A Tale of Two Cameras (and Fuji Superia 200)

In recent posts (here) and (here), I've talked about starting to shoot film again - with a Minolta Dynax 7 and a Canon EOS 300V. I've been able to put a roll of Fuji Superia 200 through each camera in the last month, and recently had the film developed during a trip to Christchurch. Let's have a look at the results....

Cobden Lagoon. Minolta Dynax 7 with 35-70mm f/4 (@ 35mm). Fuji Superia 200.

First things first - both cameras work! Yay!! Of the two rolls I shot, under varying lighting conditions, the exposures were bang-on. So that's the first hurdle out of the way. Two fully functioning camera bodies.

Second, how do the images actually look? And again - no problems there. All the photos are sharp (or at least sharp enough for 35mm film scanned on a flatbed scanner) and have good colour rendition. In terms of the colour, I did find that all the photos tended towards a blue tint with the Fujicolor Superia. With almost all of the scans I removed some of the blue from the midtones and shadows to get the colour a bit more 'neutral'.

Lagoon Reeds. Minolta Dynax 7 with 70-210mm f4.5-5.6 (@100mm). Fuji Superia 200.

Since having decided to shoot some film this year, I have been thinking about how to digitize the negatives. As mentioned above, the photos here have been scanned on a flatbed scanner (Epson Photo V700). I just happened to have one, and so that's what I have used to digitize almost all of my 35mm negatives. But there is a lot of buzz on the interwebs about using your digital camera and a macro lens to 'scan' your negatives. This is, they say (whoever 'they' are), the better - and quicker - way to go.

I just happen to have a full frame 24MP digital camera, and a Sigma 105mm macro lens. So this is definitely something that I will be giving a go in the near future. I may even do a 'comparison' with the flatbed scan and the digital camera scan.

Brunner Mine Bridge. Canon 300V with 28-80mm f4.5-5.6mm (@50mm). Fuji Superia 200.

If I'm honest, I'm not quite sure of what I think about scanning 35mm film with a digital camera? You might argue that if you are going to do that, why not just shoot with a digital camera in the first place? And you might have a point.

But (playing devils advocate), if you want to show your photos on a digital platform, then you are going to have to digitize your negatives at some stage. So why not use the best re-productive system available to you? And if that happens to be your digital camera, then so be it. Having used a film scanner over the years, I have to say that they are a bit of a faff to use, and don't always produce the sharpest results - especially with 35mm.

Cobden Pigeons. Canon 300V with Canon 28-80mm (@80mm). Fujicolor Superia 200

Speaking for myself, the 'fun' of shooting film is in the actual process - and in the cameras I get to use. I enjoyed using both the Minolta Dynax 7 and the Canon 300V. Both very modern cameras - and yet both very different shooting experiences. The Minolta has a more 'pro' feeling about it - with a rugged magnesium-alloy body and lots of dials, whereas the Canon 300V is certainly a more consumer-grade shooting experience.

I didn't really 'prefer' one over the other - although if I'm honest I liked more of the photos I shot with the 300V. But that probably has more to do with the places I went to photograph rather than the camera's themselves.

Taylorville Bus. Canon 300V with Fujicolor Superia 200.

Thoughts of scanning aside, my first rolls of film through my two film cameras was definitely a success. I got images that I really liked from both cameras - enough to want to repeat the experience. I have a trip away to Nelson for a holiday coming up, and I'm deciding whether to shoot it all on film or not. The only thing that really gives me pause is the film stock situation. I have a lot of black and white film, but no more colour. I'm not sure I really want to shoot everything on black and white, so I may end up just taking the digital and leaving the film cameras at home until I can find some more cheap colour film? Anybody know where I can get some cheap colour film from?

And the Winner Is...

A few weeks ago I wrote about trying to decide on the 35mm film system that I would use going forward. I had decided logically to go with Canon – more specifically the EOS 300V. But what I really wanted was a Nikon F80 (which I eventually found two of). It all arrived a couple of weeks ago, I’ve shot with them, and the verdict is in.

What did I end up going with? If you’ve read my earlier posts, you can probably already guess the answer, so I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m keeping the (black) Nikon N80 – surprise, surprise.

The Nikon N80

I did use both systems, side by side. And having done so, the clear winner – for me – was the Nikon F80. It’s a superb camera. It feels (and looks) superior to the Canon in almost every way, and most importantly, handles better than the 300V.

The Canon only has one command dial – that doubles as the on-off switch! So every time you turn the camera on, you have to rotate the dial to the mode you want to use. Seems like a small thing, but it drove me nuts. The Nikon, on the other hand, has the on-off switch separated from the mode dial, so you can simply leave the mode set all the time, and flick the camera on very quickly with one finger. Easy.

The F80 (or N80 in my case) also feels better (more solid) in the hand, and has the sweetest sounding shutter of any camera I’ve ever used – period! I’m not kidding. The shutter feel, and sound, on the Nikon F80 is just pure perfection. Again, maybe a small thing to some, but it all adds up to a superior user experience.

I also decided to get a 50mm f1.8D Nikkor lens to enhance the ‘classic’ film shooter experience. The 50mm f1.8 is a stellar lens, and can quite easily take the place of the 35-70mm if I ‘zoom with my feet’. So I sold the Nikkor 35-70mm without even taking an image with it – along with the black and silver F80 body that was surplus to requirements (I really only need one 35mm body), and the Canon 300V. So my auto focus 35mm film camera system going forward will be a Nikon N80 with 50mm f1.8D and 70-300mm f4/5.6G lenses. Nice.