numanoid
I'm 'Special'...
Reged: 27/01/2002
Posts: 10329
Loc: Co.Durham
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I have never tried MF and would love to have a go before film dies off completely. Even if it was a cheap Seagull or Lubitel i'd love to have a go,but what puts me off is the cost of 120 film and processing. Is it much more expensive than 35mm and would jessies do it?
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An artist must have the freedom to express himself - Edward Weston
~Larry~
BSRIPN
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/numanoid27/
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Hotblack
Dead Horse Flogger
Reged: 07/03/2006
Posts: 7287
Loc: Upstairs in the spare room.
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Don't know about Jessies but 7DayShop have Ilford, Kodak and Fuji 120 film from about £1.50 a roll.
Processing at my local pro lab is £4.50 a roll, £10 for process and contact. You could try taking a look at Peak Imaging to see how much they charge.
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Cheers
David
David J White Photography
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NorthernMonkey
enthusiast
Reged: 01/05/2007
Posts: 271
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If you process your own black and white film, its about 60p a roll. If you want a dev and print, its about £8 if you look around.
Film is really cheap, about £1.60 - £2 a roll, depending on what you are buying. Slide film is a little more expensive.
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nimbus
enthusiast
Reged: 29/08/2007
Posts: 316
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The cost of using medium format is lower than might be expected, simply because most medium format users expose fewer frames than 35mm users, and vastly fewer than digital users. Medium format slows down the picture taking process, and leads to a more considered approach to matters. The equipment does not lend itself to a machine gun attitude in the user.
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numanoid
I'm 'Special'...
Reged: 27/01/2002
Posts: 10329
Loc: Co.Durham
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I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to afford MF,such a shame as it won't be long when it will be digital only. Would love a MF digi tho!
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An artist must have the freedom to express himself - Edward Weston
~Larry~
BSRIPN
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/numanoid27/
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taxor
Reged: 09/07/2004
Posts: 569
Loc: Lancaster, UK
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Quote:
I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to afford MF,such a shame as it won't be long when it will be digital only. Would love a MF digi tho!
Not sure I agree with you there. Film will be around as long as there are people who love using it. Ilford are commmitted players in the analogue market. If (heaven forbid) they go under, there will be some enterprising outfit that'll continue to make these products. I'd save your pennies, get yourself a decent MF outfit (Mamiya springs to mind!), get a stack of 120 film, maybe even a bit of darkroom kit and start enjoying yourself. For gawds sake, take no notice of the doomsters; they're talking out of their ar**s!! 
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"I wanna hold your gland". Lemming & McCartney
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numanoid
I'm 'Special'...
Reged: 27/01/2002
Posts: 10329
Loc: Co.Durham
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Quote:
Not sure I agree with you there. Film will be around as long as there are people who love using it. Ilford are commmitted players in the analogue market. If (heaven forbid) they go under, there will be some enterprising outfit that'll continue to make these products. I'd save your pennies, get yourself a decent MF outfit (Mamiya springs to mind!), get a stack of 120 film, maybe even a bit of darkroom kit and start enjoying yourself. For gawds sake, take no notice of the doomsters; they're talking out of their ar**s!!
Oh i'd love to but its not to be. We just don't have the facilities here,or the money for a darkroom, i'd have to rely on shop processors and my experience with B/W film was not good. Too long a turnaround and too expensive,then i found XP 2 and fell in love with B/W.
But now i have a digi i hardly use film,its lured of away,and thats why i partly believe those doomsters! Film is doomed,i don't see how it can possibly compete on anything other than an enthusiastic and thus expensive level. A real shame but well digi is now capable of delivering the results.
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An artist must have the freedom to express himself - Edward Weston
~Larry~
BSRIPN
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/numanoid27/
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Ephemeral
addict
Reged: 21/07/2007
Posts: 645
Loc: North East England
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Quote:
Quote:
Not sure I agree with you there. Film will be around as long as there are people who love using it. Ilford are commmitted players in the analogue market. If (heaven forbid) they go under, there will be some enterprising outfit that'll continue to make these products. I'd save your pennies, get yourself a decent MF outfit (Mamiya springs to mind!), get a stack of 120 film, maybe even a bit of darkroom kit and start enjoying yourself. For gawds sake, take no notice of the doomsters; they're talking out of their ar**s!!
Oh i'd love to but its not to be. We just don't have the facilities here,or the money for a darkroom, i'd have to rely on shop processors and my experience with B/W film was not good. Too long a turnaround and too expensive,then i found XP 2 and fell in love with B/W.
But now i have a digi i hardly use film,its lured of away,and thats why i partly believe those doomsters! Film is doomed,i don't see how it can possibly compete on anything other than an enthusiastic and thus expensive level. A real shame but well digi is now capable of delivering the results.
If you live in Co. Durham are you close to Darlington - if so the Darlington Media Group has developing and printing facilities. I returned to photography as a digital head, but since going to the workshop I have bought a (working  ) Kiev-88 MF camera and a pile of 120 film and will be using their facilities to work with it - so you don't even have to invest in your own darkroom facilities.
They are a friendly and knowledgeable bunch as well which helps
but film won't die, the market may get smaller but there is something about the chemicals and stuff that draws people to it
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The Ephemeral Moment - www.ephemeral.co.uk
Random Goldfish - www.randomgoldfish.com
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numanoid
I'm 'Special'...
Reged: 27/01/2002
Posts: 10329
Loc: Co.Durham
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Quote:
If you live in Co. Durham are you close to Darlington - if so the Darlington Media Group has developing and printing facilities. I returned to photography as a digital head, but since going to the workshop I have bought a (working ) Kiev-88 MF camera and a pile of 120 film and will be using their facilities to work with it - so you don't even have to invest in your own darkroom facilities.
They are a friendly and knowledgeable bunch as well which helps
but film won't die, the market may get smaller but there is something about the chemicals and stuff that draws people to it
Yea i do live in Darlington and used to go to the club meetings,but they were too stuffy,boring anti digital bunch.
I'd be interested in that group tho,but i just don't have the time at the mo and dare'nt suggest buying another camera,i'd get that look!
Besides money goes elsewhere and there's other stuff we need.
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An artist must have the freedom to express himself - Edward Weston
~Larry~
BSRIPN
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/numanoid27/
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downfader
Mr Judgemental
Reged: 24/03/2005
Posts: 5468
Loc: Hugo Strange's Lab
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..then have a play with a holga or make your own pinhole camera... you could even make a simple lens based box camera and stick 120 in it. Medium format isnt just about mamiyas and TLRs
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Downfader Gallery Trying to make a fortune at Alamy, or just trying 
One-Up-Manship
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numanoid
I'm 'Special'...
Reged: 27/01/2002
Posts: 10329
Loc: Co.Durham
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Funny,i actually made a pin hole camera at college using a piece of printing paper inside a 35mm film carton.
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An artist must have the freedom to express himself - Edward Weston
~Larry~
BSRIPN
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/numanoid27/
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photogeek
Professor Yaffle
Reged: 02/01/2007
Posts: 220
Loc: Londonish
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I wanted a cheap 6x6 Camera and found an old Zeiss Nettar for £10.00, it works just fine has a good lens and Peak Imageing do a great job of developing it and the turnaround time is about 3 days.
If you want to play with Medium format then have a go it is great fun.
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Be yourself you know its true and in the end whats left is you.....
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numanoid
I'm 'Special'...
Reged: 27/01/2002
Posts: 10329
Loc: Co.Durham
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Quote:
I wanted a cheap 6x6 Camera and found an old Zeiss Nettar for £10.00, it works just fine has a good lens and Peak Imageing do a great job of developing it and the turnaround time is about 3 days.
If you want to play with Medium format then have a go it is great fun.
Would that i could but its not to be. Besides I've got 4 films in the fridge from last year and beyond waiting to be developed. One has probably the last pic of my mom before she died which is probably why its taken so long to get them done. I know I'm gonna have a hard time when I see that pic!
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An artist must have the freedom to express himself - Edward Weston
~Larry~
BSRIPN
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/numanoid27/
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Rhys_Hardwick
enthusiast
Reged: 12/04/2007
Posts: 212
Loc: Cardiff, Wales, UK
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Quote:
Oh i'd love to but its not to be. We just don't have the facilities here,or the money for a darkroom, i'd have to rely on shop processors and my experience with B/W film was not good. Too long a turnaround and too expensive,then i found XP 2 and fell in love with B/W.
You really do not need much room to do MF processing. We live in a small 2-bed flat, but I do my own processing and scan the negs with a flat-bed scanner. I use our bathroom to load the film into a dev tank, as it is easily dark enough with the door shut, and then process the films in the kitchen.
It's not very expensive, and not very hard. I'm no natural, and all my films have come out well.
HTH
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Rhys Hardwick
www.rhyshardwick.co.uk
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taxor
Reged: 09/07/2004
Posts: 569
Loc: Lancaster, UK
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[quote Medium format isnt just about mamiyas and TLRs
Yes it is!!
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"I wanna hold your gland". Lemming & McCartney
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Zou
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 05/02/2007
Posts: 2105
Loc: Edinburgh
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You should see the cost of large format: ADOX CHS 25 11x14 50 sheets for £150. 
I'm pricing up 5x7 at the moment, which is more reasonable at about £35 for 50 sheets.
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Zou's Flickr Page
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LargeFormat
old hand
Reged: 24/10/2006
Posts: 1157
Loc: Buckinghamshire and Cumbria
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Tell me about it. I've recently found a box of 50 Ektachrome 5x4 about 15 years old and they weren't even in the fridge. So I guess they're waste.
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Mojo_66
Rain Kat
Reged: 25/05/2006
Posts: 3359
Loc: Lancs
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Jessies do process 120 film, though I've found Peak do a better job of it. Alternatively as already mentioned get a dev tank and dark bag and do it yourself. A Mamiya TLR can be had for around £100, or if you can't stretch to that there's always a Holga, or an old folder, some of them have excellent optics and can turn out good results if used carefully. For what it's worth, I think film will be around until we're all pushing up daisies.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/mojo_black/
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beejaybee
Marvin
Reged: 18/07/2007
Posts: 4856
Loc: Really Here In Name Only
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Quote:
You should see the cost of large format: ADOX CHS 25 11x14 50 sheets for £150.
I'm pricing up 5x7 at the moment, which is more reasonable at about £35 for 50 sheets.
But you don't have a motor drive to help you waste the stuff
MF is about patience and getting it right first time; LF I guess even more so.
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Benchmark
Is it safe?
Reged: 12/07/2005
Posts: 3008
Loc: Sedgefield, Co Durham
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I find that with MF I often come home having made only four or five exposures, but all will be properly exposed and sometimes even well composed. 
Seriously though, it is affordable. Old MF caneras can be picked up cheaply, and good colour negative film is available for less than £1.00 a roll from discounters like Mathers and Discount Films Direct. I usually buy short dated or (just) outdated film, and then store it in the freezer.
I usually process my own film using a changing bag and Patterson developing tank.
RGB at Middlesbro will dev C41 colour roll film for £3.00 a roll on the one hour service.
Film is most unlikely to die out within the next 25 years, so even if you can't stretch to MF now, its still worth setting your sights on for the future.
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Nigel CRIPN and Bar
Beware of the Dark Slide
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