Film or Digital

[ChrismonDA]

ASA 100 and 400 are the two most popular film speeds - 100 for bright days and 400 for action and varied light (almost everything else).
ASA 200 was conceived as a "universal" film for the amateur market and usually had compromises that I didn't like.

I haven't bought film in such a long time I'm not sure what's available any more - no more Kodachrome 25 I know...

You can extend film's life by storing it in a plastic zip closure bag in the freezer - just let it thaw for a day before you use it.

Shoot some Fuji slide film to begin with and try some black and white Ilford 100. Tripods are your friend with film.

Luminous Landscape is a good site:


http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=38161.0

I've spent a bunch of money at KEH over the years and never been disappointed - they are good folks to buy from.
As everyone says their rating system is very conservative - Excellent generally means its like new.

Was able to locate some Kodachrome online that was stored properly. I just need some help on how to set up my camera to shoot older buildings in my town, Do I need a flash or will a lower speed film help. I have a tendency to over complicate things, I checked out Iford also thank you for the link.

 

[leshassell]

I you're shooting exteriors, get a tripod and leave the flash alone until you've got the basics down. Same for the Kodachrome... its very unforgiving. Some of the best advice I can give you if you're sticking with film is to take notes. It's not so important these days with digital since all the exposure data is recorded in the file but way back when I was first learning, we shot chromes (slide film) and after dropping the film off to be processed, it might be a week before we saw it again so, we took notes for pretty much every frame. That way we could go back and figure out what we did right, and what we did wrong. Just find some cheap film, shoot it up, shoot what you love, compare the results to your notes, study the relationship of shutter speed and aperture have on your images, keep it fun, and when you start feeling like you're the next Ansel Adams or whatever, buy some slide film. That'll set you straight real quick.

 

[kk88rrc]

Was able to locate some Kodachrome online that was stored properly.

Skip the Kodachrome…. I have not checked closely but the last roll developed was about 4 years ago.

I just need some help on how to set up my camera to shoot older buildings in my town, Do I need a flash or will a lower speed film help. I have a tendency to over complicate things

You are on your way of over complicating it. Do like Les suggested…. burn some film & take good notes. I still suggest using chromes. It will show you discrepancies in both exposure & color. Pick up a few different film stock so you can compare quality. Each will have it's own pallet (which I miss). Lower speed will have finer grain & higher will have bigger grain…. it's your choice… no right or wrong.

 

[ChrismonDA]

Was reading that you can't even get Kodachrome developed anymore. But kk and les that is what I will do, I really want to thank all of you for the helpful information.