What camera do I buy? / general gear talk

Well colour me impressed. Fuji phoned up and said there was no one else waiting for the lens, would I like it for the week, gratis. Yes please!

Bummer on the demise of DP review, I had missed they were Amazon owned :(

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How are you getting on with the 16-55? It's my first zoom for ages, love it except for the weight

To be honest, a mild struggle. But that’s not the lenses fault - it’s my lack of technical know how.
Firstly I’m fairly new to modern adult cameras so I have an idea of what I want the image to look like but not the skills to make it happen with any urgency.
I’ve taken a day off work tomorrow to bowl around town and force myself to use some of wider FOV capabilities so I’ll get back to you then!

Looking for a bit of guidance. My daughter is looking for a Canon EOS 5D mark 3. She is very specific about the make and model. It will generally be used for low light level work such as gig photography where a flash cannot be used. Anyone on here looking to sell, or are the ones on the link below worth a shout? (I know zero about cameras)
https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/product/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii

They look good, mpb has a good reputation. I also use wex for used and never had a problem..

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/used-dslrs/#p=categoryPath%3A%22used%3Eused-cameras%3Eused-dslrs%22&filter=brand_uFilter%3A%22Canon%22&rows=12&start=0

It's market dominance that leads to that hubris

This is enraging. I feel like the homogenising of the web is become real faster than we can fight back for.

Anyone know about film scanners?

I’d like to get one so I don’t have to make enlargements to scan.

Don’t really want to do a full a4 flat bed type thing rather one of the more compact ones.

I’ve seen vehos and some unbranded ones.

Any recommendations?

Cheers.

Edit: I only shoot b&w film if that matters. I guess Mrs M_V shoots colour but she tends to get her films scanned and a cd burned when she gets them processed.

something like this: https://www.ffordes.com/p/SOR-42-049007/scanners-accs/dimage-dual-scan-ii

Not that!

@M_V you want to be looking at PlusTek and the things on this page: https://plustek.com/gbr/products/index.php?products=film-photo-scanners

So that looks a lot older than say this,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145002888833?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=4t3RWlUgRxu&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=B1sNEXYLRF2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Quality is still going to be better and no issues running it on a modern (windows) operating system?

I ask that last part as I used to have a flat bed Canon with negative holders and stuff but I’m sure it became obsolete because I couldn’t get a driver to run it.

Depending on how many you have to scan you could try your local photoshop. They have a reasonably fancy one and can turn the settings up to 11 if you ask them nicely.

I’d be buying one to become more self sufficient/increase how much of my film photography I have available digitally.

I already don’t print enough of the film I shoot, I don’t know that taking film to someone to be scanned is something I’d find myself doing on the regular if you know what I mean?

I’m not horrendously concerned about image size/quality so is it worth me spending look like two or three hundred plus on a Plustek when it looks like those Vehos are going for ab tenth of that? Is it Worth getting a veho to see if I do actually use it and then upgrade if I like it?

I mean... if you possess a DSLR / Mirrorless with a macro lens, and you don't mind the inconvenience of not having automatic feeders, scratch removal (infrared + masking), and don't seek 7200dpi... then just get a mini light table and film holder and take a pic with your camera (or phone even). Then process in software to reverse the negative, etc.

The cheap film scanners don't produce a great output, but if you're fine with "worse than the original photograph" then go for it.

My view on film scanners is that even with as little as a shoebox of old negatives it's a huge chore to sit there and scan them. It's a job I only ever want to do once, and it should be good enough to be happy with the output. My time is the valuable thing here, so good enough first time is what I seek.

Flatbeds arguably can get to higher res and do a better cleanup, but yeah storing and using them is annoying. The PlusTek was my entry point into starting to scan mine... I say starting because even that isn't convenient enough that I've dented the pile of old negs quickly, but thankfully it's small and easy enough that when I can be arsed I do scan a few more for an hour or so before I give up for another month.

Hey All,

I'm just testing the water a bit here ….. hope that's OK?

I have a fairly rare Hasselblad ArcBody camera system which I've have owned from new ..... I bought it way back in 1998/9 when I was still working in Hong Kong .... & took photos for my work's (& others) interior projects for archives & publication. But after moving back to UK in 2002, I've not used it since ...... it's just been sitting in my wardrobe for that period of time ..... so it is in great condition!

Now, I'm thinking of selling it & let someone experience this camera, I'm aware this is a very niche camera & the use is rather limited ...... but I think they might be someone out there that would appreciate this. I have everything that came with the whole system, except for the black carrying case (as the stock image shows) ..... I also bought an extra lens (I think the system had 3 specifically designed lens) which means I have both the 35 & 45mm lens.

The image attached is from a "stock" advert, but I can easily take proper images of mine if anyone is interested …….

Also, keen to hear from anyone who has experience of this particular camera system.

Cheers

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For 35mm the Plusteks are a good option for quality but not fast. I’d recommend buying the cheapest version. I found the IR dust-removal and software of the top models pretty rubbish. You might want to budget for Vuescan (and maybe NLP and Lightroom Classic).

These are also great. Sunlight is the best lightbox . I wish they made a 120 version.

Ah, have you used this? I have a D700 and a 60mm Micro-Nikkor, so it seems like a no brainer...?

And how do you deal with the output, just like a regular RAW file?

What is Aperture like for selling cameras too, reasonable prices offered? I'm thinking of thinning down my collection due to the cost/availability of colour film. Most have sat around untouched for a couple of years now.

IME its only good if you want to part ex, reddot about the same, I would commission sell for those two. Also TLI or WY worth trying

I haven’t. I became aware of it just after buying a plustek … sadly. I’m not really sure when it first came to market.

Your kit should work perfectly. It’s designed for that (brilliant) lens.

Natural light is basically ideal (better than most artificial sources really) so you can just stick the dslr on a mini-tripod, at a daylight window, shoot raw, pick the film base for white balance and convert (in Lightroom Classic using NLP plugin, or just invert the curve in other software, dragging light-to-dark and vice versa). D700 files will be a breeze to manage.

Pentax rumoured to be releasing a monochrome DSLR tomorrow, which sounds super fun.
Can’t afford a Leica monochrome, don’t trust conversions so curious to see how the Pentax performs.

Have had K1000s, MX, and K100D, so have a soft spot for Pentax cameras & lenses too.

Does anyone have any experience with the Sony RX100 cameras and care to comment on their durability?

After years of use, my Panasonic LX-100 is on its last legs. My heart wants to replace it with a Fujifilm X100v but my head say no because it’s fixed lens and I need a zoom.

I love the physical dials on my LX-100 as it makes adjusting exposure compensation quick and easy, for example. Perfect for when cycling/bikepacking which is what it is used for. However, I busted two of the dials on my LX-100 through use, so maybe the Sony with less to go wrong externally would be a good option?

The daft pop-up evf died on mine.

That’s annoying. Did you manage to get it repaired? It’s not a feature I can see myself using that much to be honest

I didn’t. It’s quite usable without it.