c/analog-camera-club

Hit 1,000 shots on my beat up Canon AE-1, all on one roll of film I thought was ruined

I was shooting a roll of Kodak Gold 200 I found in a drawer, expired in 2019. My shutter counter stuck at 999 after a few months of casual use, so I kept shooting anyway. Last weekend I developed it and the counter finally rolled over to 1,000, which felt like hitting some weird lottery jackpot. The roll itself came out with heavy color shifts and a few light leaks, but honestly that made every frame look like a 1980s postcard. Anyone else ever get a counter that freezes and just keep going, or did you actually fix yours? I'm torn between repairing it or letting it ride until the camera dies.

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theawest•8d ago

Just realized my 35mm camera collects more dust per month than my darkroom prints ever did

Cleaned out my gear bag after a year and found about 2 tablespoons of lint and dust stuck to the lenses, which made me wonder how much of that ended up on my negatives, so has anyone else noticed their storage routine is the real villain here?

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the_rowan•9d ago

Finally picked the old Pentax over the Canon for street shots

Had a Canon AE-1 sitting next to a Pentax Spotmatic on my desk for a week, went with the Spotmatic because the meter seemed more honest in low light. Took it out to the farmers market downtown, blew through a roll of Portra 400, and the shadows came out way better than I expected. Anyone else feel like the older glass just has a different look to it, or am I just making excuses for gear?

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wendy674•10d ago

Downtown lab vs my home darkroom, the tone shift is huge

I've been souping my own rolls for about 9 months now, and I finally compared prints from the same roll shot at the same setting but developed at Blue Moon Camera in Portland versus my bathroom setup. The lab's negatives have this creamy highlight roll-off that mine just lack, and I'm wondering if it's their temperature control or my cheap thermometer drifting. I'm not ready to drop $200 on a Jobo, but has anyone else seen this kind of before-and-after gap between commercial and home processing?

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rowan_wells67•10d ago

My Bell & Howell projector lamp blew mid-reel at a family gathering

Setting up the old 8mm projector for my uncle's 70th in Des Moines, the bulb popped right as the birthday cake scene came on, so I grabbed a flashlight and narrated the whole last three minutes like a bad sports announcer until I found the spare under the passenger seat. Has anyone else had a projector fail at the worst possible time, or am I just the lucky one who now gets grilled about it every Thanksgiving?

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felix_thomas73•11d ago

The $9 thrift store lens that made me rethink my whole kit

Last month I walked into a Goodwill in Portland and grabbed a dusty 50mm f/1.8 for nine bucks, just because it had the right mount for my old Pentax. I figured it would be a paperweight, but I ran a roll of Tri-X through it last week and the sharpness surprised me, even wide open. My $300 modern lens barely gets used now because this cheap glass has that soft, imperfect character that digital just can't fake. It made me wonder if I've been chasing gear specs instead of what actually feels right in my hands. Has anyone else found a junk store score that outperformed your expensive stuff, or am I just lucky this time?

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hernandez.ben•11d ago

My Canon AE-1 shutter jammed at a wedding shoot last Saturday

I was shooting a friend's backyard wedding in Portland and on frame 14 the mirror just stuck halfway up. Winding lever felt like it was full of gravel. Had to finish the ceremony on my phone, which hurt my soul. Got home and found the foam bumper under the mirror had turned to sticky goo and was grabbing the mechanism. Took it apart, scraped it off, replaced it with some craft felt I glued in. Fired it a hundred times since and works fine now. Anybody else had old foam turn to sludge in their gear? How do you keep it from happening again?

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finley939•12d ago

I stopped splitting my exposures and my negs got way better

Back in 2019 I used to bracket every single shot like it was my job, burning through rolls of Tri-X at 2 stops over and under just to feel safe. Then I moved to Portland last year and started shooting a Pentax K1000 with a broken light meter, and I had to guess everything by gut and the Sunny 16 rule. Turns out I was overthinking it the whole time, my keeper rate jumped from maybe 30% to closer to 70% once I trusted one exposure per scene. Now I only bracket if the light is doing something wild, like mixed fluorescents or a sunset with harsh clouds, and I stopped carrying three bodies loaded with different speeds. Has anyone else found that forcing yourself to hit one exposure made you a better shooter, or do you still bracket out of habit?

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kim.sandra•12d ago

That $45 bulk film loader turned into a giant dust magnet

I bought a used bulk loader off eBay last month thinking I would save money rolling my own Tri-X, but the felt light trap was so worn it fogged three rolls before I noticed. Tried to fix it with some craft felt from a hobby store in Phoenix, but that just made fibers stick to every frame and now I have static streaks too. Has anyone actually had luck refurbishing one of these things, or should I just eat the cost and buy pre-rolled cassettes forever?

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wendy674•12d ago

A stranger at a flea market told me my negatives were overexposed, changed my whole meter approach

This old guy in Chicago looked at my last 3 rolls and said 'you're shooting like it's 1965, trust the sunny 16', and after switching to incident metering my shadow detail got way better, anyone else get rescued by a random passerby's critique?

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ben436•12d ago

Lost 12 rolls of airport x-ray film in Barcelona last month

Went through the CT scanner at El Prat with 2 extra-strength bags of Portra 400, all 12 rolls came back fogged and useless. Has anyone else had a whole travel set ruined by the new scanners, or did I just get unlucky with the dose?

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uma_lopez•13d ago

My old Canon finally clicked after I stopped babying it

For two years I treated my Canon A-1 like it was made of glass, always keeping it in the padded bag and only shooting on sunny days when I had plenty of time. Then my buddy Rick from the Thursday meetup in Denver told me to just carry it everywhere and shoot whatever, even in the rain. I thought he was nuts, but I tried it for a week and the difference in my roll from that week was huge. I got 34 usable shots out of 36, including some blurry ones of my dog that I actually love more than my "perfect" landscape stuff. The camera got a few scratches on the bottom and a tiny dent on the corner, but it works the same and my confidence is way better. Has anyone else found that rougher use actually improves your results, or am I just being lazy now?

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lisa839•14d ago

Hot take: I prefer fixing my broken shutter over buying a CLA'd body

Everyone swears by paying $150 for a serviced Pentax K1000, but I picked up a jammed one for $20 last month and got it working with just a few hours of YouTube and a tiny screwdriver. Has anyone else had better luck repairing than paying for a pro tune-up?

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rowank69•15d ago

Surprised that expired film can shift colors way more than I expected

I picked up a 10 pack of Fuji Superia 400 that had been frozen since 2009, from a seller in Portland. After developing a few rolls, the greens turned almost teal and the skin tones had this weird magenta cast. I read on a photography blog that expired film loses sensitivity unevenly across the color layers, which explains the shift. It's not bad, just different, and I'm actually kind of into it for moody shots. Has anyone else gotten wild color shifts from old stock, and do you correct it in scanning or just roll with it?

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derekthomas•15d ago

Why does nobody talk about how cheap expired slide film looks awesome?

I shot a roll of 2003-era Provia 100F last weekend that sat in a hot garage for 20 years, and the color shifts made every shot look like a dream sequence. I've seen people chase expensive filters and presets to get that exact look, but it's literally just old film nobody wanted. Processed it at the lab on Clement Street in San Francisco, and they charged me the same as fresh roll. Has anyone else tried baking a roll on purpose or do you all just stick to fresh stock?

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sarahsullivan•16d ago

That $15 repair kit from the hardware store just fixed my 40 year old shutter

I picked up one of those cheap rubber bulb and hose cleaning kits, mostly as a joke, and ended up using it on my Pentax Spotmatic that's been stuck at 1/1000 for ages. The old foam seals had basically turned to goo, and the bulb gave me just enough air pressure to blow out the gunk without risking the curtain. Total cost was $15 and about 20 minutes of fiddling, way cheaper than the $90 bench fee my local shop quoted. Has anyone else found random plumbing supplies that work for camera repair, or am I just getting lucky with this old junk?

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mason283•23d ago

That old Kodak retina at the swap meet had a stuck shutter, not a dead camera

Picked up a 1955 Kodak Retina IIa for $40 at a flea market in Portland last Sunday, figured it was a paperweight since the shutter would only fire at 1/500. Got home and after some reading, turns out the slow speed escapement was just gummed up from sitting 20 years. Anyone else rescued an old camera from a bargain bin that only needed a cleanup, not a repair shop?

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thead44•23d ago

Just hit 200 rolls developed this year, never expected it

Sorted my negatives last night and counted 200 rolls since January, mostly shot on my beat up Canon AE-1 with a 50mm. Anyone else keep track of their yearly roll counts, or am I just weirdly obsessive?

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the_anna•24d ago

My old Pentax K1000 got me through a rough patch, literally

Had a conversation last week with a younger guy at the lab who only shoots digital and he asked why I keep carrying this brick around, it weighs like 2 pounds with the 50mm on it. I told him about how I shot a whole roll during a family emergency back in 2019, just to keep my hands busy, and the physical act of winding and metering was the only thing that calmed me down. He said that sounds like a coping mechanism, not a hobby, and honestly it made me wonder, do you find the mechanical process of film helps you slow down too, or is it just about the look?

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paige870•25d ago

My local camera shop's darkroom sink changed how I wash film

Last month I was tired of fighting with my bathroom sink for rinsing, so I asked the guy at the shop near Portland if I could use theirs for a roll. Watching the constant water flow and the way they rigged a simple hose clamp made me realize my home setup was wasting time and risking streaks. Anyone else found a cheap way to build a proper film washer without dropping $80 on one?

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dakota_rivera•27d ago

I thought expired film was just a gimmick until I shot a roll of Fuji Superia from 2004

Picked up a 10 pack of expired 35mm at a thrift store in Portland for $8 and figured I'd just be wasting frames. The colors came out with this weird pastel look and some heavy grain that actually made my shots of the waterfront look like they were from a 70s postcard. Now I'm hunting down old film on eBay to see what other surprises are out there. You ever get lucky with an old roll or did you just get muddy results?

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julia843•28d ago

Just found out my 20 year old film canisters might be fogged from airport scans

I was going through my dad's old camera bag last night and found a bunch of rolls of Tri-X from like 2004. Figured they'd still be fine since they were in a lead bag. But then I looked closer at the bag and it's one of those old generic ones from a camera store in Portland, not a real lead lined one. I read online that the TSA scanners can actually fog film through those cheap bags after multiple passes. Has anyone else had this happen with old stored film that went through airports?

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sanchez.mia•28d ago

Chat with a lab tech in Portland made me question my developing temps

I was dropping off some rolls at Pro Photo in Portland last week and got to talking with the lab guy there. He mentioned he develops everything at 68 degrees even when the chemicals say 75 because he gets less grain. I've been religiously following the datasheets for 2 years and never thought to experiment. Has anyone else tried deviating from the recommended temps on purpose?

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hernandez.ben•1mo ago

Tried to develop my own film in the bathroom and ended up with orange streaks everywhere

Last Saturday I set up a makeshift darkroom in my tiny apartment bathroom with a changing bag and a Paterson tank. Loaded up some Tri-X I shot at a flea market downtown, but I guess I didn't seal the tank lid right because developer leaked out and stained the sink bright orange. Spent the next hour scrubbing with bleach, and the negatives came out with these weird streaks across half the frames. Anyone else ever botch their first home development session this bad?

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jade221•1mo ago

My first roll of 120 film came out blank and I learned a hard lesson

I was out in the Smoky Mountains last fall, really proud of the shots I took on an old Yashica-Mat I had just bought. Got home, developed the roll myself, and nothing came out. Completely blank. Turns out I had been loading the film wrong and it never advanced past the backing paper. Felt pretty dumb but now I double check every time I close the back. Has anyone else made a silly mistake like that their first time with medium format?

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