The Film Thread (Red Ring not Required) A place for Analog Photography Nuts to Talk

Hi, Film Shooters. I recently picked up a Canon Elan 7NE. I am a hobby shooter, and mostly take snaps of family/home/general. I appreciate the anticipation of shooting film, but not really into 'this film looks like that', or 'that film looks like this'. I buy what Walmart has on the shelf, mostly. I did some darkroom work in the '70s and hated it. I'll shoot. Someone else can process and print.

I see some very nice renditions of film work in this thread. How do you do that? I own two flatbed scanners (HP 3050 & HP 5660), and my scans look like crap compared to what I see in this thread.

Do you print specifically for scanning? Size, finish, etc. Or do you print what you want/need and scan that? Do you scan so you can edit, or just scan for sharing electronically?

I have a 6D and 100mm macro, so I can 'scan' that way, if it is better. Is there an easy way to square up the print to the sensor? I don't have a stand or anything, but I do have a decent tripod.

Some labs offer a CD of low-res scanned images. High-res drum scanning at the local Nikon/Print shop is about $20 per roll, IIRC. One is crap, the other is expensive. Is either worth it?

Am I overly concerned about scanning, and I should just lighten up and go shoot some film. I have 3 rolls of Fuji 200.

The photo was scanned at 1200dpi and cropped for posting. The colors are muted. His muzzle is a brown as the rest of him, not grey. What am I doing wrong? (I see I do need to clean the glass. )

Any suggestions/hints/tips will be greatly appreciated.

Just playing around a bit more. I cleaned the glass and picked a better photo to work with. I like how this one came out. There isn't enough in it to do any editing, but at least I can scan for posting.

Scanning can be a major pain. I've seen some great scans using a DSLR and macro lens, though I've never tried that. The Epson v550 is a pretty solid first scanner. It's not the highest of quality, but it'll get the job done. You can get those for around $100 if I remember correctly. I had the Epson v600 (which is the same as the 550, just comes with different software) and it served me well. Mine ended up with a problem so I bought a Plustek 8100 which is really nice, though much more expensive.

I would recommend getting an Epson v550 or v600 and go from there. It's more money up front, but you'll save a lot of money in the long run.

I scan with a Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II which produces good scans but it is a pain to get started with any scanner, getting used to what settings to use etc. I use VueScan rather than the Canon software and I seem to get on better with it. I've done a few rolls with a DSLR and the negatives mounted on wall and this was a far easier and more flexible way. I have been thinking about rigging up a cheap USB lightbox and a scanner negative mount and doing it that way. I saw this (https://petapixel.com …lm-negatives-with-a-dslr/) online a year or so ago but his setup looks quite complicated so I thought using a wall and a lightbox with a tripod would be easier. The good thing about using a DSLR to scan is you can process the image as you normally would plus you get a RAW file. According to the purists over on APUG I am a "hybrid photographer" because I scan instead of wet printing. It works for me and with most of our images going on facebook or dropbox for family it's the most practical way and if I do want to print some I still can.

They say when scanning to use the highest resolution the scanner can do but I have found 1200 is about right and even then the files can be quite big. I scan to DNG format. I think my scanner goes up to something like 9800dpi but at this resolution the files are huge.

I am in the UK and send my colour negatives to AG Photo for processing, so for the colour films I normally just let them scan them. I think it's an extra £5 per roll for medium resolution files and saves me doing it - I can always rescan the ones I like if needed. For my 6x9 negatives I normally just scan them myself as £5 for 8 images is a bit expensive!

Elan 7ne with Kentmere 400, pulled to 100. Soaked in D-76 and scanned with Epson V-600.

I shot this with my kiev 88 right before it broke

Also made a video review: https://youtu.be/YJOVe​bJ1VtM

I made a few mistakes with this roll. I loaded it into my Yashica Mat 124G and then placed the camera on the shelf for a month. Forgot I had film in it and opened the back to put more film in. Quickly shut the back of the camera and shot the first frame and prayed that the rest of the roll was fine. Then I forgot what type of film I had in it so I thought I had Portra 400 when in fact I had Ilford Xp2 in it lol. I usually put a pice of paper on the back of the camera to let me know if it's loaded and with what type of film. Live and learn. Scanned on an Epson V550.

Yep. Done about the same a few times. I go through phases or projects where I shoot a lot of film than nothing for 6 months and forget what was in the camera. Thought I lost a roll of film only to find it later in the camera.

Help me, please. I am suffering from fear of releasing the shutter.

I grew up on film. Got my first camera in the middle '60s. Bought my first SLR in '76. I shot film until my last camera died in about 2008. I've been shooting digital since. I've had an Elan 7NE (my second copy) for about two weeks. I can't bring myself to release the shutter. With digital, who cares? Chimp, delete, repeat. With film, I can always find something about the shot to make me not take it. Lens, focal length, lighting, framing, aperture, yadda-yadda. After a week of that, I decide to mount the 85 1.8, and shoot a roll with just that lens. I got the camera out 3 or 4 times. I'm never happy with what I see in the viewfinder.

I can pick up my 6D and fire 20 shots at the cat, or the wall for that matter. Who cares? It is almost free. When I grab the film camera, I want everything to be perfect. It is almost paralyzing me. Any suggestions?

Just shoot. Take one to two extra seconds composing, because you can't spray and pray, and shoot. It is the same.

to me its been one of the beauties of film..

I've shot film .. 2001 was the last time.. i cant really remember it tho to be honest..

fast forward 17 years..

got curious .. bought a pentax k1000..
on average there are more keepers in one roll of film then there are when i go out with digital (per 36 pictures)
because i'm not just shooting for the sake of pressing the button..but now i'm doing my best to make every one count
i'm waiting for that moment ..
i do mostly street with film ( and the family of course)

but yes .. theres that hesitance to release the shutter
one because i have to manually focus, which holy crap is hard with street shooting ,, I've gained a whole new respect for the old school street shooters who only did manually..
and because theres that thought .. "what if theres a better moment coming?"

but at some point you just have to click..

rantercsr wrote in post #18436202
to me its been one of the beauties of film..

I've shot film .. 2001 was the last time.. i cant really remember it tho to be honest..

fast forward 17 years..

got curious .. bought a pentax k1000..
on average there are more keepers in one roll of film then there are when i go out with digital (per 36 pictures)
because i'm not just shooting for the sake of pressing the button..but now i'm doing my best to make every one count
i'm waiting for that moment ..
i do mostly street with film ( and the family of course)

but yes .. theres that hesitance to release the shutter
one because i have to manually focus, which holy crap is hard with street shooting ,, I've gained a whole new respect for the old school street shooters who only did manually..
and because theres that thought .. "what if theres a better moment coming?"

but at some point you just have to click..

Keepers with film. That may be the key. I've gotten so used to trashing 90+% of my photos that pressing the shutter doesn't mean as much as it once did. Perhaps I am just way overthinking this. I don't think I ever shot a roll of film with all keepers, but my hit rate was way above 10%. I realize I am using an auto-focus camera. That takes focus off the table. This should be easy. Jeez, 40 years ago I shot German amateur soccer with a 24-105 and 70-210. Manual focus, manual aperture, manual film advance. I did OK, then. "...at some point you just have to click..." I'll try it again this weekend.

Bassat wrote in post #18436157
Help me, please. I am suffering from fear of releasing the shutter.

I grew up on film. Got my first camera in the middle '60s. Bought my first SLR in '76. I shot film until my last camera died in about 2008. I've been shooting digital since. I've had an Elan 7NE (my second copy) for about two weeks. I can't bring myself to release the shutter. With digital, who cares? Chimp, delete, repeat. With film, I can always find something about the shot to make me not take it. Lens, focal length, lighting, framing, aperture, yadda-yadda. After a week of that, I decide to mount the 85 1.8, and shoot a roll with just that lens. I got the camera out 3 or 4 times. I'm never happy with what I see in the viewfinder.

I can pick up my 6D and fire 20 shots at the cat, or the wall for that matter. Who cares? It is almost free. When I grab the film camera, I want everything to be perfect. It is almost paralyzing me. Any suggestions?

I find that when I shoot with a film camera I tend to be quite cautious while I am shooting because I want to make sure I have the correct aperture and shutter speed. I check my in camera meter continuously or if I have my little hand held light meter I use it for every shoot I take. It's actually great practice for digital. I seldom spray and pray anymore because I make sure my settings are right before taking the shot.

When you get the roll of film processed you can check it and see if your settings were correct. If not, try again and again until you get the shot you're looking for.

CameraMan wrote in post #18436980
I find that when I shoot with a film camera I tend to be quite cautious while I am shooting because I want to make sure I have the correct aperture and shutter speed. I check my in camera meter continuously or if I have my little hand held light meter I use it for every shoot I take. It's actually great practice for digital. I seldom spray and pray anymore because I make sure my settings are right before taking the shot.

When you get the roll of film processed you can check it and see if your settings were correct. If not, try again and again until you get the shot you're looking for.

Thanks. That is encouraging.