Camera Geek Question

[Dan_Petersen]

So I am no camera person, but I have a five or six year old Olympus point and shoot 35mm. What kind of film should I use to take good general mountain pictures that would have good resolution when put on a CD by the local CostCo?

[Fairweather]

Which Olympus? If it is the Epic Stylus with the 2.8 lens you'll get great slides in the morning and evening light with fuji 50 or 100, but all of your bright snow/afternoon shots will likely be horribly underexposed as there is no manual exposure override. If it has a spotmeter (later models) you can somewhat compensate by spotting on your subject's face and recomposing with the shutter button partially depressed.

 

As for the scanning, I'm not sure how the quality is with those Costco machines. I'm not even sure if Costco will scan slides, but you can't beat the color. If you just want something to look at on your monitor, just take prints and scan them on your flatbed scanner. The file sizes will be reasonable and will load fast for slide shows.

[Stemalot]

use Fuji film or Fuji slides - Fuji Sensia is a great consumer level slide. It's the best slide film for the money. Use ISO 100.

 

If you want your photos in digital format, just get a digital camera. You are not going to be able to tell prints from digi cams or prints from film or slide. Unless you increase the size of your print photos to like billboard size, you are better off with a digi cam.

[willstrickland]

Here's something to consider:

 

Slide film generally rules in saturation and resolution, BUT if you don't have manual exposure overide (and most P/S cameras don't) shoot print film. Here's why:

 

Print film has a much greater exposure latitude than slide film (meaning when the camera underexposes the film by trying to interpret snow as 18% gray, you are more likely to get a salvagable exposure with print film).

 

You can over/under expose print film by 2-3 stops and still get virtually the same results in the printing process. Most corner drugstore printers are set on an auto balance that will correct it.

 

Grain/resolution/sharpness is basically an inverse function of film speed....faster film is less sharp. My rule of thumb for choosing one roll for a wide variety of conditions is to take the widest aperature of your lens (the range will be say f2.8-f22 with the small number being the widest), divide by 2, multiply by 100...(in this case=140) and shoot that speed. Now there is actually 140 speed film, but it's portrait film, so you are typically choosing between 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 in print film.

 

I'd probably shoot 400 if you are climbing a northfacing route in winter and 100 on a spring/summer glacier slog. Slower film will have less grain and better resolution. You can make a respectable 8x10 from 100speed, 400 starts getting pretty grainy at that size.

 

That said, I shoot Fuji Velvia, a 50speed silde film, about 90% of the time.

[Braumeister]

use Fuji film or Fuji slides - Fuji Sensia is a great consumer level slide. It's the best slide film for the money. Use ISO 100.

 

If you want your photos in digital format, just get a digital camera. You are not going to be able to tell prints from digi cams or prints from film or slide. Unless you increase the size of your print photos to like billboard size, you are better off with a digi cam.

 

And if you don't want to screw around with slides, Fuji Reala is a GREAT print film. If you can't find it locally, you can buy it fairly cost-effectively from B & H (bandhphotovideo.com, I think).

 

In any event, post some of your great mountain shots on this site!

 

B.

[ski_photomatt]

willstrickland makes many good points. If you are using a point and shoot I would recommend using print film. Fuji Reala is a great 100 ISO negative film, sharp and fine grained. If you want to go with slides, most nature photographers shoot Fuji Velvia or Provia. Just be aware that a 1/3 - 1/2 stop difference in exposure is quite noticable on slide film, so your camera's meter needs to do a good job to get nice slides. There is far less margin for error.

 

That being said, depending on how many pics you shoot, you'd most likely be better off with a digital camera. Each roll of (good) film will cost ~10 for film+processing, or more if you are shooting slides and getting them processed locally. You can get a decent digital camera for $300. You won't notice the difference in smaller prints. My only recommendation - get a camera with at least some manual controls. It won't cost that much more. You don't have to use them if you don't want, but if you want to get more into it and want to take control, you will be able to. Don't let your camera limit your photos.

[joekania]

For that camera, I would have to say slides are not the way to go. 50 ASA Velvia is going to make it hard to get a decent handheld shot, and without auto-bracketing or manual controls, getting a correct exposure will be a pain.

I will have to break with the crowd and recommend (oh my god!) Kodak VC-160. Will has called it portrait film, but I find it adequate for scenics, too. It is an optimal balance of speed and fine grain, will scan well, and I find the color reproduction very pleasing to the eye, the Fuji print stock I find to only get the greens right (but their slide film is very good). The VC-400 is good for lower light, north faces, overcast, action. 400 ASA will give you minimal grain in a scan since they are most likely scanning the negative.

End use is something you should consider as well. If you are taking your pics straight to a slide show, then digital is the way to go, for cost and expediency. If you want larger prints for the living room wall, stick with lower ASA film.

[Dan_Petersen]

Many thanks. I am generally crummy at photography and try not to blame the equipment. The reason I am avoiding the purchase of a digital camera is that I am waiting for my son-in-law to tire of his two or three year old one, buy a new one, and give the old one to me.

 

I'll try the 100 ISO Fuji Reala Print. If a miracle happens and I get a good shot or two, I'll post 'em.