Getting started with shooting film (part two)

By Paul Johnson | 14 May 2024

This is part two of a two part series on shooting film. You can see part one, from last week, here.

Where to buy

Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and buy a film camera you’ll probably start browsing internet sites as a way to get up to speed with what’s available and prices sellers want for their gear.

Of course, take all the usual precautions when thinking about buying used equipment unseen from the web and don’t ignore bricks-and-mortar dealers. Actually handling cameras and talking with people who are passionate about photography can help clarify what might suit your budget and style.

Prices may be higher at regular and online stores (though not always) but a pay-off is that they usually offer some sort of guarantee.

Film choice is the first way to influence grain, tonality and contrast. ISO 400 Ilford HP5 Plus uses traditional black and white cubic-grain technology and produces classic looking negatives, prints and scans.

If price is the limiting factor, clearing sales, local markets, op shops and even pawnbrokers can be worth a look, especially if someone who knows about old cameras is willing to go with you. You may find a treasure in its original packaging but don’t be surprised to find that many sellers have seen and matched the prices being asked for online.

As always, check the camera’s condition, format, and battery requirements carefully and if either is problematic remember that millions of film cameras were made last century and move on.

Whichever route you take towards buying a used film camera, remember to do your research first and, if you can, take an experienced photographer along with you when you check out possible purchases.

This image was made by exposing Fomapan 200 at ISO 100 and then developing it in replenished Xtol. It was then printed in a traditional darkroom and subsequently wet-processed to add colour.

Film choices

When you’ve got a camera you’ll want to get film for it. Apart from format, it’s important to know that, like people, some film types are better at some things than others. Broadly, you could say there are two basic types – colour and monochrome – and that each of these types has two sub-groups – positive and negative.

Without doubt the current standout choice for starting in analogue is colour negative film. And for good reason: it is the most widely available type, it is amongst the cheapest to process, and it reliably produces a distinctive ‘film’ look.

Generally, amateur film is also the most practical because it can cope with a range of temperatures and has, what old-timers would call, ‘a wide exposure latitude’ by which they mean it does a good job coping with the brighter and darker parts of a scene.

Today 35 millimetre and 120 formats are the most readily available film sizes. This frame of vintage 35mm Ektachrome ‘reversal’ film shows a positive image and the larger frame of Ilford FP4 Plus from a 120 format film shows a negative image. Reversal films typically cost more and have great detail in the properly exposed areas of the frame but color negative films are generally more forgiving because they have a greater dynamic range. Traditional black and white films can be developed to suit the photographer’s intentions.

So, whilst specialist films can produce beautiful results with the right equipment and conditions, for most people, the creativity-cost equation works in favour of general purpose colour negative film – and with one retailer offering Kodak Colorplus 200 at $14 for a 36 exposure roll who would argue?

When you’ve been using colour film for a while you’ll probably want to experiment with black and white. Of course scanned images can be converted to mono in post production or with filters, but many say it’s not the same as doing it with film.

Here, Ilford’s XP2 Super might be an option; it is a modern, forgiving, fine-grained black and white film that is processed by local labs as if it were colour film. While many photographers love the detail that XP2 Super yields, others prefer the classic grain, tonality and contrast that comes with old-school black and white films.

Grain, in film photography, is like brush strokes in painting; some want to see the artist’s hand at work and others don’t. If you’re one of those photographers who loves grain your first step might be to try a roll of traditional 400 speed black and white film, it will cost a little less than colour film, but processing will cost a little more.

For very distinctive grain you might try an ISO 3200 film or ‘push’ regular 400 speed film to 800 or beyond. Be aware that, used in daylight, fast films need a camera with a fast shutter and small apertures or neutral density filters.

Also, that ‘push processing’ to accentuate grain and contrast will cost about 50% more when your lab develops the film. An alternative to paying a lab is, of course, to develop and scan for yourself.

Doing it yourself

Anyone who can cook successfully can develop film and, if film photography is going to become a habit, developing your own can be much cheaper than paying a lab. Buying the equipment and processing just a few rolls of film will work out to be more expensive though.

For example, commercially available starter kits for black and white, which include a new developing tank, thermometer and enough chemicals to process two films, will cost nearly $200. By comparison, ‘develop only’ at a lab will cost about $10 for colour negative or $17 for black and white films.

Fuji and Kodak make reliable general purpose colour negative films in 200 and 400 speeds. These films forgive exposure and temperature variations and you can turn that flexibility to your advantage. Typically, giving colour negative film a little less exposure than normal will intensify colours.

There is a more cost-effective route, however. If you start with a used small tank ($20) and buy Foma black and white film developer ($14) and fixer ($15) from the Australian distributor and, if you can borrow a thermometer and load your tank in a completely dark place, you’ll be able to develop 10 black and white films for about $5 each.

A Tetenal Colortec C41 Chemical Kit ($68) that will develop 16 rolls of colour negative film works out at about $5.50 per film. Add 70 cents per film for negative sleeves and you’re still paying less than if you’d used a commercial lab.

Remember though, those costs only work if you’re using chemicals before they expire (Foma recommend using mixed developer within 2 months and Tetenal say 6 weeks for Colortec) and that you’ll still want to scan or print your films.

Back to the future

There was a time when photographers who were looking for fun, creativity and a different aesthetic hoped that film would be around for just a few more years.

Then, when Kodak re-released Ektachrome in 2018 there was cause for optimism.

Now the pace is quickening; Harman has opened a new factory and released an entirely new colour negative film, and Pentax say they’re going to launch two new film cameras. If successful, this resurgence could breed hopes that other manufacturers might get into analogue.

Suddenly it seems that film might hold on for a good time yet and a new generation of analogue photographers can keep using film well into the future! ❂