I did something I haven't done in a very long time: Loaded the Canon SLR with actual Fuji slide film!
And now I am thinking of finding a roll of Plus X for the old Argus C-3. There is a weird thrill in using such ancient technology again ...

I did the same not too long ago. I found an old Canon QL-III 35mm rangefinder and decided to run a roll through it. Had to adapt the battery system to use hearing aid batteries but in the end it worked out great. Took some pictures of my nephew with it and I think those are the only pictures of him that are actually on rolls of film!

Kinda strange how that goes. It's really hard to compare. Film has an entirely different feel... and for the better.

Now, if I could film instead of do video, that'd be great, but way too expensive these days!

Good luck. There are some spectacular cameras out there for dirt cheap that don't use "SD cards..."

300: I find it makes me a much more careful shooter, not that that would ever result in quality photos, as I just do not have an eye for composition.
But it is fun to have those exposures sitting inside the camera that I can't look at until I get the processed images back from the camera shop.
Kind of like watching black and white TV, or using a rotary phone ...

In a recent British photography magazine there was an excellent editorial on photo albums, the kind with family photographs. You can still look at your great-great grandparents photo albums, like finding lost nuggets in time. That writer wondered if digital images will still be viewable on their original support in 200 years.

So, we take a lot more pictures now then ever before, but we print and make albums of lot less. Kind of a shame really.

As far as I go, nothing to show here yet! I've recently been archiving some old photos of my dad. There are not many pictures of him growing up, and I don't think they had too much time or money to be fooling around with photography, but here's one I found of him working the family farm circa early 40s (North Dakota).

[IMG:left] [/IMG]

I wonder about archiving a lot too. Be interesting in 60 years what we'll be taking pictures with, or if ours now will last!
Just looking through old photos, I prefer these old black and whites to the hi resolution stuff we can take today.

It's funny with film rolls that I don't have enough "worthy" photo ops to fill 24 in a roll, but with digital I'll come home and have 100 pictures!

I guess it's not getting everything, just one or two things, and if all you have is 5 photos, you appreciate those more.

Hunting this fall I'm going to be taking film on 8mm and 16mm rather than video so I'm excited. Might not bring the digital stuff so I can't fall back on it!

quote:

Originally posted by Zeke:

Maybe. If you post a picture here you have obviously digitized it to be able to post it. Scanning a photo that wasn't that great to begin with is not really the point. Sorry, but you can't really post that family photo album from 1958 and thereby describe the process of taking those pictures with an old film camera or the pleasure of flipping the pages on that album.

However, if you can somehow post the difference in reading a book with pages you have to turn and reading a book with a Kindle, then I'm ready to be enlightened.

quote:

In a recent British photography magazine there was an excellent editorial on photo albums, the kind with family photographs. You can still look at your great-great grandparents photo albums, like finding lost nuggets in time. That writer wondered if digital images will still be viewable on their original support in 200 years.

So, we take a lot more pictures now then ever before, but we print and make albums of lot less. Kind of a shame really.

I think about this quite a bit and wonder if people make sure to pass on their passwords and locations of their important documents be they stored online, on a backup drive or simply protected by the login password when their computer starts. I'd be willing to guess 1 in 50 actually do. It makes me wonder what record of daily life will be left when the first 'born digital' generation dies.

I have always considered the Argus C3 as an insult to 35mm cameras. Yes it uses a good film format. No - there is nothing else about the camera that is remotely redeeming. It American made and it is easy to see how the eary Japanese cameras wiped it out. Garage sales and flea markets used to be common places to find excellent Japanese SLRs whose only crime was the lack of an internal meter. Many of my filters cames from buying old Japanese SLRs robbing them of the accessories and then reselling the basic camera at a profit.

Not to long back, I got the bug to did out some older camera's too. Got out my old f5 first, had to learn to use it all over. Only shooting Fuji 100 Provia in it. Then the bug spread and I got a bunch of Fuji B/W for my RB 67 and then of course some 120 Fuji Provia. First rolls back were'nt that great but getting better. When I looked at te first slides from my 35mm I wow! Then some from the RB came back and they just blew my mind!Wish I had some sized dow, I'd post a couple. Loving my film!

A couple of months ago I got rid of all my Prof Nikon equipment and lenses. With arthritis and worn out knees they just got to be too much. Now have a couple of Leica's (a digital M8 and a film M3) and feel much better about it. Now I actually use them rather than just have them in the car. The quality of Fuji Velvia in the M3 is something I had forgotten about. The color is magnificent. And I had forgotten how simple the settings were. Along with a Gossen Luna-Pro it brings back pleasant memories of times past.

I was looking at used Hasselblad and Bronica medium formats the other day. Highly affordable, but a guy really does need a full darkroom to do them justice.

Bill/Oregon, That's exactly what disallusioned me about digital. You MUST post process or you don't get much and I absolutely hate PC's. It's going to be interesting to see if I can find someone to process film. My rangefinders will probably do most of what I want to do which is just capture memories. Started in 1954 with a 1000F and progressed thru a 500C and from a Bronica S1 on to a S2. Liked them both very much along with a huge Pentax SLR like 120. 120 is pretty hard to beat for any use.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
I was looking at used Hasselblad and Bronica medium formats the other day. Highly affordable, but a guy really does need a full darkroom to do them justice.

Bill,

There is slide film still available, like Fuji Velvia. Then it's just you and the camera. Deciding to enlarge and print later remains a decision not much different than previously, although Cibrachrome, which was my favorite, seems to have disappeared.

After reading the above posts I guess I'm not the only dinosaur still using film.

A medium format camera with Kodak Ektar film (And a good film processor - there are still some remaining) can't be touched by any digital thing (well - almost).

Boltshooter: And then there are the glass plate images, so incredibly data-rich, at shorpy.com.

Digital media is short lived compared to an actual photo.
Last I heard a commercially made CD had a life expectancy of 20 years. Re-writable media has a shorter life. How many of us have lost data when a 3-5 year old hard drive died.
Properly fixed, rinsed and stored films and photo's can literally last centuries.

I think having photo albums made, which is very easy to do online, is the best way to save the choicest photos. I've done that for my last two safaris and enjoy being able to look at, or share, the photos without turning the computer on.