does anyone still use 35mm film

[Newportnobby]

Somewhere in the attic I have a bag with a couple of ZeniTs and a Cosina with TTL metering + a few rolls of film. I have many annuals of photos of foreign excursions and loads of boxes of transparencies, mainly of motorcycle racers who have long gone to the circuit in the sky. I still have a hand held gizmo for looking at the slides.

[austinbob]

You're probably gonna think I'm a bit nerdy but I scanned every one of my 10000 approx slides and negs using a Reflecta scanner.
All are now available on my PC and backed up several times over.
Many of these piccies are of preserved locos and railways. Wouldn't be without them, although misses keeps asking me why I didn't take more piccies of the family.

[Dsolds]

Yep, Me!!! 

Well, to clarify a bit, I still have my Olympus OM10 which I use for Black & White photos, mostly moody portraits, but most of my photography is now done with a Nikon D750 and sometimes my phone (Galaxy S7) which seems to take reasonable snaps, although the lack of proper manual control is a limiting factor.

Something I discovered whilst on holiday was a "shirt pocket" size digital compact unit branded as a Hasselblad - the Stellar model. The guy who owned it let me have a play (very kind of him) and I was very impressed with it, as one ought to be with a Hasselblad, right?? Except.....when I hooked it up to my laptop to download the photos there were some rather familiar file structures. A bit of google research revealed it was a re-badged Sony RX-100 with a posh wooden grip that seems to add over £1000 to the price. However, if Hasselbald were going to enter into badge engineering this was absolutely the right camera to do it on. If you are in the market for a camera which fits in a shirt pocket, takes photos like a DSLR and can be had for under 500 quid, this is the one.

Quite recently I was looking at a digital medium format camera but the 2 things which put me off were the physical size of it and the size of the files it generates. Yes it can be dialled down to a lower resolution but then I might as well stick with the D750. After all, 90% of the quality comes from the glassware.

As for your old film bodies Alan, they're worth the square root of sixpence sadly. Lenses, if decent quality ones, are still worth good money though, especially if they fit DSLR cameras. I had to pay strong money to get a Nikkor 50mm F1.2 recently. I wanted an old manual one as they are vastly superior to modern units. Still fits my D750 and works fine in manual mode. Image quality is absolutely sublime, but that one (50 year old) lense cost me 300 quid.

I do agree with Daffy about being able to thumb through a photo album though and whether it's nostalgia or some other reason I don't much care. I love some of my old photos in much the same way I like reading books, real books, not a Kindle or IPAD, proper paper books.

Dom.

[PeteW]

I do agree with Daffy about being able to thumb through a photo album though

Well, there's a simple solution... get your digital photos printed! My local Snappy Snaps charges 20p a print, and images can be supplied to them on a disk, a memory stick, direct from my phone, or sent online. So you can take your best 20-odd photos from an event, holiday or excursion and get them in print form for less than a fiver. Seems pretty good value to me, and a great deal more convenient than the old film-print system (and you don't collect pictures of your feet!)

[Dsolds]

That's fine up to a point, it just doesn't quite capture the moment like traditional film printing methods, especially in black and white which is why I still use film for that. Add in the fact that capturing xx number of shades of grey using a sensor designed for colour is not perfect you can see why I stick with 35mm for that one scenario.

For everything else I agree, printing digital photos has come a very long way and is more than good enough for most things.

[The Q]

Not a 35mm camera but I have one of these.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentax_Auto_110.
Film is available but rare and relatively expensive So i haven't used the camera for years.
Having had a look around it is worth something though, as it always was a rarity.

[Newportnobby]

it just doesn't quite capture the moment like traditional film printing methods, especially in black and white which is why I still use film for that.

Interesting
My bridge camera has the facility to use sepia, black & white and blue & white so I wonder what the printing of black & white would turn out like. Might give that a whirl.

[PeteW]

My bridge camera has the facility to use sepia, black & white and blue & white so I wonder what the printing of black & white would turn out like. Might give that a whirl.

I don't do much serious photography any more, but I've seen some stunning B&W prints done on Epson photo paper.

[austinbob]

Likewise. Main problem with printing black and white is getting the colour management right for the printer and paper used. Doesn't take much of a colour tint to screw things up.

[guest311]

dear all,
thank you very much for all the replies, and interesting points raised.

looks like my first option might be to look into seeing if I can get a digital body that would use the lenses.
one is a telephoto lens that I bought years ago in Edinburgh when on holiday, and it was quite expensive.
seems a pity to just bin them, even if to a charity shop if they'll take them.

the trouble is I do like to have a big brick in my hand, lets you know what you are doing, all these lightweight airey-fairy things just don't feel right.

again, thanks for your comments and at least I now 'have a plan' 

[Dsolds]

For Pentax lenses I recall the Fuji ST range use the Pentax thread mount lenses. You don't say which of version your telephoto lens is but if you're going down this route I suggest keeping your "best" lens and finding a modern DSLR camera that can use it. Then PX the other lenses for some new glass at a specialist.

Minolta lenses (pre 2006 ish) will only fit a Sony camera now. Sony bought the whole shebang from Minolta about 10 years back. There was rumour that adapters could be found for Nikon F mount but I have never seen them.

Or, you could sell the lot on EBAY and use the cash as you wished. You won't get a lot for the bodies, if they even sell at all, but the glassware always has a value.

[d-a-n]

I still shoot film and I urge you to keep your gear!

Here's my love letter to film...

http://danbarlowphotography.co.uk/why-i-still-shoot-film/

You can still buy all sorts of film online, there are even new film manufacturers starting out! If you want a digital body to use your lenses with, there are lots of converters for the various digital mirrorless bodies out there. You'll have more luck with a mirrorless body and older lenses than with a DSLR as there's a feature called Focus peaking on mirrorless which is a very useful substitute for the traditional focus screen (manual focus with a DSLR is a trickier business, it being centered around autofocusing) 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/what-focus-peaking

[d-a-n]

Its very difficult to get a good 20x16 from 35mm. The pixels are replaced by grain (unless you use fine grain but slow film) and dust spots generated during the development and enlargement process.
Digital is here to stay methinks.

If you use a traditional enlarger then a 20x16 print from 135 will be quite poor; but I've had good quality 30x20 print made from 135 film after I've scanned it with my Plustek 8100i scanner or with a Fuji Frontier machine. Still, most of the prints I sell never go beyond 12" on the long edge so seeing grain in big prints from film or digital isn't an issue!

Digital is here to stay but film has a strong position alongside it still, especially as a learning tool (film shooting is still a critical part of any photography degree) or artistic medium.

[Mito]

Pentax lenses fit fit all Pentax cameras. A bit obvious but old lenses will fit new Pentax cameras. There are adapters that will allow lenses to fit other makes of cameras. http://forum.mflenses.com/ is a site full of information on old lenses and will give an idea of values.

[d-a-n]

Just need to know whether the Pentax lenses are K mount or M42... Equally, we don't know whether the Minolta stuff is SR mount or A mount!