Most affordable approach to film

nosmok

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Another way to shoot 70mm: buy old 616 cameras and 616 film, and respool newer 70mm film into the old backing paper and film. I have the 70mm stock to do this, but I'm still having fun with the 40 years expired Verichrome I'm starting out with. A couple of vintage Paterson "Major" tanks-- they do 127, 120/620, and 116/616; don't get the Major II which lacks the last -- and a changing bag and you can start. The 616 Kodak Monitors have great lenses but take some fixing because of lousy bellows; they'd be my choice for shooting color. They also have a mechanical wind system so don't need the red window past the first image.
 

wjlapier

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I too wouldn't mind scanning myself if I can get awesome results. I saw your lighthouse pic the other day. What scanner are you using and what software? I have a Coolscan V for 35mm which works fantastic for slides. I have an Epson V500 but haven't done a lot of 120 to get a feel for what works.
 

pbromaghin

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F5B&W said:
Don't get overwhelmed and weirded out. If you can cook, you can process film - and I mean reheating soup cooking, not gourmet.
Click to expand...

I always tell people that if you can make Kraft Mac-n-Cheese, you can develop your own film.
 

Sirius Glass

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Even though I can scan for 16 bits per color, as soon as I go to crop it gets saved at 8 bits per color. Therefore I only scan for posting and either make my color prints or send them to a film processor who used optical printing.

The ink consumption for print with a stink-jet quickly got very expensive and even with the best inks and photographic stink-jet paper the prints were just not the same. So I bought a used 4"x5" enlarger and drum print dryer.
 
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LMNOP

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I started with a V500 - and it worked perfectly for me, even just using the built in Mac application, Image Capture. This summer, I graduated to a Canon 9000F and I use VueScan for the software. This has proven much more effective, and gives me a wider range of options, but honestly the original combo was a quick and dirty way to get great results. I feel stranded on this forum sometimes, because I have so many scanning related things to discuss, and DPUG has never approved a thread of mine, its weird. PM my if you wanna talk scanning! Scanning 120 is so much more fun than 35mm, its like working with Duplos vs. Legos.
 

shutterlight

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Aug 24, 2012
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I've heavily used four scanners-- Epson V500, V600, V750, and an Imacon Flextight X1. The X1 wins out the clear majority of time, but not always. I know what I'm doing with regard to scanning, and I still prefer what I get from my flatbed sometimes. The X1 wins decisively for underexposed and overexposed images. It just has a lot more dynamic range to work with, and the software is better. Sometimes, though, for reasons I can't really explain, my V750 wins out.

I never could figure out 120 on a V500-- I would get a V600 if you're going to do 120. It has a much longer film holder for 120 negatives.
 
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