I have to start this article with a confession… I had never planned for film photography to be a part of my life. I was never interested in film and wanted a digital camera so I could take as many shots as I wanted, while also being able to instantly judge what I was doing. […]
Category: My First Roll…
Everyone had a first roll of film, sheet or even plate. If you’re looking for people’s experiences their first time out, you’ve found it.
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My first roll… Well, plate: 4×5 format J. Lane Speed Dry Plate, El 25, Graflex Speed Graphic + Graflex Optar 135mm f/4.7
I’ve always loved vintage camera equipment. The engineering and care that went into the creation of old cameras have always fascinated me. The science and chemistry of film development have also intrigued me. Who doesn’t want total control of their image from start to finish? So, with all of that in mind, and some free […]
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My First Roll… Kodak Gold 200 in a Pentax ME Super and SMC Pentax-M SMC 50mm f/1.7
I got into photography sometime around the beginning of the pandemic, I still don’t know what it was that made me stick with Pentax as my go-to brand but I saw a used Pentax ME Super being sold and I quite liked the profile and control layout but I was also going in blind. With […]
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My first roll… Of film: ILFORD HP5 PLUS (Nikon FM10 + Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8)
When I set out to explore the world of film photography I was immediately infatuated with the process. The mechanical clicks as the film advanced in the camera.
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My first roll… Western Poland on Fuji Fujicolor C200 in a $20 Fed-5B + Industar 61-L/D 55mm f/2.8
My first roll really was a first roll. I’m an amateur photographer now but at the time I had no previous experience with photography in either digital OR film. It all started from a Reddit Christmas gift exchange I signed up for in 2014. It entailed pairing random strangers from across the globe with each […]
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My first roll… Of 35mm film: Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 in a Pentax K1000
I shot my first roll of35mm film using a Pentax K1000 I bought on the same day I returned a faulty Yashica Mat 124-G — my first camera ever — but that’s a story for another article about my first 120 film roll. I’m glad I made that decision! The Pentax K1000 taught me a […]
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My first roll of film… Buenos Aires on Fuji Color 200 (Meikai EL)
I used to live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This huge city has a crazy nightlife and a young vibrant community of self-made, self-taught ‘anything’. In spite of the economical constraints and political clashes, people try hard to find not just profit, but also purpose. Art as all art, photography provides a sense of relief, exploration […]
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My first roll… Kodak Gold 200 in an Olympus OM20 (35mm format, EI 200, Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.4)
After around 12 years of digital photography, I stumbled across film. I found myself coming away from the high contrast triggering photos everyone seems to be creating on digital these days (including myself). I had moved from DSLRs to micro four thirds and still found myself striving for something more creative and challenging. For that, […]
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My First Roll… Of ILFORD Delta 3200 Professional, 35mm, EI 3200 with a Canon Elan II + Canon 50mm f/1.8
My first roll of film was an exciting one. I had an old 1990s Canon film camera, the Elan II, for years and I had done absolutely nothing with it. I found myself bored with digital photography. It had become uninspiring to me, however, I still wanted to practice my photography. So I had to […]
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My first roll… Kodak T-MAX 400 with a Nikon FE + Nikon Series E 50mm f/1.8 lens
I started taking photos in 2020 as a hobby, the idea of photography excited me as it was a way to see the city and my Vancouver neighbourhood through a different lens. Growing up my mom loved photography and had always had a Nikon FE around. As a child, I loved holding the camera, turning […]
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My first roll… In a Mamiya 7 on Shanghai GP3 100 (120 Format / EI 100 / Mamiya 80mm f/4 lens)
This roll is the peak moment of my path to purchasing the camera I was dreaming about for a long time – the Mamiya 7. And also my entry to medium format film. My journey, from deciding to buy this camera, to actually buying the notoriously expensive Mamiya rangefinder, was not easy. I sold both […]
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My first roll… Kodak Gold 200, Praktica LTL + Sikor-XL 80-200mm f/4.5 & Clubman 28mm f/2.8
My first roll was quite recent, in February of 2020, which feels like years ago now. At the time, I spent a lot of my time wandering in London – I’d regularly pick a spot I want to go see, but without any real activity or goal in mind, I’d wander while listening to a […]
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My first roll… Of 35mm film shooting Street (2012, Leica M3 and Fuji Superia 200)
The problem with these things is never knowing where to start. We are only ever where we are because of what came before.
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My first roll… Of slide film: Fujifilm Provia 100F in a Rolleicord III
A quick word on my photographic origins, a hiatus, and creative evolution: I started with film photography in the late-1990’s to early-2000’s, self-teaching the basics of exposure and composition on a Nikon F65 SLR. I shot that camera for a few years, fairly religiously, though not very seriously. Then, for some (no?) reason, perhaps around 2005, […]
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My first roll of… 35mm film: Lomography CN 400 + the Lomography SuperSampler
In the ’90s and ’80s, everyone shot film. I was barely walking back then and could comfortably fit under a kitchen table standing upright. My dad owned a couple of cameras, so did my grandma and grandpa. I have a few negatives and lots of small prints from that era. But it wouldn’t be fair […]
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My First Roll… Of 120 film: ILFORD HP5 PLUS on a Mamiya RB67 at Palm Springs Air Museum
A return to film. Again… For the fourth time. Yep, FOUR TIMES. I learned on film, eventually abandoned for digital due to work, got bored of digital and went back to film, got a digital Hasselblad, got obsessed with pixel-peeping and left film. Sold the ‘Blad, picked up a shitty Kiev 88 for $60 with […]
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My first roll… of 35mm film (aged eight years old)
The title is a lie. Judging by my mother’s careful organisation of our family photographic archive, the photos I’m about to share are from my third roll of 35mm. The first two were taken during summer camp holidays and mostly feature portraits of other children. They are all grown up now but I do not […]
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My First Roll… of 35mm film: Fuji Colour 400N and a Zorki 6 – by Toni Skokovic
I started my photography hobby with Olympus digital cameras. First a point and shoot Camedia D-550 and then eventually Olympus Evolt E-410 DSLR at around 2007. My transition to film photography started with a single roll of house-brand colour film. In early 2015, purely by chance, I discovered the transparency scanning unit on my Canon […]
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My first roll… Of 120 film: Kodak Portra 160 in a Seagull TLR
I think that it is a wonderful idea to share the thoughts we have when trying something new. Sharing not only perfection in photography but also personal bewilderment makes one more humble towards others’ results and preferrably one learns things in the process. My first roll of 120 film wasn’t entirely my first ever but […]
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My First Roll… Of self-developed black and white film (Kodak T-Max 100, Nikon F2)
I’m going to push the definition of this series but bear with me. First, I’d like to say that this was a disaster but also a learning experience. Like all good stories, this one has a bit of a background to it so let’s start with the question, why get into self-developing film at all? […]
