My dad gave me his DSLR but I would never look at the photos I took or cared for it.
Now that the number of photos I can take are limited I can’t wait to develop those photos and actually feel it.
If you want a little extra fun project, try using black & white film (e.g. Ilford HP5) and learning to develop it at home.
It’s surprisingly easy, especially if you use stand development. Technology Connections did a video on it that got me interested, and it’s truly a little bit of magic to see your own photos appear in your own kitchen.
If I couldn’t develop at home I wouldn’t bother with film photography at all. It would get too expensive.
B&W stand development really is very easy and nearly fool-proof, but I’d also say, don’t be intimidated by color film (specifically C-41) development if it’s something you think you’d enjoy. A bit of an investment up front to control the temperatures and store your chemicals, but It’s just a little more involved and not beyond anyone who can do B&W. I’ve had good luck with the cinestill C-41 powder kit.
ECN-2 film with the remjet coating is do-able, but kind of a pain. I’d steer clear of that at first.
I haven’t tried slide film development yet.
Also, it was Technology Connections film videos that got me into it in the first place! Probably many such cases.
I developed black and white at school, but forgot how to do it lol
Thanks a ton 😊
Beat you. I got my first 110 in 1977. 1 cube, 4 flashes.
Damn I was born in 1997. I am so jealous of you guys (in a good way), my next post will probably be about developing a black and white. I am moving to India for a few days, don’t know if I will be able to get the supplies but hell yeah I will try once for sure
Oh, boy, 110 with cube flash!
Right? I bought my LAST analogue camera twenty years before they got their first.
I still have the Kodak Brownie box camera that took the very earliest photos of me. I think there are still one or two surviving black and white photos yet. My father had a lower-end Pentax 35mm that I still have as well. And there were a goodly number of Christmas gift cameras I received growing up.
The problem with film cameras was remembering to take them in to get developed. So much undeveloped film… And if you did develop them, well, there was only one photo that you really wanted anyway, and that one was blurry because you were shaking too much.
My first was a Pentax K1000, for high school photography classes in 1982. I still have it. It only has a simple light meter, but I got the best exposures out of that camera, better than the Canon AE-1 I borrowed from my dad on occasion. I had a home darkroom set up in my bathroom with an enlarger with a color head. I only tried color a couple of times, though. Color is more finicky and expensive. I thought I was going to be a professional photographer, and I almost was, but the need to support myself got in the way.
Technology Connections did an episode on how these old light meters worked.
Brilliantly simple tech.
Nice. Have fun! When you reach the point where a point n shoot feels like it’s limiting you, there’s a huge amount of really great cameras like SLRs out there that cost less than some rolls of film.
Woow, that’s interesting to hear. What’s the tech behind Leica analogue and why do they cost a fortune?
Part of it is that they’re (mostly) very precisely machined fully mechanical cameras.
Part of it is, that there is a selection of some of the highest quality lenses available for the cameras.
But to an extent you also just pay for the name.There are tons of cameras that cost a tiny fraction of a Leica but work just as well and have their own selection of tack sharp lenses.
You wouldn’t notice a difference in the results without a direct comparison.
Is that a modern analog? It looks so clean.
I bought myself a Konica a4 because I fell in love with the look of it. Really need to actually develop some of the photos one day.
Yes it is a modern analogue camera. It has an in built LED screen and auto reel roll function as well
I prefer 110 cameras, but harder to get developed.
I would’ve loved a polaroid or the equivalent. Instant physical photos are an amazing invention in my book.
Instax is the modern equivalent of Polaroid - cameras that spit out real instant photos there on the spot. Not great image quality, and somewhat pricey per shot, but good fun. And yes, it’s proper instant film with chemistry, so you can watch the image develop right there in your hands.
Caveats/gotchas: IIRC the Instax line also includes hybrid cameras which are basically just digital cameras with built-in printers. Still neat, but less cool than the standard line in my opinion. Also, Polaroid do still exist in zombie corp fashion, but they mostly just make digital cameras/printers and the film for their old cameras is crazy expensive. Unless you’re deeply committed to using an old Polaroid camera, it’s not worth it compared to Instax.
The salesman was super cool to be honest. It was between this and instax hybrid model (which costs more) but he understood my needs and suggested this.
What got me more exciting is that I only have 36 photos per film roll so have to be very conscious of what I choose to capture
