after finding a roll of B&W film i shot in college, getting it developed and finding that some of them were actually ok i’m getting back into photography. i have a Nikon FG-20 that my mom gave me. it’s a beginner’s setup, which is nice for me. i went to glazer’s friday and picked up four rolls of tri-x 400 at the suggestion of my uncle and i’m going to give it a go. this time i’m keeping a log of the aperture and shutter settings as i go so i can tie the results to some hard numbers. my goal in this is to convince myself that i’m worthy of a dslr setup. i really want a nikon d40 since it’s pretty much the digital equivalent level of the camera i have now. plus after initial investment there is no further cost if i don’t want there to be. developing B&W film isn’t expensive but it isn’t cheap either. $35 bucks and a week to get negatives developed and scanned to cd. it’s not that bad, and i really like the lab i use, Panda Labs, but it’s just an expense i’d like to eliminate if i can.
i’m not sure how long it will take me to get through a roll, but i’m really enjoying myself so maybe this batch will come along faster than the other one. i’ll be sure to post up the found roll once i process and upload them and i’m sure i’ll be posting the new ones as i get them.
keep it locked kiddies.
Jared:
Good for you! I had not done a lot of B&W but Nilda had a class at Hayward State and I got to help.
She even developed and printed her own stuff. One afternoon I got to help print at an outside lab where we could rent space and chemicals at a good price. I learned a bunch and had fun.
Even if you just send yours to a lab, it will be cool for you to correlate aperture/shutter speed to results. Check out photography on Wikipedia too. Lots of cool info there for free.
Truth be told, you are already ready for a DSLR but have some fun with the B&W film camera first.
Wanna know more about various models, check out http://www.dpreview.com .
Of course, you have already tapped into one of the best resources you could… Lance! He’s gotta be a wealth of experience waiting to be downloaded into your brain.
enjoy,
Joe
yeah, i could have taken the class in college but i never had a spot open. i wish i had.
i’m holding off on the dslr because it’s really an unnecessary expense when i have a perfectly good camera. i figure once i can consistently deliver at least properly exposed pictures i can justify the initial cost and ditch the recurring of film development.
you’ve probably seen this site, but i prefer DCRP (www.dcresource.com/). maybe it’s just the site design, but i really do like the way the guy reviews cameras. he touches on all the features in what seems to be a professional opinion, then breaks it down to how the average consumer would want to know. i do cross-check to dpreview though.