I’m not a huge Soviet camera fan, but it was reasonably priced ($45) and it works—shutter speeds seem pretty close. This is a rebadged zenit EM with a Helios 44M lens.

Hi everyone, I recently dug out my camera and found out it works. However, it keeps saying i've taken more pictures than i have. i think it's because the bit that closes the batteries in is knackered and i'm having to tape it shut. when the batteries fall out, after putting them back in the amount of film left goes up by 1. but it sometimes goes up when its just in my bag and the battery is still shut.
google says it just needs a battery replace. it's not a massive deal because it only wastes about 4 shots, but it's still frustrating. any ideas?

thanks !

So I got what is, in my opinion, a pretty sweet deal on 53 rolls of expired film in 35mm and 120mm, and even 110 formats on Facebook marketplace - I paid $60 on this whole lot. I made a rough list of all the rolls I got (second picture) and was surprised to find some Provia and Velvia in there.

They are all in varying degrees of expiration. I believe some of them have been expired since 2013/2014, while some, like the Cinestill 800t, expired in 2025. The seller said they were stored in a cool dry place, but not refrigerated.

I’d love to know a few rules of thumb for shooting these. I already know to underexpose one stop for each decade they’ve been expired and that I shouldn’t do that for slide film, and to just shoot it at box speed. Just wondering if there’s anything else I should know. Thanks!

EDIT: Sorry I meant i shouldn’t OVER expose, not under, when shooting expired film.

Hello,

I have Bessa R4M in need of repair. The camera was dropped and now the focusing screen is shifted sligthly up or down, so getting something into a perfect focus is quite difficult (you can clearly see it in the pictures). Otherwise the camera is fine and everything else works.

Does anybody know about a service/shop, where they'd be able to help me and repair this camera? I've already contacted few big companies in my area, but they weren't able to help me, even the official Voigtländer distributor (https://www.voigtlaender.de/)

I'm based in Czechia, but contacts to shops anywhere would be appreciated.

I have been using a Kodak snapic (reusable disposable) and had 2 rolls come out so beautiful. My third roll I just got back and every single picture (40 pics) came out ruined. All of them came out either with no clear image or with huge white banding streaks across them. Local film store that developed them has no idea what the problem is.
Other photos sometimes have a clear image with HUGE white streaks across them (didn’t post due to people’s faces in them). I’m extremely sad i’ve never had a problem and i had about 20 pictures from a birthday party I shot for them, all ruined. Idk what to do.

hello! a dear friend of mine recently had a baby, and shot one roll of C-41 film directly afterward — this roll contains the first photos of their newborn in the hospital and at their house afterward. At some point, some baby formula was spilled on their point and shoot, and my friend didn't know what to do so he gave it to me.

First Problem: the camera still turns on, but I couldn't shoot any more photos or rewind the film.

Second Problem: I opened up the back of the camera in the dark, and attempted to roll back the film manually, but still couldn't because i could feel that the baby formula had crusted over the film.

Third Problem: Since I can't rewind the film, I can't take the film out of the camera without exposing it. I assume i need to find a light proof way to transport this roll of film. I have a two reel developing tank for my BW processing, so I'm thinking i can go back in the dark, take the film out, roll it up around itself and keep it in the dev tank. But I'm not sure what a lab would do with this.

Fourth Problem: I closed the camera back up and I took it to my film lab in western MA (i'm now in NYC/Brooklyn), told them the story but they didn't want to take it because 1.) they didn't want to risk messing up this important roll, and 2.) they didn't want to risk messing up their chemistry.

So now I'm still trying to figure out how to salvage this important roll. I don't want to mess up a lab's chemistry, so I'm thinking if i can clean the film in a water wash in my dev tank, maybe that would fix the problem of lab contamination? I'd then keep the roll in water, take it to another lab, but would they be able to use that?

I've told my friend I might not be able to salvage the roll, so it's okay if there's no solution, but I'm not giving up just yet. Any advice is appreciated!!

I'm now in Brooklyn, so if anyone has any recommendations of labs for this, let me know!

I've got a zorki 4 that almost every roll i put through it has this problem - i had one that didn't. I've looked and fixed a few light leaks, and tested the shutter by using a digital camera, but still get this on around half my shots. The shape and location of the light bars are the same every time.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I got an RB67 recently and I tested it out and whatnot. Worked great mechanically.

I went out to try & take photos today and the shutter kinda fired kinda didn’t? It sounded like a weird half click. The mirror clearly moved a bit but then I couldn’t cock it. After some trying to figure it out, here’s what I can say:

Darkslide definitely removed
Won’t fire or cock even with everything removed
Lens shutter/cock is fine
Shutter lock isnt on
It might’ve shot on M but it doesn’t do anything switching to N

I’m hoping it’s a self-fixable issue. Thanks.

Greetings all. I just purchased a Zeiss Ikonta Super Ikonta 530/2 Tessar 105mm f 4.5. I am wanted to purchase an orange and red filter. What size please? It’s not threaded. Thank you.

My F6 arrived in California last Wednesday for some work, and made it back to me today. I think it shipped last Friday- only one full day at the facility is really good by my standards.

I got a CLA and clock battery change, and I got the LCD unit replaced due to some minor LCD burn. Not something I couldn’t live with, but if these are coming to the end of their service availability , I might as well. Total cost was around $300 plus taxes and shipping back to me.

I figured I should post here in case anyone else was considering sending theirs off for some work.

I am trying to bring film on this backpacking trip that will have a significantly different effect than just my phone camera. I am considering kono moonstruck. Any thoughts?

my light meter on my camera (pentax sp-1000) is faulty, and is not working so ive had to manually meter my photos.

problem is i dont know why they are coming out overexposed. im running them at box speed (i did run some expired fuji c200 that expired in 2015, but i ran that at 100 iso instead of 200 and ran into the same problem) and most of my shots are between 4-16 on the fstop

my shutter speed has been 1/60 of a second for most photos, although the ones around 1/225 seem to have the least amount of overexposure. anything above 1/500 and the shutter is too quick and i miss half the frame

all of these photos are on a roll of harman phoenix II 200, at box speed. shutter speed was 1/60-1/125 on these. fstop for these were between 8 and 16. the photos of 22-30, and the mt washington skyline during the smoke pollution last thursday were on the 16 with the fstop. the photo of mt washington by the parking lot (across the street from the phantom menace vending machine) was taken with the fstop at 11.

all of these photos were taken between 2 and 3:45 in the afternoon on a sunny, but heavy polluted day. (wanted to take film photos of the wildfire smoke pollution)

conversely heres a photo taken with my phone on the same day and same area right after i finished shooting my roll of phoenix II

I wanted to write a follow-up to my post last week about whether it was worth moving from my Epson V550 to a mirrorless camera scanning setup. My main issue (and one many others seem to have) is that flatbed scans are inherently soft, so I wanted to determine whether there would be a significant jump in quality if I made the switch.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogCommunity/s/EvzH3sDa7H

While I’d love to be able to invest in a dedicated camera scanning setup right now, I already have a V550 on hand, so I decided to dig a little deeper first. I came across this video by the GOAT, Kyle McDougall, where he explains his workflow for sharpening 35mm scans:

https://youtu.be/dYcQX5cGaIs?si=nY1pnKHMiBRGPa8E

That led me down a rabbit hole of studying the TK9 Web Sharpener action, testing different sharpening methods, and building an action specifically around Epson flatbed scans.

The goal wasn’t to create fake detail, it was to maximize the detail that was already present in the scan while keeping the grain looking natural.

After running a number of comparisons, I think I ended up with a workflow that:

• Produces noticeably crisper scans without obvious halos
• Makes grain appear more defined instead of muddy
• Preserves the film look instead of creating an over-sharpened digital image
• Holds up well after resizing for the web

I’m not claiming this replaces camera scanning. A good mirrorless setup will still resolve more information than a V550.

But if you’re still scanning on an Epson flatbed, I think there’s more performance hiding in these scanners than most people realize.

I’ve attached some before-and-after crops and would love to hear what everyone thinks. If there’s enough interest, I’d also be happy to put together a breakdown of the workflow.

TLDR: Instead of buying a camera scanning setup, I spent a few days optimizing my Epson V550 sharpening workflow. The improvement was bigger than I expected, so I figured I’d share it in case it helps other flatbed users.

EDIT: For anyone interested, you can download the actions here. Feel free to post your results if you like them!

https://we.tl/t-DS4ZVXx3ZO3GAJMF

So iam confused. I developed some cinema fompan 100 with adox scala to get a positive (they claim even with normal film you can get a positive but not so good as with scala film) And somehow i got negatives wich dont even make sense because you open the contaier during the process to re expose the film, if the bleach failed i should have a black stripe but i didnt...iam so confused

Hey guys! Hope everyone’s doing amazinggg
I recently got a Pentax ME and I’m just getting into film photography. I shot my first roll of Kodak Gold (as a test) but most of the photos came out a lot darker and dead than I expected
I’m looking for a setup that’s easy to use while travelling since I’ll mostly be taking photos of buildings, streets, and places. I know every scene is different, but I’m just trying to find something that works most of the time.
Most of my shots were taken with the exposure compensation dial on either 1 or 1/1.25 and they seem to end up either too dark or too bright. They also don’t have the bright, colourful look I was expecting from Kodak Gold.
Would it make more sense to set the ASA to 400 and shoot at around f/11–f/22? Or am I thinking about this the wrong way?
Sorry if it’s a basic question, I’m still learning. I’m just trying to work out if the camera might have an issue, or if it’s just me getting used to film

I'm looking for a cheap TLR 120 (under a 100/150€). Which one do you recommend between those three?

1. Meopta Flexaret
2. Yashicaflex
3. Ricohflex
4. Semflex

I’m not familiar with these models, but they are the ones that come up most often within my budget. However, my prefered characteristic would be a built-in light meter. If you have any other recommendation, I'll be glad to hear it.

Thanks!

I own a Canon AV-1 and never had any problems with it. This time I had Cinestill 800T in as it's my favorite film stock and I took my time with it. I just got the roll back, or the first 17 photos to be precise. I will attach the last photo the lab sent. The camera never malfunctioned that I noticed, and I rewound the film as normal. I truly didn't expect this and I'm a little bit devastated. Since the lab wasn't very helpful, I was really hoping some of you could offer some advice or insight because I really don't want to risk ruining more film. I already replaced the battery even though I'm pretty sure the last one was just fine. Could this have happened due to X-ray scanner damage?

Thanks everyone!

Hi , where can I see any results for this camera ? It’s insanely cheap and I know the results are not good but I want to see it
I tried searching up the name one shot but it only gives me the ( one shot ) results

I recently acquired this Petri Racer 35 mm rangefinder camera and case. The rangefinder is spot on accurate and all the shutter speeds B- 1/500 sec. work well. I will test the meter later once I get batteries but one problem exists. It is clean, good glass and the aperture works properly.

A major bummer, the camera in its case was in my bedroom closet and fell off the shelf denting the filter ring. I know it will still function fine ( minus any filters) but I heard of camera vises that can fix filter rings.

Does anyone have experience with one of those?
Do they actually work?

The purchase of $25-35 would be fine if it does work as I have had cameras in the past that I sold over the years that had dented filter rings so I would certainly use it again and not just for this camera which is relatively inexpensive anyway.

Do you guys prefer to take your nicest camera with you traveling or one you dont mind about getting ruined if something were to happen? I’m traveling abroad in a few weeks, I’m considering taking one of my tiny beginner cameras with me instead of my nice Minolta. The tiny camera is lower quality but way easier to travel with and takes okay enough pics; but my minolta is what gives me so much inspiration, its so much fun to shoot with but its so heavy and I would be beside myself if anything happened to it on this trip. Just want to hear other’s opinions. Thanks! (:

Curious about these numbers on the back door of two original Canonets from 1961.

My first thought was a date but 2001?

Their serial numbers are also very close to eachother, which was amusing since I bought them from two different people from two different countries with like 5 months between purchases.

What do these numbers mean?