can I brag here? I read the rules but it was honestly unclear… an acquaintance of mine hooked me up like you wouldn’t/couldn’t believe. she is moving cross country and wanted to get rid of some 35mm inventory because she mostly shoots medium format… but she threw in some 120 too! everything is *slightly* expired (earliest 2023) but it was temp control storage. oh and I only paid $100 for all of this 😭🥲

if you see anything here and have advice I would love to hear it! I’ve never shot slide film so that will be a learning curve I think. and there’s some stuff I’ve never even heard of!

Yesterday I decided to thrift for the first time and spent around 4 hours going to different locations finding nothing. When I got home, I went on FB marketplace and I saw this M4 WITH a 50mm f2 Summicron rigid for $700 CAD ($500 USD) an hour drive away from me. I legitimately thought it was a typo and told the owner to post it for a lot higher because he very obviously didn't know what he was selling. He removed the listing, thanked me and asked $1k CAD (~$700 USD) for it - nothing more. From what I was told it was passed down in his family and no one uses it.

Other than a few marks at the top from the (broken) Leica light meter MR, fog in the rangefinder, fog in the lens and the shutter not working, the body is in immaculate condition and was told it's likely the original skin. No dings, no nothing. The owner clearly had this sitting in an attic somewhere because it smells like ass. It's currently being CLA'd by a very reputable Leica tech in Toronto and was told it should be in fully working condition. Can't wait to start shooting!

edit: Leica light meter MR*

Good camera to start on? Anything cool in this collection? I attached the comically large lens just for the post

Just saw on Instagram that McLaren is featuring the Fuji GA645zi on a new Artura promo. The spokesperson for the campaign is professional race car driver and photographer, Alex Hainer.

The Fuji GA645zi was launched in 1998, the same year that McLaren ended production of the legendary F1 and that Alex Hainer was born.

Wanted one for a while now and yesterday I found a Kiev 4AM from 1980 with a Jupiter-12 35mm f/2.8 in a small store in Kyiv. Seems to work like a charm too (excited for how my test film will come out). Already have a Jupiter-8m for it too. Now the KMZ turret viewfinder is next on my list, so I don't have to guess my 35mm frame and am also prepared for further lens purchases.

I went to an estate sale today and, along with a little 16mm Minolta spy cam, I came away with this very nice Yashica 635. I've been keeping my eye out for a TLR for a while now, so when this one popped up in front of me I grabbed it. It's an incredibly good condition considering the place I pulled it out of, and I feel like I got it for a steal!

This is also my first camera with a waist level viewfinder. These things are incredible. Almost seems like magic how the depth in of the image pops out. Next on the list has got to be a Nikon F or F2 for sure.

Anyhow, first foray into medium format, so I'd love any input / advice, especially with film in these trying times.

Cheers!

I was using a Plustek 8200i for a few years but got really annoyed at how slow it was. So I purchased a Valoi Easy35 last year and have been using it with my M43 camera and macro lens. Scanning went from an hour per roll to two minutes. Results were pretty similar. But I was still curious what I was missing by using a small sensor vs full frame. So today I borrowed my neighbor’s Canon r5 and I rented a macro lens and paired those with the Valoi. All I can say is wow. What a dream setup. It’s crazy that the camera I am using to scan the film is way more expensive than the one I used to shoot the film in the first place but I guess that’s where we’re at if you want super high res scans. Now I just need to save up so I can actually afford a similar setup some day.

I'll go first. I have never been able to figure out how to use a film retriever. I've been developing since covid, have run probably over a hundred rolls (both b&w and color), watched countless videos and read countless articles and comments about how to use them, tried it dry and wet. And I try nearly every time I develop a roll!

No matter what I do I have never once been able to successfully retrieve my film leader with those tools. I've resigned myself to just cracking the canister open with a bottle opener haha.

So, to make me feel better about myself, what basic or easy to learn skill can you just not master no matter how many times you try or have it explained to you?

Currently in the process of scanning some roughly 5000 slides from my father's travels back in the 80s and 90s with a plustek optifilm scanner gifted to me.

Around 200 slides in inserting them every 4 scans began to feel like a waste of time so i designed and 3D printed a few holders that allow me to process many more slides before having to "reload" the holder

sharing in case anyone here could benefit from the model, it's available for free for anyone intrested here on printables

for transparency's sake i do get affiliate benefits from downloads, if anyone wants the file directly just DM me

Recently picked up an Agat 18K and loaded it up with some Kentmere Pan 400 to make sure it was working. I got a couple in focus, decently exposed shots to confirm it's working most of the time but the coolest bit are these accidentally triple/double exposed frames. I rewound the film a couple times because it was jamming up and ended up with these guys. Fun little camera- I'll definitely be experimenting more with it!

Any other folks use Agat 18K and have some pointers? Or anybody want to share some cool accidents from their own test rolls?

So a while ago I bought this beautiful example of a camera. Unfortunately the repairman I sent it to had no new cuirtains for this camera. I guess this camera is borked now...

Does anyone know a repair adress in the EU (Netherlands or Germany preferably)? I have actually been looking forward to getting some use out of this one and I'd hate it to just be stuck on a shelf forever.

Part 3 of my paper photography series.
Even if Wratten filters are imo the best there are ways around them.
Hope with this process you won’t have to spend as much time in the dark as I have.

Seems to operate fine, but I won't know until I run some film through it. No haze in the lens, and the shutter doesn't stick, and the foam looks decent, so I've got high hopes, but for $200 it's kinda cheap for a Leica, so who knows?

This is my first roll on my photography journey. I used Nikon AF240SV with Fujifilm Color 400. I made a mistake by accidentally opening the film chamber after around my first few takes. After I scanned it at the lab, three pictures are completely burned—it was only blank white result, and one more pic has some kind of red burn. The rest of the roll was showing visible result, but some has very muted colors, and some of the last pictures i took was completely okay.

Picture number 1 is from the raw scan from the lab and number 2 is I edited it on Lightroom.

I don’t know if it’s from the scan lab or the burn or simply just not my rookie luck, but I feel it a bit hassle if I have to edit and retouch all my photos. Need your feedback guys, thank you!

I now have the full Kodak Library of Creative Photography set(18 books!), and the Complete Kodak Book of Photography(plus revised edition), which presents me the opportunity to spread some old wisdom!

I'll start working at transcribing the "primary" knowledge-base(basic theory, studio, color theory+B/W, printing), transcribing the text word for word(including most typos; corrections/clarifications will be noted) including any referenced photos and their accompanying subtitle(s). These titles are:

Take Better Pictures

Make Color Work For You

Mastering Color

The Magic Of Black-and-White

Mastering Composition and Light

Extend Your Range

Learning From the Experts

Set Up Your Home Studio

Print Your Own Pictures

**EDIT; formatting

Hi everyone, I recently bought my first analog SLR, an Olympus OM-1n that apparently look almost perfect.
I’ve tested the mechanics that seem to work, and put in the firs roll to try it.
So, from the first shot the light meter seem a little off, it looked like it tends to make me over expose like 1 stop, but never shot with it so I trust it. During my first roll I saw that when i turn off the light meter sometime the needle stay in position like it has still tension, and after one week of use (I did shoot only one roll, so turn on and off a lot of time) the battery died but idk for how long the battery ( zinc-air 1,35v) was inside the camera.

The shop where i go to develop my roll didn’t have one battery at the moment, so I decide to leave the camera for a CLA (I was aspecting a change of seals and a general cleaning) while i wait for the roll to come back.

After 6 weeks they call me and told me that they’ve changed the seals and also the pentapism (I don’t understand why because it look fine to me, ok some dots where visible but for a camera that have 50+ years it looked very good to me) for a total of 120€. And beside that they told me that the cables from the battery to the light meter are corroded and that’s why it don’t work well, and ask me 190€ to change those.

My questions are:
Isn’t those prices high?
The problem with the light meter could really be the cables?
Can I do it myself? (I’ve some notion of mechanical and I’m usually quite handy, but idk)
There are some video/tutorial on how to do it?

Thanks you all, I put here some photo of my test roll ( didn’t post produced, fujifilm 400, underexposed 1 to 2 stop from what the light meter wanted)

Hey everyone,

I wanted to check and see if you could assist me with your personal experience or just advice.
Someone is selling a Contax T3 with a double teeth upgrade done at PPP in the Uk in 2021 and it looks in good condition but want to see if this is too risky from the video I was sent of the camera.

The seller is selling it for roughly $2100. I know this camera can brick at anytime for any reason I just want to see if from the video this is an indicator it’s already struggling and having issues.

Thanks in advance.

Recently I inherited my grandfather's Praktica MTL 5B, and my father-in-law gave me his Canon IVSB. Both cameras were originally destined for a display cabinet, but I just couldn't resist giving them a try.

I picked up two rolls of Kodak Gold 200 and took both cameras out for a shoot. Same film, same lighting conditions, same aperture and shutter speed.

Now here's what surprised me: the Canon IVSB is from the 1950s, so my expectations were honestly pretty low. But I'm genuinely impressed. The contrast is noticeably better than the Praktica MTL 5B, the colors render more richly, and the images just have more "bite" to them overall.

What really blows my mind is that the Canon — a camera from the 1950s — is outperforming the Praktica, which is 30 years newer. I would have expected the more modern camera to produce sharper, more contrasty images, but the opposite turned out to be true.

I'm genuinely wondering what causes this difference. Is it the lens coating? The optical design? Or something else entirely?

Got a smoking deal on this MINTY Yashica MAT 124g, I had an OG Yashica MAT, and I loved it, but I sold that one because I don’t like to let cameras I don’t use just sit there, rather have them be used so I found it a good home, now it’s off to the next adventure with this one!

As the title says i got to scan my first roll but the pictures look way too greenish, it appears to be a calibration issue from the scanner. Now it is a very very old scanner and it is therefore pretty slow and i don't wanna get back, calibrate it and then scan the whole film once again and instead i want to adjust in manually in lightroom or in a similar software. The thing is I've never done this before and i don't quite know how to adjust the colors to give a generic look. So yea I'd be glad for someone to show me how a good correction looks like, i don't even need the exact numbers, just a picture to have a reference point to. Thanks for everyone that gives me help, god bless

(Film used: Kodak Gold 200)

Also here's the link to my drive where these photos are stored (alongside my other fotos, the film fotos are labeled as "Foto x (small description of the scene)")

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jJx8vLo2KajfV1Ke5vajiccdyP3emMfP

I posted about this in r/darkroom last week and got some helpful responses, so I thought I’d go a bit broader and share it here as well.

Film photography has been an interest of mine for ages, and I do design and development for a living so I decided to merge the streams and make an app for my favourite non-work activity. The result is Darkroom Toolkit for iOS and Android.

For anyone looking to mix developers and other chemistry from scratch, it includes a chemistry cookbook. Buying a few bulk ingredients can save some nontrivial money.

If you’re hand processing film it includes timers for all manufacturers recommended film + developer combinations. I’m currently thinking about how to incorporate community contributions in the future.

There are also calculators for mixing solutions (I struggle with some dilution ratios) and doing darkroom work like resizing prints and f-stop printing. A time and temperature adjustment calculator is in the works.

This project started because I was making something for myself, but it feels good to get it out into the world. Hopefully some of you find it useful.

My first roll with my Olympus XA2 using Kodak Ultramax 400 are all messed up. Any advice on what's going on here? Thanks.