Pentax film SLR advice please

[ScubaDiva]

Well I've just acquired a Pentax MZ-M film SLR which belongs to my OH but was in the attic at his mother's house. I have managed to get a manual online so now know what all the buttons do (I think) and have had a bit of a play with it. I just managed to get it to rewind a 36 roll after just 24 shots - the roll was already in and I guess the OH didn't set it to 36 when he put it in originally.

Anyway I'm off out to buy some film so any ideas what speed/type of film I should get?

Bearing in mind that I don't have a dSLR and have only once on a dive used one and, therefore, only once used one that was fully manual (my compact doesn't even have Av or Tv). And any suggestions on little mini-phot projects I could do to start to learn how to work this thing? I'd like to start by figuring out how to control DoF - so some suggestions for different things to do there would be much appreciated.

[DDT uk]

M

What lenses do you have with the camera? If you are practising for the dSLR housing purchase then I would suggest that a good place of start is with macro. Normally I would say to go out into the garden and play with the flowers and insects. However, as you live in a flat and the insects are hardly numerous at this time of year then try playing with some flowers, even if it means going to the shops to buy a bunch. That might be a bit tricky though if you don't have a macro lens. I am sure that you could always buy some cheap extension tubes on fleabay.

If you are thinking of starting to get some bits together to go down the dSLR route then it could be worth investing in a 50 or 60mm macro lens. If you smile nicely then I have a Nikon F801 or F90x camera that I can lend you. That way you can start getting your Nikon kit together (the only real choice ). I also have an ike housing for the former and a S&S for the latter that you can borrow if you wanted to start acquiring ports. I sold off my ike ports (for a pittance!) but still need the S&S one.

D

[ScubaDiva]

Well the lens on it say it is a pentax 35-80mm - so I'm assuming that this was the standard lens it came with when the OH got it 10+ years ago (?). Gpt some 200 and 400 iso rolls on the way and will go out and get a couple of 100's to play with today. When I get them developed I'll get them done through somewhere that digitises them as well as sends you the hard prints.

As you say I just want to practice for my dSLR so am just going to do things like take many photos of the same object on different settings, write them down and compare them when they come back. Not exactly the instant feedback of digital is it.

[KenByrne]

Depth of field is controlled by the aperture. Large apertures have small numbers like F2 F4 and give a shallow depth of field. Small apertures have large numbers F16 F22 and give more depth of field. The exposure is controlled by the film speed and then the shutter speed and aperture. Changing the shutter speed by 1 setting is equivalent to to changing the aperture by 1 setting so you can get the same exposure at a range of settings. For example 1/250 at f4 = 1/125 at f5.6 = 1/125 at f8 = 1/60 at f11 = 1/30 at f16. Hand holding aim for a shutter speed that is around the same as the focal length to help avoid camera shake or brace yourself against something solid.

[incapete]

Ken really summed it up but I can't resist going into detail!

The starting point with any photography is exposure so make sure you really get the relationship between ISO/ASA (film speed), shutter speed and aperture.

For a general, versatile film I normally go for 200's as they give a nice small grain but are twice as fast as 100's. I'd save the 400 for when you know you're shooting inside or on very dull days.

Whatever film you use, once it's in you've effectively made the ISO static so the rest of the exposure relationship is down to the shutter speed and aperture.
You can keep the exposure the same while adjusting one of these by compensating with the other - so say you've exposed correctly using f11 and 1/30s but decide that you want a faster shot to avoid camera shake then you can speed it up by one stop to 1/60s but you'd need to open up the aperture by one stop to f8 to give the same exposure.

Remember that shutter speed will affect motion (both camera shake and subject blur) so you can work in Shutter Speed Priority (Tv on some cameras) to select what you need, eg 1/500 to freeze motion or 1/15 to give a silky water flow effect and the camera will automatically adjust the aperture to give enough light to expose the image (up until it's wide open or closed that is).
As Ken said, try to keep the shutter speed faster or equal to the reciprocal of the lens length so if you're shooting with a 50mm lens then try to stay faster than 1/50s to avoid shake.

Aperture is the other side of things and this is also what affects Depth of Field. Using Aperture Priority you can select a wide aperture (eg f2. which will blur the background and the camera will give you a fast shutter speed to expose. Or if you want to keep a group in focus then you want a smaller aperture such as f8 to give a nice wide depth of field but the camera will give you a slower shutter speed to expose.

Manual mode obviously gives you control of both variables which can be useful although I tend to leave my cameras in Aperture Priority most of the time.

I'm not familiar with the metering on your camera but be aware of where you're pointing it when you set your exposure - it's likely to be based on a fairly central area so make sure you aim towards something that you want to correctly expose for then recompose to take the shot (like holding the shutter halfway down on a compact).

Have fun!

[ScubaDiva]

Thanks foolks. I got a 200 iso roll from Boots and will pop out today to take some shots. I meant to do it yesterday but didn't leave the house before dark!

Where can I get them developed that won't cost me a small fortune? I don't need prints I'd be happy with developing and digitising.

[ScubaDiva]

JUst went out with the camera to go to the park and play with it but didn't get that far. Took 5 or 6 photos and then the camera decided to rewind the roll - and it was a 36 roll as well.