jerry_kirkwood

Some people approach photography as a hobby, meaning they enjoy the entire process from start to end. Some collect cameras and like the solid old metal cameras with all manual controls. Some like to develop film and watch a print come up in a tray of developer.

 

Yes you are right, digital is undeniably the future of photography. Until there is no more film, there will be a choice. And as long as there is a choice, and internet forums where people can espouse their own opinions, there will be endless (and pointless)personal attacks and name-calling. For me the enjoyment of photography starts with the moment I pick up the camera and ends when the print is in the frame. I don't expect anyone to buy my prints or praise them, that's not why I do it. If it's impossible for some people to understand and accept that, I don't care.

I've got 2 and both are smooth as melted marshmellows.

{There are only two answers that are offered when people have asked about these symptoms: 1) go past frame such-and-such, and 2) take it for repair or get a new F3. The threads die soon after these responses.}

 

Well you have to give these people credit for remaning silent when they don't know the answer, rather than offering wild speculation as is the usual scenario on the internet. Maybe ask the question on a camera repair forum and you will get answers based on first hand knowledge. The only thing I would do by tinkering around inside my F3 is make the bill bigger when inevitably I have to take it to a shop.

I'd get an F. Drop that into a lake (unless maybe Great Salt Lake) and it won't be a gonner or take $250 to repair.

I know you can still find plenty of flashbulbs around, but is anyone actually manufacturing them today?

{Kodachrome II was much nicer than Kodachrome 25 and a lot of people were very upset with the change.}

 

Glad there's another old timer who knows the score. Supposedly K-II was discontinued for environmental reasons, but K25 lacked the saturation and had more trouble handling high contrast. At that time there was no K64, but there was Kodachrome-X. K64 was an improvement over KX but K64 was a step down in saturation and a step up in contrast from K25. It surprises me still though that Kodak didn't axe K64 and K200 and keep K25 for the Kodachrome fanatics. I would have thought K25 outsold K64 and K200 together, but I guess I was wrong.

I shoot film because I enjoy developing my film and doing enlarging and watching a print come up in the developer tray. I don't get the same thrill from mousing around in Photoshop and watching a print inch its way out of an inkjet. I'm not selling or exhibiting my prints, it's purely a hobby for me, and my right to approach it any way that makes me happy. My wife sews by hand with needle and thread, and my next-door neighbor makes and restores antique furniture with equally antique hand-tools. Their results are definitely slower, and in all probability less technically perfect than if they used the latest microprocessor controlled machinery, but they enjoy doing it and that's the definition of a hobby.

Photography has always been an expensive hobby. Pros today almost all shoot digital, and us amatures have that option if buying and developing film is too expensive. I think we all can understand the economics of scale in manufacturing well enough to realize that film manufacturers can't possibly make a profit at 10% of their former volume unless they raise prices. For those determined to shoot film, this is only the beginning of a steep climb in prices.

With enough practice almost anyone can get the hang of loading any stainless reel and someone who has been doing it forever doesn't realize how hard it is for a first-timer or someone with less dexterity or maybe arthritis. Kinderman reels have a loading jig that anyone can pick up for the first time and load perfectly every time. Works much better than those curved metal templates. The loader fits into the hub of the Kinderman reel and there's a little nub on the outside of the reel and you just stick the film through the loader into the clip, then grab the nub and turn like a baitcasting reel and the film loads on in about 15 seconds. Faster than loading a plastic reel and just as easy for a novice.