All the advisor to buy your next “analog” camera

They say about fashions that “everything returns. ” Flared pants are back, polka dots are back, stripes or bright greens are back. They come and they go. Analog photography has disappeared for some. Many of us rush to get the best digital camera we can afford and forget about our analog cameras just around the corner. Many of you probably don’t know them. But the truth is that the analog system never went away ;-). Proof of this is that the coils have not disappeared (although at first it was taken for granted) and there is a large amount of exchange and sale of analog equipment both in store and online. Do you wonder why? Analog cameras are timeless little gems, some of them endowed with remarkable craftsmanship, precision and durability that has led many of them to continue to function flawlessly 50 years after their manufacture. . So we are not talking about planned obsolescence or camera changes every year. Each analog camera has millions of stories, millions of photographs and anecdotes behind it. Everyone is unique and different; have their own personality?

Contrary to what you might think, you can find good analogue material at low prices on the Internet (unthinkable a few years ago) or in specialty photography stores. digital model (with similar characteristics, of course).

  • Yes.
  • There is no LCD screen here to help you.
  • Guide you or anything to tell you if you took the photo or not.
  • So every time you pull the trigger you spend money (bearable.
  • Yes.
  • But it’s not a matter of throwing away without thinking beforehand).
  • So what do you have left?Think.
  • Pre-order the scene.
  • Find the best frame.
  • Wait for the right time.
  • Make sure you’ve measured the light correctly.
  • And tighten the shutter.
  • Does analog photography give you? The best lesson you can have as a photographer: think before you pull the trigger.

Many analogues, including the most classic and timeless, only have one manual mode, in this case you are face to face with photography, if you do not understand the basics, the images will not work for you. You really need to work to understand why openness, why speed or ISO, and how they interact with each other. It won’t cost you much, plus you don’t have a choice, so take advantage of this limitation?and do is your best ally to learn.

If you really like the analog world, participating in the whole process from start to finish is not too complicated or, in the long run, excessively expensive, especially in black and white, revealing the negatives yourself will not take more than half an hour. each of them, and the investment is relatively low, as long as you amortigues it to use. What if you culminated in the magic of positiveating your own images?If you’ve ever done it, you’ll know that if magic exists, it’s something like that; to wait and see how this image that has given you so much work appears, little by little and finally in front of you, in a dark room where everything is red, if you really want to try it you will surely find a place where you will be rented the space of the laboratory with its corresponding expanders, its chemicals and its initial formation.

There are pros and cons in this section for a variety of reasons, the main advantage is that fortunately they still exist and each of them is unique and different from the other, some contain saturated colors, some are cooler, some have more? or less grain, more or less contrast ?, each of them will offer you unique and different images. In addition, they allow good enlargements without losing quality, one of the things that it seems that today the digital system has not managed to overcome. Later I will talk about some of them with their main characteristics.

The romantics and romantics of the analog system always talk about film noise (graining) and digital noise. Where is the loser from a landslide always digital?To this day, has it not been possible to overcome?Beauty, the sound of the film, the silver halide. The noise or lack of it in analog photography is another element, just as each camera or movie is unique and different.

Freedom? You’ll think about it, but what if I’m connected to a reel, filters and lab?Am I more connected than ever? Certainly, but at the same time, analog photography gives you absolute freedom, because once you master it, won’t there be any photograph that resists you?They say practice makes perfect, so it’s a matter of trying again and again until you know and master the light.

This is for me the biggest and most rewarding benefit of analog photography. From the moment you find your perfect analog camera, until you use it and finally see the results? It’s like waiting for kings day. You’ve already collected a few or three reels (or one if you’re really impatient) and picked them up for development (if you haven’t decided to start making it yourself). Cross off the days on the calendar to pick them up, show up 10 minutes before the store opens, pay with a shaking hand, open the package, and pray they do well. If you haven’t ordered copies, you won’t see anything. But you look at the negatives with fervor, imagine the images they contain. If the spool is colored you only see brown plastic, if the spool is black and white, gray plastic? You come home with your CD, put it on the computer and YES, well, they’re there. So magical? So many days ago, you barely remembered them, but they are finally here. Some are so beautiful that you think it is incredible that you could make them yourself. others are a mess. More and better next time.

However, everything that shines is not gold, analog mode also has some drawbacks, otherwise no one would have left their analog cameras in a corner for the memory to replace them with a digital one.

Unlike digital photography, in this case ISO (or ASA) is defined by what dictates the movie you have chosen, this means that you will have the same invariant ISO for all situations that are presented, you have a variable less to play with, so you should try to compensate with openings and speeds.

Whatever you want right now in particular, is the reel you have, no matter if that image was better in color or in black and white, what you’ve chosen can’t be changed, unless you’ve used a risky trick like taking out the movie, remembering what image it was in, changing it to the new one, saving the other , put it back in place?Unless your life is in this image, it’s at least a risky option.

What we have incorporated into digital with the name of white balance, analog, you achieve it through physical filters of different colors, depending on the color temperature you want to compensate.

Compared to digital photography, it is true that analog photography allows you to load and save much more material (coils, negatives, copies, contacts or CDs)

The price of the coils can vary a little more than 3 euros up to 30 euros the most specialized (and even much more), although the quality standards are around 6 s -10 euros. You can easily find them in specialized photography stores or online.

The price disparity between places is quite high, even many labs differentiate the price to charge depending on whether the coil is colored or black and white.

From the moment you finish your reel, until you find the best time to go to the lab, do you wait for the days that have been announced to you and find time to pick it up?Yes, let’s just say it’s not as fast as the digital system!

In analogue, not only do you depend on your camera but you depend on the movies, to buy them, to carry enough, so that you don’t run out in the middle of anyone knows where, to carry the right filter. , your research, your prices and your good work (provided you don’t decide to do it yourself).

Maybe now I’ll be a little curious if I didn’t have it before. To find a cheap analog camera, start with the obvious; among your acquaintances.

Compare, search for information in different forums, on different sales pages on the Internet, compare, search for reference prices . . . Etc.

There are millions of analog cameras that go through the ethereal Internet system, don’t be in a hurry, focus on one of them and set a reasonable maximum price for which you are willing to get it. What, be patient, with patience sure you can find it and at a much better price and once you have it in your hands?

If all of the above works correctly, just try it with a reel. If you focus correctly, the film moves smoothly and the images have no defects (associated with the camera, of course not with the fact that you learn how to handle it). Do you have your perfect analog camera?

There are real monographs on reels, real fans of some brands or others, why it’s simple. Each brand, every model, every sensibility offers a unique and different image from other brands, models and sensitivities, here are some of the most popular brands that are still manufactured and are relatively easy to find:

Basically, when we talk about analog cameras, we can divide them into 35 mm cameras, medium format and large format, depends on the film for which they are designed The large format is, and was, very specialized and intended to perform large extensions or architecture. Don’t you want to create a museum at home (the cameras are huge, they have bellows, they need a tripod?) I recommend you start with the 35mm and then maybe the medium format.

It can inform you about the rangefinders, triangulations, distance or different windows of the viewfinder, but I prefer to try to explain it in a simpler way, the rangefinders do not have mirrors as reflections, so the image is printed directly on the coil. This increases sharpness and reduces the jitter associated with this movement. But it also does what you see through its viewer, not exactly (albeit very close) what the target sees (called a paralage error). Your focus system relies on your own system to measure distance through what is called a rangefinder?and that, in practical terms, consists of combining the actual image with that provided by the rangefinder and other mechanisms, this is done by focusing the lens (turning the focus wheel). match, means the subject is clear. To help you, it has windows in the viewer, which delimit the area to be included in the image according to the focal length used.

Don’t be afraid, the theory is terrible, but in practice it is very easy to use and also has one of the most precise and easy-to-use approaches (manual), its sights are clear and large, it is small and robust, quiet, discreet?a marvel? Not to mention the designs. Some of them are real timeless works of art.

You know them pretty well, because in general, the idea is the same in digital and analog. Unlike telemetry, SLRs have a system of prisms and mirrors that allow us to see exactly what our target sees through the viewfinder. Most have interchangeable lenses and different focal lengths, on the other hand, they weigh more and are louder (due to the noise produced by the mirror).

Is it an SLR camera with two? (Double Lens Reflection) . The top lens gives the image to the viewfinder, while the lower lens captures the image and lets it pass over the film. The image forms on the glass at the top of the camera, so it is usually taken from the waist down and looking down. Its advantages over SLR (Single Lens Reflex) are that the shutter does not affect the viewfinder, that is, you always look freely through the upper lens. This makes it useful for a long time. exposures or moving objects. They are very precise to the point, very sharp and very quiet. They are also bulky and heavy, and having two objectives, the price multiplies over focal lengths. They usually work with medium-sized coils, although some models have been adapted to work with both 35 mm and 1200 (medium format).

They were the first to provide us with paper photographs and were highly appreciated until the advent of digital photography. The same camera, as well as the paper that acts as a coil, served as a portable and automatic laboratory, giving us a snapshot Polaroid stopped manufacturing its coils until?The Impossible Project?decided to take care of one of its plants and start distributing them again.

If you have a can and a needle to make a hole, you already have a camera ;-), because the holes are basically that: a waterproof box, a hole for the target through which the light will pass and a photosensitive material inside where the negative of the image will be recorded. Of course, to reveal it, you’ll need a lab or get the chemicals you need to do it yourself. If you are interested in how to do this, you will find a lot of information on the network. . It’s at least funny, don’t you think?

You want a spy camera? The Minox were used during World War II, as a perfect camera and easy to handle but miniature in size. A lot of models have been made, have you probably seen any in spy movies?

It’s a type of camera called stereoscopic. Use a 35mm roll of film to provide 3D images. The viewfinder is in the middle of the two lenses and, through them, the camera creates two slightly different images that, when assembled, give the illusion of a three-dimensional image.

Although there are many more, I leave you a selection of 10 so you can take a look, if you feel like it, with its approximate prices on ebay.

There are many small magical details that you won’t understand until you have an analog camera in your hands, when you wonder where this camera used to be, what places visited it, what it photographed, what hands held it, what winds, sands or seas it crossed. The seconds before you pull the trigger, the sound of its mechanics, the effort you put into creating each image, the noise and feel you feel as you advance a movie. All this is mostly fashion, it is passion in its purest form, it is above the limits to give 100%. So if you have an analog camera nearby, take it out of its corner, put a movie on it, take it out and let it go. Are you looking desperately for the LCD screen the first few times?but soon you’ll get used to thinking without more technology than your look.

I hope you liked it and it was useful to you, but above all I hope you are already looking online for the nearest store where you can buy film to unleash your passion for photography, if so please share it with those you think may be interested or interested in. Greetings and thanks!

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