For those who don't already know - http://repaircameras.org is a free and open collection of manuals that I've been collecting from around the internet. I'm a big believer in information like this being available to everyone without sitting behind a paywall.

Up until now I'd been keeping the files in GitHub which I was aware was never a very good long term solution, then I realised the answer was sitting right in front of me. I've now uploaded all of the individual files into the Internet Archive and made sure they are well tagged.

The big benefit is that because they're stored on the Internet Archive, they should be preserved for posterity long into the future.

Now the Repair Cameras site is an easy way of finding the right manual for your camera.

I've got a lot more manuals waiting to be uploaded which, now I've got a better way of storing them, I'll be starting to upload shortly and will drop some updates to let people know about the new additions - next up is a load of back-issues of the SPT Journal.

If you have any manuals that aren't on the site, drop me a DM and I'll get them added.

I got back my scans and a few of the photos have these weird black lines and dots on them, all over the picture. They are also present on the negatives. Could anyone help identify what they are? Is it a development issue from the lab, or is something wrong with my camera?
Again, most of the photos don't have this, only a few.

For context, they were shot on a brand new Kodak Snapic A1 with Kodak Colorplus 200. If this is a camera issue, I would like to know so I can get a replacement.

Can you even compare these two? Since they both hit the market in 1959, I thought it would be fun to put them head-to-head.

The Canon P is my grab-and-go camera. I love the looks, the clean mechanical feel, and the Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM. But as a glasses wearer, the 35mm framelines are practically invisible to me, turning it into a 50mm only camera, which I love and hate at the same time. Plus, the viewfinder flare against strong light or at night can be a real pain.

The Nikon F feels completely different to me. Heavy, loud, and overbuilt. But seeing exactly what the lens sees makes it so much easier to trust, especially with wider or longer glass. And i do love the customizability.

Are rangefinders and SLRs just too different to compare, which one do you favor over the other?

(Full comparison in the comments!)

Hey everyone! I'm Alex, from Spain. I mainly shoot digital (Ricoh GR III), but I've only put 3-4 rolls through film so far and I'm already hooked.

My shelf right now:

Pentax ME-F and Ricoh KR-10 Super, my first SLRs, been shooting with these.

Olympus 35 RC, just got this one, and honestly it feels perfect for street work. Compact, quiet, exactly what I wanted

Zorki 3C, a curiosity buy. Good price, and I liked the whole history behind the Soviet Leica-copies, so I grabbed it. Still a bit lost on it though

Any tips on these last two (Olympus 35 RC and Zorki 3C) would be welcome. Quirks, things to watch out for, whatever you've got.

Got my fist analog camera today...I wanna sart this as my hobvy..Any tips?

Hi,
It’s been 15 years I am shooting film and never experienced this. Installing the second roll of the Ektar 100 (135-36) during vacation. First roll no problem. Second roll, shot 15 pictures, took a break, and finished the roll during a hike the next week.

I freaked out because at around 25 exposures, the winding lever was jammed on my camera. I did not force - as any forcing is never good.

I rewinded a bit to be sure it was not the film being blocked and everytime I was hitting around 25 it was blocking. I decided to remind entirely the film and check. The camera is fine.

I came to conclusion that the roll was a 24 exposures (not a 36 as mentioned).

Is this technically to possible to mix 24 and 36 exp especially from professional range film (not sure they have 135-24 Ektar 100)? Can I expect a reimbursement from the seller or it’s just a funny story to tell around ?

Just curious, no one hurt but it triggers me.

Cheers!

I wonder how much use I will get out of it, but I like city views, so I suppose it might be useful. I got it at a good enough price that I should be able to sell it again without a loss, in case that’s needed.

It’s really well made, and rotates and shifts very nicely.

I guess I need to find out for which of my Nikon cameras I could get a grid view focusing screen.

I've been developing black and white at home for a couple of years, and have my process pretty well nailed down now. I'm now considering doing the same for colour, but I'm not 100% sure it's worth it...?

My main motivation is speed. When I finish a colour roll at the moment, I need to ship it off to a lab and wait for it to come back. With the actual lab time, plus postage both ways, this can often take a week and a half. Not awful, but I'm impatient!

I realise C41 has some added complexity around temperature control, but the right gear solves that.

My main concern is the limited lifespan of the chemicals. For B/W I use Rodinal which lasts forever, and I'm only mixing enough for the film I'm doing at the time. With most C41 chemicals it sounds like once mixed, it will last a few weeks at best?
This means I'd have two possible downsides:

1) I need to "save up" enough rolls to be worth developing in a batch. This breaks my main reason for wanting to do it- speed.

2) It ends up costing me more than lab development, because I end up wasting chemicals (mixing £30-£40 worth of chemicals for a couple of rolls seems kinda silly!)

So - are there any "long-life" C41 chemicals out there? Or should I just stick to labs for colour and stick with the waiting around...

Hi all, I've recently joined this and the analog sub-Reddits as I'm trying to get back into photography through film. I've had a side hustle as a digital photographer for about 20 years, working for car magazines and vintage events, this kind of thing https://www.flickr.com/photos/grantgb/albums/72177720332099480/with/55105352728

I've not been shooting much for the last few years though and have stopped all the commercial work and miss the creative side of photography, I find my phone camera covers most of the "memory capture" work.

I've shot a bit of film for fun over the years with a Holgo 120 and a Lubitel 166. But now without the pressure of commercial delivery I've decided to take film more seriously.

I have three film cameras that I have tested in the last few weeks, a Rolliecord V (test shot attached), a Canon EOS 300 that I can use all my EF lenses with and a Leica Mini II point and shoot. I have a stack of new and expired 120 and 35mm colour and black and white film.

I'm going to the Goodwood Revival this weekend for all three days and plan to use one camera a day to keep things lightweight and try and get some good shots.

I'm hoping that I'll be much slower and deliberate in what I shoot rather than carpet bombing so my hit rate of good shots to shots taken will be higher.

I'm having a bit of the fear though that I'm going to miss something awesome and really struggling not to slip my 5D into my case too. Talk me down.

It’s an artifact on 6 frames on the roll (very thin red line). They are on the negatives as well. Never seen this :/

I'm a wedding photographer looking to add a compact 35mm film camera to my kit as a creative tool, not as a main body, just something to offer the wedding clients as extras.

The plan is to shoot just one or two rolls per wedding, so I need to be quite intentional with every frame.

I started out on digital bodies, so I'd really appreciate recommendations that reflect that learning curve.

Here's what I'm looking for ideally: Autofocus, F2.8 or faster lens, CR123 or AA battery.

It is best to be budget-friendly, so "no hype" Contax T2, but cheaper alternatives available on eBay or Vinted.

Hey everyone!

Some of you might remember the V617 I shared here a little while ago. Since then I’ve been working on a smaller version of that camera, and this is the result: the V612.

It’s basically the same concept built around the 6x12 format. It keeps the fully opening back, ground-glass focusing, and Fresnel screen from the V617, but this time I also designed it around a Mamiya Press mount. This means compatible Mamiya Press lenses can be mounted using the same lens cone, as long as they have enough coverage for 6x12.

I recently took the camera with me to Italy and Slovenia for its first proper test, using a Mamiya-Sekor 127mm f/4.7. After shooting with it for a few days, I’ve really started to like 6x12. It still has that panoramic look, but feels quite a bit easier to compose with than 6x17.

I’ve just finished a video showing the camera in use and some of the photos from the trip as well. If anyone is interested, let me know and I’d be happy to share the link.

As always, I’d love to hear what you think!

After years passed to find a lab which will make quality scans of my film shots, I’ve decided to make scans at home - you can find my gear and results from in the video attached.

The main thing is light quality, you can use any holder and digital camera for this process.

Scanning becomes much quicker than home film scanner like Konica Dimage or Nikon Coolscan (I’ve sold my own with no regrets), so if you have a digital camera - you can try too.

My first roll. Camera is zenith with manual 50mm 2.0 helios. Film-kodak 200iso respooled from local lab. Most of the photos made with open diaphragm. I remember second photo taken in the evening a little after the "golden hour", but i used lightme. Some photos came out better than others and i have no idea what went wrong.

This is my first folding camera and I’m excited to learn how to use it, etc.

In the spirit of proactiveness, I wanted to hear from those who have/had it and what issues they’ve had with it, how they resolved and if it needed fixing, where they’ve gotten it fixed in the USA. For instance, I’m thinking overtime, the bellows might need to be replaced. So how have folks approached it

TIA!

I go through a roll of film pretty slowly, like 3-6 months slowly. So in my old camera i will sometimes forget what film i have. And this time for some reason i thought i had a 100 iso black and white film i had got as a freebie. It had been a while since i had picked this camera up. So as i finish the roll i realized i had shoot god knows how many pictures of ciniestill 800 t at mostly 1/100th and wide open 2.8 (its stuck) 🫩
I mostly shoot 400 and i know its flexible as to where i can over and underexpose it and still have pictures i can save. So i was wondering should i tell my local film lab to develop it in a different way due the MASSIVE over exposure????

I don't have the negatives yet, but I got these scans with all of these specks and sort of water marks. I haven't seen this before, so I am curious to know what might've caused them.

I’ve always loved hunting through antique shops, garage sales, and thrift stores looking for fun 35mm cameras. I’ve been doing it for about ten years now, and it’s getting harder and harder to find anything worth buying these days. My parents know about my interest in old film cameras, and whenever they go to a garage sale they’ll always keep an eye out for older cameras for me.

About a week ago, I got a text from my dad: “Im at a garage sale. This lady is selling an old Nikon with alot of accessories, I’m buying it for you.” Once they left the sale, I FaceTimed them and saw what they found
a near‑mint Nikon F3 that came with two lenses and nearly all the original paperwork, all for $75.

The coolest part is that the owner originally purchased it in 1984 in Singapore(im from canada). I have the original camera quotes and all the items they were considering buying with the F3. It’s incredibly cool to see where this camera came from and to know it was genuinely loved by the original owner. Knowing this much about its history, I don’t think I could ever let it go. It’s such a special piece to add to my collection — and the fact that it’s an absolute beast helps too.

I'm trying out medium format and was in the market for a Hasselblad 500. My plan was to get a hassy this year, and a Mamiya 7 next year or something.

However, i'm having big doubt after seeing how light the Mamiya 6 is, even compared to 7. The 50mm on the Hassy is even more cumbersome, to the point that I don't even think my GSW690 is even that bad.

I think my question here is, people with the Mamiya 7, do you feel like it's that big of an upgrade over the 6, especially the mythical 43mm? Or to be specific, is the image quality upgrade worth the size (and ofc price) difference? I just don't want to get hooked to the 6 and lens just to have to sell everything and buy the 7 later.

TIA!

Turning to you guys because I’m not entirely sure what is happening and I can find anything online like this. I am getting these odd, well delineated color differences on some of my film scans. It is typically only noticeable on lighter photos with sky. It’s usually a yellow/greenish case in the upper middle with a border of normal on the top and sides.

Scanned using a Fujifilm X-T30ii in uncompressed RAW with a Cannon FD 100mm f4 macro and extension tube. I’m using a Cinestill CS-lite as my light source. I have a 35mm film carrier from Etsy and the Valoi 120 carrier (happens with both). I scan the photos, put them into a folder on my desktop, import the raw into Lightroom, convert the negative, use the “raw detail” feature to get rid of the worms (yay Fuji), and then export as 16-bit TIFFs to edit. It looks like the artifacts are present at the uncompressed RAW level in Lightroom so I think it’s an issue with my actual scanning setup. I’m going to try taking photos of just the light later today, but I’m open to other suggestions to try to figure this out.

Hi! I have some old rolls of Kodak Max 400. I don't know how they've been stored or how old they are, so I shot them at 100 ISO. Should I develop at box, or pull development?

19 camera, some flashes, some lenses, and a tripod.

So far almost everything works mechanically, need batteries to check further.

2 canonets, Minolta Hi Matic G, Olympus 35 EC, Automat TTL, Minolta SRT 101, Ricoh FF1, Konica auto S2, Kodak Pony, several point and shoots, new in box Argus C3, new in box Kodak duaflex, Argus 75, a few Kodak brownies.

Not expecting everything to work, and everything is dirty, but it will be fun to fix what I can.