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My first film photography - Zenit TTL (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/photography@lemmy.world
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My first attempt at film photography ๐Ÿ™‚
Still learning, but I'm really happy with these.

My process, and all the (well, selected :P) photos here: https://quietpresence.art/zenit-ttl/

Thank you for checking it out.

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[โ€“] [S] 3 points 6 months ago (9 children)

Heh, if I went totally blind it would be the same for sure, but I did a bit of research beforehand, and dad told me some of the camera's quirks

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 5 months ago (8 children)

    It doesn't help that film is so expensive now and you have to mail it off.

    I know a lot of people carry a little notebook around to keep track of settings per photo with a little note about conditions (bright noon clear day, (indoor evening with multiple lights), etc, so they can learn a bit. I did try that but wasn't consistent so it wasn't helpful.

    I have a. Dslr so I was first trying to use it next to the film camera to estimate settings but that wasn't very helpful.

    The lens wasn't the same.

    And I think the little light meter inside the A1 is not accurate. Or wasn't for mine. Or I don't know how to use it properly.

    My Next roll was a little better. And I managed to pull off a few double exposures. Which is the main thing I wanted to experiment with film.

    You can do it digitally but it's just not quite the same.

    I looked into home development. There are kits but it's a bit of an investment. You also need the right kind of scanner.

    Id like to get into film again in the future when I have some extra money to invest.

    I did get my film camera hella cheap on the eBay though.

    $50. Came with a 50mm 1.4f prime lens.

    But the film is like $8 a roll plus $15 to develop. At least where I am.

    I love the way it looks though. Loved your photo.

    Film just looks good in a special way.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 2 points 5 months ago (7 children)

    The notebook idea is neat. I was also thinking about maybe noting down the aperture and shutter speed for every photo, since there's obviosly no exif data, but I'm kind of a minimalist with this stuff. If the process isn't automated, it's not a huge deal - I'd rather stay present, in the moment, than carry around and pull out a notebook everytime I take a photo.

    For exposure, what I did was use an app to roughly measure the shutter speed range when exposing for the shadows in the current weather, just so I have some data to work with later in lightroom. Then I just set an aperture I want and adjust the shutter speed if needed. It's actually pretty similar to how I shoot with my sony a6400, just without all the digital feedback and numbers on the screen. Which is nice, honestly :)

    My camera has a built in light meter too, but I dont have a battery for it.

    Yeah, I think home development is a step you take once you know you're going to shoot film regularly, especially on a modest budget. If I had the money I'd probably do it just for the experience, but for now I chose the hobo route, haha. Cheapest color film > small local mom and pop photo lab (might honestly be the last one around here) > scanning and editing at home.

    You have canon a1? That's from around the same production period as my zenit.

    I paid around 14 usd for a roll, but development was only 5 usd.

    Thanks a lot for the message and kind words, I really appreciate it ๐Ÿ™

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    Yeah I tried to keep track of shutter and aperture too. But just kept forgetting. It's hard to do so much at once when just using the camera is challenging.

    The camera I have is Canon AE-1.

    I kept forgetting if it was a A1 or A1-E (a1-e isn't even a model)๐Ÿ˜…

    I got it out to check. AE-1 Solid metal body. Has a bit of weight to it.

    There was a ton on eBay at the time I was looking to buy a nice old film.

    My dslr is canon so I hoped the lenses might be compatible. They aren't.

    But the lens the ae-1 came with was pretty nice. 50mm prime f1.4. Most other listings, with that lens we're selling for $100. But the seller didn't list the f stop but in one of the photos I was pretty sure it showed 1.4 (1.8 was common but the 1.4 was more rare and $$). I'm still quite happy with the purchase. It's always a gamble with used photography equipment.

    The only thing wrong with it was the shutter button was missing. But I bought a replacement. And the lens viewer is a little dirty inside. Visible dust specks.

    I can't really clean it without disassembling the whole thing (based on what redditors told me). The dust wasn't showing on the pictures. But the dirty viewer bugs me.

    How did you come about getting your camera ? Did you have to tinker or fix anything on it ?

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  • [โ€“] [S] 1 point 5 months ago (5 children)

    Interesting, f1.4 sounds awesome, mine's f2, which is still nice. It's a soviet lens (esentially a copied zeiss biotar lens), with apparently a really nice swirly bokeh, and an adapter to use it on my sony a6400 costs like 25 euros, which is tempting :>. Aperture on it is a little finnicky, it likes to get kinda stuck around 5.6 sometimes, and I have to wiggle it a bit to get moving, lol. theres also something flying around, as I can hear the sound of something inside when I turn the lens around, but otherwise it seems to work just fiine.

    Speaking of viewfinders, check out mine... It doesn't bother me really, gives character to the camera I guess, but whatever happened, its not the lens, and not the mirror, so the damage is somewhere deeper.

    So this zenit ttl is just my dad's old camera, he used it back in the 80s, and it's been in the closet for decades. We hada conversation one day, he showed it to me, and I decided to take it for a spin, see if, and how it's working. Did a test roll, turned out fine, wrote a blog post about it :) I didn't had to fix anything. I just don't know if the light metering works, as I don't have the battery. The camera uses some old mercury batteries, and replacements are quite pricy. I don't really care that much to pay for it.

    Your camera looks great, and that release button fits so well. Mine has these gnarly little spikes on top, as it's threaded for the cable, but it digs into your finger (unless something's actually missing).

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

    I looked up pictures of your camera. Pretty sure you can add a shutter button. Unless yours is missing some part ?

    Does it look like the photo I'm attaching ? If so the inside is threaded. I got my button on AliExpress for like $5. Thats what mine looked like too before I added the button. It's way more comfortable.

    I think it was a standard feature to have a threaded hole on old cameras because it allowed extra device things to attach for distance or automatic shutter control.

    Yeah your view finder is pretty dirty too. It's definitely annoying. Not much can be done about it.

    Also yeah a f2 is still a pretty solid lens.

    I get the desire to buy adapters. People have given me lenses and I've bought adapters in the past with mixed results.

    There are always focusing issues. Or sometimes I thought the lens specs sounded decent but they weren't really after I got it on my dslr. Or maybe it was that a lens designed for 35mm film doesn't quite work for a digital camera.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    I finally got the button :)

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