Fire, Ice, What Was I Thinking

[ase]

California is burning, but DC saw flurries this afternoon. Reactions at work spanned the gamut from horror to gleeful organization of snowball fight teams. My moment of horror today was roommate M. revealing her lustful thoughts about Michael Weatherly. Apparently there's an entire fanbase among my age cohort who don't think he's an annoying frat boy? If only House weren't on opposite NCIS, M. and I could bond over TV!

Yesterday I did not buy film. I called my roommate at the mall and asked her to buy me film, because the grocery store I was standing in didn't have the ISO I wanted, unintentionally sending her to a loving interrogation by the sales clerk / photo hobbyist. I am torn between shame and bemusement that I own such a quasi-hipster item. It's, like, vintage. Vintage happens to other people. I just thrift it. (Except when I realize I haven't thought through the cost of film and development. On the other hand, now I have a camera that gives me manual control over depth of field, which I've been jonesing for since about 3 seconds after I discovered non-automatic settings. This is known as impulse shopping, and is bad and wrong. And yet. Am I ebaying this sucker? No. Instead, I'm buying film!)

My little Kodak film camera is a lot like an inkjet printer: the initial outlay is low, but the consumables will kill your budget. I bought this mostly as an exercise in exploring manual settings, which should keep me occupied until I snap and go digital. If I could control digitized f-stops, exposure times, and the rest on a cheap digital, I would so be there. Unfortunately I've either flunked Manual Focus 101, or it's really hard to get that sort of control on a cheap digital point and shoot. Until then, the arcane mysteries of loading film, setting the exposure, and trying to remember what settings I used when (notebook, here I come) should keep me distracted from the momentum-destroying cold and dark of November through January.

Comments

[asciilifeform.livejournal.com]

> If I could control digitized f-stops, exposure times, and the rest on a cheap digital

Ask and ye shall receive. (http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK)

[ase.livejournal.com]

I find the UI on Canons unintuitive and a PITA. I am jealous of people who don't, and get to use that stuff. If only I didn't hate Canons, that would be the best website ever!

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

Manual controls are possible in some cheap point and shoots (that is, now cheap, not so much when they were new). They tend to be laborious and awkward to use (at least they are on my coolpix 5400), but it is possible to operate some cameras in something like a manual mode.

Honestly, if you want those features, better to go for a film camera or a DSLR...and a film camera is going to be vastly cheaper...as you noticed.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I got good at messing with fake ISO, exposure times and the like on my Kodak C875 (http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/kodak-easyshare-c875/4505-6501_7-32004257.html), but I never got the hang of the super-focused depth shots I wanted to take. I think the Retina is going to make me much happier in that regard - since it's from the mid-50's and has no automated features - while driving me nuts in a hundred other ways.

Tooling around vintage camera sites, BTW, is awesome. The hobbyists are really into it.

Snow? You call that Snow?

[(Anonymous)]

The first snowfall of the season always has a certain charm.

It just wears off very quickly.

GRS from WSFA

Re: Snow? You call that Snow?

[ase.livejournal.com]

I was charmed. I will be less charmed when I have to catch the bus in the snow, but maybe by then I will have new snow boots.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Since you're doing film anyway, have you looked into buying a used film SLR? Our local Craigslist and local camera consignment store were selling them for $50 or so... you might well be able to get one cheaper (or borrow indefinitely from a friend); no one wants the things anymore.

The plus is that you can buy a lens that will be useful for you when you finally go dSLR (and reduce the sticker shock when you do, since you'll already have a decent lens), and it should make it a lot easier to do stuff like manual focus, which does kind of suck to do on a PS (I have no idea what your Kodak is like in that regard). (My G7 does it, but only by bracketing like crazy, which has its own problems, and the f/2.8 lens just isn't fast enough to have interesting shallow DoF except in severe closeups... when we do get that dSLR I'm so agitating for a f/1.4...)

The minus is that if you're going to reuse lenses, you then kind of ought to decide now what platform you want (Canon or Nikon), which personally has been taking us, oh, several years.

You can still find film at the grocery store? Wow.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I had not thought about film SLRs. My original plan was to go straight from zero to digital, but I sinned and impulse-shopped. (Things I am no longer allowed to do: go to any bargain shopping opportunity without caffeine and a list. "But it's on sale!" must be one of the most dangerous phrases in the English language.) Let's see if my enthusiasm survives the development of my first roll of film before getting too serious. With that caveat, I'd probably start by looking at all the dSLRs in Best Buy, and then browsing Craigslist for matching lenses and compatible film SLRs.

My ex-Kodak was a gigantic hassle on pure manual focus, and only slightly better at semi-manual "point, half-click and hold, move, shoot" focus. I haven't started messing with the film Kodak yet, so we'll see what happens this weekend. Since I only to go f/2.8 on the film Kodak, I probably won't get awesome depth of field either, sadly. But I won't know until I start shooting, and I'm holding off until I can do a roll of shots with a notebook on hand.

There's probably an essay on digital vs film economics. I'm assuming that, once you have the basic dSLR kit, you can stop buying anything except storage space and more lenses. Film cameras still need a film and development budget!

You can still find film at the grocery store? Wow.

Only ISO 200, and it's only until the store runs out. I wonder if I can buy them out at a discount?

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Yeah... ok, I have to admit I'm definitely whining quite a lot: f/2.8 isn't that bad for shallow DOF. But I see these pics with the really nice out-of-focus backgrounds and I'm all "aw, I want that!"

[ase.livejournal.com]

Yes! I know that feeling intimately!

This Thanksgiving I was reminded that dad bought himself a Canon Eos XT with many fine trimmings last Black Friday. Since then, he hasn't used the macro adapter and also lost the manual. Some day I am going to "borrow" that camera and dad will never see it again. :-)