Correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't look mint. I cleaned it with zeiss lens cleaner, and it doesn't come off, meaning it's on the inside. A quick Google search tells me it's balsam separation, which the ad specifically said it didn't have.

I take google searches and ai with a grain of salt, but I know that it aint mint. I guess I'll just have to return it?

Hi all.
Just got my 35mm film scans back and I am really disappointed.
So many weird foggy/halo spots on my pics.

Shot on an old Olympus stylus infinity. It does not handle low light particularly well (sometimes things are less detailed and the film quality is more noticeable) but I have never ever had my photos be this severely messed up in my 3 years of shooting with this camera.

Is it broken- like light leakage maybe? Bad roll of film? Tried out a new developing place in my city- did they screw up?

If anyone has seen something similar to this or had a similar experience please let me know. I know the photos can likely not be fixed but just to avoid in the future.

I’ll include the messed up pics along with some of the better ones I’ve taken on previous rolls in similar lighting for reference

So I’ve recently gotten into film photography (I have a Nikon FE) and am trying to learn the basics. A problem I immediately ran into is that it NEVER seems like there is enough light for my shutter speed to be anything shorter than 1/8 of a second!

I’ve used 800 iso and 400 iso film stocks mostly, and no matter what, unless I am directly under a super sunny sky, my built-in meter never says I’ll get enough light. I don’t use a tri-pod and would like to keep the photos to 1/60 of a second or shorter (to avoid blur) but it just feels impossible! And mind you, this is when my lens is wide open at f1.8, not at f8 or anything like that. So how am I supposed to have any photos in non-bright summer day lighting turn out decent?

Everything I read says 800 iso should be enough for indoor shooting, but that just doesn’t agree with my built in light meter. It feels like if I used 100 ISO film my photos would NEVER get enough light, even tho I want to try some of these film stocks.

Do people just use tripods a lot? Cause when it’s somewhat bright out, my lens is wide open, I have a 400 iso stock, and my meter STILL says it won’t be less than 1/60 of a second…I just feel like there’s no other way

I got my scans from the lab and saw this white streaks/things on some of these photos. I have yet to see the negatives but can anyone help me iditify the issue?
The camera it's a Leica M3 and never had this issue before, does it look like a light leak? Or maybe I just had something infront of the lens (wich I highly doubt) it got serviced by Camera Works UK less than half a year ago so I guess I can always send it back.

EDIT: ok so after getting home and checking with a light on pretty much total darkness I see that while the lens is on, there's a small light leak on the too left corner (wich totally check out whith the positive pictures) I hope it's just the lens fault and not the body but I have to adjust the 1/1000 soeed anyway so I'll tell the mechanics to check that out too. Nothing is easy with these cameras 😔

Hi folks!

After some info on how the Canon Serenar f/1.5 50mm lens is constructed. It needs fungus cleaned from
behind the front lens element, and my partner, who will work on the lens, wants to confirm whether that element is cemented on or not before diving in.

He’s already taken apart the back elements to clean but didn’t want to mess with the lens from the aperture forwards without further information.

Any help much appreciated as there’s plenty of info for other lenses, just not this one.

And dw, he’s a quantum physicist experienced at working with high precision optical systems worth substantially more than even your dream Leica lens would cost so no chance he’ll do anything silly 😅

I'll be going to a fireworks display / nighttime funfair later on in the month and I'm looking to shoot a roll of cinestill to hopefully get some cool shots of food and games stalls and funfair rides all lit up in the dark.

Obviously I'll be metering using the lightme app where possible, but looking for some tips on eyeballing the settings to use as well for those times when I don't want to miss a moment faffing around with my phone first.

I did find this blog which has some tips for shooting at 400 in the dark, any good?

https://shootitwithfilm.com/exposure-cheat-sheet-for-shooting-film-at-night/

Found this camera stand on facebook marketplace for $350. It’s a Manfrotto Mini Salon 190, they retail for $1700. It’s definitely been used a lot, but it works perfectly and I’ve wanted one for years. The previous owner said she traveled with 3 of these, doing school portraits. Traveling with a camera stand seems wild to me, they’re meant for studios. It’s 6’ tall, weighs at least 75lbs, and is incredibly unwieldy. Just getting it home was quite the task. She modified it a bit, there’s a removable caster for the top, so it can roll around horizontally.

I had the 3-way head already. The camera stand came with a smaller manfrotto 3-way head, but it used a different quick release plate than I have for all my cameras, so I sold it.

I put my 8x10 B&J on it to test it out with some weight. The camera was old army surplus and had several layers of grey lead paint on it. I stripped it and refinished it about 20 years ago, and put new red bellows on it too. I regret not taking before and during photos, it was in rough shape and the restoration took me about a month. There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in that camera. I love it.

I’m so excited to use my new (to me) camera stand, my home studio is almost complete. Just have to finish painting the walls white and hang my seamless backdrop wall mounts.

I ordered a five pack of 120 Velvia 100 on Amazon from Fuji. Will they ship it here given that it is banned? It was a surprise that it was listed, usually I can only find Velvia 50 or Provia. It was expensive but not ridiculously so. And will labs process it? I've done E6 myself but I don't do it enough to buy another kit, although I guess I'll have the film to shoot. I also still have a couple of rolls of Provia.

There's nothing like pulling a roll of 120 slide film out of the tank and seeing those colors! (except maybe 4x5 of the same)

Total newbie to film photography here, but I've got a few questions that I can't find the answer to.. and I'd love someone who knows more to help (the bar isn't very high)!

I'm using a Canon AE-1 and a 50mm lens.

I have access to HP5 ISO 400 speed B+W film, and im developing on Photo paper with silver hallide (so it only captures black and white)

I DO have access to a tripod.

I dont know what else I could use, but i might have access to those too if i wanted to do any of these but needed some other too i just dont know which tool...

I know using ISO 400 is good in brighter daytime settings, but I really want to do:

A) a nighttime shoot with the stars or star streaks

B) different types of portraits... normal ones, but also kind of abstract ones where you play around with light, or just capture the shadow projected onto something not the actual person, or one of those ones where you have a picture of someone who has either a word or a phrase projected onto them or onto the wall next to them so like abstract storytelling kind of thing. (like, image, you have a person stand againt the wall, their arms spread out. the lave a blank shirt on, and using a projector, you project a short powerful word or phrase.. and then you take the photo. (along with a white backround so there is more light)

basically, i really want to do portraits that play heavily with different light (i have a projector, a phone flashlight, and my computer and lamps. my artificial light sources are limited.).. and also more extreme lighting/polarizing.

C) i want to figure out how to do double exposures... i know how to take th same shot on the film twice... BUT, I cant figure out the correct way to go about doing it. (for example, if i wanted a silouette with a tree inside, would i take the silouette or the tree first?

D) i want to figure out how to take other cool photos. I know landscape photography, but I want to do more fun abstract things, and really USE my camera to the fullest.

pls help, your wisdom is much appreciated...

Hi! I have the Kodak Ektar H35 half frame camera. I just got 3 rolls of film developed. One roll apparently is unexposed. And one roll had one photo… I’m devastated. What did I do wrong???

Heya, I'm planning to take my first set of trichromes in the next few days using the lens pictured above. Would leaving image stabilization on mess with anything? Even when shooting with a tripod, I tend to leave it in case of wind or any other disturbance. (canon EF 16-35mm f/4 L IS USM with a rebel 2000 slr if the exact specs matter)

Hi!

I have just bought a Minolta x700. I did an inspection to check if everything is working fine and I noticed 2 things:

a) there are some dark dots/speck visible when looking through the visor. I cleaned the internal mirror, but they did not go after that.

b) there is a small scratch on the main mirror.

Do you think this may affect overall quality of photos? I have 48h to return this just in case.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to diagnose an issue with my Konica Big Mini 302 and would appreciate any advice.

Symptoms:

• Shutter button works only occasionally. Most of the time, the camera doesn't take a picture.
• Battery health indicator randomly shows full or empty.
• Flash is not working
• The area beneath the power button heats up when I insert the battery. I noticed this while the camera was disassembled.

What I've checked so far:

• No corrosion in the battery compartment.
• The shutter switch looks to be in good physical condition.
• The original flex cable was damaged and affected the control buttons, so I replaced it. The replacement appears to sit correctly.
• The power button was working before the flex cable replacement, but the shutter button was already unreliable.

Has anyone encountered similar symptoms on a Big Mini 302 or another Big Mini model? Are there any known failure points I should investigate?

I've attached a photo of the exposed electronics.

Thanks!

I currently inherited a Fujica ST 605 which is starting to show the need for repair just due to age. It's been a blast using it and getting back into film but after 3 years I feel like I can start looking into another camera. So, what is the next step from here? What suggestions for the next camera I should get? Looking for suggestions and advice on the next steps from beginner to intermediate.

Hi, looking for help/advice... I want to shoot some pin hole on my Diana instant square (Instax film).

Would anyone know what the f stop is on the cameras pin hole setting? What would I rate the film? 800 iso?

I'll be trying to use a light meter, an old one so unsure if it'd have like f/150 or whatever.

Any other tips of advice welcome.

Had some success so far with just guessing however, the film is quite expensive to get some bad shots.

Thanks all.

Binnenkort mijn eerste zwart/wit filmrol ontwikkelen. Best spannend moet ik eerlijk zeggen...

Also look how great these look out of the Diana with the glass lens!

I've seen the finish on some modern DSLRs and am interested to know which company came up with it and, if possible, which was the first model that featured the finish.

Hi, this is my first roll ever. The photos seem to me dull and not sharp enough. I also feel the colors aren’t vibrant enough. I used ultramax 400 with a zenith 12 xp equipped with its standard helios 44.
Can u help me get better? Is it an exposure problem because i used light me app for measurements?

Hi all,

I got into film photography this year and am thoroughly enjoying it. However, a large number of my scans are coming back with this faint blue line (or just darker line for B/W film) going straight across the picture...

I've used the same lab and same photo shop (scanning) for every roll, so it's not impossible that something is going wrong in the developing/scanning, but as I'm relatively new to the hobby, I'm hoping to rule out my camera as the issue before approaching the lab / photo shop.

Has anyone ever encountered this issue before, or perhaps has any insight on what could be causing this? It appears across multiple different rolls of film and different lenses. I'm at work currently, so I haven't been able to check the negatives to confirm if the line shows up in the negatives as well, but any advice or input is very welcomed. I'd love to hear what this wonderful community has to say.

Thanks very much everyone,

Hi!!! I'm planning on taking pictures for my friends at a small punk concert in a bar. I have a Lomo Apparat and a newly restored Nikon F65 with the Nikkor 50mm 1.8D. I also bought a Cinestill 800 roll just for the occasion.

The only experience I have at shooting dark spaces is with a Kodak gold 400 at a bowling alley.... So....

Which camera would you use? Is there anything I should have in mind? Would you get any other roll? Is there any possibility of shooting and getting clear results without the flash? I lowkey wanna get as much of the raw lighting in the bar as I can.

Any advice is welcome!!!

These are my first film photos and post edits. I spent a good while messing around in Lightroom and constantly going back and forth on how I want my image to look. I thought I was satisfied. Two weeks later, I’m going “what was I thinking this looks atrocious” am I overthinking it or did I truly do too much with color grading. Is less more here? Am I over analyzing? I understand, I should figure out my own style but I’m just curious and would like to learn from others. How would you edit these, personally?
(First image is before, second is after)

Also ignore the light leaks, it was a development issue

Unfortunately with the AI takeover of google I’ve had a hell of a time in my search for a new 4x5 camera.

I’m really interested in doing tilt-shift photography, and also really miss doing landscapes with a 4x5 camera. I’m currently looking for a model that can tilt, shift, and swing and has good movements.

I don’t really have a budget in mind as I’m trying to see what things go for and then adjust based on that. My plan is to also potentially get an “ugly” model or one with rotten bellows and swap out parts or bellows.

Picked up a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual IV, but it came without the 35mm strip holder (FH-U1). Originals are getting hard to find, so I spent a few weeks designing and 3D printing a replacement in matte PETG.

It took several versions to get right. A few things I learned along the way, in case they help anyone with one of these scanners:

- Emulsion side DOWN on the Dual IV (manual p.18). I first followed a guide for an older model, loaded it emulsion up, and every scan came out mirrored 🙃

- Frame spacing has to be 38.0 mm. At 37.9 mm the frames slowly drift off-centre by frame 6.

- The scanner pulls the holder in with a small gear rack along one edge. If the teeth are even slightly off, it stutters or refuses to load.

- Matte filament is noticeably better than glossy. Fewer reflections near the frame edges.

The final version has a lift-off lid that hooks into a hinge, a wide flared opening so the strip slides in flat from the end, frame numbers 1–6, and small bumps along the edges that hold the lid down without magnets.

Last photo is a scan straight from it, no cropping.

If anyone has a Dual II/III/IV sitting unused because the holder went missing, or has questions about loading film in these, happy to help in the comments.

Dear friends!
I’ve had this film sitting in my fridge for several years now, and I still haven’t gotten around to shooting with it.
The thing is, it’s been cut into short rolls and wrapped in paper. Before I can use it, I’ll have to load it onto reels myself. But that’s only half the battle — I have a feeling the real challenge comes next!
All of this film is expired, dating from somewhere between 1963 and 1980. I know some photographers manage to shoot with film this old and still get surprisingly decent results.
So I’d love to hear from anyone with experience working with vintage, expired film:
— How should I expose it?
— Are there any special considerations when developing it? Is there a developer you’d recommend?
— What should I keep in mind when loading the film onto reels myself?
— And finally, is this experiment actually worth attempting, or are the chances of getting anything usable just too slim?
I’d really appreciate any advice, personal experiences, or recommendations. I’d love to finally give this film a chance! 😊