Choosing a film camera

- This week on The Practicing Photographer we're back with Derrick Story to talk about, of all things, film. Derrick, you were here a little bit ago to talk about how your kind of re-embracing of analog photography had gotten you really excited, and got a new fire under you in terms of shooting. If you haven't watched that segment you should. Derrick's got some really great things to say. I wanted to talk this week about if someone else wants to follow you, and do that where do they start? They need a camera, they need film, they need all that stuff. What's a good way to go? - You do. You do need those basic things, and they're all fun things. - Okay.

(both laughing) - That's one of the neat things about it. - And they're all cheap things these days. - They're very affordable. - Yeah. - Very affordable. Right here I have this Pentax Super Program camera. In the '80s it was European camera of the year. - Wow. - This was like a top of the heap, and you can get this camera now, online, at a number of places probably for less than $100. - Wow, less than that. - And that's with lens. Very, very nice lens. - Okay. - So you need to find a camera. Now a lotta people have cameras stashed away-- - Uh huh. - Right, in the closet, or they have their dad or their uncle has some.

So, even if you don't wanna go out, and buy one you can probably find one. - Find one. - Yeah. - These are mechanical devices. Some of 'em are gonna be pretty old. Like you said this is from the '80s. (camera clicking) Anything you need to look out for in terms of when you're buying used? - Yeah, so there's two ways to go on this, and one a lotta people will gravitate towards eBay for example. EBay's great, I get gear there all the time. But there you don't really know what you're gonna get. - Okay. - All right, and a lotta times the sellers don't even know what they have.

You know they buy the stuff in an estate sale-- - Right. - And so they don't know the quality of the camera, or even its functionality. One thing that you wanna make sure is that if you look through there that the viewfinder isn't all smudged up, or someone tried to clean it-- - Okay. - And they got it all mucky. You wanna make sure that the camera fires, and sometimes you just can't do that online, right? You just have to go off the word of the person that's selling. So there are sites where they test the camera first. - All right. - I happen to have one.

- Oh, imagine that. - Yes. (laughing) It seems like every time I do one of these I have to do a disclosure, but-- (both laughing) - Well, but that's great. It's a curated camera selection. - It is, it is, and so my place is on Etsy, and it's called TheFilmCameraShop, all one word, and what I do is I pick these things up all over the place, and then I test them. I bench test them-- - Okay. - I clean them up, I get 'em operating. I run a roll of film through 'em. - Okay. - And then they go into the shop. So that way when I send it out I feel very comfortable that the person's gonna have a good experience.

- [Ben] That's right. There's a lot of different brands to choose from. Some brands no longer in existence. Do I care about the brand? Maybe I've got Pentax lenses already. Does that mean I should buy a Pentax film camera? - Yeah, it's a great question. Well, remember, when we're talking Nikon and Canon, they changed their mounts. - Right. - So-- - Since the film days they've changed-- - Since the film days. So Canon was doing FD mount, and then they switched to the newer mount. So sometimes it won't make any difference if you're shooting Canon now getting an older Canon camera might not mean anything in terms of being able to use those lenses.

- Okay. - Pentax, the reason why I have Pentax here, is one of the camera brands where they kept the same lens mount basically all the way through. - Okay. - So if you're a Pentax shooter, and you have a digital camera, and you have a film Pentax in the past, and you got some lenses you could probably use the same lenses on both your digital, and your film stuff. - All right. - Yeah. - A lotta the things that we look for when we're shopping for a digital camera are just out the window on this. This was, as you said, European camera of the year.

It's a Super Program so it's got some automation to it-- - It does. - But it doesn't have near the amount of modes that you would find on even a low end digital SLR these days. So you can't look for the same feature sets. It doesn't even have auto-winder so we don't have burst modes, or auto bracketing, or-- - Right. - Even exposure compensation. - It does have, you know, one thing when you're talking about things to look for, it does accept accessories. So if you like that kinda stuff you can look for a camera that has those accessories. One thing I always look for is a camera that takes batteries that are modern.

- Okay. - And, you know, most of the time we want either the button batteries-- - Uh huh. - The MR44s, or, you know, one of the lithium batteries, or one of those. You don't want a camera that use mercury batteries. - Right. - 'Cause those are a pain in the nose. - Yeah, yeah. - To emulate. So a camera that uses modern batteries is very important, and, basically, if you get a camera from the '80s forward that shouldn't be a problem. - Yeah, okay. - Yeah. - Okay, so I get a camera, I borrow one, I buy one used, whatever-- - Mmm hmm. - Then you've got a bunch of other stuff out here. - I do, I do.

Seeing this, look at, all new toys right? (Ben laughing) (both laughing) So I tend to send my film out. - Okay. - Yeah. - So you can get into this without having to worry about oh no I don't wanna set up a dark room. I don't have room, and so on, and so forth. - You don't have to. You can send it out. There's a number of labs online. - Okay. - They do a great job. They've been doing a great job forever, and actually the ones that survived-- - Yeah. - You know 'cause film had a decline, and that are very popular now well, Darwinism, right? They were really good before. (laughing) - Yeah, yeah, okay. - So, they do a great job, and you can get your film back any number of ways.

I like to get it like this, and, you know, cut it, and I put it into sleeves. Look at this. - Right, right. - Yeah, and everything's very organized. I have a whole system that I use. - Okay. - But, also you can get it scanned at the lab. - Okay. - And look at, do you know what this is? (both laughing) - I remember those. - Yeah. - I don't have a computer that will take them anymore. - Yeah, yeah you do. So a lotta labs will just put it online for you. - Okay. - So they send you a note, and it's very exciting, and then you go, and you can download the stuff.

- Okay. - Gallery. One of the labs that I use they also put it on CD. So, (chuckling) when I get the film back I also get a CD, and I had to (chuckling) go out, and buy a CD-- - A CD player? - Yeah, yeah, cost me $15 or something. - This is great, not having to get into the dark room into things actually does make this much less intimidating. - Yes. - Much easier-- - Yeah. - And you don't give up your bathroom. You're going 35 millimeter here. Of course there's also medium format. 120 film. Did you choose this for a reason? - I did because I think the workflow is just easier.

It's easier. Like look at this little scanner. This is a little Kodak SCANZA scanner here, and it accepts 35 millimeter. It's not very big. It's very easy to use. I think 35 millimeter is a very nice size, and remember, Ben, 35 millimeter that's full frame. (Ben laughing) Right? - The magical-- - People are paying a lot of money for full frame so I (Ben laughing) mean you're getting full frame with this particular size. Now, obviously, if you get into this, and suddenly go hey I wanna do big stuff, and all that.

Medium format is a blast, but the workflow then becomes a little bit more complicated for sure. Yeah. - So, I wanna get into this. I don't have a camera laying around the house. I don't know anyone who does. What are we talking about? A couple hundred bucks? - Yeah, yeah, oh, a hundred bucks. - Okay. - A hundred bucks for the camera. Get some film. Start out with fresh film. Film that hasn't expired, but I buy expired film all the time too, and it just kind of takes a level of excitement (both laughing) to a whole new level because you don't know the history of the film so you don't know how it's gonna shift, or what it's gonna do, any of that kinda stuff.

So get your hands on some film, and remember the different films. These are all like, now I put this sensor into my camera. (Ben laughing) Now I can put this sensor into my camera. - Right, right. - I mean, you know, you have all these possibilities, and they all have different characteristics. So that's another fun part to play with. Get the film, get it scanned, or scan it yourself, and then you're into your digital workflow. - Right, just like that you already know. - Yeah. - All right, we got more to talk about here.

We need to talk about film, and about your personal workflow, and we're gonna do that in a couple of future episodes of The Practicing Photographer. Derrick, you've got actually an analog site as well-- - I do. - That we should take a look at. - I do, I do. - Right here. Thanks a lot, I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. - Okay.