Anyone into film photography?

Serendipity

I recently got a Nikon D60 and although digital is great, I really miss film photography. My Dad had quite a few film cameras back in the day, and my uncle had a Nikon F100.

Maybe it's just me, or a nostalgic thing, but I really miss the days of film - anyone here feel the same way?

The other thing is that I have to buy a set of DX lenses for the D60 as it won't autofocus with older lenses; I tried a 50mm prime on the D60 and got an error message. Anyone else run into this problem?

mhardy6647

I've gotten my son (who has a D40, BTW) into not just film (using our old Nikkormat FtN initially; now an FM), but also medium format rollfilm! Bwahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!

Last spring he took a photo course at college and learned to develop and print. He's enjoying it greatly. Scans of a couple of his early bw prints are attached.

you can see some of his work (analog and digital) at:
www.icouldbeahero.deviantart.com
www.icouldbeahero.blogspot.com



Film's like vinyl, baby! :-) Cannot beat the warmth, depth, richness (and resolution).

Serendipity

Do all of his lenses work on the D40? Or does it give an error message like mine?

What happens if you try a 50mm prime on the D40?

Serendipity

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I've gotten my son (who has a D40, BTW) into not just film (using our old Nikkormat FtN initially; now an FM), but also medium format rollfilm! Bwahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!

Last spring he took a photo course at college and learned to develop and print. He's enjoying it greatly. Scans of a couple of his early bw prints are attached.

you can see some of his work (analog and digital) at:
www.icouldbeahero.deviantart.com
www.icouldbeahero.blogspot.com



Film's like vinyl, baby! :-) Cannot beat the warmth, depth, richness (and resolution).

The pics look great!

Can you (or your son) recommend a good Macro for the D40/D60? Also a good 75-300mm zoom for nature photography?

Again, I don't like the fact that this camera isn't compatible with a bunch of older Nikon lenses

billbillw

I did the film thing for years. Now I have a Pentax K100D DSLR and I have no nostalgic feelings about film. Good Riddance!

The ability to change iso and white balance mid-shoot and verify your work before you get to the lab make it soooo much more productive and versatile. I used to get 4-5 worthwhile slides/photos out of a roll of 36. It really was wasteful.

If you want to use older Nikon lenses, perhaps you need to step up to a higher model in the Nikon lineup. The D40 and D60 seem to be the most limited with respect to lens compatibility.

http://www.dentonimages.com/page.php?id=art100708a

That is one area where Pentax did things right. I can use any K-mount lens ever produced. Of course, older MF lenses are still only MF, but it gives me a focus confirm when I get it right.

Serendipity

billbillw wrote: »

If you want to use older Nikon lenses, perhaps you need to step up to a higher model in the Nikon lineup. The D40 and D60 seem to be the most limited with respect to lens compatibility.

I knew that the D40 and D60 couldn't autofocus with a bunch of older Nikon lenses, but I didn't know that it was so limited with respect to lens compatibility.

Using a 50mm prime on the D60 gives an error message "Lens not attached", but I can use DX lenses with no problem.

Can someone verify that lenses with "AF not supported by D40 and D60" actually work on the D40/D60?

shack

NO...I shot film for many years. I have recently been scanning most of my old negatives and slides and converting them to digital. I gave most of my other film bodies away but I kept my favorite Minolta for nostalgia purposes. All I have to do is look at it and a film container...and I quickly put it back in the box...and my nostalgia fix is over for a LONG time.

Serendipity

shack wrote: »

NO...I shot film for many years. I have recently been scanning most of my old negatives and slides and converting them to digital. I gave most of my other film bodies away but I kept my favorite Minolta for nostalgia purposes. All I have to do is look at it and a film container...and I quickly put it back in the box...and my nostalgia fix is over for a LONG time.

Maybe it's because I was still growing up when digital cameras came to the market? IIRC, I was 9 at the time.

dee1949

...Nothing like good old black and white photography. Shot color onto slides. Problem with film back then was to find a good photo lab. Had a dark room for awhile doing b&W. Still have my original Nikon FTN and Nikormat EL with an assortment of lenses. Thing about NIkon cameras from that era is they are worth as much today as what I paid. New digital cameras become obsolete or self destruct in a couple of years.

Best think about digital is instant gratification. Throw a pic into photoshop for an instant darkroom. Most of the art beside composition and mood of an image is darkroom technique.

...also the camera fits in your pocket.

Enjoy the quest

Serendipity

dee1949 wrote: »

...also the camera fits in your pocket.

True, the convenience aspect is great, but I still haven't found a good point and shoot digital camera.

dee1949

...i have a couple Nikon Coolpixs. Shoot nice snapshots but cheap construction. have rubber bands holding battery doors closed on 2 cameras.

...with digital, just overshoot the image and do cropping in Photoshop. Leaves you free for the composition. The auto focus is pretty reliable. Thing that gets me is the shutter delay, especially under low light. Need to hold steady 2 seconds after you snap. They should build in an audio "click" sound for us ole photo buffs.h

nguyendot

The lower end Nikon DSLRs do not have an autofocus motor built in, that is why it is so limited on the lens compatibility. I believe the D50 and D90 do not suffer this problem.

This lens compatibility is less on the Canon end, where it is limited by the crop factor only (the AF-S lenses) and not the motor too.

jdhdiggs

D80 will also autofocus as well. For you camera questions, join Nikoncafe.com Very similar attitude and vibe as this place and you'll see at least 4 polkies being more active over there than here. For lens recs, what your budget? It's a lot like asking "What's a good amp for my speakers?" Well, do you want to spend $200 or $4,000?

The non AF lenses will work, throw the camera into M and manually do everything from ISO, Aperture, SS, and focus.

As for film, I'm inheriting a Hassleblad 4x5 so I guess I'll have to learn!

mhardy6647

appadv wrote: »

The pics look great!

Can you (or your son) recommend a good Macro for the D40/D60? Also a good 75-300mm zoom for nature photography?

Again, I don't like the fact that this camera isn't compatible with a bunch of older Nikon lenses

I think you got all of the scoop on the compatibility. On the one hand, I find it daunting... on the other, I very much admire Nikon for deliberately maintaining as much compatibility as they have across decades of their equipment.

He uses a new-production 60 mm f2.8 Nikkor macro lens that he likes a lot... don't ask me for details beyond that; there may be info in his blog. I also know he has, likes, and uses an old (film era) 50 mm f1.4 Nikkor lens on both cameras.

He has a new 85 mm f... umm... f1.8(???) Nikkor AF lens that he got before he started his summer internship. It is theoretically fully back-compatible with his FM, but (as you can read in some of his blog entries) he's had some weird compatibility problems (which may be issues with his purchased-used FM body...).

HTH(?)

shack

appadv wrote:

True, the convenience aspect is great, but I still haven't found a good point and shoot digital camera.

If you are looking for a small P&S vs a DSLR, I can highly recommend the Canon Powershot D880 IS. 10 MP and image stabilization with a 35mm equivalent zoom range of 28-112mm.



My wife has one and it takes really nice photos. It's small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, and it's pretty easy to use with lots shooting modes. It has a large 3" LCD monitor.

billbillw

shack wrote: »

If you are looking for a small P&S vs a DSLR, I can highly recommend the Canon Powershot D880 IS. 10 MP and image stabilization with a 35mm equivalent zoom range of 28-112mm.



My wife has one and it takes really nice photos. It's small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, and it's pretty easy to use with lots shooting modes. It has a large 3" LCD monitor.

10MP on a lens that can probably only resolve 3-4MP worth of resolution. I really wish the manufacturers would get off this megapixel race and just build good cameras. Not that the Canon is a bad camera, but its really just a waste of memory space. I mean, nobody using that camera is going to be doing much more than 8x10, if that. 4MP is plenty for that size. If they could offer faster flash recharge and better low light focusing, they'd really have something.

shack

Yeah...but when you have the Pro level cameras start to hit the 24MP levels (Nikon D3x)...the consumer stuff JUST HAS TO keep up. Most consumers can't even tell you what a MP is...but just as with everything else...they assume more MPs is better.

nguyendot

I dunno, that SD880IS won best of bunch at dpreview

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408premiumgroup/page12.asp

GF has the SD1200IS as a replacement for broken Lumix and it takes wonderful photos. Even if it can't resolve the high megapixel count, at normal viewing distances (not pixel level) no one will be able to tell.

Serendipity

nguyendot wrote: »

The lower end Nikon DSLRs do not have an autofocus motor built in, that is why it is so limited on the lens compatibility. I believe the D50 and D90 do not suffer this problem.

This lens compatibility is less on the Canon end, where it is limited by the crop factor only (the AF-S lenses) and not the motor too.

Okay, so if it doesn't have the autofocus motor built in, why can't I just manually focus the lens?

Why does it give an error code then?

nguyendot

Because they are simply incompatible. The electronics still line up but do not read correctly. Also, how will you control the F-stop? That is electronic too.

Serendipity

Right, I was just under the impression that I could set the aperture to min and use it with this camera.

jdhdiggs

Have you tried setting the cam in pure manual mode?

Serendipity

jdhdiggs wrote: »

Have you tried setting the cam in pure manual mode?

Yes, that's what I did.

Someone once told me if I set the aperture ring on the lens to min and put the camera in manual mode, it would work.

I guess not...

billbillw

shack wrote: »

Yeah...but when you have the Pro level cameras start to hit the 24MP levels (Nikon D3x)...the consumer stuff JUST HAS TO keep up. Most consumers can't even tell you what a MP is...but just as with everything else...they assume more MPs is better.

My point exactly. It reminds me of the mega/giga hertz race that computer CPU manufacturers went through a few years back. 2GHz>3GHz>4GHz, then they started to scale back and make the processors actually do more work per clock cycle. They had to come up with a new way to market them.

I tell you, my 6MP Pentax SLR has all the resolution I will ever need. I can make very nice 13x19 prints. I can get away with using very inexpensive 2GB SD cards.

Here is a trustworthy source that can explain it better.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm

shack

billbillw wrote:

Here is a trustworthy source that can explain it better.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm

Ken Rockwell is thought to be no talent hack by some in the profession...

I don't necessarily disagree with him on this particular issue...but I do take exception to much of what he writes...so I guess trustworthy may be in the eye of the reader in this case.

billbillw

shack wrote: »

Ken Rockwell is thought to be no talent hack by some in the profession...

I don't necessarily disagree with him on this particular issue...but I do take exception to much of what he writes...so I guess trustworthy may be in the eye of the reader in this case.

Well, I hadn't really looked into whether he was at the top of his profession or not, but he is a professional and he is a more trustworthy source than the average forum 'know-it-all.' (I'm not referring to anyone here). He was simply one of the first to come up when I ran a google search for 'megapixel myth'. There are a number of articles that discuss this marketing hype and the drawbacks that accompany it.

madmax

Funny, I've just been bitten by the photography bug in the past few weeks. No, no interest in film at all, too much setup and pain in creating a dark room and I like instant gratification. Looking at the Canon and Nikon SLR's. The EOS 50D Canon looks pretty awesome. Maybe the new Canon T1i for about half the cost would be cool. I don't think initial cost matters after seeing the cost of the lenses...
madmax

billbillw

madmax wrote: »

Funny, I've just been bitten by the photography bug in the past few weeks. No, no interest in film at all, too much setup and pain in creating a dark room and I like instant gratification. Looking at the Canon and Nikon SLR's. The EOS 50D Canon looks pretty awesome. Maybe the new Canon T1i for about half the cost would be cool. I don't think initial cost matters after seeing the cost of the lenses...
madmax

Don't forget to look at the Pentax models. They can work with any K-mount lens ever made. I have picked up a few amazing AF and manual focus lenses for what amounts to chump change (a 50mm f1.7 for $20, a 135mm f2.8 for $25, a 100-300 AF zoom for $60 and a 28mm f2.8 for free). Pentax also has image stabilization built in to the body, so it will be effective with any lens.

VSchneider

jdhdiggs wrote: »

.. join Nikoncafe.com Very similar attitude and vibe as this place and you'll see at least 4 polkies being more active over there than here.

+1 on that forum recommendation; tons of useful information. I am a member as well (not too active, though) Who's there from Club Polk?

shack

Yeah...but all they talk about is Nikon stuff.....

Why would anyone want to do that? :rolleyes:

billbillw

shack wrote: »

Yeah...but all they talk about is Nikon stuff.....

Why would anyone want to do that? :rolleyes:

I agree. That's why I go here:
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/