35 mm Film

[mrhenniger]

Before anyone says anything about digital, I don't have any plans to buy digital equipment yet, and I have multiple reasons which I don't want to get into at this point.

But here is a question for those using film. I was buying some film in prep for my upcoming vacation. I bought some Fuji Superia 400 ASA which is an excellant film and I have no problem with it in the past. I also bought som Fuji Superia 800 ASA. How is the resolution? Is there any problem with grain?

Regards,

Mike

[AIRIC]

Mike,

I really prefer the 800 Fuji over the Kodak. Better colours and less grain. I use it a lot in museums or for late day sport events. It is a good film if you do not intend to make enlargements.

Don't worry about digital. I have tried several cameras and none of them compare to film and slide when you try and print the images. The hi-lites really burn out from what I have seen. They look great on the computer but loose the look when printed.

Who do you have processing your film? I know there is Black's in Ottawa and we will burn up to 5 rolls on one CD at a time.

Eric

[Scott Rose]

I had a lot of trouble with Fuji misfeeding in my Canon Elan IIe so I stopped using it, happened about once in every 3-4 rolls. I stopped using it and have never had a problem with any other brand, even the crappy generic stuff.

I'm probably going to switch to a digital SLR as soon as funds are available. Since my main focus in photography is for the web it shouldn't be a problem and will drastically cut down on developing costs. I take too many #$%$ pictures

[dj51d]

Can't help you with the 35mm, I don't have much experience with film. When you're ready to go digital you'll definatly appreciate the savings on film and developing costs. I've had a few higher end digital point and shoots, and I have nearly 1GB of compact flash cards. I figure all my equipment has paid for itself in saved film and developing costs. I'm going to get a digital SLR next, right after a new PC for video editing and flight sims.

I have a co-worker who is an avid photographer and big on film, I'll see if I can get a reccomendation for you.

You may want to check out photo.net if you haven't already.
photo.net film page

[mrhenniger]

Mike,
Who do you have processing your film? I know there is Black's in Ottawa and we will burn up to 5 rolls on one CD at a time.
Eric

You may not believe this, but I take my film to the Photo Lab at my local Loblaws grocery store! They have a the same machine they have always used for processing the film, a machine I would guess isn't any different than Blacks. Last September they replaced the "old" optical printing machine with a digital printing machine, which means they scan the negs and make prints from the scans. It works very well with 4x6 prints, and the software in the machine nails the colour balance and exposure EVERY time. So now I don't even bother to get prints when I take film in for processing. I get the processing and they burn the scanned images to a disk. I then take the disk home and edit what I can, and most often there is something I can improve in each shot. Afterwards I dump the images I want prints for to a CD-RW and take those back to the Photo Lab for prints. They are even supposed to have the ability to download the prints via the net and pick them up at your own store soon.

Thanks for the tips on the 800 ASA Fuji. I think I will get some more to use in inside shot during my upcoming trip.

Mike

[AIRIC]

Mike,

I have entered the digital era. A new D-70, lots of memory and an extra battery. NO money left for food so I better put the camera to some extra work.

Eric

[dj51d]

Looks like a nice camera, seems pretty comparable to the Canon Digital Rebel. When I get an SLR I'll probably go with the Digital Rebel as it has one feature the D70 doesn't, the ability to use the same batteries as my PowerShot G3. One feature of all DSLR's that seems to be both a blessing and a curse is the size of the sensor leads to a multipler of 1.5(Nikon) to get the equivalent of the same lens on a 35mm camera.

What did you go with for media? My preference is for compact flash rather than the micro drive, no moving parts adds to reliability, and CF cards can survive much more shock than a hard drive can.

[mrhenniger]

I have entered the digital era. A new D-70, lots of memory and an extra battery.

Very nice. I am looking forward to hearing about the particular challenges of shooting Warbirds with digital.

Mike

[Scott Rose]

Very nice. I am looking forward to hearing about the particular challenges of shooting Warbirds with digital.

Mike

The big one that I've found is anticipation. With film cameras you point you focus you shoot and bam you've taken a picture. With the digital you point you focus you press the button and a second later it captures the image. Now I haven't used one of the Digi-SLR's yet and I'm hoping they are better. I have used some higher end fixed lense cameras and this seems to be a common issue. If your aware of it and allow for it you can get some good shots, but if you don't pay attention you can take pictures of something completely different (assuming you move the camera).

Now with aircraft it's not too bad, since they follow a predictable path... but man did it take some adjustment for hockey games.

Scott

Last edited by Scott Rose on Tue May 25, 2004 4:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[dj51d]

You get used to the delay pretty fast. But I still do occasionally find a shot of the grass or tarmac when I download the images to my computer.

[Scott Rose]

It took some getting used too. Hockey is way more unpredictable but with a little practice I still managed to get this shot (look at back of net)



Over all I like digital cameras, the only flaw is the delay. And I'm sure they'll figure that out eventually. I looking forward to someone posting thier experiences with the Canon Digital Rebel.

[mrhenniger]

Very nice Scott! Next time you need to sell your car so you can buy a ticket right down at the glass and keep the "ribs" out of the shot.

Mike

[dj51d]

Is the delay unique to digital cameras? I always assumed it was from the autofocus. Most of my experience with 35mm is with plain old fixed focus cameras.

[Scott Rose]

Is the delay unique to digital cameras? I always assumed it was from the autofocus. Most of my experience with 35mm is with plain old fixed focus cameras.

Yes it takes a second for the CCD's to gather the data (and then longer to actually write the data to storage) When your used to quick shutters this delay is forever. Its almost like using a slow shutter speed.

[AIRIC]

No delay with the D-70. I put it through the test yesterday at YYZ and banged away the images just like film, only I shot four more images of every aircraft than I normally would. The auto focus was flawless and never failed me even when I was focusing on an aircraft a mile back. I mostly used my Nikon 70-300mmED lens. All of the point and shoot digital cameras have a shutter lag. This puppy is built for action and is highly recommended. One problem I did encounter was I already have two specs of dust on the CCD. Easily fixed in Photoshop but annoying none the less. I will look into the best way of cleaning a CCD when I talk to my Nikon rep on Monday. This is an area I want to be really careful. The D-70 can also use three CR2 batteries in a back up which is a nice option in a pinch.

I will post some of the images from YYZ soon.

Eric