New to film, got an M3

[Daniel Beacock]

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Having already taken the step back into the medium of my youth, first with an M7, (amazing camera, but having owned it for a while I felt I wanted to get further back to basics so sold it), and now to an M4 & an M3, I have gone through, as others have here, a lot of what you are discovering now. So, here's a quick summary of my highs, lows and tips!

 

Metering

If you are going the Sunny 16 route, (or 11 as others have rightly suggested), first thing I would suggest is to practice, practice, practice estimating the light even when you haven't got your camera with you.

 

I started by taking a little Sekonic lightmeter everywhere with me, (still do!), out walking, commuting, shopping, and in different light conditions and different times of day, and I would first estimate the light using the S16 rule, then check with the meter to see how far off I was. Then notice how the light changes when you walk into shadow, or when the clouds cover the sun, and guess again, and meter again, and keep doing this for about a month, and it WILL become intuitive, whatever light conditions you are in you will know what to set your camera to before you raise it to your eye. And ALWAYS meter for the shadows, don't worry about the highlights, you want to retain those shadow details. Film has a wide latitude, if you are a stop or so out, (and you only ever will be a stop or so out), it's not a big issue, you will have a usable negative.

 

And the first time you use S16 only and end up with a perfectly exposed roll of 36 negatives you will feel EPIC!!

 

Developing

Absolutely you can do this at home, in a sink, that's how I do it. I use Paterson tanks, the twin roll one, (600-700ml I think). If you've never used a changing bag before I would suggest buying a couple of rolls of cheap film (eBay?) just to practice loading the reels in light. And, here's the key trick, I would run them through your camera for a couple of shots first. The reason being that the end of the film gets tightly wound around the take-up spools in the M3 so when you come to open the canister and load it onto the spools, the now tightly curled end can foul when you try to load it. I've ruined at least 1 film and badly scratched a couple more by not cutting enough of the curled end of the film off before trying to load it on the spools. So use a couple of cheap films just to waste to practice loading the spools, and make sure you cut enough of the leader off for the film to avoid that curl. Then it will be a breeze, even in the bag.

 

Second tip, have a go first of all at Stand Developing: http://jbhildebrand.com/2011/tutorials/workflow-tutorial-2-stand-development-with-rodinal/

 

This has many benefits, especially to the beginner.

• For the development part it's not time sensitive (far less stress)
  
• It's not temperature sensitive (room temperature? that's fine)
  
• It uses WAY less developer
  
• Much more forgiving for exposure (you can even vary your ISO mid roll) I've taken the same scene at the correct exposure, and then up to 2 stops over-exposed and 3 stops under exposed and can still get a usable shot from each negative.
  
• It's dead easy
  

Last tip, I've posted this before in the "Cleaning your negatives" thread, but it is simple and works perfectly: my anti-water marks and dust process

• Use de-ionised water throughout developing and washing (I mix the developer, fixer and stop all with de-ionised which is probably overkill a bit, but at least use de-ionised water for the final wash. Make those negatives as slippery as hell to water!)
  
• Use a drop of Ilford Infotol in the final rinse as well
  
• remove the spools from the tank and place them on their edges into a salad spinner, (no, really, about £12 from your local hardware store, just make sure it's tall enough), one either side to maintain balance
  
• Give the salad spinner 50-60 fast turns one way, then same in the opposite direction
  
• Remove the film from film spools and hang to dry in a dust free location (shower stall is perfect) Absolutely no need to squeegee or otherwise wipe down, you only risk scratching the film
  
• Guaranteed zero water spots and absolutely minimal dust!
  

Never fails! 

 

Hope these tips are of some use.

 

Daniel

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[gwpics]

Kodak BW400CN ceased production in 2014, but there is still quite a lot of it available, Gerry.

 

 

Haven't seen it in the UK for some time now, but I really like the Fuji equivalent.

 

Gerry

[gwpics]

Ok so after reading your encouraging and helpful comments, and watching a few YouTube videos of b&w film development, I'm convinced I can do this. Here's what I've come up with as a basic kit:

Changing bag

Spirals and tank (Paterson or Jobo?)

Developer

Stop

Fixer

Graduated cylinder

Syringe

Pegs

 

Anything I'm missing? Also started reading Ansel Adams The camera. What a fascinating read.

 

 

You may have kitted yourself out already but I thought I would post this as it may be useful:

 

http://lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/shop/adox-starter-set-film-basic-1000288.html

 

Gerry

[Guest]

I just got a beautiful, and so smooth, single stroke M3 from Japan. I'll be testing it tomorrow. It seems to be similar to one listed on the Tamarkin site as in Ex++ condition (excellent, only very slight marks from use), and my price was $300 less.

 

I just found out the M3 only focuses to 1 meter; but just learned from this article that there is an an extra lever in the throat of the camera that stops the roller arm coming out further, and that this can be straightened a bit to to permit focusing to 0.7m. Not sure I dare to try this on a camera in such good condition. Has one one tried this?

 

I often shoot close to 1 meter with 21-28-35 lenses; but if you're limited to a minimum 1 meter distance, you have to move the camera back and forth when you get close to one meter — not convenient. Incidentally, I have the excellent, tiny 28/35 Voigtländer viewfinder that I like.

_____________

Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

[sanadsaad]

Aaaarrrrrggghhhh. So I finished shooting the first roll inside the M3. I start rewinding, after about 15 or so turns, it stops. Thinking it's rewound, I open the back and voila! Film. Ruined exposure/s. Let's see what comes back in an hour.

[michaelwj]

At least you remembered to rewind! I've been in the zone thinking about the next shot and completely forgotten to rewind before...

On the plus side, you have most of it back in the canister and the other side is wound pretty tightly around the spool so you probably only lost the exposure in the gate.

As you'll no doubt find, there's more than one way to mess up!

[gwpics]

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Aaaarrrrrggghhhh. So I finished shooting the first roll inside the M3. I start rewinding, after about 15 or so turns, it stops. Thinking it's rewound, I open the back and voila! Film. Ruined exposure/s. Let's see what comes back in an hour.

 

 

Really sad to hear that, but at least you got it out of the way and hopefully it was not anything too important. Sadly a lesson learnt, but at least you have learnt it and can move on. Like Michael said above, you will probably be surprised at how little has been lost.

 

Gerry

[mikemgb]

I'm late to this thread but I'll add a couple of comments about home developing. I currently only do black and white but will expand to colour soon.

 

I use measuring jugs from the Dollar/Pound store rather than graduated cylinders, I use regular measuring spoons to measure out the chemical concentrate (I use liquid concentrate). The jugs are simply labeled with a sharpie and always arranged left to right on the kitchen counter.

 

Ilford film loads onto Patterson reels a lot easier than Kodak, I've found I don't even have to ratchet the reels with Ilford, it just pushes on, Kodak is much tickier and needs to be ratcheted slowly.

 

Temperature control is easy, fill a large pan with water - I use a pressure cooker - then get that to temperature, I usually have to add ice in the summer and a little warm water in winter. Once the pan is to temperature I use that to mix the chemicals. There is no need for a water bath as the process is so fast the water temperature doesn't have time to change significantly. If your tap water is a long way off the correct temperature the rest of the water in the pan can be used to start the washing process and gradually adjust the temperature of the film. Fill the reel tank 3/4 full out of the pan, top up with tap water and agitate then dump out, next time add a little less pan water and a little more tap water. This way the film temperature will change gradually and by the time the pan is empty you should be able to finish off washing under the tap.

 

Give it a try, it's fun, and it can be justified if necessary by mentioning cost savings, I have calculated that it costs me about $1.25 - $1.75 per film depending on how many I do at a time.

 

I don't wet print, I just scan the negs.

[Guest]

Aaaarrrrrggghhhh. So I finished shooting the first roll inside the M3. I start rewinding, after about 15 or so turns, it stops. Thinking it's rewound, I open the back and voila! Film. Ruined exposure/s. Let's see what comes back in an hour.

Dealing with the lens cap on/off trick, and second most frequent: the film not been transported due to sub-perfect insertion of the beginning of it into the spool (which you check with the bottom still open), this is the third most frequent frustrating obstacle to overcome. Very few here who haven't experienced this... and carried on. For weeks, months and years.

At the beginning maybe not be bothered with the work in the dark, by using colour-negative film instead and have it processed, in order to get going? And having pictures.

Continuing from there, with the film type you are confortable with ?

How did the pictures, that made it back into the cartridge turn out? Or did you chuck it all and start anew?

[sanadsaad]

I can't believe how much I missed getting a film roll developed! Brought back childhood memories. I think they turned out better than I expected them to be. I get the "film look" now! Not sure if Superia is going to be my film of choice for colour though. Can't upload pics from phone as they need resizing so I'll put the Dropbox link below:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zd6zk8rp8d2nu0x/AAAMOx7aObnJ2hGXmCjQ-o94a?dl=0

 

Would love to hear your views!

[gwpics]

I can't believe how much I missed getting a film roll developed! Brought back childhood memories. I think they turned out better than I expected them to be. I get the "film look" now! Not sure if Superia is going to be my film of choice for colour though. Can't upload pics from phone as they need resizing so I'll put the Dropbox link below:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zd6zk8rp8d2nu0x/AAAMOx7aObnJ2hGXmCjQ-o94a?dl=0

 

Would love to hear your views!

 

 

Well, there are certainly some useful street shots there, and I love the 'feel' of the images. I think that if you could in future work on a few of them in Lightroom or something similar to bring the best out in them you will be very pleased indeed. Well done!

 

Gerry

[michaelwj]

Nice, now you just have to recalibrate from digitals never overexpose, to films never underexpose!

[mikemgb]

I can't believe how much I missed getting a film roll developed! Brought back childhood memories. I think they turned out better than I expected them to be. I get the "film look" now! Not sure if Superia is going to be my film of choice for colour though. Can't upload pics from phone as they need resizing so I'll put the Dropbox link below:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zd6zk8rp8d2nu0x/AAAMOx7aObnJ2hGXmCjQ-o94a?dl=0

 

Would love to hear your views!

 

You got some great images there!

 

There are free apps out there that will allow you to resize images on your phone, I use "Image Size" on my iPhone.

[Steve Ricoh]

I can't believe how much I missed getting a film roll developed! Brought back childhood memories. I think they turned out better than I expected them to be. I get the "film look" now! Not sure if Superia is going to be my film of choice for colour though. Can't upload pics from phone as they need resizing so I'll put the Dropbox link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zd6zk8rp8d2nu0x/AAAMOx7aObnJ2hGXmCjQ-o94a?dl=0

Would love to hear your views!

Nice set of images, you've done well!

Did you DIY process and if so what scanner did you use.

 

I'm using an M240, but my eye keeps being drawn to film. Something magical about the whole process.

[sanadsaad]

Thanks a lot for the encouragement guys! Steve, I decided not to jump into development just yet. This was my first film roll and was a tester for the camera as well. I've decided to master the basics and then move onto development and then someday, darkroom prints. What labs do you guys use for developing and print? I used snappy snaps for the 1hr facility in Marylebone and they charged around £15. Heard good things about Aperture Uk in london as well.

[sanadsaad]

Well, there are certainly some useful street shots there, and I love the 'feel' of the images. I think that if you could in future work on a few of them in Lightroom or something similar to bring the best out in them you will be very pleased indeed. Well done!

 

Gerry

Thanks Gerry! I did play around with some of the images on my phone but will run them through Lightroom later when I get home. Here's the results (attached images)

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[Steve Ricoh]

I remember the good ol' days when D&P was reasonably priced, in the post, and together with the negs and prints, another roll of film thrown in. Bonus print, and True Print were two, probably out of business now.

 

I'd love an MP, keep thinking and looking...

[sanadsaad]

Pic

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[sanadsaad]

Steve, I have a feeling you'll end up getting one I kept thinking for a month and then one day I just went to red dot cameras and bought the M3! Calmed me down

[Steve Ricoh]

Steve, I have a feeling you'll end up getting one I kept thinking for a month and then one day I just went to red dot cameras and bought the M3! Calmed me down

It's the home processing, with the issues already mentioned, plus the need to scan to digital that's making me hesitate. But once purchased the MP would last a lifetime, if not longer, with very low depreciation, unlike digital.