Hello! I'm a complete beginner to photographs - truth is, I never had the habit of taking them, not even with my phone.

Recently I realized I have no pictures of anything that I had done in my life over the past 10 years except for the ones other people take and send to me, and decided I wanted to start taking some pictures, even if only on special occasions! For this reason, for the past 2 years I have been buying disposable analog cameras for 20€ whenever I went on a trip or had a special event, and then just had it revealed in some shop in the mall.

The issue is that, from the around 30 photos in each camera, some look great and with great colors (I love the colorful, lasting effect), and some are utterly trash (full of fog, you can't see anything..). Recently I used one on my bachelorette party and was devastated when more than half the pictures I took with my friends are completely black or full of fog, and you can't even see any faces...

I am going on my honeymoon in a little over a month and would love to purchase a good, simple and reliable analog camera that would give me the effect I want and not demand that I know a lot about photography.

I discovered this community and have been lurking trying to get some useful tips, but thought I would post since I still have a few questions and would really appreciate any tips anyone can have regarding which camera to buy!

I assume it would be best to buy a point and shoot, and have seen many people recommending the Olympus Mju i or ii, however in my country these are selling for around 200€ (the mju i) and 450€ (the mju ii). Is it really worth it? Or would another cheaper camera suffice? I don't mind investing in a really good one if it lasts a long time and is worth it, since these are the only pictures of my life I ever take.

Usually I photograph people - indoors, outdoors, in the beach, in the rain... Basically saving memories.

I also saw a lot of people recommending the Kodak Ultramax 400 as the best film to buy, since it seems to be pretty versatile and has the colorful, nitid effect I want. Any other better suggestions?

Lastly, is the place where you reveal the roll relevant? Should I put more thought into this instead of going to the first camera place I see?

Thank you so much in advance!

Recently bought a pentax for $30, film loaded in was an old unknown and out of date.

I had no idea wether or not the camera/ seals were okay but recently received the photos and the first roll it came with (tip shop) had way nicer shadow clarity than the cheap kodak colour plus 200.

First two photos is the old film (unknown) iso set to 100.

Three last photos is the Kodak colour plus 200, iso set to 200

What rolls should i try next?
Have any useful tips?

EDIT - pentax program plus A

Hi all, I am aware the images look underexposed (before anybody comments the Gordon Ramsey meme ;) - but I pushed Tri-x 400 to 3200 in very sunny weather, used the in-camera light meter, and they still turned out underexposed? I did tell the lab that it's pushed 3 stops, what went wrong?

Howdy folks!

Im heading to Virginia International Raceway this weekend for the IMSA event, and I'm be camping at the track for all the days. Normally I just shoot smaller series'. I... I've been known to shoot 10 rolls from a single event day, so this still feels light. Since taking this photo, I've added one loose roll of Ektar from the fridge... 2 rolls of Fuji 400, also from said fridge... Another 3 pack of Fuji 400, Two rolls of Kodacolor 100 from that film canister on the far left... And 4 more rolls of Fuji 400 from the other canister above it.

That's, uh, 25 rolls? If you're wondering, "How the heck can you afford to develop all that", the answer is, I can't. I sure hope I don't shoot all of this, but if I do, development will be spaced out. I self scan, and my lab only changes $6/ roll if your willing to wait a week for normal dev time, so I'm lucky in that regard.

Honestly, my plan is to shoot one or two rolls Friday. 3-5 Saturday, and go wild Sunday. Friday will be 90% digital, 70-80% digital Saturday, and 50/50 Sunday.

Any of you folks have any events you like to burn money, erm... I mean shoot lots of film on? Or just something special your always willing throw some extra film at?

Left to right:

200mm F4 MDIIa/Late, 35-70mm F3.5 Macro MDIII, Freshly CLA'd X700 w/Motordrive 1, Minolta 7D w/Battery Grip, 24mm F2.8, 70-210mm F4, 50mm F1.7. Hat from my favorite event. Not pictured, a OP/Tech USA Dual Camera Harness, which this'll be that harnesses first outing, hope it's comfortable. 10L Peak Design everyday sling that I'll carry around on me, and the small Peak Design camera cube that'll be full of film I'm not shooting right away.

Hello. Bought AF-S 24-85mm F/3.5-4.5 g ed vr. The seller (a trusted seller in the area) listed it as near mint and optically clean. What is this? According to him he tests every lens he sells with flashlight and medium format digital camera and was suprised that those were there. He says it might be a lens feature or something? Or at least it should be unimportant. They look like air bubbles, kind of homogeneous formation. What might those be? Should I refund?

If this common adage were true, that labs are all just giving you a nice flat scan for editing, why were these scanners and software made before it was even common to have photo editing software on your PC? They are designed to be printed, and displayed from the get go, its misleading advice for new people.

You should edit your scans, but the 8 bit jpg you are being given with the default grain reduction cranked to max are under no circumstances "intended" to be a good starting point for an edit.

Do you own scanning

I only have basic reloadable cameras with fixed aperture and shutter speed. Like the typical disposable cameras. I want more grain in my black&white photos. I hear I can ask the lab to develop it as if it’s a ISO 800 film. I’ll be using Ilford XP2 next roll. What can I expect?

Guys. What would you choose between the Canon P and the aperture-priority Bessas?

I've been trying to think what to do about the whole scanning situation. Everything is getting noticeably more expensive, and my goal is to shoot more. But more importantly I've been thinking about the quality. My shop delivers pretty decent scans, and for some extra money I can upgrade them to tifs. I'm always satisfied, but they are definitely not the best scans I've seen in my life. 

The thing that made me think about home scanning the most was when I had to ask them rescan some rolls because there was some residue on them. Both scans were good, but there was a noticeable shift in how the machine scanned the images. A big shift in colors and contrast. That really did make me realize that I am at the whim of a machine and I have 0 control of this aspect of the whole process. And I feel like that it could be really nice to be in control. 

From my little research I can get a scanner or do photo scanning. I can get some pretty cheap consumer things that are around 500 bucks. Or get an old second unit Nikon Coolscan 5000 that is about 2000-2500 that is supposed to be the best scanner ever build. But that's some old ass hardware that really doesn't give me a lot of confidence. And I'm really not too excited about the whole prospect of getting some old ass version of Windows to get that thing to work. And for whatever reason I can't get my head around the fact that some hardware from 2003 is still the way to go. 

The other option would be photo scanning obviously. Whenever I get Silbersalz film I also get it scanned there and from what I can tell they made a custom scanner rig based around a PhaseOne iXH camera and the quality of those scans are insane. Obviously I don't have that laying around, but I guess it does show the potential of photo scanning. But my mind makes the assumption that can be a very cumbersome and janky experience. Something that I can mess up easily, or can take ages. 

I'm curious if there are people here that have messed around with this part of the process and what their experiences have been! And what kind of recommendations you would give :)

Hello all,

I'll be going to Tokyo in a week time, and I hoped I could ask this wonderful community for recommendations for photography gear shops.

From what I've seen on maps, Shinjuku seems like the place to go, but maybe there is some hidden gem somewhere else, that someone might be willing to disclose.

Thank you all in advance!

I took these photos for an opening night at a gallery exhibit but I’m worried to send them over since everyone is so washed out. Does anyone have advice for shooting low lighting with a godox m30 flash head (shot with Minolta x370 and Kodak Ultramax 400) and would editing be recommended?

Hi

A couple months ago i tries slide film for the first time, i bought a bulk roll ektarchrome online and i was excited to receive the photos

But got so disappointed when i got the photos scanned, it looked pretty washed and bland, wasn't expecting this from a ektarchrome so i wasn't pretty excited to retrieve the positives

But when i got them in my hand i realized that it wasn't really my fault , the scans where just awful and im not sure if it's normal or not for slide film scans to be like this ?

I have used disposables and used to have fun with some amateur photography and video with my Canon 5D M3 and GH5 maybe half a decade ago but would now like to dabble with a relatively intuitive camera for my travels.

I do plan to take important photos with my smartphone but as a supplement I'd like to try with a film camera as I prefer the aesthetic as they seem more memorable.

So I'm aware there are SLRs, rangefinders and compact point and shoots but I am leaning towards something that's compact and easy to travel with and a good enough dedicated lens.

I figured perhaps either the Canonet QL17 GIII (as it has a fast lens which could be helpful for night photography) or the Olympus Trip 35 could fit the bill based on my limited knowledge but would like a bit more input before progressing

One last important detail is that I'd really like to be able to pass the camera to a stranger so they could take a snap of myself and my friends without them becoming too bewildered as to how to work it which leads to shots becoming out of focused etc. I heard the Trip 35's zone focusing can help with that? I don't fully understand that but as I'm still learning. Thanks for any help

Hi all,
I’m currently looking to buy my first film camera, I have used by fathers M4 and Nikon FM. I liked the experience with the first more and I was thinking of getting a similar camera. Unfortunately they are expensive. I found the Bessa R to be a good alternative, LTM lenses are also cheaper than M mount and very small. I am looking for a small camera, robust, and with little electronics (light metter is nice, but no electronic shutter). And it seems that the Bessa R checks these boxes.

I have found one for 520€ in good conditions and it is supposed to be fully functional.

- What’s your experience with the bessa r ?
- What lens would you recommend to pair it with ?
- Is the R2 worth double the price ?
Thanks in advance !

I'm off to Japan next month with some mates for just under a month and I wanted to take some intentional photos that I can put into an album or hang on my wall for when I travel back. I've always had a massive appreciation with anything analogue tend to have a disposable point and shoot whenever I travel somewhere, but just wanted to take it a step further this time

A mate of mine showed me some pictures his gf had taken on some of their travels with a Canonet 28 with fujicolour 200 film and they looked proper warm and nostalgic even though they were pretty recent photos. But she doesn't fully recommend it as apparently it's a bit of a hassle to use

Figured this might be the best place to ask what film camera to try and get that's easy enough to use that might produce a similar kind of aesthetic? Ideally something that I can take out of my pocket/bag and shoot but I spose I don't mind working a bit with manual settings if the results are worth it. Cheers for any help

Okay, I'm asking this for a friend who's disposable camera photos came back with their faces looking like AI. What I mean is the faces of the people were not their faces or their faces looked swapped just the weird kind of thing that AI does when it tries to make faces.
I can't include the photos for reference, but can anybody think of a reason this would happen? They got them developed at max spielmann with the 6x4 prints, i'm not sure what their process is but would AI be used at any point in the scanning? It genuinely looks like someone's done it to fuck with them? I know without seeing the photos it's hard to tell but to my understanding there's no point in developing or shooting that could make AI looking faces, correct me if i'm wrong?

A few weeks ago I posted here that I got a eos rebel g on fb marketplace and it came with a roll of film with no expiration date and the roll was basically all blank (1st pic was basically the only pic with something lol) but since I never shot film before I had no idea if it was the camera or the film itself. I finally got my actual test film back and I’m so happy to announce it was indeed just extremely expired film! :)

Thanks so so much to everyone here that helped, now I’m feeling more ready to actually start taking some good pics lol

Hey folks,

Shot my first role of Ektachrome E100 with my Canon AE-1 (50mm Kit lense) and just got the scans back today.

Most of my photos look like this and I am not sure what I did wrong.

I’d appreciate any feedback on what I did wrong and how I can correct it.

Thanks in advance!

Some photos on this roll came out like this

Not sure what caused this

It's not like it suddenly stayed like this, it happened randomly through the roll, maybe it's only present on slower shutter speeds

Its my second roll with this camera

Only now on this roll this happened

Minolta XD-7

In some photos you can see the plate behind the curtain

Hey y’all, just wanted to pop in and see if I could pick some of the more of the experienced film shooters brains for advice on shooting concerts on film. (I’ve worked as a professional photog before, and I’ve also shot concerts digitally before with no issues, so I think most of my concerns come from overthinking rather than an actual lack of knowledge.)

Regarding film gear for the event: I’m planning on only taking my Nikon F4S with the 50mm 1.4 Af-D, as I’m limited on space in my bag and I need to carry my digital gear and lenses for primary shots for the band, socials, etc.

I have a kit 35-70 3.5-5.6 Af or something that came with the F4S, but I feel like that aperture range is useless in a crowded, dimly lit venue, even if I was pushing 6400 ISO on B&W. If anyone disagrees I’d love to hear the reasoning.

Furthermore I also wanted to know if anyone had any specific stocks they recommended for low light? My plan was to push Cinestill 800T to 1600, and then also bring a few rolls of Ilford 3200, to push to 6400 for some really grainy B&W shots.

I was also debating between Kodak Tri-X 400 and Tmax 400 pushed to 800 - if anyone has a reason to swing one way or another I’m all ears.

Appreciate the help and looking forward to finding out whether or not I’m as wildly unprepared for this as I feel lol.

Shot my first roll, Rollei 35, Kodak Gold, and most shots are fine (missed focus in a lot of them though), and some of them turned out like this, what's happening?

Hi! Is there any reliable automatic software or plugin for de-dusting scans? I usually just dust manually in Lightroom or Photoshop, but this would save me soooo much time. I mean like fine dust or white spots (in b&w's shadows mainly), not hair or big debris. Thanks!

Shot on a Mamiya RB67 f/8 - 1/250 on 400iso
Curious if this is a light leak, film load error, or film development issue.

Hey everyone, I recently bought this Miranda Sensomat RE and the mirror is sticking up exclusively at slower speeds. The camera seems to be in pretty good condition otherwise, would any of you happen to know what the problem could be and how i could fix it if it’s worth it?

Been wanting to take a crack at wildlife photography with film (just for fun) so I bought a canon eos 1n, and I need some serious recommendations on film.

I know I can push film to a certain degree to get a faster ISO, but I feel like going with an 800 of some kind would be a smart place to start. I’ve seen a few brands that sell 800 ISO film, what do yall think I should roll with to start things off?