03-15-2011, 02:10 PM
1. If you are looking for 'professional quality' then expired films are likely not the way to go. If you are looking for 'random, possibly great but possibly terrible' then expired film is fine.
2. Yes, develop on your own.
3. I scan mine with a Nikon Coolscan 8000, but they are not cheap unless you're lucky.
Some ideas for minimizing costs:
1. Shoot black & white. Developers are cheap, so is film. (I shoot mostly TMax 400 but sometimes Tri-X, and these aren't even the cheapest out there.)
2. For C-41, you can buy a repackaged Kodak kit to make 1L of chemicals from the Photographer's Formulary. It lasts longer than what they state on the packaging.
3. For E-6, I have been using the Arista kits from Freestyle. It uses a blix instead of a separate bleach and fix, but I'm OK with that.
4. Some people are getting good results from Epson scanners. I hate Epson because I have had problems with every single item I've ever purchased from them. Printers, scanners, portable storage - all crap.
In answer to your last question: to me, yes it is worth it. I love pulling a developed roll of film from the tank, and there is more quality detail in the negative than you could ever hope for from digital.
I've got a lot of film shots posted on http://blog.seancarpenter.us/ as well.
2. Yes, develop on your own.
3. I scan mine with a Nikon Coolscan 8000, but they are not cheap unless you're lucky.
Some ideas for minimizing costs:
1. Shoot black & white. Developers are cheap, so is film. (I shoot mostly TMax 400 but sometimes Tri-X, and these aren't even the cheapest out there.)
2. For C-41, you can buy a repackaged Kodak kit to make 1L of chemicals from the Photographer's Formulary. It lasts longer than what they state on the packaging.
3. For E-6, I have been using the Arista kits from Freestyle. It uses a blix instead of a separate bleach and fix, but I'm OK with that.
4. Some people are getting good results from Epson scanners. I hate Epson because I have had problems with every single item I've ever purchased from them. Printers, scanners, portable storage - all crap.
In answer to your last question: to me, yes it is worth it. I love pulling a developed roll of film from the tank, and there is more quality detail in the negative than you could ever hope for from digital.
I've got a lot of film shots posted on http://blog.seancarpenter.us/ as well.