35mm sugestions.
 

Hi all.
I'm due to go to Lanzarote on the 16th of July, to see my mum and other family, and have a nice week in there. The thing is I'm taking my 35 mm camera, a Minolta Dynax 500si, with a Sigma Zoom 28-80 55 mm diameter lens. Nothing really special.
I was thinking about film and filters, and see if any of you knows what to do in my situation. I can do with some filters, and I found some here, but they look to good to be true. I suppose that for that prize I could just try them out.
Anyway, I'm expecting to have very bright sunny days, and I'll be doing a lot of panoramic, and probably some night shots.
Right now I got a bunch of films from Boots that are 200 ISO, and I think that they are pretty good for the prize, but I'm quite lost about the ISO thingy. I don't know if I should go for higher ISO or just stay low. I'm thinking about panoramic, so any ideas are welcome, even if you think that there is something that I would already know, chances are I don't know, because I'm new to this.
Should I have a checklist? Also, I'm expecting a lot of earthy colors, and black laba, so I thought I could do with something like that too. Or a filter would be more practical?
Thanks.

Hi there, going back to my film days, I used to use low ISO, fine grain for Landscape - 50 or 100. Night shots were High ISO - 400 plus. A Polarizing filter will help bring out colours and a graduated Neutral Density may also help Landscapes if you have a great contrast between, foreground and sky.

For going to the Med in summer stick to 100 ISO film. Basically with 100 ISO you will have to use one aperture stop over what you would have for 200 ISO, or half the shutter speed.

The best film for your situation is Kodak Ektar 100, it's quite a new film with saturated colours (i.e strong colour). The reds are particularly strong with that film. I think the Lomo red film would just give you an unnatural and gimmicky effect.

Because of the saturated red Ektar is not the most ideal film for photographing people, it makes skin look too red. For people a more natural colour film like the Superia 200 at Boots will do fine. Fuji Reala 100 is also good for providing natural colour, as is Portra.

You may want to consider slide film, but to view you'll either have to a) use a projector b) scan it or c) pay a lab large amounts of money to print it. Slides tend to give very vivid colour.

If you want to take shots at night without a flash I'm afraid you simply can't use the same film as for daylight shots. You'd need at least ISO 400, and given that you have a slow zoom lens ISO 800 or even 1600 would be more ideal. Fujicolour Pro 400H or 800Z spring to mind here.

You may want to try Black&white, there are excellent high-speed films from Kodak and Ilford which give an excellent heavy grain effect. Ilford Delta 3200 ISO and Kodak Tmax 3200 would be ideal. Since they are actually 1000 ISO films designed to be pushed you could expose them at 1600 ISO (remember to tell the lab that).

Filters: this is very much a personal choice here. As Andy said a Polariser will accentuate colours and cut through reflections in water - I've gone without one in sunny conditions. An ND filter will let you use high ISO film in bright light - it uniformly decreases the exposure. There are different grades of ND filter. Bear in mind that while this seems an attractive solution high ISO film are considerably grainier than lower ISOs like Ektar.

Coloured filters will give you more of that specific colour in the photo. Up to you to decide what you like. Since you have an SLR what you see in the viewfinder is very much what you get on the print.

Hi ,You only live in Newport SW, if you would like a trip to the Forest of Dean I can give you loads of filters Cokin or circular for film, left over from the days of my playing with 35mm film.
No charge just have what you want for free and you may even get a coffee as well..;):D

Alex mentioned coloured filters. I would have thought the main use for these would be with B&W film. I used to use a green or yellow/green filter for general purpose, an orange filter to bring out any clouds in a blue sky and to darken the sky quite dramatically plus a red one for very dramatic skies. Most useful for colour film as has already been mentioned would be a circular polariser (nothing to do with the physical shape of the filter but the structure of the polarizing element) and a couple of ND filters of varying strengths.

Bloody hell, I wasn't expecting such a response. Thanks all.
This is really helping, making me see things on a different perspective.
Film with different ISO may not be a problem, I may be able to get my hands on another camera, I don't know yet.
I just had a look at Kodak Ektar 100 films, and they are more expensive, but is not something that I'll be doing often, so I'll spoil my self, also I'll try B&W, and High ISO for night shots.
Filters, yep, good thing I got an SLR, that will make me decide there and then, or at list I hope so, but I certainly never though of using them with B&W. I'll certainly try that out. And the polarizing filter I seen some examples of "with and without" and I think that would be a big improvement.
@ Red Dog, I would love too, we'll talk about it. Thanks a lot.
Thanks all. Kip them coming.

Just remember there are no 'better' or 'worse' films, only different films. Indeed, the choice of film is an artistic decision in itself: do you want coarse grain, fine grain, saturated colour, natural colour, exaggerated reds... I would only recommend Ektar 100 because it is ideal for this situation: fine grain, good colour and low ISO.

With B&W the rule to remember is that a coloured filter will make that colour appear whiter on the print and make the opposite colour darker. So red will make reds look lighter and blues look darker. Yellow and orange give a similar effect to the sky but more subdued. Yellow is a general walk-around filter for B&W because B&W films tend to be a little oversensitive to the blue area of the spectrum - a yellow filter compensates for this nicely. Green filters will make vegetation look lighter. Basically you can get really carried away if you want, but for B&W I'd stick to yellow and maybe red for the time being.

I think I'll be taking another camera for black and white. But this is a really old camera and I'm not sure if it will be up to the job. No because of the camera, but because the lens is only a standard 35~70 mm, all manual, without electronics. The camera is a Minolta X700 IIF. Shocking, hu? I can't see why I wouldn't get some decent pictures using this camera for B&W. I would love to have a wide angle and whatever, but I'm just learning, so lets experiment.

No, Juan, that isn't shocking. I have been using all-manual lenses and all-manual cameras for years. It really isn't as hard as it sounds. Turn the focus ring until everything is in focus, set aperture, shoot. In fact these manual cameras are ideal for learning because they involve the photographer a lot more than with an all-electronic gadget.

35-70 is a perfectly adequate zoom range. For B&W use Delta 3200 for high-speed night shots. If you wish to use that film in daylight an ND filter will be very useful to lower the light coming in. However your shots with that film will be very grainy...up to you to use that to aesthetic effect.

I found some examples of pictures taken using Delta 3200, and I can see what you mean by very grainy. I was actually looking for that effect on B&W, so that's a bonus.
Here is an example. Is a big picture...
About manual lenses and cameras. I wasn't thinking about them being difficult, just about how old they are, but like I said before somewhere, I like vinyl and I like classic cars, and I like acoustic music... I find manual really appealing.
EDIT: I just noticed the Kodak T-MAX P 3200. I think the end result is very similar to Delta 3200, but is half the prize. Maybe I should try both.
Thanks Alex

T-max 3200 is an incredible film, you can push it to 25600 ISO (a 3 stop push!). The photo you linked was made using software to simulate film grain. A real Ilford 3200 image looks like this: http://dickyjphotography.files.wordp...73807d56-1.jpg The grain is very heavy, accentuated by the developer which the author (not me) says is D-76 which isn't the best developer for achieving the fines possible grain.

I'm sure you'll like either film, they can make for very interesting photos and are certainly far more subtle than a flashgun. With a fast prime lens like an f1.8 you can photograph very low light scenes indeed. In fact a 50mm Rokkor would be an ideal purchase for you.

The age is never a problem with these cameras, they are very well made (the fact they still work perfectly is evidence enough!)

I quite agree with Alex the build quality on most older cameras were far better than the new digital throw away bodies, let face it these days if you have a problem with a camera that has been used for more than four years the repairers just say “A non economic repair.”
Mostly all the older 35mm bodies require is new light seals fitting, a very easy job to do.
I do miss my film cameras, Contax/Yashica and the medium format twin lens bodies, but having moved to the “retirement bungalow” no space for a dark room.:(
Regards
Richard

I just come back from Lanzarote. I didn't had much chance to take pictures, my mum lives in Lanzarote and she was in hospital, so I been really worried going back and forth to visit her.
I did shot about 40 or maybe 50 pictures using Ektar 100 and some other using what I had left of Boots own brand that uses 200 ISO. But I didn't take the B&W film, I'll use that for whatever. I wonder if that Kodak P3200 Tmax B&W would be any good for portrait.
So as soon this is developed I'll upload some more.
Thanks all for the recomendations and the help.:)

It depends on the situation, art schools they love grainy images with high ISOs, but in the photography world we generally use no more than ISO100 for sharpness in the image.

High ISO=Grainy image
Low ISO=Sharper image

The choice is yours.

Depends very much on the subject and the effect you are after. Fast B&W film is also good for gritty industrial landscape type of shot.