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RE: Film photography can be so frustrating!!
Your memory about 'taking' an exposure is correct; if you pick your metering from the dark spots of the picture your exposure will always be slightly over, and thus on the safe side.Just keep the shutter pressed slightly for the camera to keep the exposure.
For focussing I'd train my eye and ignore those indicators. Maybe you have a dark lens, which makees focussing quite hard; what's the numbers of your lens?
The first three shots show one of the specialities of film photography: The transition from focus to out-of-focus still is the most beautiful!
Yes that's the trick I was thinking of and I think my Pentax has a feature that saves the exposure level chosen for the next shot.
Ok, I'll list the lense I use for both my Pentax and Olympus. I'll leave out my Tamron zoom lens as I think this has foggy lenses and I'm going to replace it.
Pentax lenses I have are as follows;
35 - 70mm 1 : 3.5 - 4.5 (SMC Pentax -f zoom)
SMC Pentax-A 1 : 1.7 50mm
Lenses for my Olympus -
Olympus OM-system Zuiko Auto-s 50mm 1 : 1.8
Olympus OM system S Zuiko Auto-zoom 35-70mm1 : 4
As well as these I'm looking to buy an adaptor for my Pentax to allow me to use M42 thread lenses. This is because I have a MC Pancolar 1.8/50 Carl Zeiss Jena DDR. I've been told it is a decent lens and wanted to use it eventually. I could just sell it and buy a pentax lens with the money I raise from it.
While I've got your ear I'd like to ask about a zoom lens I have my eye on...
SIGMA 75-300mm f/4-5.6 PENTAX K AF Mount Camera Lens In Case
It's for sale on Ebay for a starting bid of £10. I'm not sure what it's worth but here is the spec, hopefully you can tell me if it's worth bidding on.
Thanks for any advice you can give :)
I would stick to the SMC 50mm/1.8 you have; upgrading to the Carl Zeiss won't make much sense, the differences are tiny.
I would avoid Zoom lenses whenever you can; they are usually quite dark and are a bad compromise.
In straight photography there is a strong idea of using 1 lens only; while I'm not the one for dogmas, I think it is a good approach.
Instead of zooming you change your position (which you should do a lot anyways!); this goes well with the slow approach of filmphotography.
50mm is a bit of a boring focal length to some; as an alternativ you could look at a cheap 35mm....
I wouldn't start spending 'serious' money on a slightly better lens, for now...
One more thing:
When taking a picture, try very hard to imagine how it will look as a finished print or on monitor. Once you have the image ready, try to remember how you imagined it, and what came out differently. If you make a habit out of this, and stretch your imagination, you will learn faster which picture is worth taking, and which not.
Thank you very much for this advice and I'll make sure to put it to good use. The idea of just using one lens seems a little rigid to me but I do see why, that way I get to really understand the lens I'm using and how it works with my camera.
I'll keep my eye out for a 35mm lens as maybe I will prefer that look, who knows. I guess you have to try these things out when you begin and then decide on a weapon to master :)
Thanks again @captainklaus!
i second to the 35mm lens...getting things on focus will be much easier...i think it will help a lot to get the exposure right if you forget the camera's meter and read the light yourself...but in the end of the day the best tip is 1 camera 1 lens...
Thanks and I'm currently trawling through ebay for a 35mm lens :) I guess I'll put the 50mm on my Olympus and the 35mm on my Pentax. In the meantime I think I'll buy a roll of film and try taking the shots without using any of the meters.
watch this video
:-)
Hey, thanks a bunch! I'm going to have my dinner and then give this a view. Much appreciated :)
Well, that's me well and truly down the photography rabbit hole...Thanks so much for pointing me in this guys direction, he describes things in a very unique and simple way.