[felix68]

Thanks, J.Scott.

I think I will buy one of the cheaper SLR's. Will expand my collection later.

What do you think is best, the PZ-10 or the ZX-10?

I have a PZ-10 that you can have for the price of shipping if you want it. I got it with a lens and, with the PZ-1P around, will never put a roll of film in it. Send me a PM if you are interested.

[ryno]

I have a PZ-10 that you can have for the price of shipping if you want it. I got it with a lens and, with the PZ-1P around, will never put a roll of film in it. Send me a PM if you are interested.

NICE. If you have an LX just sitting around...

[felix68]

NICE. If you have an LX just sitting around...

Nah, the LX was sitting around in the box about a month ago and it went for a pretty penny on fleabay.
PZ-10s are pretty much being given away with a lens at auction these days.

[J.Scott]

Actually it measn that there is no mechanical coupling to read the apature setting of K mount lenses. But the default is that it can only use KA mount or later lenses effectively

I don't think my statement was that far off the mark that it required correction. Whatever....

[offertonhatter]

I have the MZ-5n, and as someone has said, it is an excellent choice. better than the MZ-50 (due to the 50 only having a plastic bayonet mount)

Others to look for are the PZ-1p and the almighty MZ-S, but they are difficult to find.

[NorthPentax]

Thanks again.

After checking around and figuring out the cost of having a darkroom at home, I have changed my mind. I will probably get an Epson Stylus Photo Pro1900 or Epson Stylus Photo R2400 at the same costs as the equipment I need for my darkroom. I own two K10D's and will stick to the digital darkroom for now.

If Pentax don't release a digital 645 in the near future I will buy a 645N and build my own darkroom in a couple of years.

[Lowell Goudge]

Thanks again.

After checking around and figuring out the cost of having a darkroom at home, I have changed my mind. I will probably get an Epson Stylus Photo Pro1900 or Epson Stylus Photo R2400 at the same costs as the equipment I need for my darkroom. I own two K10D's and will stick to the digital darkroom for now.

If Pentax don't release a digital 645 in the near future I will buy a 645N and build my own darkroom in a couple of years.

why not go half way on the dark room. develop film, then scan it?

[NorthPentax]

What do I need if I want to go half the way?

I know now that I have always been wrong about film development, the easy part is to develop the negatives. And it's not expensive either.
Is it easy to develop color negatives or is it just B&W that's cheap and easy?

And is it possible to do the same thing with film from the Pentax 645N?

What kind of scanner do I need?
How is the quality of scanned negatives compared to developed paper copies?

I still have an active bid on a ZX-5. :-)

Thanks for your input, Lowell Goudge.

[NorthPentax]

I'm now the owner of a used Pentax ZX-5 35mm SLR Camera Body:-)

80,95USD including S&H.
+21USD in norwegian taxes.

102USD for a ZX-5. It's an okey deal for me. In Norway people are selling MX-50 for 150-200USD, without S&H!

[Shashinki]

My choice (If i was sensible) would have to be a PZ-1P. SuperDuperb viewfinder, lots of pro-features, fast AF, cheap-ish (under USD$200 if you're lucky) and relatively new model (spare parts easier to find for a camera from the mid 90's??)

But I'm not sensible, so I would probably buy a MZ-S or LX..

[Stevopedia]

What do I need if I want to go half the way?

I know now that I have always been wrong about film development, the easy part is to develop the negatives. And it's not expensive either.
Is it easy to develop color negatives or is it just B&W that's cheap and easy?

And is it possible to do the same thing with film from the Pentax 645N?

What kind of scanner do I need?
How is the quality of scanned negatives compared to developed paper copies?

I still have an active bid on a ZX-5. :-)

Thanks for your input, Lowell Goudge.

Black and white film developing is an easy four step process: develop, stop, fix, wash. Many people also use a chemical called PhotoFlo after the wash so the drying film doesn't get water spots. You can easily complete the process within an hour and a half, and within an hour as you become more experienced.

I've never done color myself, but from what I've heard it's much more temperature sensitive than black and white (for B&W the only really accurate temperature you need is the developer solution; all the rest aren't temperature sensitive but you want to keep the temperature as close as possible.) Color is more complex--and more dangerous!--than B&W, but my father shot and developed thousands of his own slides (E-6) back in the day. I said "dangerous" because color chemistry (well, E-6 chemistry, at least) contains strong bases that can cause chemical burns. I know nothing about color negative (C-41) home development, though.

Medium format film, like that for a 645(N)(II) or a 67, is developed just like normal 35 mm, but you need a wider developing reel for the film and the time and chemical quantities may be different.

You can scan film from your garden-variety flatbed scanner, but since film is a transmissive medium, not reflective like paper, you need a special film scanning attachment for it to work. There are several flatbeds with those out there, but I don't know any off the top of my head. There are also dedicated film scanners, but I think that for most people, unless you're making huuuuuge prints, the flatbed would be good enough.

According to the guys n' gals at the Analog Photography User's Group (APUG), nothing's better than a traditional wet darkroom print. Then again, they're the film and darkroom fanatics... but I'd tend to agree. I've yet to see an inkjet print that really looks like a darkroom print. Darkroom prints are a lot more fun to make too!

[NorthPentax]

I got my first Pentax film SLR today. The ZX-5 is small and light compared to K10D. Now I must buy two CR2's and some B&W film. What do all you Pentax film shooters use? Any cheap and good stores on the web that sell B&W film in bulk's? 10, 20, 50 roll's of film as a package deal.

Also got the DA 21mm, DA 40mm and a AF-540 flash from prodigital2000. Great day for me


EDIT: I went to my local Photo lab/store and bought two CR2 batteries and a roll of Kodak BW400CN film. The price: 287NOK, that's about 53USD. It cost's about 9-10 USD to develope one roll of film. If I don't get ahold of cheaper film and developing kit, my ZX-5 is going to collect alot of dust

[filmamigo]

To get cheaper film, look for a store that caters to students shooting film. They often have b&w film marketed specifically to them. In Toronto, the stores around Ryerson University carry AGFA Silvertone for anywhere between 2 and 4 Canadian dollars.

Processing the film yourself should be less than 1 Canadian dollar per roll, after you get the tank.

I'm in the process of getting an enlarger, and setting up a darkroom. But I will probably also just process the film and then scan it digitally too. I've been looking for the best deal in scanners, I can't afford a nice Nikon scanner. The Epson V500 is pretty tempting for about $170. I wonder what others here use?

[cygnet]

I've got a question that looks like it fits in this thread. I've been watching prices to get a film camera that will be compatible with the lenses I've got for my K20D, so that I can carry a film body and digital with the same kit. My question, what is the difference between a PZ-1, and a PZ-1p, other than frame rate, which I don't care about.
It's funny, I see PZ-1's for $70 - $100, but all the PZ-1p's are around $200. Are their owners just proud of them, or is there something else I'm missing. I don't see the reason for double the price on a film body.

[Lowell Goudge]

I've got a question that looks like it fits in this thread. I've been watching prices to get a film camera that will be compatible with the lenses I've got for my K20D, so that I can carry a film body and digital with the same kit. My question, what is the difference between a PZ-1, and a PZ-1p, other than frame rate, which I don't care about.
It's funny, I see PZ-1's for $70 - $100, but all the PZ-1p's are around $200. Are their owners just proud of them, or is there something else I'm missing. I don't see the reason for double the price on a film body.

It is in one of the above posts. In principle, the PZ-1 has interval timer, the PZ-1p does not, and the PZ1-p has Mirror lock up which the PZ-1 apparently does not,

I have a PZ-1 and it does just fine. It was one reason that except for my sigma 10-20mm ultra wide, every lens I own is full frame. Had I really thought about it perhaos I shoudl have bought the sigma 12-24 which is also full frame.