plasma181

I don't know for how long, but you still can get Vista at Walgreens. They sell it as Studio 35, their house brand.

Anthony:

 

I can't really offer any advice, but I am in the same boat you are. I've been asked to shoot a wedding in Las Vegas in March. I'm not a pro and I've never done a wedding, but like you, I will give it my best effort.

The first serious camera I ever owned was a little Canonette QL-17 back in the mid 70's. As I recall, its focus was spot on.

I was able to get my FM3a at half price, so it was a great deal. I considered the F3HP, but the poor flash sync speed was not to my liking.

I wonder if there's an old Latin expression meaning "Seller Beware".

I used to have a P30 t. It was a great little camera, but I noticed my 50mm lens moved a little past infinity. I called it my Buzz Lightyear lens - "to infinity; and beyond!" Anyway while doing some close-up macro work, I noticed my lens wasn't focusing where it should. After a few experiments with a tape measure, I found that the focus for the film was different for the focusing screen. Objects in the final prints were in focus slightly closer to the lens than what I focused on. That may be the cause of your problem as well.

I went to the Caribbean island of Aruba about 9 months ago. I took my FM-10 because I didn't want to get sand and seaweed on my FM3a. It took some pretty good pictures. Here are a few of them. As we know, the match needle of the FM3a can be hard to see in low light. The FM-10 has LEDs which can actually be hard to see in bright sunlight with sunglasses on.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=490737

Kar:

 

That is a very difficult shot. You have a bright stripe and a shadow right on the girl's face. Giving less exposure will make the bright areas darker, but will make the shadows black. If this is the shot you want, try a little fill flash to reduce the overall contrast.

Fuji True Definition 400 has a somewhat subdued contrast and saturation. It would make a pretty good wedding film.

Whatever you do, don't use my agency.

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/3890977">Need to find a new agency.</a>

I can't remember which one right now, but there is a night photography web page where they consider Provia 100 to be some kind of magic. Very little reciprocity problems.

Though I can't help but wonder. If we had actually purchased more F90's and FM3a's instead of lusting after F2's and F3HP's, maybe they would still be manufacturing them.

Adam: Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sure however that the FA needs AI-S lenses for shutter priority. AI lenses will only give it aperture priority.

There were a couple of Nikon bodies that could perform shutter priority with AI-S lenses other than the FA. Was the F301 one of them?

There appear to be 2 aspects of the FM3a for which there is no universal agreement. One is the maximum length of aperture priority time exposures, the other is how manual shutter speed settings are powered with good batteries installed. Are they mechanically controlled or electronically controlled?

 

One thing I do know is that time exposures will go quite a bit past the advertised 8 seconds.

When I go places with my film set-up, people automatically assume I know what I'm doing. They really seem quite impressed that somebody still shoots film

So, is film still dying?

Albert: Even though you don't use it, would you say the comp dial on the FE2 is easier than the FM3a? I've been thinking about picking up an FE2 as a back-up for when I need to compensate quickly.

And make sure you tell the client how you slaved over the computer shrinking each and every picture, and charge accordingly.

Please don't write "stupid"; write "questionable" or "debatable" instead.

Thank you.

Hashim: I got pretty good results with Asian skin tones with plane supermarket Kodak film, though I don't use it anymore.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/2913007

There is a way around this that doesn't involve much Photoshop. Some film scanners have an "analog gain" feature that controls the power of the light shining through the negative. In this case, I would just boost the power to darken the faces, then increase the exposure of the rest of the room in P.S.

Ken: Yes, that is a little better. I tried a magnetic lasso on their faces and the girl's forearm, then just darkened those areas.<div></div>

Has anyone figured out a good one-hand technique for the exposure

compensation dial on the FM3a? I know the -1 stop button is quick

and easy, but the dial from -2 to +2 stops is a pain. There seems

to be no way to work it without using 2 hands. 3 would be even

better.

I think I know what J. is asking. Let's say you are using a 50mm lens with a subject 10 feet away. It's bright and sunny out, so you are at f/16. Classic depth of field calculations say that objects will be in focus from 6.3 feet to as far away as 23.6 feet. Distracting objects may be in the frame.

 

Now let's say you intentionally mis-focus at 7 1/2 feet rather than 10 feet where your subject is. Now, objects will be in focus only from 5.2 feet to about 13 feet, just 3 feet beyond the subject. Distracting elements have been blurred.