[Lowell Goudge]

It all depends on what you plan, and what lenses you want to use in it.

For me, either go old school full mechanical, like a KX or similar that only needs a battery for metering, or go modern. I like the PZ1/PZ1p myself. It lets you use all but SDM lenses.

[Jacquot]

You have a good camera and lens, use one of the C41 process B&W films. I cannot confirm from personal use, but people seem to like the Kodak 400CN... Have fun!

[K5_Ltd_User]

You have a good camera and lens, use one of the C41 process B&W films. I cannot confirm from personal use, but people seem to like the Kodak 400CN... Have fun!

Hello,

I also shot with the Kodak 400CN. The results are nice, on small format photos. Didn' t print on an A3 to see the results on a bigger scale.
I don' t have the film scanned to show the results, but I am happy with it.

All the best!

[Rick in Ohio]

I would have suggested a ZX-L, it can control the aperture from the camera, meters M series lenses, has diopter adjustment for viewfinder, battery grip, and many shooting modes. Another thing is the bodies are inexpensive.

Rick

[roblgs]

Hi,

Depending how brave you're feeling, I'd suggest going fully mechanical with something like a K1000, or an MX... personally I have a soft spot for the MX, having owned two of them back in the day when they were current, and they're still with me now, something like 35 years later.

Wonderful little camera, with a brilliant viewfinder 'traffic light' exposure meter... You could see aperture, shutter speed and have an idea of whether the centre-weighted metering considered things to be spot on (green), half stop over/under (yellow), or a stop or more over/under (red). Simple, clear and quick in use.

Still to my mind one of the best cameras Pentax has ever produced, but it would mean going fully manual on the lenses as well... but that may not be such a bad thing either.

Good luck with your test.

Cheers


Rob

[boriscleto]

Quite nice. Reminded me to pay for the black ME and M 40/2.8 I won on shopgoodwill.com. I will have to drive myself across town to get some B&W film. Now if I can just save up enough to get that LX CLA'd...the M 35/2.8 too.

[jfdavis58]

There is a mildly interesting thought process occurring here: you want to go backward in order to go forward. Somehow shooting a manual film camera will give you a better 'eye' for when you return to do work with a modern digital camera. (Don't read too much into this post as I wish to remain somewhat 'outside' or on the periphery of things--just saying.) You must have some money to burn. Have you ever considered that you could do the same by acquiring a stack of 'picture' books from various era's/photographers/sources and just trying some old fashioned emulation?

Please don't take this wrong, I've got boxes of old film cameras that I still enjoy playing with and I wouldn't dream of denying anyone the opportunity to relive that era, but... Who do you most admire or perhaps most enjoy? Logically, you must have seen their work, so I'm guessing it's published in some form. Pick some aspect of that work and 'shoot for that' outcome. I've found that it's seldom the camera or the capture media or the process that made the photo--it's usually the mind behind it.

[JimJohnson]

There is a mildly interesting thought process occurring here: you want to go backward in order to go forward. ... I've found that it's seldom the camera or the capture media or the process that made the photo--it's usually the mind behind it.

And that is also true of the person who comes after the photographer - the person in the lab doing the dodging & burning and chemical process. Sometimes this is the same person as the photographer, but many times it is not.

I've gotten some hints that some folks prefer film in part because they don't have to do any post processing of digital images .... but I'll bet if you were willing to pay someone to do it for you you would be right back to what happens in the wet photographic process.

I won't go back to film simply because the film stocks I would want to use are no longer available in either type or size, but I do miss the magic of making my images come alive after spending hours in a darkroom.

[K5_Ltd_User]

Hello to everybody and thank you for the responses or/ and suggestions!

Hi,

Depending how brave you're feeling, I'd suggest going fully mechanical with something like a K1000, or an MX... personally I have a soft spot for the MX, having owned two of them back in the day when they were current, and they're still with me now, something like 35 years later.

I already purchased it, and the photos I uploaded were taken with the Pentax MX and mostly with the SMC Pentax M50mm F1.7, and sometimes with the Samyang Aspherical 85mm F1.4.

Please don't take this wrong, I've got boxes of old film cameras that I still enjoy playing with and I wouldn't dream of denying anyone the opportunity to relive that era, but... Who do you most admire or perhaps most enjoy? Logically, you must have seen their work, so I'm guessing it's published in some form. Pick some aspect of that work and 'shoot for that' outcome.

This for me, is merely a hobby. All the money I invested in it, are a `bad investment` . I did not read any books to `open my eyes` , or study technique; all I' ve done was by trial and error on my K5, for the past year and a half. For half a year now, I' ve took it easier, taking off the foot from the acceleration pedal. I am an amateur, and you can clearly see this from the quality of my photos (which is not great; in its most better days of shooting) . The thing is, I didn' t want to copy anybody else. I don' t really have a favorite artist. I like a few artists, younger or `more senior in the domain` , but I really really try not to copy them; I don' t even succeed as they are mostly nude photographers.


All the best!