New to film - Canon EOS 500

Kaben

Kaben

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Name
Rob
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After reading allot of the interesting posts on here about film and home developing - i have decided to give film Photography a go :)

I have an EOS 500 and i was wondering if anyone had any past experience of this camera and tips on how to get the best from it?

One other thing is - i cant seem to find an adjustment for the diopter - is this possible on the 500? Manual focusing is going to be very difficult otherwise!

I am going to use my EF 50 f/1.4 (hopefully will give some nice vignetting wide open) and some sensia 200 & provia 400 film as i like the blue/yellow colour casts these have when X-processed.
Can you reccomend anywhere for X-processing in the south east?

For the B&W, which i hope to home develop and scan i have bought some Ilford Delta 400. Are there any developing kits or packs that i can buy or do i have to get it piece by piece? (tanks,chemicals etc)

I am really excited about all this, but quite nervous too as i learnt all my photography on Digital.

thanks for any help!
 
Can't help on the diopter or X-processing I'm afraid, not used the 500 and not tried xpro.

For B&W developing I've not seen anyone do kits but they may do. The places I got my kit from were Nova Darkroom and Silverprint, plus a guy threw in a load of bits when I bought an enlarger off him (hooray, freebies :D)

The prices for different places vary by item but invariably it all works out a similar price for the complete set. I take it you know the full list of what you need to dev B&W?

As a quick hint you don't need to buy expensive photographic kit for everything. Measuring jugs can be had from Wilko's/home furnising places for pretty cheap.
A syringe can help depending on what developer you choose and are fairly inexpensive.
Buy a good and long thermometer so you can see temperature changes clearly. A degree or so either way doesn't make much difference but more than that and you need to compensate.
Brew shops are a good place to source brown glass bottle for storing chemicals between uses.

Most importantly have fun
 
raathistle said:
The prices for different places vary by item but invariably it all works out a similar price for the complete set. I take it you know the full list of what you need to dev B&W?

Most importantly have fun
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tips! From reading other posts i have an idea that i need is

developer
stop (or water)
fixer
measuring jugs for the dilution

light safe room or darkbag
timer
thermometer
scissors
Spindle/developing bath thing (not sure what makes models i should be looing for?)
film case opener
film sponge for getting the water off.

Is that everything?

Hopefully i will enjoy it - i am certainly looking forward to it!
 
You can get some dirt cheap developing "gear" on ebay or try freecycle.org You will be able to get some awesome shots with a 50mm f1.4 as the bokeh is unreal full frame, good luck!
 
Kaben said:
developer - yep
stop (or water) - use stop, it's dead cheap
fixer - yep
measuring jugs for the dilution - yep

light safe room or darkbag - yep, also known as a changing bag
timer - yep, a nice big display with seconds on is nice
thermometer - yep
scissors - yep
Spindle/developing bath thing (not sure what makes models i should be looing for?) - I use Paterson tanks with plastic reels, some prefer metal reels, it's a personal thing :shrug:
film case opener - just use a bottle opener, its money you don't need to spend
film sponge for getting the water off - be careful, it has to be perfectly (!!) clean if you use one. alternative is a drop of washing up liquid or similar in the final rinse water
Click to expand...

It's really easy once you get into it, just practice loading the reels in daylight with an old/waste film, then with closed eyes. ONce you can do it then do it in the change bag with the test film. You'll soon be doing it without any thought

(y)good luck
 
Wow - thabnks allot for that Yin!

Just been looking on silverprint - for developing Ilford Delta 400, would ILFOSOL 3 be the right stuff to use? The other B&W films i am looking at are Fuji Neopans, would the Ilfosol 3 work for them too?

As far as fixers go, i have no idea what to go for? any reccomendations?
And do i need wetting agents? lol i really have no clue! :wacky:

Also, for X-processing E6 films such as the Fuji sensia/provia/velvia range, would i use C41 chemicals to do so? (again, i am not very clued up on this, i just heard that you used the "wrong chemicals" to x-process things, so assume it means use C41 for to X-process E6 and vice-versa?)

Thanks again for any help :)
 
raathistle said:
It's really easy once you get into it, just practice loading the reels in daylight with an old/waste film, then with closed eyes. ONce you can do it then do it in the change bag with the test film. You'll soon be doing it without any thought

(y)good luck
Click to expand...

You make it sound so easy! i bet its not quite that simple, but i cant wait to get hold of the gear so i can have a go!
 
Kaben said:
You make it sound so easy! i bet its not quite that simple, but i cant wait to get hold of the gear so i can have a go!
Click to expand...

No it really IS easy - it's just a bit scary to begin with. I found this guide really helpful for my first go.

Good luck and enjoy!
 
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