[pentaxian_tmb]

I have a refurbed pentax MESuper. Want to start shooting film, but not sure how best to go about it. I have shot a couple of rolls, but already lost 2 rolls of film because they didn't catch on the winder.

As far as development is concerned, I have a scanner with settings for photo negative and a negative frame holder. Is it good enough to just get the negatives developed and then scan them into the computer? Do I need to tell the developer to add exposure comp or is that all done in post when I scan it like digital?

Can anyone get me started?

[aaacb]

Practice loading the camera with spent film, it just takes a few tries. The camera has a tiny red window on the back, the "cog" inside should move slightly if film is advancing. If it didn't catch, no worries, just reset the frame counter, open the camera, reinsert the film, and pull those few shots that were wasted, don't need to sacrifice an entire roll. If you pull the film end inside the canister by accident, you can either get a special tool (film puller) but I've done it with a wet spare end of film too...

You don't need to tell them to push/pull the film unless you deliberately shot at that equivalent iso and had the same setting for the entire roll. For example, you'd use iso 400 film and set the camera to iso 800, then tell the lab to push 1 stop. Doesn't work for individual pictures. Many labs offer some sort of scanning, usually for free or a couple $, so you could compare your results with theirs in terms of final exposure, color etc.

[noblepa]

I have a refurbed pentax MESuper. Want to start shooting film, but not sure how best to go about it. I have shot a couple of rolls, but already lost 2 rolls of film because they didn't catch on the winder.

As far as development is concerned, I have a scanner with settings for photo negative and a negative frame holder. Is it good enough to just get the negatives developed and then scan them into the computer? Do I need to tell the developer to add exposure comp or is that all done in post when I scan it like digital?

Can anyone get me started?

Exposure compensation during developing is called "pushing" or "pulling". "Pushing" refers to the practice of exposing the film as if it were a higher ISO than it really is. For example, you are using film rated as ISO 100, but you expose it as if it were 200. This is pushing it one stop. If you exposed as if it were 400, you would pushing two stops. Effectively, you must do this for the entire roll.

You then tell the lab to push the development one or two stops. They do this by leaving the film in the developer longer than the normal time. This can only be done by a real lab, that does "dip and dunk" processing. The one-hour places, with their automated machines can not do this. The machines are pretty much set. If you develop your own film, you have control over how long the film stay in the developer.

Pulling is less common and involves just the opposite. You expose ISO 200 film as if it were 100 or 50. You then leave it in the developer for LESS time than normal.

I suggest that, to get started, you do not worry about pushing or pulling the development. Just shoot at the rated speed. If you still have any place that can process you film with a machine, it will probably be cheaper than paying a real lab, even if you don't push the speed. Cost should be an issue, because you're probably going to need to shoot a fair amount of film to get the hang of things.

As for scanning, your equipment is probably good enough to start with. You can probably scan at the equivalent of 6-10 megapixels, maybe more. While you're not going to make any wall-sized murals at that resolution, I have gotten excellent 16 x 20 prints from my 10 megapixel K10d.

If you decide to continue shooting film, you can always invest in a better scanner or your own developing equipment.

BTW, developing black and white film is a snap. Color print film is not much harder.

[mikesbike]

I advise you to start with slide film and use manual operation, using the camera's meter readings to determine exposure. Learn to look for mid-tones to read from and go up or down from there to get the effect you want. Learn to adjust aperture to attain a desired depth of field, using the DOF scale on the lens. You might have a local source that will send your order in for processing, or use a mail order source. Although print film is more appropriate for many needs, it is slide film that produces the most accurate exposure you have selected, so what you got is what you shot. A slide projector is best for viewing, but a small handheld viewer is pretty inexpensive and useful.

Print film exposure is generally altered at the time of development and/or print making. If you take the same shots on 2 different rolls and have them processed at 2 different labs, the results will most likely be quite different. The images from digital cameras are also subject to considerable electronic manipulation for the end result.

Back in the 1980's I shot with an ME Super for at least 6 years. A very nice little camera. Shooting film can still be quite enjoyable, so have fun!

[photoptimist]

One trick to avoid failed winding: after you've slipped the film tab into place, cocked the camera to start winding the film, and put the film can into it's place on the other side then use the rewind crank to gently attempt to rewind the film a bit. This will pull the slack out of the film, reassure you that the winding spool has a good grip, and also imply that during the first frames, the rewind crank will spin when you cock the shutter for the next frame thus providing further confirmation that it is winding the film.

Good luck!

[pentaxian_tmb]

Ahh
...sounds like i was loading wrong. So you place the tab in the white slot...then hit the advsnce lever snd then put the canister in?

---------- Post added 01-06-17 at 07:37 PM ----------

So....shoot at the rated iso.....have walgreens develop negatives....then scan and process ?

[Alex645]

1) Lift the rewind knob on the left to open the back of the camera.
2) With the flat side of the film canister up, insert the film into the cavity on the left under the rewind knob.
3) Push down the rewind knob to keep the film from falling out and turn it slightly if it doesnʻt go down all the way.
4) Insert the film leader into the take up spool on the far right (with white plastic slits on ME Super).
5) (Be careful not to touch or poke the shutter in the center of the camera.)
6) Turn on the camera by going from the "L" lock setting to "Auto" or "M". Advance the film until you see it has caught on the right and the teeth between the shutter and take up spool are in both the top and bottom film sprocket holes. If the advance lever seems locked, "take a shot" by depressing the shutter release button.
7) If the film leader slips out, try again.
8) Close the camera back.
9) Gently turn the rewind knob CLOCKWISE until there is a bit of tension to take up any slack in the film canister.
10) Your film counter indicates you are not yet on shot #1. When you push the shutter release button and then advance the film 2-3 times to get to #1, you can either look at the rewind knob that it then turns counter clockwise OR on the back right of the ME Super is a little window with vertical lines that should shimmy back and forth as you advance film. If neither happens, restart to step #1.
11) Set the ASA to the recommended film ISO and the EV to the white "1x" setting.
12) Depending on your technique, you should get 24-27 shots on a 24 exposure roll and 36-39 on a 36 roll. But most importantly, whenever you run out of film, you will notice the film advance lever does not want to allow you to partially or fully advance. If you force it, you could break the film or strip a gear. Push the unmarked little rewind button on the bottom of the camera.
Note: If you do not rewind the film, and open the back of the camera, you will expose all your film. If in subdued light and you open and close it very, very quickly, you might not have ruined the first 6-12 shots. IF you do not push the rewind button, and then rewind, you will strip all the sprocket teeth holes in the film leaving a mess in the camera and film that may not be accepted by the lab. Sometimes this will just break the film. Also, never rewind the film counterclockwise as this will create vertical pressure lines on the negs.
13) Flip out the little rewind handle and turn CLOCKWISE (the direction of the arrow) until either the little window with the vertical lines on the back right stops moving and/or you will feel a bit of tension, followed by the noise of the film leader coming off the spool, and then the rewind knob will turn easily.
14) Now, you can lift the rewind knob up and remove your film.

I googled "how to load ME Super" and saw three poor youtube videos. Almost laughable and each with some misleading mistake or bad technique.

I usually pay a few dollars to have the lab do a low to medium res scan in jpegs so I can quickly preview my shots. Some will burn it to a CD and others you can download online. Always have them send you your negs. Once Iʻve selected the best worth editing, I then scan as TIFF, DNG, or RAW and then edit.

If you only have a flatbed scanner with a film adapter tray, or an inexpensive ($100) film scanner, you may want to opt to ask the lab to do high res scans for you.

Mikeʻs suggestion to shoot slide film is not a bad alternative because you can just get a loupe (magnifier) and a small light table to see the results.
Beware: Slides are harder to nail exposure and will teach you the hard way about the benefits of bracketing. Slides have less exposure latitude and dynamic range requires greater skill with filters or fill flash to deal with potentially blown out highlights or inky black shadows. Slide film and E-6 processing is significantly more expensive than C-41 or B&W neg development.

Be patient with yourself. Film photography, at all levels, requires greater skill, patience, and vision. But you will improve with tenacity and it will also improve your digital work.

[SpecialK]

Do I need to tell the developer to add exposure comp or is that all done in post when I scan it like digital?

Custom developers can do a "snip" test for an extra fee. They cut off and process a few frames to determine the best way to process the rest of it, but those first frames are typically lost.

[Xmas]

Down load the camera manual free.
Pentax camera instruction manuals, Pentax professional instruction manuals
The film is like watch spring and you need to thread it into take up spool, drop cassette into chamber, pin film sprocket hole on to sprocket shaft tooth, and wind the film back into cassette until it tightens inside cassette!
Then close back and check the rewind knob turns as you sweep the lever, you need to do this check with each frame!

When you get to 36 stop and push rewind button and wind in direction of arrow!

Lots cannot use 35mm cameras!

[dsmithhfx]

Can't agree with the suggestion that you start with slide film. It's too finicky, depending on very accurate metering, and you will quickly become discouraged.

Use fast (ASA/ISO 400) color negative film instead, it has the best exposure latitude of any film and very forgiving of exposure errors up to 2 stops (or up to 5-stops total latitude). These can be compensated fairly easily with digital post-processing, because the shadow and highlight detail is still there, unlike with slide film where it has not been recorded.

Another great thing about color film is that you can also convert the scans to black and white, so you can see how your shots look 'as if' you shot them with black and white negative film of similar speed. With practice, you can achieve a pretty good simulation of what you'd get with the real thing. Of course, you can't easily convert black and white to color.

Don't be tempted to use expired or off-brand films until you have a better handle on the whole process, and are ready to experiment and accept the failures that come with that. Stick with consumer-grade Kodak and Fuji color negative films for predictable results. This is the most important thing.

Get your film processed and scanned by a lab, either to disk or for download. Manual scanning is an art form with a long learning curve, and can be very tedious even after you have gained proficiency. Labs can produce very good results that approach the best that most consumer manual scanners can achieve, and best of all they do the entire roll.

Any lab with a recent model Noritsu developer-scanner can quickly churn out half-decent scans for you, shop around for the best price. Avoid 'professional' labs because they are the most expensive, and not good value for folks who are starting out. The quality can vary quite a bit though, so ask around for some recommendations and if you suspect a lab is not doing a good job, try another. However, be aware that lab scans that do not look perfect may in fact have all the info you need to bring out your photos exactly how you want them in digital post-processing.

[LesDMess]

Can't agree with the suggestion that you start with slide film. It's too finicky, depending on very accurate metering, and you will quickly become discouraged.

Slides have less latitude then b&w or C41 films and so the user has to be aware of this and know how to meter accordingly. But unlike color C41, you won't have to interpret the results after shooting making it much easier to scan. If you're new to film you are in luck since Kodak is bringing back E100 slide film which has a very good latitude for a slide, along with other very good characteristics in terms of grain, color and contrast.

Since you may be familiar with digital's latitude, it may be helpful to show you what I mean by C41's great latitude by comparison. Below I metered a scene for best exposure and just kept adding a stop of exposure until the film and sensor are blownout due to overexposure. As you can see, even RAW files are unrecoverable past +2 while Kodak Ektar 100 can go beyond +5 and Kodak Portra 400 well beyond +10 by comparison.



Larger version -> Overexposure test

IOW, err on the side of overexposure when using C41 and b&w films.


Below is a single scene with great exposure range - under to overexposure, and Kodak Portra 400 handles it very well allowing you to recover both ends during scan and in post.


Larger version -> Kodak Portra 400

Best thing is to go out there and have fun learning!

[dsmithhfx]

unlike color C41, you won't have to interpret the results after shooting making it much easier to scan

I find working with C41 scans to be far easier than with slide scans.

[LesDMess]

I find working with C41 scans to be far easier than with slide scans.

I just read about these color scanning issues myself but I have have never had any with the Coolscans . . .

[Eagle94VT]

I shoot a lot of film and have struggled for years with what to do about the digitization issue. That being said, I've been eyeballing an Epson flatbed scanner for a few years without buying. I have too many dead hard drives in the basement with photos never printed or me to worry about scanning everything. So for the past few years I make a choice with each roll - if I think there is good stuff on it I send it to BlueMoon for optical prints and don't digitize them at all. I want the prints. Otherwise I use a place like darkroom.com that does a great job with scanning and I can pick the good one. But I have a bookshelf of large photo prints - my goal is to save and have a print of the best ones - I usually print them 8x12. But it depends on your goals - I have too many digital photos that are hard to sift through - so I don't worry about adding scans to them!

I have started doing my own C41 developing at home- I'm terrible. And once I get that down I'll worry about scanning/printing on my own. It's definitely an adventure!

[Xmas]

Try and find some 6x9 mono negatives and wet print them.
Bit like jumping out of plane with no chute i.e. no going back!