Introducing myself..

[PeterAM]

Been looking in for awhile, but have not posted, primarily because I haven't been shooting film. Am in the process of putting together a Mamiya 645 1000S kit (was given a body, prism, winder, 80mm 1.9 and 210 4.0 lenses some years back; body was bad, just got one from KEH) and seeing if I can get my head back into shooting some film.
Started with photography as a kid in HS, took some courses in college and shot 35mm on and off for years. Built a really nice darkroom in the late 80's but never used it much because my work responsibilities changed right then (Murphy's Law) and I began doing a lot of traveling. My then college student daughter was studying photography and then did a master's degree in it, so it got some use. Pretty much stopped shooting all together through the 90's and decided to try digital after I retired a couple of years ago. Have fought my way through the scanning and printing learning curves and now do some pretty good printing. Darkroom got demolished a few years back when I decided that with a bad back and other issues, I would not be doing that type of work again (equipment is in storage at my daughter's house for future use).
Digital is fine, but I miss the film process (shooting) and will give it a shot with MF, as I never did that before. Will have to find a good processor in Westchester County, NY, where I live; recommendations would be welcomed.
Next step will be having one of the old Pentax 35mm's CLA'd.
I exoect to have a lot of questions.......

 

[SuzanneR]

Welcome, Peter. Ask away...

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Welcome to the forum, Peter.

 

[Paul Sorensen]

Welcome. You might find that it is worth your while to do your own black and white film developing at home, the process is easy to do even without a proper darkroom and it gives you control and saves you money at the same time. There are lots of resources here if you are interested.

 

[Andrew Horodysky]

Hi Peter,

Welcome to the forum. I, too, am looking into stepping up to medium format (for portraiture). If you come into the city often (or periodically), there are countless good labs for processing film, both color and black & white. If you choose to do a lot of b&w work, I would agree with Paul regards to developing it yourself (and it should be gentle on the back).

Enjoy the forum.

Andrew

 

[Leighgion]

Welcome, Peter.

The Mamiya 645 cameras are fine machines. I have a Super myself.

I also would recommend that, even if you don't currently have plans to rebuild a darkroom, that getting a darkbag and some gear (out of storage or new) to do small tank processing at home for B&W is well worth it. It's really the only thing keeping me going steady with MF.

 

[mike c]

Welcome Peter,parts of your story are very familiar to me also.You can get a lot of help and honest interest here.

Mike

 

[Rick A]

Hi, and welcome to the world of cave men (and women) and dinosaurs. At least thats what a lot of people think of me for shooting film. Oh yeah, I also rarely come out of my cave(darkroom) except to shoot some more film!!
Rick

 

[VaryaV]

Hi Peter and Welcome from Sunny Florida.

My M645 is my favorite camera........ CHEERS.

 

[papagene]

Peter - hello and welcome to APUG from western Massachusetts.

gene

 

[Bill Mobbs]

Hello Peter, Glad you are here..........you will like it and learn a lot.


Best regards,

bill

 

[EASmithV]

Hi.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Hello Peter, welcome to APUG! You might try to do some darkroom stuff in the near future.

Jeff

 

[Chazzy]

Welcome from northern Indiana.