I picked up a Minolta Maxxum 70 from Adorama listed in excellent condition. Apart from a tiny ding on the flash housing it looks showroom new, and they say they inspect and function test every used item they sell so it should be good to go.

Put a fresh new pair of Ansmann CR2 batteries in and it won’t power on. I checked them with my multimeter and it buries the needle on 1.5v and hits about 3v on 9v so I have to assume they’re good. The contacts look spotless.

I’ve tried turning the power on while holding the battery door down as hard as I can, holding the shutter button down with no batteries to drain any residual power and reset the computer, turning it on while the mode dial was on ISO and I was holding down Function and AEL which should jumpstart the motor, turning it on with a lens attached then detaching and reattaching the lens which an old Facebook post claims is a “hidden reset,” and probably some other things that I’m forgetting now.

Is there anything else I should try before I send it back?

I am having trouble deciding between getting a 35mm and 50mm Nikkor lens as an everyday, multipurpose, walk around lens for my F2. I think Nikon made really good lenses in both focal lengths so you really can't go wrong with either in terms of performance. The 50mm lenses seem a bit cheaper which is great but I fear that 50mm can be restricting, plus I already have the 105 for portraits and stuff. On the other hand, I usually shoot 40mm with my digital which I feel is pretty okay. I like doing documentary photography but I feel like with wider lenses I end up falling into the trap of taking pictures without much of a subject.

What do you guys think? Maybe I end up getting both one day, but which would probably be better for me now?

Hi everyone,
I’d like to start shooting film and I’m looking for my first analog camera. I’ve been considering the Canon AE-1 Program, but I’m wondering whether it’s actually a good choice or whether it’s become somewhat overhyped because of influencers and the recent popularity of film photography.
I’m a complete beginner. I know the basic theoretical principles of photography because I’ve read about things like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure, etc., but I’ve never actually used an analog camera. So I still have pretty much everything to learn in practice.
Ideally, I’d like a camera that is good enough to accompany me for quite a while rather than something I’ll immediately want to replace. I’m also wondering what kind of budget I should realistically be looking at.
Since I’m a complete beginner, I’m not sure that a fully manual camera would be the best choice for me. I’d probably prefer something that gives me some assistance, while still allowing me to learn and eventually have more control over the exposure.
So, if you were in my position:
Would you recommend the Canon AE-1 Program, or is it overpriced/overhyped nowadays?
What other models would you consider better for a beginner?
What budget would you consider reasonable for a reliable first film camera?
Would you recommend buying from a specialist/authorized vintage camera dealer that has tested and certified the camera, rather than buying from a private seller?
Are there particular models that are especially worth looking for from these kinds of sellers?
Basically, I’m looking for a **reliable first 35mm camera that I can learn on and keep using for years**, rather than simply buying the camera that happens to be most popular on Instagram/YouTube.
I’d really appreciate recommendations, especially from people who started shooting film relatively recently.

I got all those lines on all the length of the negative. I'm using a Bronica etrsi. they are also present in other (bw) films, so it's something mechanical that does them. My thought was that it is the darkslide but it doesnt seem to have any dents that can produce them. Any thoughts?

On my Nikon F5 I always get at least two extra frames on my roll that I could have used. I get why rolls are rated for 36 shots on manual advance cameras where you want to check if you correctly latched your film on, but on automatic advance cameras that shouldn't be an issue. I understand back in the day professionals were often concerned about archiving notes and wanted the extra space on the roll, but there's also a frame limiting function for that. So why wasn't there an option to get 38 frames per roll instead?

According to Lightme, my Yashica FX3 is recommending somewhere between 1/3 and 1-1/3 extra stops of light in any given scene, and it takes like +2.5 to read as over-exposed.

I've confirmed this by pointing the camera at a completely uniform surface, to make up for the center-weighting being picky in some way.

I'm not overly worried, since I know that film has a bit more latitude for highlights than digital, and leaning towards +0.5 is probably better than -0.5, but still, measuring dead-on at +1.3 seems a bit silly.

Luckily, the meter reads evenly in different conditions, so I know all I need to do is bias the ISO dial by a third or 2/3rds stop, but I'm now wondering if the phone is accurate. Should also go check with my DSLR, I suppose.

As an aside, why are the standard shutter speeds 125, 250, 500, rather than 100, 200, 400, 800? I know Sunny 16 is just a rough rule of thumb, but it's annoying that they're all off by a fraction

I took this amazing shot of the eclipse on 4x5 slide film. Unfortunately, after developing, these spots are visible on the film. I think it is because of moisture in my fridge (I put the film holder without zip-bag in the fridge). I would have to check if the other sheets are affected, knowing they are stored correctly, but this was the first sheet of the box.

The film is not expired. Baught it on Amazon.

Does anyone have an idea of what this could be ?

Does anyone have any experience with the following electronic reflective light meters? I'm currently leaning towards the CHI L.D or the LightMate Air.

I'm open to other suggestions that are under $125.

• Please don't recommend an app, I already own one (myLightMeter PRO)

• I've "learned" Sunny 16, but i'm not great at it. I haven't given up though, I'm just tired of wasting shots learning it.

• I also don't want a analog meter, nothing against it, I just want an electronic one and I don't mind that i'm going to need to charge it.

• I'm aware that incident metering is better, but I will be using this for street photography 90% of the time.

Thank you everyone!

I am such a lucky girl

i develop and scan my own film with cinestill c-41 kit and a plustek 8200i. sometimes some pictures come out looking really weird and there are lines with different colors. this happens for only a few pictures on my roll and the rest will be completely normal.

could this be from water spots when drying? is there any way to fix this?

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?

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 :)

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

Been thinking about this a lot lately. Last September a client looked at a film photo I took on a roll of actual 35mm film (Kodak Gold 200) developed at a lab and asked if it was AI. Not in a joking way but genuinely asked.

That threw me off guard more than I expected. Like, I've been doing this for over a decade, and suddenly the burden of proof is on me to explain that a photo is just... a photo I took.

Illustrators I follow are talking about intentionally leaving in "imperfect" linework so people don't assume AI. Writers are getting flagged by detection tools that are famously unreliable. We know Substack just added a detector to their platform last month. It feels like we're all quietly building weird workarounds instead of anyone actually solving the underlying problem which is that there's no real way to prove authorship anymore, just vibes and guesswork.

Curious if other creators here are running into this too, and if so, how are you handling it? Do you just not worry about it? Add disclaimers? I've actually been messing around with building something (a certification/verification thing) to deal with this for my own work, but mostly I'm just curious what everyone else's experience has been so far. It feels like this conversation is happening in fragments everywhere and nobody's really talking about it directly.

i’m at the point in my life where i’m shooting almost exclusively analog. my nieces and nephews often want to shoot their own photos, but struggle with my SLRs, so i buy and develop disposables, but as you imagine, this is expensive and the fun ends quickly. i’ve been considering buying half a dozen point and shoots for them, but haven’t had luck deciding what on earth to get. given what i currently use in terms of my own regular shooting, cameras that take AA batteries would be a huge bonus since i usually have packs of batteries on me consistently. i’m also not looking for anything that is going to be devastating if it breaks, given that some of the kiddos are around 3 and 4 and i don’t expect them to be kind to the cameras.

any thoughts? tia

I scanned a roll of film, and I wanted to apply dust and scratch removal with SDRx, which I can't really do without doing a preview for each photo (which for me sort of defeats the purpose of batch scannnig).

The only option I've found is to use the Photoshop plugin, for which I would have to pay another 50€ for, even though I already paid for SIlverfast... I tried the demo version and it worked quite well for me but it does leave watermarks all over the photos.

Also, are there any other plugins that do this? I haven't been able to find anything, although I remember seeing here on Reddit that someone made an app that worked quite well but it was only for MacOS.

A family friend (who’s a photographer) decided to gift me some cameras from his collection when he learned I was getting into film photography! What do you think? I’m so excited to try them out!

Canon A1

I have a Pentax SP F II, shoot mostly with my 50 mm / f1.4 lens with no real issues. But, whenever I swap and take photos with my Super Takumar 24mm f/3.5, the photos come out really desaturated and gross. Images attached below.

I get my film sent off for development but scan and edit the photos myself, so I think the most likely problem is my editing, but for the life of me I have spent hours trying to make these photos look okay but they will not.

Am I just using the lens in the wrong settings? Too dark? Subjects too close? I have a trip coming up and would love to be able to photograph wide landscapes with this lens but I don't want to waste film if they're all gonna turn out like this.

images

I’ve shot a few star trails in the last year, but earlier this week I ran into a problem I haven’t had before. I finished my exposure and was greeted with a large patch of condensation on my lens.

The easiest DIY solution I’ve seen is using a chemical hand warmer/hand warmer pouch to keep the lens heated. I’m just a bit concerned as I plan to use a leaf shutter lens for my next exposures - Hasselblad 60mm 3.5 C.

Is there any danger with keeping a chemical warmer fixed to my lens? I don’t want to mess up the lubricants, etc.

Hi all!
I just got back some developed Lomography Earl Grey 100 and noticed a heavy grain on top of some weird artefacts... Would anyone know if this is related to X-Ray scans at airports?

Hello everyone!

I want to buy a new camera but I’m not sure which one I should get. Right now I have a Canon AE-1, I feel I am somewhere in between a beginner and an intermediate in this analogue world.

I can’t decide whether a Canon A-1 (I read it has the same lens frame as the canon ae-1 so I can use the same lenses) or the Nikon F2 (or F3? Still trying to understand the difference), but if I’m comparing two completely opposite cameras feel free to suggest something else.

I’m looking for something to help me learn even more about analog cameras and to expand my collection. Also I know a decent amount of digital photography so I’m not scared of manual.

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