Freestyle own brand films and developing/scan

[bobar57]

Excuse me

From reading this - maybe this is obvious to all but me - bobnar57 said he was getting his 'new' rangefinder camera shortly, which prompted the original questions about the film, processing, etc..I have to guess from that, that the main thing here is the camera, which just happens to be a film camera. If he's an artist, the "RF style" might be the important thing and not so much whether it's film or digital. Maybe he'd be shooting digital if he could afford an M8 or M9 and then film wouldn't be an issue at all. If the type of camera didn't matter, I would have most certainly suggested that he just go out and get a digicam or something and solve the whole problem of 'what to do with the film' in one swoop; eliminate it altogether!

I'm not trying to be controversial here, most of us who shoot "real B&W" do it because of the fact, among many other reasons, that we can do it all ourselves and that it makes financial sense to do so. That, and the fact that we (or at least I) think that there is no digital substitute or equivalent for making a real silver negative and projecting it onto a piece of real silver paper to express my personal vision in a photograph. I can't get that from any lab at any price, but YMMV.

I think bobar57 just wants to be able to use his rangefinder and not worry about how he gets the photos in his hands. My two bits.

Forgive me if I don't address you by your name,but you don't sign with it,neither have it in your profile.And by the way you can call me Robert,that is my name,and I sign my posts with it.
I think you have a twisted view of me or have misinterpreted the my posts.
First,lets clarify that I call myself a humble beginner amateur in film photography,but I will let you slip some facts and a bit of history:
-I started into photo since I was 16 years old and I'm 52 now.Back then,in Cuba,in my interest to photograph a marlin fishing tournament-I was a big fan of fishing and a fisherman for great part of my life til my early 40's-that I asked my aunt(who lived right in Miramar,a neighborhood facing the western beaches and few former yacht-fishing clubs of Havana)for a camera,as she happens to have none,she introduced me to her-across the street-neighbor,who had a huge collection of them,and nicely and friendly handed me what I recall now could be a Nikon 35mm rangefinder and explained me how to use it in a way that I quite understood.This neighbor happened to be the late Alberto Korda,the one who took the famous photo of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and that is well known all over the world.I got interested in photo too then and he gave the basics training,tips,advice,the like,not a course,not a detailed training.
A few years later,in the V.I.Lenin School I took a vocational course in photography,and me and a pal worked in the school weekly bulletin as photographers,shooting with ORWO B&W film and Russians Zenith 35mm SLR,developing and printing in a hot,closed room,probably the size of a solitary cell of those ones you see on films.At home,sometimes I experimented in the bathroom,with towels covering the window and the light bulb as source of light for rude,out of focus medium format prints from negatives of these old plastic unreliable TLR of the past.
Life took its course and photography became a pastime.
When I arrived to the US 22 years ago,I purchased an affordable Pentax K1000 and a couple of third party zooms and photo was into my life again as a hobby and to record memories of my children.
During all these years I have owned several cameras,I don't collect them,.maybe is my nature,but if I want another one,I sell the one I have-I have to save too-since my income never was great,as you can expect from someone living only 2o+ years here.There used to be a camera store(now sadly out of business) in the touristic section of Coconut Grove,here in Miami,the owner became a fried of mine and he always asked me over the years,as technology advanced why I liked manual focus cameras and B&W film?My response was more or less this one:I like the independence of choosing where or whom to focus,the leisure of time to frame,compose and decide best combination of speed and depth of field for my subject,according to the mood or atmosphere I try to convey and the drama of a B&W photo that is lost in color-unless there is a perfect color situation-(just my personal opinion).
When digital film took over the market and started to prevail between consumers,I refused at the beginning to use it,even had a heated discussion with some photo artists who used digital and that cost me almost a list of enemies.
Digital continued to evolve,and as consumer,after starting losing near sight and needing diopters and the abrupt cease of production of the good and now well sought Nikon FM3A,of which I had at a moment 3,one silver and one black for me and another silver I gave as a gift to my daughter who took interest in photography in school,maybe-and I like to believe so,makes me proud-after seeing me with cameras during years.To my shame I sold those two I had and my daughter's one was stolen in a car break-in.I will always regret selling these cameras,not only the cameras,but a whole collection of prime Nikkor lenses(20,35,50,85,105,135 and 200mm)mix and match of AI and AIS.
I spend a few years without a camera,then i plunge as consumer into a Nikon D70,later a D90,couple of standard package zoom lenses,nothing fancy,nothing sharp.I didn't and I don't believe in digital,I don't care for it.It lack the soul of film,doesn't matter if you develop it and print it yourself of a good lab does it,the spirit that a film image convey is unique.Yes,you can argue as an artist too-B&W film photography from start to finish is an art,IMO-as well as I can argue about painting.
I have now a Fujifilm Finepix J38,present of last Christmas as a my birthday present,well is now in repair,it isn't replaceable,it's discontinued already,imagine ,it went kaput in some family shots-the sole purpose of that camera-family memories when I don't have any other camera.
That said,Mr. Exeter2010,now you can take back your thoughts and statements.I'm not after the "RF style",it's not a fashion thing for me,I'm an artist by choice and necessity,not an snob.And I will never waste money in a Leica,being film or digital,money has a value to me.I buy what I can afford and is reasonable inexpensive and of quality,even if I hit the Lottery tomorrow,I will still buy the Cosina Voigtlander combo.Why,because I consider it a fine camera/lens combo at a price you can't find in any other new rangefinder 35mm camera.
Why rangefinders?Because I have to come to the conclusion,after careful observation of countless of images on the web,that they deliver the best film sharpness.I might be wrong,but that is my impression.
Now,gentleman,I must apologize to all other readers for the unnecessary long explanation of private details of my life and the long rant,but I considered a must to deliver my point to Mr.X.

Robert

 

[bobar57]

Robert, now you know more than you wanted to know. No one is offended, good luck.

Yes,Jim,I know,the only one offended is me.

Robert

 

[Poohblah]

I'm not after the "RF style",it's not a fashion thing for me,I'm an artist by choice and necessity,not an snob.And I will never waste money in a Leica,being film or digital,money has a value to me.I buy what I can afford and is reasonable inexpensive and of quality,even if I hit the Lottery tomorrow,I will still buy the Cosina Voigtlander combo.Why,because I consider it a fine camera/lens combo at a price you can't find in any other new rangefinder 35mm camera.
Why rangefinders?Because I have to come to the conclusion,after careful observation of countless of images on the web,that they deliver the best film sharpness.I might be wrong,but that is my impression.

I think some seem overeager to tell you what to do because they are convinced they have found the "best" way of taking pictures (perhaps this reading is inaccurate, I'm not sure). In any case, what most people don't realize about photography is that it's more of a Zen practice than it might seem from the equipment involved. In other words, the best way to take pictures is the method with which you are comfortable and with equipment you have at hand.

I don't think that anybody here was trying to be offensive or aggressive. I think some wrongly assigned an extraordinarily high level of naivete to you. At least this is cleared up now.

Also, you are correct in assuming that rangefinders tend to be sharper than their SLR counterparts, at least for the 35mm format. However, I don't think it really makes a huge difference because grain and other aspects of the film (in my limited experience) tend to limit enlargement size more than optical sharpness. Rangefinders are nice for candid street portraits though, unlike big bulky SLR's. They are easy to carry in a pocket and whip out at a moment's notice.

Jay

 

[bobar57]

I think some seem overeager to tell you what to do because they are convinced they have found the "best" way of taking pictures....

Photography is that it's more of a Zen practice than it might seem from the equipment involved. In other words, the best way to take pictures is the method with which you are comfortable and with equipment you have at hand.....

Also, you are correct in assuming that rangefinders tend to be sharper than their SLR counterparts, at least for the 35mm format.....


However, I don't think it really makes a huge difference because grain and other aspects of the film (in my limited experience) tend to limit enlargement size more than optical sharpness......

Rangefinders are nice for candid street portraits though, unlike big bulky SLR's. They are easy to carry in a pocket and whip out at a moment's notice.....
Jay

I agree with you Jay,that's probably what happened.And I believe in the Zen philosophy and the point of view of photography on it.
I don't argue that medium and large format can render sharper and better photos.And yes aspect of the film and processing influence on the outcome.
I believe,that I established already in another thread that my intention with rangefinder is exactly candid street portraits and street photography.It's what I will like to do,besides some of these candid portraits can become models for my paintings.I prefer to have B&W photos as reference.Gives more room for creativity and imagination in choice of colors on my paintings.

Robert

 

[fschifano]

I can understand that,but I have already enough worries and chores with watercolor painting as to master the medium and try to develop a clientele base to be occupied too into developing film,understand my point?

There's not much to master when it comes to film development. I mean, a trained monkey can do it. Some may like to make it seem difficult; but really, if you can brew a cup of coffee, you can develop a roll of film. But if you really want scans and don't want to do it yourself, one of the C-41 monochrome films is the way to go. Both Ilford's XP2 Super and Kodak's BW400CN are excellent films with tremendous latitude and very little grain. Prints of neutral tone can be made with either material, but unfortunately many of the labs catering to the amateur consumer either do not know how to, or perhaps don't care to set up their printer properly to deliver a neutral print. Most of the time, they just set up their printers with a default set of parameters and never change it. These are the very same labs that mostly deliver crappy color prints too, so they're not hard to spot. If you want good, neutral toned prints from C-41 negatives, your best bet is to find a good pro lab and tell them exactly what you want. They're not inexpensive, but the work is good.

 

[Exeter2010]

That said,Mr. Exeter2010,now you can take back your thoughts and statements.I'm not after the "RF style",it's not a fashion thing for me,I'm an artist by choice and necessity,not an snob.And I will never waste money in a Leica,being film or digital,money has a value to me.I buy what I can afford and is reasonable inexpensive and of quality,even if I hit the Lottery tomorrow,I will still buy the Cosina Voigtlander combo.Why,because I consider it a fine camera/lens combo at a price you can't find in any other new rangefinder 35mm camera.
Why rangefinders?Because I have to come to the conclusion,after careful observation of countless of images on the web,that they deliver the best film sharpness.I might be wrong,but that is my impression.
Now,gentleman,I must apologize to all other readers for the unnecessary long explanation of private details of my life and the long rant,but I considered a must to deliver my point to Mr.X.

Robert - I am afraid you may have taken a measure of offense to my remarks about your original question and I'm sorry that you did. My intention was to throw some light onto what I believed was the main issue in your initial post.

I did my best to read through your subsequent 'history' statement and from what I can gather, you took my comment about "Rangefinder Style" to mean that either the status of using/owning a rangefinder camera was the important thing to you, or something that would go well with your shoes or your hat. Sorry, I didn't mean it in that way. I use a rangefinder in 35mm and I do it because that is the "Style" of 35mm photography that I prefer, as opposed to SLR "Style" shooting.

I think that's just fine and I can certainly relate to that. From your responses to others' encouragement to develop your own film, since you apparently wanted true B&W (I think), but were adamant that you hadn't the time to do your own processing (you said), but were willing to settle for any kind of film or processing (I gathered), but wanted the utmost in quality and sharpness (it sounded like), but did not want to go digital (you implied) and that it had to be a rangefinder camera (you insisted), I was left with only the camera that was significant.

After reading through all that and applying my own remarkable powers of deduction and a little process of elimination, I came to the conclusion that the only thing important to you with regard to photography was that the camera had to be a rangefinder; the use of which some here, including myself, would consider to be a particular "Style" of making photographs. Thus, the comments in the offending post. Again, my regrets for offending when all I was really trying to do was get to the crux of your issue, much like a psychologist or detective might and to try to clarify to the rest of the group my own astute and clever observations about what you really wanted in the way of advice from your original question. Whoops! I guess I was off a little.

My apologies to you and to the group at large... Phil Maus, Photographer

 

[bobar57]

when all I was really trying to do was get to the crux of your issue, much like a psychologist or detective might and to try to clarify to the rest of the group my own astute and clever observations about what you really wanted in the way of advice from your original question. Whoops! I guess I was off a little.

Yes,you were waaaaaayyyyy off.You're neither a psychologist or detective.Just common sense will indicate to search of all my ;posts or threads and you would have found,Mr.Holmes,that I have already decided to buy a Bessa R3A w/a Nokton 40/1.4 MC.And I'll shoot with any 35mm film camera,but since is my money,I rather invest it wisely,prudently in a good and not so expensive camera/lens combo.As to buy a used camera,just anticipating,a generous fried from this community has offered one for free and is on my way already.
So,we return to the same point,I will be saving to buy that "style" camera/lens combo I want and in the meantime lets discuss the topic of this thread,while I 'll shoot some photos in the meantime.
Oh,and please,detective,read the question of the thread before posting,is a wise advise from an older amateur photographer.

Robert