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So today I got the pleasant surprise of taking home a Nikon N80 film camera from school, My photography teacher gave it to me "as-is" and I'm getting some work done to it. I just want to experiment shooting with film on this, I have a few questions about photographing on film if anyone knows the answer to them:

1. What film would you recommend for shooting trains with?
2. What's the best company for digital film scanning?
3. Should I invest in its future? Or try to sell it and see if I could get money for it, It's relatively new and in good shape.

What's this "film" you speak of? What does it do? What is it made of? How is it possible for anything but ones and zeros to encode information?

Saturnalia wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 21, 2021 7:11 pm

What's this "film" you speak of? What does it do? What is it made of? How is it possible for anything but ones and zeros to encode information?

I mean film, Like photo film, like old school

Can you even get film developed anymore?

SD80MAC wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 26, 2021 10:20 am

Can you even get film developed anymore?

Yes. There are a few places left in GR. Slide film is the one that is almost impossible to get developed. There are a few places in the US that still develop slide film.

David Collins wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:38 pm

So today I got the pleasant surprise of taking home a Nikon N80 film camera from school, My photography teacher gave it to me "as-is" and I'm getting some work done to it. I just want to experiment shooting with film on this, I have a few questions about photographing on film if anyone knows the answer to them:

1. What film would you recommend for shooting trains with?
2. What's the best company for digital film scanning?
3. Should I invest in its future? Or try to sell it and see if I could get money for it, It's relatively new and in good shape.

That's a cool gift! I have an Nikon N65 and it's still my primary railfanning equipment - yep, I still shoot film! To answer your questions before getting too far down a side track:

1. The lower the speed, less grain the film will have, producing a higher quality image. Higher speed film will shoot in more diverse conditions (dark, dim, in a tunnel), but will be more grainy. So lower speed film will best work in more optimal conditions (outdoors, sunny or bright), but will have a higher image quality. THEREFORE, my two primary go-to films have been Fuji 200 (available from Meijer, look by the USB cards), and Kodak Ektar 100. I order this online. These are print films, not slides.

2. Contrary to popular antiquarian message board belief , there are still numerous places that can develop and scan film, including some labs in Michigan. But the convenience of 1 hour photo is mostly gone.



Film developing requires patience, because you don't get instant results! I've used a few different labs, but for the past several years I've been using www.thedarkroom.com, which is in California. They have multiple levels of film scanning, you can order prints, they upload them online for a limited time, and I like the quality. It's about $25 to submit the film, develop a set of prints, have them scanned at the middle of three quality levels, and sent back to me. They charge the same amount for a 24-frame roll as they do a 36 roll, so lately I've been springing for the 36. I've also used Dwayne's Photo Lab in Kansas, and their quality is good too, but I found the color balance to be a little off more than once. TheDarkroom and Dwayne's can also process slide film, in case anyone wonders. I also tried a lab on the east coast, based in Maryland maybe, but I found their quality abysmal.

As to your #3 question, I say, go for it! Buy a package or two of film - that Fuji 200 you can get in a three pack at Meijer for only about $10-12, and see what you think. If the N80 is in pretty good shape, then there is probably a market for it among a film-aficionado group, but you should give it a shot and see what you think.

If you want to learn a bit more about all the various film types, the film index from TheDarkroom does a great job enumerating the details and comparisons: https://thedarkroom.com/film-index/

The photo below was shot on Ektar 100, which has warmer tones and slightly more saturation than the Fuji 200. This has been downsized by over 30% from the original scan, since it was too large of a file to upload here.

https://blog.jimgrey.net/2021/09/20/whe ... veloped-2/

This blog post has a whole list of places that do developing & scanning.

The last film I shot was a couple of years ago, and had good luck with Fultone, which is the first place he mentions.

1. What film would you recommend for shooting trains with? If you want the full film experience take a photography class that include darkroom work and shoot some black & white. I think GRCC offers one.

2. What's the best company for digital film scanning? I can't say. I bought my own scanner.

3. Should I invest in its future? Or try to sell it and see if I could get money for it, It's relatively new and in good shape. If film tickles your fancy and you get into it the art maybe. Otherwise stick with digital.

David Collins wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:38 pm

3. Should I invest in its future?

No. Put it on a shelf and appreciate the history of it. Now is the time to go mirrorless.

It's JT's fault for bringing this post back to the top, which reminded me I meant to do this comparison - three identical shots, three mediums, no editing, for comparison. All shot on Auto on their respective equipment.
Canon DSLR Rebel T2i
Nikon N65 with Ektar 100film
iPhone 7S

Which do you like best?

Why did you underexpose the iPhone shot?

Pretty sure the iphone underexposed itself as he said he took them all on auto.

~Z~ wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 24, 2021 8:12 pm

Pretty sure the iphone underexposed itself as he said he took them all on auto.

Even on auto all you need to do is tap on the screen in the darker (or lighter) areas and the exposure will adjust accordingly.

Not full auto then if you have to tap on something to adjust what the phone is exposing for. Doesn't sound like he selected exposure or focus points on the cameras, so didn't do that on the phone either. Just appears the iphone didn't expose quite as well as Canon or Nikon in this case.

~Z~ wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 27, 2021 8:40 am

Not full auto then if you have to tap on something to adjust what the phone is exposing for. Doesn't sound like he selected exposure or focus points on the cameras, so didn't do that on the phone either. Just appears the iphone didn't expose quite as well as Canon or Nikon in this case.

It's the same as shooting auto on a camera. The camera is going to expose where the selected "points" are in the frame. You can choose those points on a camera just as you can on a phone screen. Either way, it's still in auto mode. If you're not choosing the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO for the exposure on the phone, it's "auto" regardless of tapping on the screen to set the area to expose to.

The iphone would have exposed just fine had he tapped on a darker area of the image.

Right, iphone would have exposed just fine if he intervened with it's auto selected points to expose from. The Canon/Nikon just did a better job exposing with no intervention.

Right. Ok.

I have enjoyed procrastinating on responding to this and letting you discuss it among yourselves. I'm sure on both the SLR products, the focus/metering point was in the center, and it did an OK job balancing the shadows with the brighter areas. On the iPhone, you can just click the "button" without telling it where to meter. I really like the depth of the clouds in the iPhone shot, but the other two, overall, are superior. I just thought it was an interesting comparison, since film was in the mix.

There seems to be a pink color cast in the Nikon shot, especially noticeable with the ground. Although slightly underexposed, the colors look the most natural in the phone shot.