Amateur looking to break into RF Photography

[McFlurry]

Originally Posted by hteasley

A lot of fans of it here. Can produce great images. Not a rangefinder, obviously, but still a great camera.

Does you budget change if you try for an X100? It's nowhere near what you described as your target budget.

Seen used ones around for 900 dollars. Considering the xpro is on the verge of release (Or already has been) I'm assuming the price would lower. Of course this is nothing but a guess, and something I would save for in the future if I found it was best suited for my needs.

Originally Posted by ChrisN

You can buy and process a lot of film for the price of an X100.

My thought exactly.

[crispy12]

Still film is expensive, and is an ongoing investment. Most good quality labs are quite costly, I recently developed some c41 at BigW and every single frame was scratched across. Just remember to factor that into your budget.

[McFlurry]

Originally Posted by crispy12

Still film is expensive, and is an ongoing investment. Most good quality labs are quite costly, I recently developed some c41 at BigW and every single frame was scratched across. Just remember to factor that into your budget.

This is also another fear I have with film. I have no other means of developing my film, and I have no possible dark room available to me, nor a space to create one for myself. Let alone learn everything about it.

[hteasley]

Originally Posted by McFlurry

This is also another fear I have with film. I have no other means of developing my film, and I have no possible dark room available to me, nor a space to create one for myself. Let alone learn everything about it.

If you have a scanner on a computer, you can shoot black & white and develop it yourself for not much money, and scan the results in. B&W development is easy to learn: if I can do it, anyone can do it. Development costs go from several dollars a roll to several cents.

[fenderslash]

A couple of points from my personal experience:

I know that everyone's different, but I caught the rangefinder bug a few years ago and dipped my toe in the water with a Minolta Hi-Matic 9 and a Canon QL17 GIII. They're great cameras and I still use them occasionally, but I soon came to the realisation that I enjoyed using my Pentax Spotmatic SLR kit better. The moral of this story is that I'm glad I tested the rangefinder waters with cheaper examples rather than jumping straight in to a Leica.

Secondly, I wholeheartedly agree with the recommendation above to develop your own black and white negatives. In fact, that's half the fun of film photography. You don't need a darkroom. All you need is a change bag to load the film into the tank; a developing tank; the chemicals; and a few other odds and ends like measuring beakers; and you're set. After that initial investment the ongoing costs are quite cheap, and it really is a lot of fun and very fulfilling to see your own photos come to life. You'll then need a scanner for the negatives, but that's a one-off investment too if you don't have one already.

[ChrisN]

Originally Posted by crispy12

Still film is expensive, and is an ongoing investment. Most good quality labs are quite costly, I recently developed some c41 at BigW and every single frame was scratched across. Just remember to factor that into your budget.

Similarly, depreciation on digital gear is expensive.

Originally Posted by McFlurry

This is also another fear I have with film. I have no other means of developing my film, and I have no possible dark room available to me, nor a space to create one for myself. Let alone learn everything about it.

As others have said, a darkroom is not necessary. For years I developed my film in the kitchen or the laundry. You need only a changing bag for loading film into your tank. About $70 should buy you all you need if you shop around carefully. A good scanner will be needed if you want to make prints, or settle for a cheap scanner for web-images and proofing, and get the best negs scanned professionally for making files for printing.

[McFlurry]

Thanks for the info on B&W shooting. I'm going to be researching this myself, but do you folks have any links to what you believe to be a good source of info on it? Maybe even a possible link to another thread on these forums. Thanks.

[ChrisN]

Start with the Ilford website, especially the sections on Applications and Photo Study.

[fenderslash]

I agree with Chris. Ilford has some great information...



This particular Ilford guide on the link below was my "bible" when I first started out. The step-by-step guide starts at page 8...

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf

Using that guide as a starting point I made my own step-by-step guide to follow when developing, printed out on an A4 page. Over time I've personalised it a bit by adding and slightly changing things.

Here is another link I saved a long time ago which seems to have some good info too...

http://chromogenic.net/develop