I lost everything in 2012, so my Dad gave me some cameras.

Hello, my name is Jack. I've just recently lost my home & I've sold my DSLR & other things to help me and my wife get a new place to live. That said, I became really depressed because I no longer had a camera, but in November for my birthday, my father-in-law gave me 3 analog cameras. Only, I've NEVER used analog, save for when I was a kid, and I shot with a point-and-shoot my mom gave me for Christmas, it was a dirt-cheap thing and I don't think I ever seriously used it.

That said, I'm so happy I have something new to look forward to in my life. An old dog can NEVER have too many new tricks to learn!

Anyway, my dad, he gave me these cameras; I'm so grateful, even if I can't use them yet!

Canon Cannonette
Argo Argoflex - I just need a metal bit for the film
& a Retina iiiC "Big C" with the everything except the kitchen sink! I have so many lenses & parts I don't even know what to do.

Where does one get to develop such weird film? Can anyone give me some suggestions? Once my wife and I get into our new place up North, she said her old art teacher can help us develop our stuff, regardless of what format we use. But are there any places or business you can take your really obscure film into to develop your film for you?

I remember when I was a kid, Mom took me to Shopko and we dropped our film off at a 24-hour film developing thing that was right there in the store. I know CVS develops film, and Costco, and Walgreens. But I doubt any of them could develop 120mm.

What do you guys recommend as far as chains go? Does anyone do that? How much will it run me? What are the wait times, and do you have to send things in via the mail? Can you get prints, or just positives? Or just negatives?

Anyway, it's wonderful to meet you all. By the way, I did do a lot of digital photography for a while, but I was mostly a toy & doll photographer. I'm only just now showing any interest in actual photos that don't involve miniatures - otherwise I'd share my profile. I don't really have anything to share otherwise. Sorry! :confused: That said, I am so excited a new part of my life is starting. 2012 has to be the worst year ever. Debt took everything from me. Thank God for art, no one can take that away at least.

You can get your 120 film developed at The Darkroom. They are a sponsor of this forum. I have used them with great results and they can scan your negatives as well. But if your wifes former art teacher can help you develope stuff, why not let this person teach you how to develope the film yourself? For what you'll spend to have a few rolls developed you can purchase the chemicals to develope black and white films on your own. Color film is a little more of a challenge but not impossible to learn.

We were tempted by the idea of asking him to help us, actually! The only issue right now is, we move in 2 months -- I was wondering what to do in the mean time. For $30 a month, this teacher sounds amazing, totally wish I had him when *I* was in college! (If you're interested in information, he works at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California, although I don't know his name, apparently, my wife says, he's the main darkroom & photography teacher.)

That is fantastic news about the Darkroom thing, thanks so much for passing that on. I'm looking all over this forum...I'm not entirely sure I know what language you guys use when you're all talking about cameras & films, and so many acronyms & seemingly random numbers! Wow! I appreciate your pointing out this sponsor...I am so overwhelmed!

Hello Jack,

Canon is the easiest to learn camera. If you want cheap prices to develop and order prints , you would need color negative film which will you order to develop one of your chain stores which you mentioned.
As far as I read in forums in 6 years , these people develop and print your color negatives in 1 or so hours. If a chain store is close by to you , you could go there , wait and get your negatives , prints and may be an cd where stores the scans.
Slide film is more expensive , when you order E6 development , result is color positives on the film. Printing , developing is little bit more difficult and expensive if I am not wrong.
First , try to learn to use camera lightmeter , focus and speed correctly including loading film and unload the film.
Rest would be easy. You would expect few errors and not good pictures at first try but it will settle , do not worry.
If it was hard to accomplish , we would not have 60000 members , isnt it ?
As I read from the beginners , most problem comes from the dark scene photography or no light indoor photography.
At your first roll , try your camera at most lighted environment you can find. Dont go down less than 1/30 speed , you would see a speed dial or led in your camera and try faster speeds and more light at your first roll.
I know money is tight for you and dont worry , it will be good. Try to find a job.
If you switch to 35mm BW Film or 120 BW Film , it would be advisable to develop your own films. You can buy 2 dollar 36 expose 35mm BW negative film from Freestyle or 3 ,4 dollars cost 120 film. When developing your film , you would introduce less contrast , high contrast , high acutance , different tonal pallettes , different grain structures and have fun and be amazed.
You need developing tank , temperature measurer, developer , fixer , film for 35mm or 120 bw negatives. You can contact print with a hanging lamp and glass plate weight in your dark room at night under red safe light. For contact print , you need small size printing paper , developer , fixer and trays and water.
Its so easy and rewarding.

Dont worry , everything will be good.
Now decide what you want and lets be more specific,

Umut
Istanbul

Umut, you are a veritable WEALTH of information! Thank you so much for your guiding hand. Some of the basic things I "kinda" know from using old lenses with my DSLR; I inhered some Zuiko lenses along the road & I used them with adapters. So at least there is that!

I'm not worried at the least bit, although, I am overwhelmed. I have not had anything to look forward to for so long, it is nice to have a dream now! I dream that I can take very pretty photos. And that makes me happy, which isn't something that happens a lot with me these days.

I figured I am just going to go outside one day, and take photos. If I mess up then that's gonna suck, but I really don't think I *can* get things right on the first or even the second or the tenth or twentieth try. But with attention to detail I think I can do this. The worst thing that happens is I have a lot of weird photos that are double-exposed or overdeveloped, right? Those kinds of things are always an artists "experimental" phase, that's what I'll tell my friends and family, "I had an experimental phase...." LOL!

Umut, you are super helpful. Thank you!

The great thing about analog, for me, is the combination of art and craft. Digital can be great art, but it lacks the craft aspect that gives me a lot of satisfaction. My advice, though, would be to try to learn black and white first. It gives you the most creative flexibility and it is a bit easier to learn in the darkroom.....but it is harder to learn to "see" in black and white in the field. BTW - my favorite place to get film and materials is Freestyle. They have by far the best selection and support the analog community like no one else.

Canon Canonet Manual

Jack ,

Follow this link:http://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/canonet_28.pdf

You will find Canon Canonet Manual there. Read well , replace the batteries , it would teach you to use the camera.

www.cameramanuals.org , you would find your Retina manual also.

Umut

Is Freestyle an online forum, Mark? (Thanks for the heads' up!)

The whole craft thing is totally what's got me revved up and ready to go. There's very few things that make me feel satisfied right now. I'm not proud of anything that's happened with me or to me, in these last 14 months I have gone through a real dark night of the soul.

It's gonna be awesome to tell someone, "Look what I did, I made this" and then in the back of my head, I'm gonna think about all these scientific experimentation I had to do to GET that photo. I feel like a mad scientist here, all photographers should have oversized, fluffy white kitties or something. I've never seen a more involved hobby.

Umut! You are my hero! You get so many gold stars! Thank you a million times.

Welcome to APUG!

If you are in the Washington DC are you can drop in to Photoworks and learn about photography and use their darkrooms. http://www.glenechophotoworks.org/

Hi Jack - Welcome!

The go to place for camera manuals is Mr. Mike Butkus. He has thousands of manuals for download and, while not at all compulsory, he does asks very nicely if you'll donate a few dollars to help him keep the pdfs online and buy and scan the manuals. The list of manuals he has can be found here: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/index.html

Developing your own film would probably be easiest and most economical for you - even with a house move about to happen. I live in a rental property, so my "darkroom" is entirely makeshift. I've simply blacked out the windows in my laundry with a few layers of garbage bags - very stylish! If you're not doing your own printing, the only time you need a completely blacked out room is when you're loading your film into a developing tank, so even a closet will suffice for that. From that point, the rest can be done in daylight without a problem.

At some point, someone here is probably going to suggest to you Ilford's guide to developing your own film, so I thought I'd get that out of the way now. Here's a link to the pdf: Processing Your First Black and White Film - Ilford

I'm sure you'll have a ball using your new cameras and, from personal experience, I know that there are thousands of people here who are incredibly generous with help and advice.

Enjoy!
Molli

Thank you for your kind words Jack , We have thousands of super heros here. I bet , you will be good at your 3th roll , dont worry , children learns walking with lots of rolls.

Any problem , We are here to help you , We can be more helpful if you would specific in your needs.

best,
Umut

You do not need a darkroom to develop film, just a dark place to load the film into the tank, like a changing bag. And now a shameless plug for one of APUGs sponsors:

Jack ,

Freestyle is a photographers online shop. You can buy anything you want from them. If you want to develop BW and if you need developer , try to start with powder 2 pounds package of D76 Kodak Developer. You can buy a small tank for your development. D76 comes in powdered form and needed to be mixed to 80 celcius degree water with stirring until it completely mixes. You would be needed to buy a light airtight canister to secure it.

Developing tank comes with metal or plastic reels which could be swithched to 120 or 35 mm film. 120 film is 6 centimeters or 2.4 inches to 1 meter thing , 35mm film is 1 inch to 1 meter or 3 feets thing.
You can swith the reels to spiral the film inside either for 2.4 inches or 1 inches film.

You might be able to open the 35 mm canister - you need a opener- in the dark , remove the film in dark and spiral inside of reel.

Lets make everything clear and easy. First buy a color negative film , order to develop it at walgreens after you take the pictures and tell the labman not to cut the film in to small pieces.

Buy a tank , open it , remove the reel and work with your uncut film to spiral it inside of reel. After 5 th try , try another session in dark.

When you are keen to spiral your film in to reel at dark , you are ready to do the same with your bw film.

Dont open the canister without dark , you need complete darkness and no light leak.

You bought 35mm BW Negative Film - for example arista edu - , you loaded to your camera , took the pictures , come home , go inside of darkroom , open the canister , remove the film , spiral in to reel at dark , put the reel in to tank , close the top of the tank at dark , open the lights.

You put the developer when it is 21 celcius degrees in to the tank from hole , - you would need to wait approximatelly 7 minutes or so - Everything written on d76 package - and unload the developer from the tank - NOW YOU NEED KODAK FIXER- put the fixer from the tank hole and red the package , how much you would need to wait and unload the fixer and wash your negatives. They are ready. Order scans , inkjet , laser prints or order prints from a lab , they are listed at APUG.

All you need to make bw photography for Canonet,

35mm bw negative film from freestyle - for example arista edu - 3 dollars per roll
developing tank , which its reels switchable either 120 or 35.
Film canister opener
D76 Kodak Film developer
Kodak BW Fixer
Liquid temperature measuring device around 18 to 25 Celcius degrees
Water warm
And a good eye and passion for art and study your Canonet manual , new cells

Best of luck ,
Umut

Your public library will have many books quite suitable for understanding basic film photography and developing. Used book stores will have 1960-1980's books for cheap.
If you are the type to learn from reading.

Welcome to APUG I hope you enjoy your film cameras.

Jeff

Jack,

Where are you and where are you going to be? If you are in central Florida, I can show you how to develop your film. (B&W only). A lot of us have excess darkroom "stuff" so you don't necessary have to buy everything, not to mention things are practically given away at various places. Leaning from someone who is experienced is probably the best way to go, second best being old books.

Hi Jack,

I also have a Retina iiiC (I inherited from my dad over thirty years ago), and I still use it to this day. Many of the techniques I learned using a film camera are applicable to digital photography since the underlying principle is the same - acquiring an image using a lens and a light-proof box equipped with a sensor. You'll probably discover that much of what you've done with a digital camera can also be accomplished with a film camera, although the process of generating a print for a picture frame or a computer screen will be different.

I use a hybrid workflow, acquiring my images on film and having the negatives or positives digitized at the time of processing (through a commercial lab). Sometimes I'll rescan the image on my film scanner if needed. In your case, once you have access to a darkroom, you can scan the negatives you develop and proceed with your usual digital workflow. A film scan from a 120 negative will provide a digital file with a resolution on a par with something obtained using a digital camera with an APS-C sensor.

Best of luck with the move. I'm sure you'll enjoy analog photography as much as digital.

Jack Savage said:

Is Freestyle an online forum, Mark? (Thanks for the heads' up!)

y.

Click to expand...

Freestyle is a company that sells film, paper, chemicals, etc. If it is sold in the States, odds are they have it and may even be the importer. www.freestyle.biz

Kodak Retina IIIC Manuals 1 and 2

http://www.cameramanuals.org/kodak_pdf/kodak_retina_iiic-1.pdf

http://www.cameramanuals.org/kodak_pdf/kodak_retina_iiic-2.pdf

Kodak Retinas are coming from a era where everything Kodak is highest quality , no plastic cameras , plastic lenses but constant race with Germany with again German lenses.

Your camera lens is one of the best and Compur Shutter is very high quality. I dont know these cameras have a light meter or not but Sunny 16 rule would help. Google it. Try to buy two rolls of films and experiment against Canon. I bet you would be impressed.

Umut

Mustafa Umut Sarac said:

... (Kodak Retina)and experiment against Canon. I bet you would be impressed.

Click to expand...

No bet required... it is a guarantee (unless something is wrong with the Retina).

Welcome to APUG Jack. You were gifted some nice cameras to learn film on. Another forum to check out is Rangefinder forum since you have a couple of them and canonettes and retinas are liked there as well. Another vote for freestyle as a supplier too.

Wow, you guys are epic today! I've never been on a art forum before , that was nice, constructive, and full of comments. You are totally a first for me! Are all forums this awesome?

I'm going to be moving back to the Arcata/Eureka area of Northern California; most of our family lives there, or near there, and my wife has expressed interest in going back to the College of the Redwoods as a writing minor/photography minor with a possibility of finishing her BA, so she can continue onto her real passion -- medical science! Those AA's are tough. She has everything she needs for credits, but school here in Oakland doesn't offer much for art. We'll definitely be looking into clubs once we get up north again, we hope to move in February.

I have a question that's gonna sound kind of silly to you all, but it's a matter I take pretty seriously (even if it is really embarrassing.) Are any of you Achluophobic? I suffer from *severe* Achluophobia, I can't stand the dark. I become petrified and I can't move at all if I'm in a really dark room. I sleep with a candle lit in the corner of our bedroom on a bedstand, and sometimes I have to leave a light on in the bedroom. Sometimes the dark makes me cry. It's gotten worse since I've gotten older - I'm 28 now.

How do you cope with the mental and emotional fear of the dark room? Is it at all possible to have a tea candle lit in the far corner? I don't think it is. I'd be worried it'd ruin my film! I think I'm gonna have to invest in one of those speakers people use for their iPods, I'm gonna need a distraction - how long does it take to develop film, and do you have to walk away & come back? I think my wife is gonna have to help me -- LOL! -- I'm gonna need someone to hold my hand!

Given that kind of condition... send your film out for processing and don't be embarrassed about it.

You don't need to be in the dark to develop your film, Jack. You only need dark to make the prints. Check this out: http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=344&Itemid=92