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thisisnotaspoon

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Sam
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Ok, I'm completely new to this film stuff, the last time I used it I was probably 5 years old and took blury out of focus shots of worms (with the same .

I've got a few rolls of film I took back when I was at university and probably not suitable for the local tesco to develop (wine + 'friend' + "hey, you take photographs right?").

Anyway, I digress, this seems to be as good an excuse as any to get into doing my own developing, so I've got a few probably stupid questions to get out the way.

1) What do I need and where do I get it? There seem to be quite a few people on Ebay just selling complete darkrooms, is this as good as any place to start? In which case what should I look for, any particular enlargers to look for/avoid?

2) How do I avoid buying a complete lemon? I guess aything thats been used within the last 30 years won't be being sold, so its all going to have sat in an atic for some length of time. As long as its in good cosmetic condition and the lights come on, is there anything else to worry about?

3) I'm guessing buying film in bulk and some re-loadable cases wil work out cheeper than buying individual rolls, is this the case? If so where di I get it from?

4) The film in question is colour film, I presume it's fairy easy to develop the film then produce B&W prints from this (colour sounds like hard work)?

5) any other tips before I go and suffocate on some fumes?
 
1.Developer tank, spirals and a thermometer. Ebay or your local camera shop will more than likely stock them. Complete darkrooms usually include equipment for doing your own prints, so if this is the way you'd like to go, you'll need an enlarger. The easier way to do this, though is by scaning in your negatives and printing them digitally, though technically you loose quality over the enlarging method other than with the best high end scanners. You'd be looking at getting an Epson V700/750/4490 or Canon equivalent otherwise.

2. Old cameras are usually built like tanks, but things like the shutters can get sticky and if they do may be worth avoiding or spending £20 or so getting repaired. Common problems like light leaks can be fixed by you. Checking the shutter speed and making sure fresh batteries actually work in the camera are the first things I look for.

3. Reloadable cassettes will work if you're buying hundreds of pounds worth of film. For beginners it's probably not worth it. 7-day shop is your best bet.

4. B&W is the easiest to process yourself as you don't need to be strict with temperature. E6 slide film and C-41 print film are trickier, but easy to do with the same equipment, just different chemicals.

5. I'm sure more TP'ers will be along to help (y)
 
Well my favourite cheap place is boot sales, mind you I've never seen a decent scanner yet.
 
cheers, those .pdf's were just what I was after,

with point 2) I was thinking about enlargers, I've 'borrowed' my dad's old pentax SLR with a couple of lenses (pentax 28 and 35mm), which seems completely bombproof (apart form lens caps which I/the case seem to eat) will probably go on the hunt for a cheep fisheye as well for shooting BMX.
What would be a good enlarger to look out for on ebay? Or are film scanners good enough on a budget. Quite like ebay as if I do get bored of the whole process its easy enough to sell on again without loosing out too much.

Is it a case of only pentax lenses fit pentax SLR's? I borrowed a friends 50-200mm for a trip to a go-karting track, and although it fit in the socket it wouldn't lock in place?
 
thisisnotaspoon said:
Is it a case of only pentax lenses fit pentax SLR's? I borrowed a friends 50-200mm for a trip to a go-karting track, and although it fit in the socket it wouldn't lock in place?
Click to expand...

Basically with Pentax there was the early 'M' series bayonet-fit, and these included the K1000, MX, ME-Super, MG and I think MV-1 as well. The top model was the LX. There are plenty of independent lenses available in this fitting second-hand. You don't have to buy Pentax's own, but I'd imagine even these will be available at reasonable prices on the used market. Tokina, Vivitar, Sigma and Tamron are all decent lenses.

There is also the 'A' series, which although the bayonet is the same, the lenses have an auto setting on the aperture ring. This was required for cameras such as the Super A, Program A, A3, and I'm sure there was a P30 as well. Again, there are 'A' series independent lenses available.

I can't tell you anything about film scanners as I don't have one, but if you fancy printing, I would think there are enlargers available on e-bay (I haven't looked). Durst and Me-Opta are two names worth looking out for.
 
thisisnotaspoon said:
cheers, I think its an ME-super, and yes it is comletely manual apart from the exposure
Click to expand...

With the ME-Super, you can use both 'M' and 'A' series lenses. There should be no problem getting hold of decent used lenses (either Pentax or independent) on e-bay or from a photographic dealer.
 
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