My first roll with an RF

[Lukino]

Hi! I'm new in the forum, even if I read it from long time.
I've never had a chance to try an RF camera before, then in shop I found a used Petri 7s II for 10€, it looked just like it was never been used, so I bought and put a film in it. Here are some samples, not to show out obviously, I just wanted to share the feeling of this all mechanical beauty. Probably all you guys already know what I'm going to say: this thing is a great fun to use! I never had to handle aperture, timing, exposition before, it takes me lot of time to set up a shot, I cannot konw if the photo is good or not like in my digital p&s, but is an amazing experience I never tried before, it is not capturing a picture, it is more like forging it!
Now I'm learning many things on this new (for me) art, for example: the exposimeter is useful, but is not enought; keeping the camera aligned to ground is not easy as it seems, or maybe is my eye that is rotated 4° to left; you don't have to fear of wasteìing the first shot if you don't want an half picture (I like this photo a lot!);


focusing an RF is much easier and farter than a SLR, at least for me; colors are something completely different of what you obtain from a digital camera;


you better leave some border to cut around your images; you have to ask the lab that develop your film not to try to adjust your prints at will BEFORE have it developed...
As you can see, I'm enthusiast of my new toy! Can you suggest me how to go on? Try a better film (I've tried a cheap kodak)? Wich one? Is all this grain normal, or is because of the film/the lab/lens cleaning/me? Which kind of subjects can be a good school? I'm not triing to become a pro, just have fun shooting!

 

[sooner]

Welcome to the forum. One of the great things about this hobby is you end up with pictures of your life. Thanks for sharing a piece of yours.

 

[fishtek]

Welcome! Yes, RF's are great fun, and different tools than SLR's and EVF Digitals. There is a great variety of film, and you'll just have to experiment with different ones, as well as looking at lots of pictures of other photographers (Flickr is a good source for this...) in order to see what you prefer.

Don't forget B/W films, either. I find that the B/W film changes my thinking about the picture I'm about to take, paying attention to light and shadow more, as well as lines, angles, and general composition.

Just get a bunch of film, and go out and shoot.

Regards!
Don

 

[Paul C. Perkins MD]

Lukino,

I liked the third photo the best. My older brother has one of these cameras - and I've NEVER seen anything shot with it. I think I may sneak a roll through it while he is out of town. . .

 

[Lukino]

Thanks to everybody for the answers,
I've put a second roll in, but I have too much work right now to use it, maybe this sunday...
I'd like to try a b/w roll, but something stopped me... the guy at the lab told me "we don't have ready bw rolls, we can order it for 8€ each (!!!) but usually people shot with
color rolls and I print in bw"
I feel like this makes little sense, I'm expecting bw negatives to have some advantages over color if they are so widespreed... now the question is: I can find cheaper tri-x over the internet, but is there a point to try a high-rated film just to have it developed in its color digital lab?
Paul, this camera gave me an incredible feeling, maybe just because I never tried on of this kind... the only thing that disappoint me a little is too much distortion at edges for a 45 lens.

 

[clarence]

Your lab sounds like the kind of lab that can only print C41 Black and White films. This means Kodak BW400CN and Ilford XP-2 400 only, as far as I know. Normal black and white film will likely not be processed at the shop, but sent to a specialist shop for development. This will cost you more.

Clarence

 

[moretto]

Welcome,Lukino.
As Clarence said, if you are not prepared to develop it youself (sooner or later You will be ..😉 ) your choice can be Kodak bw 400CN, however, I prefer Ilford XP2. To be honest I haven't noticed a great difference between BW400 and a colour film converted to BW digitally. For colour prints , Fuji works for me. Far beter than anything else I have tried.
I don't know how advanced You are in this matters, but notice that, simplified, more ASA(ISO) is more grain.
I develop my BW at home, and c-41 colour at the lab, however just developing..I scan it myself, sometimes I get it developed on a CD at the lab, but without correction. after some corrections in PS(if needed), you can always take it back to the lab for printing.
Why not directly print from the film? It is the best way, but I usually shoot 10-15 shots of the same scene, different angles, bracketing it up and down..so who needs 10 useless prints when you can pay for just 1 good 😀

have fun.

 

[Lukino]

I think I'll follow your steps Moretto, I really don't like how they handle correction at my shop an the way they decide what to print and what to not. But not having a film scanner, next time I'll visit them I'll ask if they can give me something different form jpegs, or any correction I'll do will be quite pointless... I'll also need the color profile that machine they use for prints is using.

 

[Paul C. Perkins MD]

Lukino,

Maybe I am just insensitive . . . but I've shot with colour negative film almost exclusively for the past ten years. If I want a B&W image - I just import the digitalized image into Photoshop and make the colour go away.

In 1966 - I could never have imagined having this option: To shoot ASA-1600 colour . . .

Now - there might be something about TRI-X B&W negatives that allow them to make magiclally superior prints. . .

Go for whatever pleases your own eye.

Paul

 

[Lukino]

Paul, don't feel insensitive, because what you say just makes me.. happy 😀
As I told, I have close to no experience with film cameras, and I'm glad to hear from experienced people! I'd like to try some bw shots just because I see so many beatuifull works here and around, but knowing that I can archieve the same effect (well, a close one😱) by working in digital (where I'm experienced), I'll be very happy to have the flexibilty to choose for nay single shot of my film to be color, bw or both...

 

[clarence]

When the exposure's right, the scan from your average photo lab isn't too bad. Here's an example taken with a Zeiss Ikon Contessa 35.

I converted the colour photo (Fuji Superia 400) into monochrome and tinted it.

Clarence