1. How to buy a Film Camera that is fully operable
Very few film cameras are being currently made and released brand new. Besides, that kind of takes the whole vintage fun aspect away from film photography anyways. So you will need to purchase a second or third or fourth hand camera. Obviously there are going to be tons of cameras that have broken springs, shutters, aperture rings, cloudy or scratched lenses, light leaks etc. There are tons things hat can go wrong with old cameras especially if they’ve been mishandled or badly aged. You might think to purchase from a thrift store because they are often only a couple of dollars. The truth is, that is a gamble. Most of the time, thrift store film cameras are broken and totaled (repairs will cost more than the price of the camera itself). So you might think to purchase from a camera shop. Camera shops are great places to purchase cameras because they likely will serviced the camera and made sure it is fully operable. However !! Lots of camera shops have no return policies. So if that camera doesn’t work once you run your first roll of film through it, you’re out of luck. Ebay is a great place to buy your first camera because they have lots of sellers who actually own camera shops and service the cameras before you purchase them. EBay also has a 30 day return policy so once you get your camera you can run a roll of film through it, take it to the film lab, and review your pictures to make sure that the camera is fully operable. I would highly highly suggest buying your first 35mm film camera from eBay !So hands down, the Best place to buy 35 mm film cameras is eBay !
2. What kind of film and film camera should you buy ?
If you’re over the age of 30 then this is probably obvious to you. But for all of us younglings, let me give you a quick break down. Film has different sizes. The most popular is 35mm. This is also referred to as Full Frame . There are also sizes like medium format 45 67 etc. Medium format uses 120 Film. There is also large format. You want your first camera to take 35mm film ! 35mm is the most widely available and cheapest film. So you can take lots of pictures and get your practice in for cheap before you move up to medium format film. 35mm cameras are also small to medium sized cameras so they are easy to take with you wherever you go. Medium format film cameras are pretty big and bulky and nobody really travels with them because it’s too annoying to lug around.
Point and Shoot Camera
Point and shoots were allll the rave in the early 2000s. These cameras do all the work for you, they are fully automatic and all you have to do is put in the correct battery and correct film size. These are small, light, pocketable and make for great travel cameras. the only draw back is the lack of control over the image, and lack of changeable lens. Point and shoot Film Cameras are really for quick and fun pictures and not really for photographers looking to take artistic or controllable images.
SLR Camera
35 mm Film SLR camera’s are exactly the same as Digital SLR Cameras. They are for serious picture taking and allow control over every single aspect of the image. These cameras can be used in Manual, Aperture priority, And Shutter priority modes. Some Film SLR’s even have fully automatic modes as well !. They are a bit bigger and heavier than point and shoots but they have many advantages including interchangeable lenses.
RangeFinder Camera
Rangefinder cameras are probably the coolest looking cameras ever created ! They are my personal favorite due to how convenient they are. They use a small window on the camera body that allows you to get your focus correct. This is different than SLR’s. For this reason, there are no mirrors in Rangefinder cameras so they are much smaller and allow the same control that SLR cameras offer. So you get a camera about the same size as a point and shoot, but with full control over the image. Some rangefinders have full automatic mode and some do not. About half of rangefinders do not have interchangeable lenses but half also do. So if you want a fixed or changeable lens, auto or not auto, you can pick a camera accordingly. A best of both worlds option. The only issue, is that due to their beauty, good Rangefinders are pretty pricey to get into !
Film comes with three pieces of information
1. The brand and style
There are brands like Kodak, CineStill, Lomography etc. The brand is not as important. However, the style is important. Kodak Gold is best for golden hour and makes skin tones look nice in direct sunlight. Kodak Portra is best for portraits like up close shots of peoples faces. If you look up the style before you purchase, you’ll find that some films are better for saturation or fine grain, or bright light, or landscapes, or portraits. However, whatever film style you buy, you can still take any kind of pictures with it. What I mean is, Porta is for portraits but I use it all the time for everyday photography and only maybe a couple pictures are true portraits. And the other pictures still look amazing even though it wasn’t designed for everyday street and travel photography. So don’t stress on the style, you likely won’t even see a difference unless you’re an experienced digital photographer. Then you’ll notice color differences and grain.
2. The film size (35mm)
If it isn’t obvious by now, you should purchase 35mm film ! Any other size will not fit in your 35mm film camera.
3. ISO number (ISO400)
ISO is the film’s sensitivity to light. For starters, if you plan on taking pictures in super bright sunlight like on a beach, then pick an ISO of 100-250. If you plan in taking pictures indoors or in the shade like you were walking through New York City at 5pm, then pick ISO 400. If you plan on taking pictures at night or in dark places like a bar or club, pick an ISO around 800. The higher the number, the higher the sensitivity to light. So ISO 100 will work great in bright beach pictures but will just show up as a dark black rectangle if you try to take a picture in dark a setting. An ISO 800 photo will show up as a white, over exposed rectangle on the bright beach because it is far too sensitive for that level of light. But an ISO 800 photo in a dark bar setting would be perfectly exposed.
How to use a 35mm Film Camera
Most cameras have a tutorial on YouTube. So I would certainly check YouTube so you can watch somebody hands on showing you how to use your specific kind of camera. But if there isn’t a tutorial on YouTube then you can look up the original manual on the internet. Every manual for every camera every created is on the internet so that should not be hard to find.
First, you will want to find the film advance lever. If there is no lever, then it likely was made after 1985 and uses a motor and batteries. If it takes batteries then it absolutely has a manual on YouTube or on the internet so go and find that before you mess with the camera so you don’t break it. Cameras before 1984 are much easier to figure out. So if your camera does have a film advance lever then move it all the way to the right using your thumb. There should be some retention but it should not feel like a hard stop. If it feels like a hard stop then that means you should press the shutter button. The shutter button should have made the classic picture taking noise. Now just do that a couple times to get the hang of that.
Second, you want look at the top, bottom, front, and back of the camera and account for all of the different buttons or dials that are there. Either on the bottom, back, or left side of the camera there should be a button that opens the camera so you can put film in it. I would suggest watching a YouTube video on how to do this because the protocol is the same for pretty much all cameras.
Third, setting up the camera. On the camera body there might be a wheel that says ASA or ISO. Set this wheel to match the number on the film. If you are using KODAK Ektar 100, set the wheel on the camera to 100. This tells the camera’s light meter how sensitive your film is so that it can expose your photo’s properly. there might be a wheel with numbers like -2, -1, 0, 1, 2. Set that wheel to 0. That wheel tells the camera to either purposely over or under expose your images. Setting it at 0 tells the camera to not do this. Now your camera is able to operate in full manual mode. Even though it does not have a battery to power the light meter yet, it will still operate fully and you can begin to take images using a light meter app on your phone. All other aspects like zoom, aperture, focus, and shutter speed are exactly like modern cameras.
Finally, most cameras before 1984 use batteries that had mercury in them. Those batteries have been outlawed but there is a company called WEIN Cell that has resurrected some of these batteries and makes them without mercury. If they have your size then absolutely I recommend trying one !. But Sadly, most light meters in these old cameras do not work. So if yours does not work, that just means you need to spend a little bit of time learning how to take pictures in manual mode. It is very very easy to do so do not let that scare you away.
Now you are fully capable of taking pictures with any 35mm film camera !
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