Help me Spend £2000

Poppers said:
I do have acess to a darkroom at the moment so do people think it will be worthwile learning to print my own images?
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What kind of question is that ??? 🙂
Of course try darkroom printing. In the end, you may like it, or not, but you have to at least try it.

Also don't underestimate scanning as part of your printing workflow, to me, it beats printing contact prints by miles in terms of practicality and time-saving.
 
Poppers said:
Hello All, I'm a new user here. So I was saving up for a new Nikon DSLR and then i thought, to be honest I dont always use my current one as it's too big to take out all the time.

SNIP

To go with this I plan to develop my own film and would like a film scanner, i was thinking of the NIkon Coolscan 4000. I'm using an Imac with OSX. I do have acess to a darkroom at the moment so do people think it will be worthwile learning to print my own images?

Another SNIP
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Exactly my setup. Works nicely.

Harry
 
thomasw_ said:
Well stated. If you wet print, there is little point in having a $2000+ dedicated film scanner just to post images to the web!
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This one I scanned with a Canoscan 9900f. Ricoh GR1/Delta 100/Ilford Warmtone paper. I could have cleaned it up better, but you get the point:

checkers.jpg
 
I've been reading through the biogon c35 thread and think this is the way to go. I'll wait and see if something pops up on the used market before buying new. Is there a particular M6 i should look out for. I understand that they were manufactured in different places and some are badged Leitz/Leica.
 
I'd go for a standard .72 finder. The differences are small for the M6 production run. You can find the differences on Stephen's site here,
http://CameraQuest.com/m6dif.htm

They are tough cameras whatever the year of manufacture. The early ones had more metal, less plastic. Not that it matters at all.
I've had quite a few M6's and prefer the early Wetzlar ones with the engraving on the top plate.
 
Do you know if 35mm is your preferred focal length? When I got my first RF I went with a 35mm because that seemed what most recommended but soon realised I preferred 50mm focal length. See if you can borrow someone's rig if you are going the one lens route.
 
hausen said:
Do you know if 35mm is your preferred focal length? When I got my first RF I went with a 35mm because that seemed what most recommended but soon realised I preferred 50mm focal length. See if you can borrow someone's rig if you are going the one lens route.
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Thanks, i took out an M3 with 35 and 50 mil lenses and felt the 50 was a little too long for me.
 
@Poppers: the M6 with 35mm f2 Biogon is a fantastic combination and a great starting point. It is excellent for street and general photography. I use this combo for the majority of my 135 work. If you are planning to do your own b+w development but don't want the hassle of a darkroom, then I suggest getting a good scanner. It sounds like you have already thought about it quite a lot. Good luck 🙂

Here is something to whet your appetite; the silver finish lens goes quite well with a chrome body:


The Street Machine by *monz*, on Flickr
 
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That does look lovely, The M6s i've seen locally have been black so i've been waiting for a black lens to turn up. I've seen a couple of silver ones go on ebay for reasonable money. Do you have a recommendation for a good scanner?
 
Poppers said:
That does look lovely, The M6s i've seen locally have been black so i've been waiting for a black lens to turn up. I've seen a couple of silver ones go on ebay for reasonable money. Do you have a recommendation for a good scanner?
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I use an Epson F-3200 scanner which can scan 35mm, medium format and 4x5. Unfortunately it is no longer available new. If you are not planning to do medium format at a later stage, then a dedicated 35mm scanner such as a s/h Minolta Dimage would be a good buy. More info here:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/scanrex.htm
 
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Thanks for the info. I do have patrial access to a Hasselblad scanner. I'll use that for prints i want to enlarge while it lasts but it would be good to have something at home too.
 
The Plustek Opticfilm scanners are very good and not very expensive. For black and white, the 7400 is all you need, especially if you are using 35mm only. The Nikon scanners are not much better and getting quite old now. The Plustek 7600 has an infrared channel for dust removal on color film, and the 7600 Ai has color calibration software.
 
I think that the answer is that you obviously should if you have the choice. Don't believe the idea that M users never use a flash: that's just a kind of snobbery. If you want to use the M to take pictures at e.g. a party then you will be glad of TTL flash metering. The other great thing about the TTL is that the shutter speed button is bigger than on preceding models and so can easily be turned without having to take the camera away from the eye. I'm certainly very happy with my TTL.
 
For now I would go with a scanner rather than taking on learning wet printing as well. I learnt my developing and printing before digital was dreamt of, and yet I still find myself enjoying film and enjoying developing, but only wet printing when the mood strikes. Mostly I scan my negs, and I have a shameful number of film scanners. If you have access to a Hasselblad scanner you should know that it will be quicker, easier and better than pretty much anything else you can access. I bought a used Imacon 848 on eBay for around half the price of a new Flextight X1, and enjoy using it to the extent that my Coolscan 9000ED is now my backup. As far as the M6 goes, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do my Leicas!

Chris
 
chrism said:
For now I would go with a scanner rather than taking on learning wet printing as well. I learnt my developing and printing before digital was dreamt of, and yet I still find myself enjoying film and enjoying developing, but only wet printing when the mood strikes. Mostly I scan my negs, and I have a shameful number of film scanners. If you have access to a Hasselblad scanner you should know that it will be quicker, easier and better than pretty much anything else you can access. I bought a used Imacon 848 on eBay for around half the price of a new Flextight X1, and enjoy using it to the extent that my Coolscan 9000ED is now my backup. As far as the M6 goes, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do my Leicas!

Chris
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Thanks for the reply, the Hasselblad belongs to the University, so i can only use it during term time on weekdays when it's free so something at home would be good too.
 
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