Film camera for night photography, need recommendatios

4 years 7 months ago #658330 by SoftC3ll
Hi, I'am a total newbie so I need to ask you, experts :)

I fell in love with night photography, I like photos especially made in the cities with retro neons, gas stations, shops etc. For example:



As far as  I know one of the best films for that conditions is Cinestill 800t so I want to work with it, but the question is what kind/model of camera should I buy? I don't want to spend a lot of money as I am a beginner, just to start and learn. Is for example Canon Ae-1 a good option? I have Olympus Mju zoom 105, but I don't know that it will be good enough. What's the most important thing to take photos like these?

Thanks 


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4 years 6 months ago #659627 by Ozzie_Traveller
G'day Mate

As one who has done heaps & heaps of after dark pics with my film cameras over a 30-40 yr period ... You do NOT need a special camera nor a specific type of film stock.

Good / Best results can be obtained from almost any film stock of 50-ISO to 400-ISO [though I have used film stock up to 1600-ISO when home processing] ... most good results are shot using any lens from 28mm to 200mm [film-camera lenses] and almost always with a tripod. Aperture use varies from F4 to F16 ~ again dependent upon subject brightness. Exposures also vary along with the subject brightness - from 1-second to 5-minutes.

With images like your #1, nearly always at -1EV exposure, to prevent the bright bits from blowing out and keeping the black bits nice and black. Wet evenings [like your #3] give beaut surface reflections - so these occasions are also beaut for after dark stuff

ps: please be caerful in posting other people's images, even if it for 'demonstration' purposes !!!

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

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4 years 6 months ago #659630 by New but trying
If you're a beginner, I'd recommend a late-model automatic camera. Something like a Nikon N75. They're cheap and have both manual and automatic control, and they're very simple to use.


Photo Comments
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4 years 6 months ago - 4 years 6 months ago #659699 by Ozzie_Traveller
G'day again

The above suggestion for a film camera might suit (I do not know the camera itself), =but=

in today's world of digital operations, you might also find that most 'reasonable' supersoom / bridge cameras will do the task quite competently.  I use Panasonic cameras, and on "A" or "P" auto-exposure metering will go down to 8-seconds, and on "M" manual will go down to 1-minute ... all quite okay for the type of pics you are showing us above

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

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4 years 6 months ago #659712 by KCook
  • Canon Ae-1 a good option?
As 35mm cameras go, yes.  Minolta, Olympus, and Pentax also offered affordable lenses.  My Olympus OM-2n happened to have a particularly sensitive meter for low light use.  But the light in the shots you posted is not all that low, any 35mm with a CdS type meter should be Ok for this.  Of course you could also pick up a separate, handheld CdS meter cheap, then any camera is fair game.  As long as it has a lens you like.

Kelly

Canon 50D, Olympus PL2
kellycook.zenfolio.com/

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