From the M3 to the M10R….

[David from Bklyn]

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I am a long-term M3 and Rolleiflex shooter, and for black and white am more than happy making prints in the darkroom. Shooting color on film is also fun, but developing and scanning, for me at least, isn’t. And I’ve been wanting to have the experience of shooting digitally with my M lenses for a long time. So last week I took the plunge and bought a used M10R. I got the silver version and am struck by how much it looks and feels like my 1960 M3. The simplicity of the camera makes me happy — I was concerned about being overwhelmed with menus — but I’m sure I have much to learn about getting the most out of the camera, about post-processing, etc. (It renders black and white beautifully too, but I won’t put aside my film cameras).
 

Do any other film shooters have advice or experience to share about their transition? Any thoughts are welcome.

 

 

 

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[jaapv]

For a beginner in postprocessing I recommend ON1. Good presets and a lot of excellent tutorials on their site. 

[rpsawin]

Practice, Practice, Practice. By that I mean got out with the camera and shoot. Get familiar with it. It is a wonderful camera andI am certain you will have many great outings together.

[Greenhilltony]

Getting the most of the M10R—I think it’s about exploring the limits of the sensor and learn to use its advantages to the most. The sensor now allows a much greater room for exposure and post processing with its advanced dynamic range. Unlike shooting negatives, you’d better expose for highlight and easily pull back the shadow by 2-3 stops in post processing. Digital sensors preserve much more details when underexposed, unlike the negatives getting transparent. Also unlike shooting slides, you are free to save much more details from both ends of histogram.

With the 40MP sensor you might find it trickier to get images free of slight shaking and motions. If you still want to create the effect you want from 1/30s and slower, you need to practice. A nice technique to steadily trigger the shutter with the joint of your finger has been taught frequently in this forum, you just need to search for posts about soft release, then you’ll know soft releases are not that necessary and learn this trick.

[charlesphoto99]

With the decidedly low dynamic range M8/9 one learned to shoot as if shooting slide film - expose for the highlights. I still do, a good practice to carry over, though I'm always surprised what I can recover with the M10-R. Not just in the shadows (that's always been the case 8- now) but also in the highlights. 

[dpitt]

+1 on ON1

If you want to keep it really simple and straightforward, I can recommend Apple Photos. If you are using a Mac OS product it is available for free and it even processes RAW files with some basic edits. Keep your original files as a backup in a folder system on some external drive. That is always good advice, no matter what you are using.

If you want to move on later to a more professional PP workflow you can use the backup files and start over. (exporting the JPEGS from Photos is also available)

[Jeff S]

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Buy a nice Epson or Canon printer and continue your print journey. Like everything else in photography, it takes time to get up the learning curve, but my transition from darkroom to digital was well worth it. There are many related discussions in the Digital Post Processing section of the forum. 
 

For editing, I use Lightroom Classic, which is part of the Adobe Photography Plan, that also includes Photoshop, for 10 bucks a month. There are many good resources available; books, videos and workshops.  Again, much discussed here.
 

Jeff

[rramesh]

On 9/13/2023 at 2:35 AM, jaapv said:

For a beginner in postprocessing I recommend ON1. Good presets and a lot of excellent tutorials on their site. 

I would second this. The current version ON1 RAW 2023.5 is very good. It's a perpetual user license and costs <$100. Comes with a lot of tools for customising workflow.

[David from Bklyn]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions and support. I am really loving this new camera!!