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Film camera advice

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JY

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Dear All,

I have seen some discussions about film camera, however, I do not intend to hijack them for my purpose of this post.

I have been wanting to give it a try to shoot film. Recently, I have seen some on offer with similarly priced. Nikon F3HP, F3 + 50 1.8 AIS and an FE2. Given three options are priced similarly, which would be your choice, and reason?

FYI, I do not wear glasses. Currently shooting digital with G lenses. However, if certain body is much better than the others I do not mind to wait to pick up MF lens later on.

p.s I have been looking at a good F100 or other camera that support my G lens, however, the look on older film camera is too sexy. Until I can find a mint condition of those , I would like to try the older one such as those above mentioned.

I would much appreciated your input on this particularly from those who have tried them and able to tell me the different in practice.

Thanks & Regards,
JY

Posted 1 year ago #
aesnakes

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I love my F100, I picked one up after someone gave me an F65. I like the old wind up manual cameras as well but the F100 is a great Film Camera.

Posted 1 year ago #
Correlli

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If I had the choice I would go for the F3. It is a little bigger and heavier than the FE2 but there are more accessories like view finders, focussing screens etc available for the F3. Also it is more robust (like D3 vs D7000). If you don't care about the accessories and the robustness go for the FE2. Great little camera. But on both you cannot use G lenses (at least you cannot close the aperture), but I think you are aware of this.

Posted 1 year ago #
jerl

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All of those cameras are excellent choices, and I could see myself using any one of those (although I still like my FM2). If I had to pick one of those, I'd go for the F3.

The loss of the use of G lenses may or may not be bad- it depends on what lenses you have now and what you will be shooting on film. For my, I like the tactile feel of using an all manual focus camera, so automatic aperture, autofocus and auto-exposure are all drawbacks to me and thus I prefer AI lenses to G or AF lenses. Of course, that is a personal preference.

Posted 1 year ago #
studio460

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I love FM/FE bodies! I guess I like them for their simplicity, robust design, and compact size--and, the fact that they were my first Nikon bodies I'd ever owned. Personally, I would opt for the FE2. That said, you also can buy a mint-condition, consumer top-of-the-line Nikon N90s AF body (but no VR support) for less than $100 USD. Or get a used, pro top-of-the-line Nikon F6 for about 1,300 USD, which supports every modern Nikon innovation there is, including VR support and CLS.

Posted 1 year ago #
adamz

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as a f100 owner I would go that way. FM/FE are nice and certainly smaller, but they lack the functionality from f100.

Posted 1 year ago #
TaoTeJared

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I asked myself that question a little over a 2 years ago. I went though a bunch of bodies, and lenses from e-bay. (all good by the way) - Here are the options I tried out:

Lens I settled on: 50mm 1.8 "E" series (great and cheap) Sigma MF 24mm 2.8 macro (another good one) & 50mm 1.4 old Ai converted. Total? Maybe $150 for the 3 lenses. I would like a 105mm for film as well.

Bodies:
-F100 - $200 - sold - little difference than shooting with bodies today.
-2 FE2 - $150 each - Kept both - great meter - going to get to the "old film" feel but with Auto aperture priority.
-2 FG20 - $25- sold 1 - Tiny, cheap, works like a FE2 just not as durable. Great cheap way to do film.
-N75 - $40 - Kept - Does almost everything the F100 does (well not really but for just walking around and Not "pro" type shooting, it does) Cheap and can use all G & VR lenses. What little I used film, I sold the F100 and kept this for the "just in case" which has not happened.

If you just want to mess around, Personally I would go the FG20 and a cheap 50 "E" lens route. It is about the size (tad smaller) of a GF1 with a 40mm on it. $75 and you get the "auto" aperture priority, good metering and it costs nothing. If you get more serious and want that type of body, then the FE2 is fantastic.

If you just want to try shooting film with your AF lenses, I like the N75 for that. Yes it is cheap, but you can pick one up for $25-40. It sits on my shelf 364 days a year and it can use every lens I own. I figured I didn't need a $200 F100 to hold my shelf down.

It's all about how much you want to spend and what functionality. I tend to go cheap until I figure out A) I want to continue & B) If I do, then upgrade once I learn what is important to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
JY

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Very good replies guys, much appreciated.

To be honest, there is a bit of me that wanting to know how it feel like shooting film in the old day, then whether i want full manual/mechanical (FM2n) or use battery on a more advance body, Aperture priority mode but maitaining the same look such as FE2? At this stage I am not quite sure where the pro body like F3 is standing at.

At the same time, there is a bit of me that just want to try film and utilise my current G lenses with modern SLR, hence I am also looking for a mint F100.

I gathered from your responses, which ever body I go with, it will still a good body.

Thanks again guys, I will need to inspect them and will let you guys know then.

Posted 1 year ago #
spraynpray

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JY said:

To be honest, there is a bit of me that wanting to know how it feel like shooting film in the old day,

On your DSLR set your white balance to sunny, your ISO to 200, your metering to spot, VR off, your exposure and focus to manual then limit yourself to 24 exposures to capture a subject. Works for me.

Posted 1 year ago #
bjrichus

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spraynpray said:
On your DSLR set your white balance to sunny, your ISO to 200, your metering to spot, VR off, your exposure and focus to manual then limit yourself to 24 exposures to capture a subject. Works for me.

+1

Actually, one other thing to remember is not all G lenses work on film cameras!

Posted 1 year ago #
NSXType-R

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spraynpray said:
On your DSLR set your white balance to sunny, your ISO to 200, your metering to spot, VR off, your exposure and focus to manual then limit yourself to 24 exposures to capture a subject. Works for me.

Haha, bonus points if you use a 16 mb memory card!

Shoot raw and see how many you can pump out. :D

Posted 1 year ago #
JY

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Joined: Oct '10
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spraynpray said:
On your DSLR set your white balance to sunny, your ISO to 200, your metering to spot, VR off, your exposure and focus to manual then limit yourself to 24 exposures to capture a subject. Works for me.

Lol, and disable auto display on LCD screen after picture taken and do not allow chimping for 2 weeks? :)

Only thing I haven't done is setting the WB to sunny often, mostly on auto unless if the result is way off.

Just an update, I picked up the F3 + 50mm 1.8 combo for A$150. It is in very good condition, but apart from what i could see what do I know? Can't wait to try it out, just hoping nothing is wrong with it.

Posted 1 year ago #
DaveO

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Why wouldn't a G lens work on a film slr? Specifically an F6.

DaveO

Posted 1 year ago #
JY

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DaveO said:
Why wouldn't a G lens work on a film slr? Specifically an F6.

DaveO

I don't remember reading anyone said so? :p

Posted 1 year ago #
DaveO

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BJRichus said that not all film slrs could use G lenses a couple of threads up. I assume he meant because of the lack of an aperture ring on them. I can't think of any other reason. It was 5 in the morning when I posted and I was half asleep so I may not have read it correctly.

DaveO

Posted 1 year ago #
SkintBrit

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Just a quick question for tomorrow. Will my SB900's and 400 work OK with the F100? I don't want my camera/flash to be frazzled on Christmas morning!

Posted 5 months ago #
Correlli

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I don't think they will work with TTL. As far as I remember they will only work in A and M mode, but not TTL. The SB800 and 600 still support TTL for older film cameras.

Posted 5 months ago #
SkintBrit

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Thanks Correlli, I'll try and remember that. Happy Christmas!

Posted 5 months ago #

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Film camera advice

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