Film photography - FM3a

[donaldamacmillan]

Hi folks

 

I'm hoping for some honest thoughts and advice from you guys - and ladies too -

if anyone feels somewhat inclined. I'm fairly new to SLR photography and amn't

very confident just yet ... Still feeling my way around aperture and shutter

speeds, amongst other aspects!! I chose a fm3a for my camera because it is

wholly manual (and i was told it is a wonderful camera!), and because i

originally had big plans to get into astrophotography primarily, and so the

capability of my camera to perform long exposures under purely mechanical

control was desirable at the time. So far though my astrophotography plans

haven't came to much (so far!) but in the past few months i have decided to

give conventional photography a go.

 

So that's a wee bit of personal background. What's really on my mind just now

is that i've got a film camera but i do not have the oppertunity at all to

develope my own film/prints. There's no way i can set up a dark room in my

home (my wife would evict me). So i am wholly reliant upon commercial

laboratory processing. Does this put me at any great creative disadvantage?

With my fm3a (and my 28mm, 50mm & 100mm lenses, & my SB-24 flash, & my small

range of filters) and my local photo developer can i dare to expect - one day -

to produce my own stunning works of art? Putting this another way, could my

efforts at being imaginative and creative with my camera all be undone by

commercial processing and could my photos 'lose' something that they wouldn't

necessarily have lost if i had the means to develope them myself? Does this

make any sense?!?!

 

I have taken some photos already that i am fairly happy with but i know that i

have so much more to learn about taking beautiful and intelligent pictures.

Should i regard my fm3a as my apprenticeship camera? Preparing me for the

likely inevitable day that i go digital and when my computer becomes my very

own darkroom. Or should i just forget about film as soon as possible and get

in to digital at the earliest oppertunity? I expect that with a digital SLR i

can learn and experiment about the principles of photography just the same as

with a film camera, and of course have complete 'post-production' control in

the comfort of my won home. Or should i have total faith in my fm3a, in it's

capabilities and in my local photo labs too?? Should i just carry on shooting

away with my fm3a and truly see what i can do with a camera?

 

I'd love to know what anyone's thoughts may be about this sort of thing.

 

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Donald

[ronald_moravec1]

A pro lab will make good to great prints. The local consumer lab will screw them up.

 

Get a scanner and print them yourself. This is not an easy process and is harder to learn without darkroom experience.

[bobar57]

The Nikon FM3A is a fine camera, with quality lenses and your creativity-the most important tool-you can make great pictures w/o going digital, just have them developed and printed in a pro lab as recommended above.

[lahuasteca]

The FM3a, from my point of view, is one of the all time great film cameras. For years I

travellled with an FE2 (same thing, older version), then added an FM3a. FM3a, some basic

primes 28, 50, and 135 mm, is a simple, but versatile basic kit. The aperture priority allows

for some automation, but one can reasily control depth of field.

 

Today I do most of my work in digital (D70s), but will never sell the FE2 and FM3a. I still use

it with good slide film for tripod landscape shots.

 

By all means, keep that FM3a.

[alvin_wong]

<p>There's nothing wrong with using labs to develop film. There's no inherent magic or insight that comes with developing all your own film, and printing all your negatives. Besides, once you digitize your photos, you have the freedom to post-process in any which way you like.</p><p>Ultimately, creativity and photos come from within you, not from the lab.</p>

[photo5]

I get great results at Costco for developing and printing. They are my "local pro lab"

[RaymondC]

Where I am I have been to semi pro labs - that is pro shop with a lab they arn't v good. Much times I found malls and chemists better.

 

I use a real pro lab and they are good but for the like of 98%.

 

I found that with a own film scanner in auto I am able to get better results. Esp with a specialist software like Silverfast but both that and Epson's software is able to get just good results better than labs in my experience.

 

These days I just process film and scan and print myself of the few I like. Its cheaper too.

[bob_s__n.e._mass_]

Donald- by all means get a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure"- at 15 bucks on amazon it's a course in photography in one book. I've been an amateur photographer for 50 years and I learned more reading this book than I learned in that time period. And good luck- what a wonderful pursuit you've undertaken! I know this isn't a direct answer to your questions but hope it helps. Cheers- Bob

[bgelfand]

Hi Donald,

 

Two solutions I have found that work for me.

 

For color film I have the film developed only at my local mini lab. Then I scan it with a Nikon Coolscan V scanner directly into Photoshop. I process the the file in Photoshop, making color correction, burn, dodge, crop, etc, and finally upload the resulting file for printing.

 

For black and white, I set up a darkroom in the spare bathroom. I am lucky in that first we have a spare bathroom and second it is just the two of us. Obviously this will not work well if you have a large family and not enough baths. The enlarger goes on a platform over one of the sinks and the chemicals go on a shelf over the tub. That leaves the toilet and one sink fee, effectively turning the bath into a half bath. If we have guests, I can break down the darkroom and have a full bath back in approximately 30 minutes.<div></div>

[bgelfand]

And here is the enlarger.<div></div>

[RaymondC]

If its negative film (not slide) or even b/w film - metering should not be an issue given the exposure lattitude. Just point and shoot, you could be off by 2 stops and its still ok, for neg film you can also fool the ISO so that you are overexposing by 2/3 a stop, neg film tend to do better when overexposed and then if you do underexpose you have that bit more room for error. Most times pple tend to underexpose than overexpose - ie., you tend to point the cam to bright stuff and not to dark stuff.

[craig_shearman1]

The FM3a is a totally serious camera that can make virtually any picture you want to make, the only limitation being what lenses you buy for it. And since it's the Nikon manual focus mount, there are 50 years worth of uses lenses out there to be had for pennies on the dollar. You don't have the limitations with megapixels, noise levels, lens compatibility etc that you have with a low-end digital body. I would avoid local drugstore or big box processing and at the very least take your film to an actual camera store. That way you can hope that the negs are properly processed and you can then scan and print on the computer yourself if you like. (Be sure to get a real film scanner; flatbed scanners "can" scan film but the results are rarely sharp enough in my experience). Better yet use a professional lab, espeically for final prints. For serious portrait and wedding work I used to use www.cpq.com. (I'm mostly digital now, shooting for publication, and don't have much need for prints any more so I haven't used them in a while.) They're not cheap, but very good. If you really want to know what you're getting with exposure and color, shoot slide film, and send it to www.aandi.com for processing. They have prepaid mailers you can order directly or through www.bhphotovideo.com. They are best known for the E-6 slide processing, but also do color neg and B&W, and can print either of course. With slides just like negs, you can either have someone else print, or scan and print yourself. But with slides what you shoot is what you get, so you can judge exposure and color without any interference from someone else's adjustments in the printing or scanning process. Also, I've set up many temporary darkrooms in everything bathrooms, basements, hotel rooms. Your wife might be more forgiving than you expect.

[craig_shearman1]

Brooks -- Very nice and efficient setup you have there. I used to do the same before I had a permanent darkroom except I just put a piece of wood across the tub and had to bend down. Yours is much easier on the back.

[gary_watson]

Perfectly workable set-up,Donald. The FM3a is near-perfect, thanks to to its hybrid manual/electronic shutter and small, fast-handling size. A good lab will work with you--not against you--when it comes to prints. The only problem now is that pro labs are thinning out and/or dropping services(e.g., E6).

When it comes to gear,just don't lose sight of the pleasures of "doing more with less." Nearly everyone makes dumb lens and accessory buys only to find out they didn't really need it.

Consider the costs of film and processing as tuition. Just shoot away.

[vincenzo_maielli]

I own two FM3A, one black and one silver chrome. Both are very fine cameras, whit the best features of the FE-2 and FM-2 cameras.

Ciao.

[michaelchristensen]

The FM3a is built to a high level of worksmanship and material quality. It shares the advantages of the FM and the FM2n, both generally regarded as two of the most reliable cameras ever built (both in terms of operation under extreme conditions and in day-to-day reliability reports from repair shops and magazine surveys). It has an extremely strong body of copper silumin alloy. The electronics are well protected within the body and of extremely high quality, including the flexible circuits. The FM3a's film transport consists of high-strength hardened metal gears and moving parts, mounted on clusters of ball bearings. The vertical metal shutter utilizes precision tapered high-strength aluminum alloy blades and oilless self-lubricating bearings. A roller bearing assists the far side film transport. The guide rails are made of stainless steel. The mirror is made of titanium. It is large to reduce chances of vignetting with super-telephotos of up to 800 mm, and uses the same mechanism found on Nikon's pro F2, with some improvements designed to further reduce effects of vibration and mirror bounce.

 

Wow, sounds like a great 1st SLR! Should still be giving you great pictures even as the newer digital SLRs start to fill up local land-fills!

[stephen_asprey2]

I went all the way with digital...now I have gone back to film and scan negatives into

Aperture, I don't fiddle with the images. Just cropping etc. My opinion is that you should get

it right in the camera. I bought an awesame kit for $500: Nice FM2n, 28/2.8, 35/2, 50/1.8,

105/2.5(unbelievable) and a 80-200/4. I can't envisage needing anything else. Except an

FM3, maybe. But I like the 100% manual 2.

[donbright]

<p>Love this camera. When built, the senior Nikon engineers, now retired, pulled out all the stops to make it happen.</p><div></div>

[Albins images]

<p>Why are you posting this? To make me want one? I do.. (No) thanks for reminding me.</p>