daughter) but no macro lens. If I get a macro for the T90 then I can mount that on the Lumix as well so that's an option. It's the edge to edge of my phone in macro mode that lets it down, but the sweet spot is quite big. Hopefull get to try a B&W negative this evening.

[MartyG]

Lots of Rollers at Burghley House this weekend.