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Used my film camera for the first time in 15 years.

1K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  Robert1950 
#1 ·
Pulled out my Nikon F90x AE/AF film camera w/ a 50mm f1.8 AF lens from hibernation. Hadn't been used in 15 years. Spend 10 minutes or so with a toothbrush cleaning out the corroded battery compartment. Got some 400 ISO colour film and fresh batteries and went out. Seems to work well enough. When I pressed the shutter there was a rather pleasing quick zip-ker-plung sound that you only get with 35mm SLR. Felt pleasantly nostalgic.

After I had just finished shooting the film, I was approached by two young college students, one with a camera. He was taking pictures for his media class and asked I he could take some photos of me. I said yes and asked, "What do you notice about my camera?" He that's why I asked to take your picture. I asked him again what the camera. The other student's eyes opened wide and said, "Does that use film !?!" Both were amazed. "Can you get that developed now anymore !?!" They went on for a bit. I was sure neither had ever seen a film camera before. I found them amusing. He took a few more pictures of this old guy with with ancient piece of tech.

He was using a 50mm lens on a APS-C sensor camera, so he was only getting a mild telephoto perspective. Didn't take much to figure he hadn't been doing this long. Suggested a couple of smalls zooms. Told him about bracketing (read your manual) Gave him a couple ideas of what to shoot close by. Pointed out the position of the sun is good at this time of day for that and so on. Stopped by the camera store to drop off the film.

It was 12C, sunny, light breeze, Basically what Edmonton should be at this time of year. In the end, not a bad day at all. Soon after I took a few shots with my compact Lumix DMC LX100, that I always have in my bag, when I saw something that said "photograph me"
 
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#2 ·
I still have a few 35s and a bunch of lenses. Sold off the medium and large format stuff years ago. If I was to use it again I’d shoot B&W but I don’t really have time to process film and do the printing plus all that is a big mess of chemicals and such. Unless you are selling prints it’s a lot easier to just look at images on a computer screen. Looking back on it film was a real pain; if I was shooting an ad on large format I’d have to send test shots to the lab by taxi in the morning for the first E6 run and they’d send it back in a few hours telling me if I needed to add filtration to bring the color into line. And if something needed to be retouched it was an expensive fuckin neuisance.. lol
 
#19 ·
I just came across this thread and couldn’t help but notice the somewhat unique and rather rare Large Format camera affiliation with a “guitar guy”. Don’t see that often. I only got perked up because I used to be into photography in a big way for many years.

Then, almost “just like that”, I sold my 8x10 Wista camera and all the gear. Then the 7x17 Wisner and all its gear went. Now I have exactly nothing that’s camera related. Took the money and bought guitars. Much easier to play guitar than to come up with a meaningful photograph but it was fun while it lasted.
 
#6 ·
Oh my goodness !
We can still buy 35 mm films ?!
I will get my old Minolta Maxxum out !
I bought it before my trip to Frisco in... 1985 !
P.S. I kept it along floods with the idea of self developping black and white portraits... but never did !
 
#7 ·
I was really into film photography when I was younger. Then I discovered girls, hockey and books. Now my exploits are with a iPhone camera. Still think about how to compose shots but have settled for convenience. I did recently buy a turntable though so I'm doing my bit to preserve old tech.
 
#10 ·
Checked the used value of this camera (F90x) on Kijiji Canada. Several for sale. $50 to $200. High price is for dreamers, $50-$100 (at most) sounds more in the right park. These were well $1000 new in the 90s. I think I picked it up for $300 a year or so before I went digital (early 2000s). Only put a few rolls of film through it.
 
#14 ·
In the day, the F90 was a great camera. I started with an old Brownie my Mom gave me and then my uncle left me an old Argus 35mm. For a flash it used the big reflector and flash bulbs you see in some of the old movies. Surprisingly, I took some good pictures with that, I used to have an Nikon FM for years that I got while I worked part time at a camera store in Halifax. I finally sold it on eBay about 12 years ago.
 
#16 ·
Hey, Robert, just out of curiosity, what does it cost to develop a roll of 36 these days? I think it was around $8.00 for the last one I did.
 
#21 ·
i never got into it. my oldest sister sure did though. she used to take all sorts of cool pics. she made one pic where it looked like little sister's boy had no arms. i thought it was hillarious. my little sister didn't though. somehow, for me, that made it even funnier.
 
#23 ·
Digital has opened up so much more for me in photography. But there is a discipline that comes from shooting with a camera that just has 36 exposures and having to wait days for the results. You have be less sloppy with composition. What you shoot is what you get.
 
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