Thread: 35mm SLR Camera's

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I saw an artical recently saying Nikon is ceasing production of film type cameras in favor of digital media.

It brought a tear to my eye. I still hgave my Nikormat I got in 1971 and it works great.

Anyone still use these things or have you all gone digital? Are you having problems sourcing film and developing?

I inherited my in-law's Nikomat FTn a few years ago, it is a pleasure to use. I still regularly shoot with a Leica SL that is older than me but recently parted with my dear Rolleiflex SL66 as there was no place in the area willing to process 120 color film or sell any 120 film. 120 film getting off the shelves also forced me to retire my oldest fully functional camera: a No 1a Kodak Autographic Junior from 1918 that got converted to 120 film after 116 got discontinued in the 80s.

I do process all my B&W films myself as it is quite easy and doesn't require a lot of equipment.

I like doing my B&W negatives as well. It's easy to keep a double-roll take, a few bottles of chemicals, and the black bag handy. Once I'm done, I scan the negatives for processing in my software. I love digital, but I also love film. Kinda like wives and girlfriends....wait...not going there

I still have a 35mm body or two lying around. I used them all the way up until about 3 years ago when it just got harder and more expensive to process the images. I was having to digitize them anyway to get anything done and by the time I FedEx'd everything with film the bill was pretty high. Unfortunately. My regret was getting rid of my Mamiya. Oh, well. Life goes on.

I still use MF with toy cameras and such, but 35mm is really not cost prohibitive at all. It seemingly doesn't produce a better image to justify spending more. It was a sad and dreaded day when we made our switch.

Ashai Pentax K1000 user here. I got it a few years back to learn how to expose and compose on a fully mechanical SLR. I absolutely love it.

I still have my EM and it works great. I haven't fully embraced the digital thing, still use the Mamiya 645 as well.

Originally Posted by Stubear

My dad still has an old mechanical Asashi Pentax, which is a great camera. I really love the ker-CHUNK you get when you work the action or take a picture. Awesome!

I mentioned on the light meter thread that I noticed our middle daughter using an SLR (borrowed from a college friend) on a visit home. Your comment reminded me that it was that familiar sound that caught my attention when she took a picture, and made me realize what she was shooting with. She loved the feel of that camera by the way (I don't recall what model it was), and was thinking of getting one for herself.

The BW and I are currently the only two adults in the industrialized world, I think, without a digital camera. I'd like to get one for the convenience, but I also fantasize about some day replacing my lost Zenit-B. It's kind of like vinyl LPs versus CDs -- I appreciate the new technology, but there's some elusive quality unique to the old, I think, that is still worth pursuing.

~Rich

I'm down to my last film camera - my workhorse Canon F1-N. I've got a freezer full of film, and lots of great glass for the Canon, so I'm never selling it. Sadly, I'm using my Nikon D200 more and more. It's just so easy... I recently sold my NIB Mamiya 645 Pro TL because it sat unused in my camera bag for a year. I just don't have the time for film and photography in general, that I used to have. My best photos were always taken with medium format film and printed on Fuji Supergloss paper.

I really miss Fuji Supergloss paper...

Olympus OM 1 that i bought new in 1978 and spent the extra money for the 55mm 1.4 lens. it's taken a beating and kept on shooting, but almost two years ago i retired it and bought a canon rebel digital slr and hated it until i just bought the 1.4 lens for that. the kit lenses were way too slow, and i'm a brat and only use the camera in manual mode. we have a slew of cameras.

Canon AE-1 Program with an additional 50-200mm lens. I still enjoy taking it out into the mountains and usually only use 800 speed film.

While I do have a Canon EOS XSi, which I want to sell, I do love and miss film photography. I've taken a few classes on it awhile back and really enjoyed everything from pushing film, pretty much everything you can do in the darkroom. While I love digital manipulation and Photoshop, been doing those for years as well, there's just something about the passion of film photography that really is amazing, and there's also things you can do with film developing that you can't do digitally! Which is a bummer that the top film camera company of it's time is discontinuing its film production cameras, just only to compete with today's digital market.