35mm Film: A Tutorial

The biggest difference between an SLR and DSLR is film. All SLR cameras use film of some type, the most typical being 35mm. This tutorial will go over the differences in film speed, brands, and uses.

Film Speed

Film speed is a numerical scale labeled as ASA (American Standard Association) and ISO (International Standards Organization). Both of these scales are the same and it does not make much difference which way you label it. However, since all film purchased in the United States will be labeled with ASA, this is the label I will use here.

The different film speeds refer to the difference in how sensitive the film is to light. The lower the number, the more light the film needs to properly expose. Below is a list of the different film speeds available and their difference in light sensitivity.

• 50ASA
• 100ASA = +1 stops
• 400ASA = +2 stops
• 800ASA = +3 stops
• 1600ASA = +4 stops

What this all means is that if you can get proper exposure using 50ASA film at f/8 and 1/60 exposure, then using 100ASA film you would use an f/11 or 1/125 exposure. The difference between each film speed listed above is just one stop.

You can also look at the list this way:

• 50ASA = slowest
• 100ASA = slower
• 400ASA = slow
• 800ASA = fast
• 1600ASA = faster

A 50ASA film takes much longer to properly expose than an 800ASA. The lower the ASA number, the more light that is required. Why is more light required? When you get right down to the technical details of film, it is composed of grains. These grains react to light and "expose" themselves to create a negative image, from which a color or B&W print can be made. Well, lowers ASA films have much smaller, tighter grain that require more light to "expose" them. So, 50ASA film would take approximately 4 times longer to expose than 1600ASA film using the same lighting and aperture setting.

A smaller ASA value also means you get better enlargements. When printing a negative at a 4"x6" or even 5"x7" you won't see much grain difference. But if you want an 8"x10" or larger, up to a poster print, you will start to notice a graininess to the picture. Remember old 120 film prints from the 1960's that were blown up to 36"x36"? Remember how grainy and washed-out they looked? That is a result of the grains of the film stock.

The smaller ASA values give you the greatest quality and detail when getting enlargements made. I myself only shoot on 100ASA or 400ASA film. I have never used anything higher than 400ASA and don't see any reason why I ever would.

Film Brands

There are many different brands of film out there, of course Kodak and Fuji being the most popular. But are they the best? I'll list some brands here, of which I have only used 3, and some details about which is better for which situations. Here is a list, which is discussed in more detail below:

• Agfa
• Efke
• Foma
• Forte
• Fujifilm
• Ilford
• Kentmere
• Kodak
• Lomography
• Rollei

Before I get into this, a good suggestion would be to never buy film from Walmart or Target. I don't say this to make a political statement about the stores themselves, but rather about the film. Walmart and Target only sell 24-exposure rolls of film. If you find a local mom-and-pop store you will probably find 36-exposure film for a few cents more. And, in my experience, if you buy about 8-10 rolls at a time they'll even give you a discount. I'd like to see Walmart do that.

Kodak is by far the most popular and recognizable film on the market. It is sold just about everywhere, still, even though the demand for 35mm film is only a fraction of what it used to be ten years ago.

Ektrachrome is the best film Kodak makes. However, I have never used it. In fact, I don't use Kodak film at all. Despite the popularity and innovation of Kodak, I feel they are now just cashing in on a brand name without worry for quality.

I prefer Fuji film. It's all I use, all I would recommend. Fuji makes a great 100ASA film, Reala, which you can usually find at photography supply stores for about $4 for a 36 exposure. I also buy Fuji Superia 400ASA film. Those are the only two film types I buy much of, considering that those are the best film speeds for enlargements. The 400ASA can capture good lower-light situations, and the 100ASA will give the best quality for making poster prints.

What I Don't Know

I thought I would add a short section about what I don't know about film. I have heard of the following topics, but I have not gotten to them yet. So, at least in reading this you will be aware they exist.

There is a debate about print versus slide film. Any film that is processed C-41 is print film, which is your typical film found almost anywhere. Slide film, however, is a bit more difficult to find and a lot more difficult to process. Even my local film developers don't do slide film. For that, I have to mail it off.

You can get very technical with film and start discussing reciprocity and saturation. There is also a lot of science behind low-light or night photography. This is useful to know if you plan to do light trails or photographs of the moon.

Working With a Pentax K1000: A Tutorial

About 5 years ago my grandmother gave me a Pentax K1000 35mm film camera. I laughed inwardly, but instead I said thank you and stuffed the aging camera into a box. I had just bought my first digital camera, a Kodak, and I was very happy with it.

In fact, I was happy with my Kodak and Canon digital cameras for the next 5 years. But recently I decided to pull that old Pentax K1000 out of the box, dust it off, and start using it. I was amazed at the pictures I was able to shoot. The options are much wider with a film camera than the simpler point-and-shoot digital cameras.

As I started using the Pentax K1000, I came across a lot of questions that took me a long time to finder answers to. So, I've put together a sort of Pentax K1000 tutorial here that will help anyone who is fortunate enough to have this camera in their arsenal.

NOTE: I have managed to lose the charging cable to my digital camera, so I will have to post pictures to go with this tutorial at a later date.

Getting to Know the Camera Body

The Pentax K1000 is a fully manual 35mm camera. It uses standard C-41 35mm film. On the camera body you will find settings for film speed and exposure.

The film speed is an ASA/ISO number. ASA stands for American Standards Association and ISO for International Standards Organization. They are basically the same thing, and the numerical scale relates to a film's sensitivity to light. For more information on 35mm film, read my Film Tutorial.

The Film Advancer is located on the far top-right of the camera body. Use this to advance the film negative after each time you depress the shutter button. It also features a counter. One important note about the counter: it does not always count to "24" for a 24 exposure or "36" for a 36 exposure. After you have loaded the film, always advance the counter to "0" to ensure you won't be using exposed film from loading.

Next to the advancer is a round knob used for setting film speed and exposure. You will notice an "X" next to 60 on the exposure wheel. This is because the "standard" exposure is 1/60 for 35mm film cameras. I say "standard" because once you become more familiar with exposure you will find there is no such thing as standard.

Above and between these two wheels is the Shutter Release Button. You know how this works. This is also where the Shutter Release Cable screws into the camera using small threads.

The very top of the camera is the Flash Attachment, where you can attachment most types of flashes. However, I would recommend never actually using this port for a flash. You can read my Flash Tutorial to see why I would make such a comment.

On the top-left side of the camera body is the Rewind knob. After you have finished up a roll of film, you depress the Film Release Button on the bottom of the camera, then wind the arm on the top clockwise until the film is wound up. Pulling up on this arm will also release the film door.

The K-Mount Lens

One question I spent hours scouring the internet to locate is the diameter of the K-Mount lens: 49mm. This will become important when buying filters since lenses come in a large array of diameters.

Pentax developed the K-mount lens specifically for the K-series of cameras. What this means is that when you are searching for new lenses for your K1000, you can only buy K-mount lenses to work. Even if the lens is 49mm in diameter, it will not work in your camera.

A small tab along the edge of the body where the lens attached is depressed whenever you want to remove the lens. After depressing this black tab, twist the lens counter-clockwise to remove.

When attaching a lens, two orange dots should line up between the lens and camera body before twisting clockwise until the tab locks into place.

B&W: Round Two

I took a day, escaped from everyone and everything, and walked around Wrightsville Beach for a few hours. These are the pictures I took, all with 400ASA B&W film.

I took this picture on the backside of the island, on the sound. Several boats were floating out in the water that day, anchored, waiting for someone to return I would guess. What I really like about this composition is the reflection in the water. It was a very calm day, and mostly sunny.

I wanted pictures of seagulls on this day. I stood out on the Johnnie Mercer's Fishing Pier for nearly three hours to get these few pictures of the birds. The problem was that I wanted to use a 135mm lens to capture a close-up of the birds, but that made framing and focusing very difficult. I kept my camera pointed at this sign for 10 minutes before I finally caught one of them flying away.

This is my favorite B&W picture yet. I have always felt the purpose of black and white photography is to capture something that would not look as good in color. For example, what would be the purpose of taking a B&W picture of a rainbow? Or a rose bush? For the picture above, I love it because the seagulls look perfect set against a gray sky. A blue sky may have drawn your attention away, or taken away from the birds.

I finally caught this picture of a seagull swimming out over the ocean. Again, I liked the B&W composition more than I would have liked a full color.

My First Roll of B&W

Two days ago I walked around the UNCW campus and snapped off my first roll of Black and White film. I have only been using my Pentax K1000 35mm film camera a few days, and so I'm not really sure how everything works yet.

After doing some reading, I found that everyone seems to start with B&W film. Apparently, using B&W film is a great way to learn proper exposure. With a limited range of colors in the black and white spectrums, you pay more attention to lighting and focus.

I slapped a new battery in the camera so the light meter would work properly, loaded it with 400ASA B&W film, and headed out for the day. Here are some of the pictures I got that day.

I feel this picture is slightly over-exposed. My meter had a good reading, so I might just need to close the iris down half a stop to compensate. This picture is a bridge that crosses over one of the three ponds in the center of our campus.

The above picture is my favorite of this roll of film. Because all of these were exterior shots, the sun was my key light, or main source of lighting. On the day I had taken the pictures, the sky was partly cloudy so no harsh shadows were created. I think this actually gave the pictures a flat appearance, but it worked well.