Point + shoot......B+W

[Mike Kennedy]

I have a nice little Yashica T4 that has become my "Don,t leave home without it" camera. Its loaded with either 200/400iso color film.Just occurred to me that I have never tried B+W film with this little beauty.Probably because of the limited exposure control.
Is it worth shooting one of my mainstay B+W"s (tri-x or FP4) or should I stick to color.?
Thanks Much,
Mike

 

[FrankB]

I've had good results in the past with an Olympus Mju II and Delta 400, and the T4 is certainly no less of a camera than that! Also the ability to use printing controls in the darkroom makes up in part for the lack of control over the capture process (you end up with more control than with colour anyway!).

You never know until you try... ...and film's cheap!

 

[ann]

I have several point and shoot type cameras, from a cheap Ansco Pano to a high end Rollei, and use nothing but black and white film, usually HP5+.

With that said, i shoot maybe one roll of color a year and right now i am two years behind.

Switch to some black and white and see for yourself

 

[Nathan Smith]

funny you should ask ...

I just did this exact thing (Yashica T4 & FP4+) for the first time a couple of weeks ago. See (there was a url link here which no longer exists) for an example shot.

I love that camera - it seems like half the normal picture-taking experience not setting the shutter speed and aperture. But, on the other hand, it's a lot easier to carry in a pocket than my other cameras - and a whole lot easier to get shots of the kids. It probably won't replace another camera so much as increase the frequency that I carry a camera in general.

Nathan

 

[Steve Roberts]

I've been thinking along exactly these lines. The first potential snag that occurred to me was that I roll my own B & W - fine as none of my SLRs are modern enough to use DX coding, but both P & S cameras (Konica Lexio 70W and Pentax 120SW) can only use DX coded cassettes. Of course, buying new ready rolled stock would be easy but no fun!
Then ..... I noticed in Jessops' catalogue that they sell self adhesive DX code labels for just this eventuality. I've yet to try these, but it might be another experiment to have a bash at.
One previous experiment was cutting down 35mm FP4 and loading it into a 110 cartridge for my Pentax Auto 110 Super .... OK, it's sad, and yes, I do enjoy spending evenings sticking sharp pins into my legs!!!!)
Steve

 

[Nige]

"most" (once upon a time) cameras that try to read the DX code but can't default to 100asa, so try some bulk rolled FP4+. Check the cameras specs to see if this is the case.

 

[TPPhotog]

Go with B&W, I have a little Nikon Lite Touch in the the glove compartment of my car always loaded with HP5+ for those "if only I had a camera moments". As Frank said film is cheap so it's worth a roll to find out if you like the results.

 

[Gim]

I believe that some point & shoot will default to ISO 100 when non DX coded (bulk rolled) film is used. At one time I was thinking of getting the little Olympus and read in the operators manual that it would default to ISO 100. Perfect for FP4.
Jim

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Thanks one and all.

I will surely start using B+W film. Guess I was thrown off by the instruction manual which states that "400iso color" worked best.
Mike

 

[Maine-iac]

Go with B&W but set your ISO at half of the manufacturer's recommended number. You'll get a higher percentage of good shots with the automatic exposure. If you can't set the ISO manually, use the under/overexposure settings and set it to +1.

Larry

 

[Paul Howell]

Because you don't have much control over exposure, with most point and shoot type cameras, and filtering is not an option, you will need to work with the developing times for your film to get a negative with good shadow and highlights. I bought an older weather proof Konica several months ago and it took several rolls of film before I got the developing times correct.

 

[alien]

I almost always have a Minox GT-E with me, always loaded with Tmax 400. It wiorks great, and I have taken phantastic shots with it. You need to know however what you are doing, especially as you have to estimate the distance.
I makes you understand hyperfocal distances quite well though...

 

[fschifano]

Sure it will work. I have a Yashica T4 and by default, it will set itself to ISO 100 if no DX coding is present. I've loaded it with FP4+ and Plus-X like this and it has worked fine. I also have some DX coded cassetes that I use for faster films like HP5+ and (mostly) Tri-X. Tri-X is the best of the bunch simply because it is so much more forgiving of exposure errors than the others and is the least likely to block up the highlights with a bit of over development should it be necessary.

 

[Whiteymorange]

T4 is great with B&W!

I just finished a roll of Efke50 in the T4 - souped in Caffeinol with Vitamin C. I'll post a few of the images of the places I'd like to share on the Quabbin Res. trip I'm going on with papagene on the 28th. I have shot lots of HP5 and TriX in it and always love what I get. This point and shoot thing has got something to it - especially when the camera does such a great job of reading the light. The waist level viewer is a nice touch as well. No substitute for the larger format and the thoughtful shot, but that camera never leaves my side- always filled with E6 or B&W. I don't know one person (boy, am I leaving myself open this time!) who has used the T4 that doesn't buy one and keep it with them -just in case.

Of course my other "gotta have it with me" camera is an old kodak 6x9 with a simple meniscus lens, so you gotta take what I say with a grain of salt sometimes.

Whitey

 

[john_s]

My daughter had a Ricoh P&S with DX coding but had no adjustments for ISO or +/- exposure adjustments, so we used HP5+ and developed in Microphen to give it a touch more speed. It worked well.

 

[AllanD]

If you have a camera with a separate metering window, it should be possible to fool the meter into giving more exposure by sticking a piece of ND filter over it.