I’ve also been testing out newer film stocks that didn’t exist the last time I shot film seriously. Some of these frames are from walks around our small town here in Central New York. Others were just quick tests in familiar spots.

I thought I would share a few more of them this week. Not perfect, but it’s a learning experience.

I’ve got a few more rolls headed out for processing soon. Comment below if you want to see more posts like this.

✅ Where to Find Me

You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography

If you want to work with me, or inquire about licensing images: Contact Page

More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.

🎒 The Gear Bag - Gear and Inspiration

Some links in this section are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share gear and resources I personally use or believe in.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• Vanguard VEO 3T Travel Tripod

• What I’m currently reading… David duChemin’s The Heart of the Photograph. David is always a great source of inspiration, and this book is an excellent read.

Before pulling my old film cameras out of storage, I had all but forgotten how a light meter actually works. I knew the basics, of course, but I hadn’t appreciated just how much modern gear does behind the scenes

Autofocus performance gets a lot of attention in photography discussion groups, but metering? That function operates quietly in the background, almost invisibly. And yet, it makes constant decisions for us, adjusting exposure in ways we barely notice until we shoot with something that doesn’t do it.

Then I picked up the 1980s Minolta XG-M, and reality set in.

As I’ve been scanning negatives from the first ten rolls of film I’ve shot in nearly two decades, I keep seeing underexposed frames. Shadows are murky. Grain is much more aggressive than expected. In some cases, I tried to recover detail during scanning, but there just wasn’t enough information on the negative to pull out.

That’s when it hit me: this meter is easy to fool. And I was trusting it too much.

Modern digital cameras are packed with computing power that, back when the XG-M was built, would have required a roomful of gear. They analyze a scene across multiple zones, recognize subject types, and make exposure decisions based on advanced algorithms.

The Minolta? Not so much.

It uses a simple center-weighted averaging meter, heavily influenced by whatever’s in the middle of the frame. Many cameras from this era used CdS photoresistors or early silicon photodiodes, both of which have limitations. CdS sensors, in particular, are slow to react and prone to drifting with age. Even silicon-based sensors in that era were limited by very simple processing.

Between the narrow metering pattern and the potential for aging electronics, these systems often need a helping hand. If you assume they’ll “just work,” you’ll likely end up with frames like the one below.

In this image, a bright sky threw off the meter, which exposed for the upper portion of the frame. The result: underexposed shadows, excessive grain, and murky tones. I tried to adjust during scanning, but the detail just wasn’t there.

With no sky or strong contrast in the frame, the meter did much better. Exposure feels spot-on, colors are rich, and the background falls away nicely. This is the kind of scene a vintage meter handles well.

Tips for Getting Better Exposures with Vintage Meters

• Watch out for high-contrast scenes
  If there’s a bright sky, snow, or deep shadows, your meter may need some help. Watch what it’s suggesting, and then meter while pointing at other areas of the scene. This will help you decide if you need to make adjustments.

• Tilt the camera slightly
  Meter from a midtone or your subject (not the sky), then recompose. You’ll get a more accurate reading without blowing out or crushing shadows.

• Use exposure compensation, or adjust manually
  If your camera allows, add +1 stop in backlit scenes. Or just mentally adjust and open up the aperture or slow the shutter.

• Practice the Sunny 16 Rule
  On sunny days: f/16, shutter speed = film ISO (e.g. 1/250 for ISO 200). It’s a great gut check for whether your meter is in the ballpark.

• Watch your film stock’s latitude
  Color negative film usually has more latitude than black and white. Slide film has almost none. Get to know the film you’re using, and watch some reviews on it; they usually push films to see how they react. Know what you can recover later, and what you can’t.

• Use a phone app meter to double-check
  Phone apps like Light Meter or LightMeter Free can help verify exposure if you’re unsure. Great for tricky scenes or questionable meters. I paid $30 for Light Meter for a one-year subscription, but there are also free ones available.

This may sound like a lot of extra work, but after a little practice, this becomes second nature.

For this image, I put the camera in manual mode. Between the glare on the water and the sky, the camera was calling for more than the 1/1000 quickest shutter speed on the camera in aperture priority mode. I metered farther to the right, then set the camera’s aperture and shutter manually to get this shot.

As a GenX photographer, I learned photography on this gear. The reason I have started using it again, at least occasionally, is that it tests me. It makes me slow down and really think about what I’m doing. This is all part of it. It’s a part that I had not thought much about, but it’s part of it. And I’m enjoying the challenge.

✅ Where to Find Me

You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography

If you want to work with me, or inquire about licensing images: Contact Page

More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.

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💬 Closing Thoughts

I’m not sponsored by KEH, but if you are looking for a good vintage camera without a lot of surprises (and a store that backs their purchase), go to KEH.com and check out their vintage film gear. You will get better deals on eBay if you want to beat the price, but there are advantages to buying from a reputable dealer.

Here I am, returning to the cameras that started my photo journey. There are film options that didn’t exist 30 years ago, like the Harman Phoenix 200 that I just got back from the lab. I won’t go as far as replacing my digital cameras with film. However, it’s fun to put 36 exposures through a fully manual camera again. Here are some of my favorites from this roll.

Phoenix is a unique film. Warm to the point I want to call it a color cast. And grainy. Overall, it gives it a very vintage feel. Some of the shots that really didn’t work were ones where the image already had a deep orange color (sunsets). I think the next time I shoot a roll of this, I might avoid landscapes completely and try things that are just not as warm to begin with.

The first two are from Otsego Lake. Both were taken a little while before sunset, with warm tones already in the sky.

Next are some flowers at the south end of the lake, around the same time of day as the lake shots.

I will be experimenting more with Phoenix in the coming weeks. Let me know if you have tried it, and if so, what your experience is with it. And let me know what you think about the look of this film. So far, it seems like it may be good for certain types of images, but I feel it’s only a niche film for shots where you want to get that old faded postcard feel. But I will try some different subjects with the next roll and see how it goes.

✅ Where to Find Me

You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography

If you want to work with me, or inquire about licensing images: Contact Page

More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.

🎒 The Gear Bag - Gear and Inspiration

Some links in this section are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share gear and resources I personally use or believe in.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

I highly recommend adding the book The Power of Photography by Peter Fetterman to your collection. Fetterman is not a photographer, he is an art collector. This book is a collection of impactful images, and commentary on them and the photographers that took them.

All of my images of things that were moving (mostly trains) were coming out blurry. I was taking pictures with a 35mm point-and-shoot camera, which was all I had ever used. There was no way to control shutter speed or anything else. I finally asked a friend, who was a professional photographer, what I should buy to learn how to use a “real camera.” His reply pointed me to a few different early 80s manual film cameras from Minolta. They were solid, reliable, inexpensive, and relatively easy to use. Soon, the Minolta XG-M entered my life and started me down the road I’m on today.

Why the XG-M Was (and Is) the Perfect First Camera

When I purchased this camera, it was only about 15 years old or so. Compared to the top-end cameras of its day, it wasn’t missing too many bells and whistles. It could shoot in manual and aperture priority modes. Higher-end models had shutter priority and program modes. The pro models had a faster top-end shutter speed and more durable bodies.

It was inexpensive, and there was a good variety of affordable lenses. It also had all the basic capabilities I needed to learn how to compose and expose an image properly. With aperture priority mode, it provided just a little help, so I didn’t have to get wrapped up in getting the exposure right. But it was also just “manual enough,” so I had to learn about aperture and shutter speed.

Back then, ISO was a property of the film you loaded in your camera. I didn’t hear the term Exposure Triangle much.

What made that a solid learning camera then, still holds true today. If you want to learn analog photography, or even photography in general, these are still good cameras. There are XG-M’s available for $150 or less for a body, and lenses for under $50. It does everything you would need, and leaves you enough control to force you to learn about how to create an image. It’s lightweight, it gets out of the way of your photography, and it makes a very satisfying CLICK when you expose a frame

.

What It Didn’t Have (and Why That Helped)

Compared to today’s cameras, this seems much more primitive. The most obvious difference is that there is no screen to immediately see your shot. No chimping, no quick corrections, and no trial and error to get the right exposure and composition. And you won’t be using the screen to compose your shot if you’re used to using a camera like a phone. You will be using the viewfinder.

It has a 1/1000 of a second MAXIMUM shutter speed, which at first doesn’t seem terrible, but it is surprisingly limiting. If you are shooting on a bright sunny day, you won’t be using f2.8 for a shallow depth of field. And hopefully you didn’t load a higher ISO roll of film in the camera because you are going to be dealing with that until the roll is finished.

There is no EXIF information embedded in your images. If you make mistakes with your exposure, you won’t be able to check the EXIF data to see what you did, so you can do better next time. Carry a notebook and take good notes.

And of course, there is no autofocus. Your photography becomes slow and intentional. You need to anticipate where the shot will be if it’s something that’s moving. When you do it more, it will go faster, but there is no focus tracking, and no quick shots unless you are prepared.

Slow and intentional. If you don’t like the sound of that, I encourage you to try it before making a judgment. Slowing down and thinking about your photography can have a big impact on your compositions and your creativity. If you are just learning or going back to try analog after learning on digital, this approach can positively affect your photography skills.

What Makes a Great Beginner Film Camera Today

If you can’t find a Minolta XG-M, there are several similar camera models available today. Minolta has the X-700, X-570, XD11, and X-370. There is also the Canon AE-1, the Nikon FE, and the Pentax K1000, to name a few.

What distinguishes a good beginner film camera? This is very subjective. But the initial traits that molded my photography were the manual focus and aperture priority. A decent built-in light meter and reliable build quality let you enjoy the experience, but still require that you do enough work to learn the basics.

You can use a point-and-shoot to get decent images from a roll of film. It’s quick, and it does everything for you. And you will get the phone look. But just like I learned years ago, you have no control, and ultimately, you don’t learn the basics of photography.

Lessons That Still Hold Up

The XG-M taught me how to get proper exposure. I couldn’t rely on post-processing to the extent we can today. There was no Photoshop for a safety net. I learned to shoot using aperture priority on this camera, which is still my preference today. Not everyone will agree with that, but it’s what works for me.

The XG-M molded my shooting style to the extent that 30 years later, I have begun to revisit analog photography once again. It does not feel out of place after using digital cameras from Canon and Fujifilm, and now returning to my Minolta XG-M. Other than the painfully slow 1/1000 shutter speed and not being able to change the ISO mid-roll, I feel right at home with the camera settings. Just like I never left.

✅ Where to Find Me

You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography

If you want to work with me, or inquire about licensing images: Contact Page

More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.

💬 Closing Thoughts

I posted a short article last week that I didn’t send out via email. Check out Photographing a Hazy Sunset for your viewing pleasure if you missed it.

If you are in the market for used film photography gear, and don’t want to try to navigate eBay or Marketplace, check out KEH.com. They have a good selection of analog gear, and are up front about the condition of each piece of equipment they sell.

A little research turned up some tips on shooting expired film. One tip is to overexpose one stop for each 10 years since the film’s expiration date. So I set the camera up to overexpose the film by 1. Here are two images from the lab (mpix.com) when they developed and scanned them for me. These are two of the initial unmodified images.

First, the obvious issue. There appears to be a light leak. With a camera made in the early to mid-80s, it was probably not unheard of. And with what I paid, it could be worse. Aside from this, the camera is in great shape. I’m researching my options for getting that door gasket re-sealed. I will save the fix for this until last.

I’m also noticing that the images are slightly flat due to the overexposure. Expired film may also contribute to this. I am biased toward more contrast anyway, so that might also influence my opinion. This is partly personal taste, so I’m not saying this is what has to be done, but I brought them into Lightroom and dropped the exposure a half stop, then added a little contrast. Here are the results:

This is a subtle change. It’s film, so I hate to do a lot digitally. I mainly want to correct the effects of that overexposure. If someone wanted to, more could be done. But I want to leave them close to the original.

The last thing to deal with is the light leak. I started by verifying that the camera had an issue. I posted a note on this a few days ago. I found a little opening along the edge of the door to the film compartment. So we will get that fixed as long as that is the only problem. To fix the images, I thought I would see how Photoshop would do with it.

When I had this roll of film developed, I did not spring for the high-res scans. I mainly wanted to be able to see the results quickly. So these are low-res JPGs, which don’t give me a lot to work with.

I brought the images into Photoshop, and the first thing I tried was the quick and dirty method. I put a lasso outline around the light leak and hit the generative fill option. I did not type any instructions; I just clicked on Generate to see what happened. Photoshop’s AI magically just fixed it. As easy as it was, it seems a little anticlimactic. But it didn’t take much. I think it would be much tougher with abnormalities in the middle of the frame rather than along the edge. And if there were more complex details, it would make it even worse. But in this case, it was a quick fix.

Here are the final images:

With this, I have officially returned to analog photography. No, I’m not going all in and selling my Fujifilm gear. I will still be doing a majority of my work with a digital camera. But I’m hooked on shooting with film again as well. I will be posting here with future experiments. I’ve got a few different film stocks I want to try out, a camera to get repaired and make usable again (hopefully), and a number of techniques that I never attempted 30 years ago.

Comment below if you have had any experience with expired film or troubleshooting issues with vintage gear. I would love to hear about it.

✅ Where to Find Me

You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography

If you want to work with me, or inquire about licensing images: Contact Page

More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.

I had 4 rolls of Fujifilm Superia X-tra color film given to me that expired in 2017. With film becoming more and more popular, I finally dug my Minolta gear out of the closet it had been stored away in for over 20 years. Much of my film gear was sold on eBay after I went all in with digital, but I kept a couple of cameras and lenses that I was a bit sentimental about. That’s enough to see if this film is any good. So I loaded a roll into the camera.

Most of the first two rolls were shot up on car rides here and there as I am recovering from knee surgery. The images aren’t anything great, but I would like to pass on what I have (re)learned from this experience.

Shutter Speed

My current digital camera has a maximum shutter speed of 1/8000s. Do I use that, no. Hardly ever. But on a bright day, I never have to worry about having a fast enough shutter speed if I want to shoot at f1.4.

The Minolta X-700 tops out at 1/1000s. Trying to shoot at f5.6 outdoors in the bright sun? May need to make some adjustments. I ran into this with a roll of 400 speed black and white I’m currently shooting, which I am pushing one stop as an experiment. I had to go to f8 and f11. It was ok for what I was shooting but it took away some of my options.

And that brings me to…

ISO

I’m used to shooting at whatever ISO makes sense right now, based on the light, and the exposure settings I want. I’ve been reluctant to use auto ISO as much as some photographers do. Partly because I learned with film, and partly because of the older digital cameras that gave you terrible image quality if you went too high with the ISO setting.

With a film camera, you load a roll that has a certain ISO rating, which is a physical property of the film. You aren’t locked into it, people push and pull film shooting it above or below the rated ISO. But whatever you do, the whole roll will have to be developed at the same setting.

EXIF

I have become very reliant on the EXIF info embedded in my images. When something doesn’t look right, I can see every detail about what I did and where I need to make changes. With the film camera, I rely on my memory, or a notebook if I need something more reliable.

No Screen

And the most obvious… there is no screen. No preview of your exposure. No histogram. No chimping after the shot to see if you nailed it. You will not see what you have until it’s processed.

Takeaways

The main thing I’m taking away from this experience is that I’ve grown soft. Today’s cameras have so many options that let you concentrate on image composition and creativity. Modern cameras just get out of the way and let you be creative.

The debates about what camera has the best autofocus are definitely a new concept.

Will I keep shooting film or put the camera away for another 20 years? I’ll keep shooting film. It won’t be my primary camera like some die-hard film shooters today. But I’ll keep shooting it. There is something intangible about the analog images. The pixels seem more static somehow. And the look… I am not sure how to explain it, but it just looks different to me.

And that audible mechanical click, from not only the shutter but the mirror. The act of winding the film. Manually focusing the camera - yeah there are newer autofocus film cameras but I only kept the one from 1981. And shooting 24-36 exposures and then having to reload. The process slows you down. It makes you consider each shot carefully. It adds value to each frame.

Note

The images in this article were from one of those expired rolls of film. I have not altered the color or contrast beyond whatever the lab did when they were scanned. I did slightly crop/straighten the one of the door, but that would have been done 25 years ago if I had it printed.

Let me know in the comments if you are trying, or retrying, film photography and what you think about the experience.

✅ Where to Find Me

You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography

If you want to work with me, or inquire about licensing images: Contact Page

More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.

Subscribe now

🎒 The Gear Bag - Gear and Inspiration

Some links in this section are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share gear and resources I personally use or believe in.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• The images in this article were processed and scanned by MPix. I have no sponsorship or affiliate agreement with them, but I have been using them for printing quite a bit over the years.

• MPix only develops color images. I am also trying other labs. Watch this space for more info.

• A useful book I just picked up is called One Photo A Day Keeps The Dr Away. Inspiring photo prompts and exercises for fun or developing your creativity.

Recovering from knee surgery and stuck in the house, it feels like many things are on hold while I focus on rehab. I recently pulled some of my old film cameras out of storage, so I’ve been binge-watching several YouTube channels from people shooting film to see what new film stocks are available and what they are doing with them. Many of these YouTubers have just found film, where I learned photography shooting film, before digital existed.

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A Ticking Clock

One of these channels is from Teo Crawford. His videos are relaxing, showing travel videos mingled with the images he creates. In one video, he was creating images of a watch for the company that made it. In it, he pointed out that a camera and a watch are similar but opposite. A camera captures and records slices of time, while a watch marks the unstoppable advance of time. The unstoppable advance of time. The more years you have behind you, the louder those words resonate. It is indeed unstoppable. So, what does it mean to capture time? What is the value of a moment captured in a still frame?

Past and Present

Another project I have been undertaking in recent months is digitizing old slides. Some that I took back before digital, some that my father took over the years, and some that I found in a local antique shop. Going through my dad’s slides has been an interesting experience. Besides some boxes with old photos that came from my parents, the slides are essentially his image archive, similar to my Lightroom catalog. The images from his archive are all very intentional and taken with purpose. They are all very significant slices of time.

I compare that to today: While his slides were slices of time from rolls of 24 or 36 exposures, possibly taken over a month or more, I sometimes take hundreds of images daily with a digital camera or phone. Instead of thinking carefully about one image, I often take many shots until I get the composition I want.

The Value of Slowing Down

I heard this in an interview on the Photowalk podcast from .

“Weeks shoot by, but there’s an eternity in a minute” —

That line stuck with me as I have pondered the passage of time and the old images I have been looking at. I think there are more “eternities” early in life. Being just under that line that says you must be “this tall” to ride at an amusement park. Being almost old enough to get a driver’s license. Waiting to graduate from high school so you can start… what? College, a job, the rest of your life? These early milestones take forever to come. But as time progresses, we look for ways to slow the passage of time. We look for minutes that will take longer to pass.

I recently put a roll of film in one of my old cameras. And the differences between photography today and photography 30 years ago are apparent immediately. My process has changed gradually over time, without much thought. There is no screen on the camera, only a viewfinder. Snapping, viewing the results, and snapping again until you get what you want is impossible. You can even see how the exposure will look on a mirrorless camera. Too light, too dark? How’s the histogram look? Should I change the white balance? There’s no burst mode to ensure you get the exact moment a baseball and bat make contact. None of that. The speed and accuracy of a camera’s autofocus capabilities are no longer relevant. My older film camera is manual focus. No quick snaps, you need to take some time and focus. And most importantly, you won’t know if you got everything right until the role is developed, scanned, or printed.

Learning From Analog

I have learned a lot about photography from the immediate feedback of digital and the detailed information in the EXIF data stored with each image. But there is also something to be learned from returning to analog. Shooting film again, at least for me, takes more time getting one image right. 36 exposures on a roll means that I also spend much more time thinking about a subject before even putting the camera up to my eye. Shooting action requires pre-focusing on a spot where the shot will happen, and pressing the shutter release at the precise time the action is at its peak. The whole process of creating an image slows down dramatically. It sets a different pace.

Legacy and Memories

Looking through my dad’s archive of photos gives me a deep sense of nostalgia. He left behind a highly curated record of moments that were significant to him—memories he felt were worth capturing and sharing. I doubt he thought much about what those images would mean 50 years later, but in the moment, they mattered. And because they mattered to him, they now matter to me.

My Archive

So what am I leaving behind? And how might returning to film—at least occasionally—change the way I think about it?

I don’t expect to shoot less digitally. I’ll still take plenty of “sketch” shots to explore a scene and refine my composition. But I do think film will continue to influence me toward a more mindful approach—one where intention matters more than volume.

As for my digital library? It needs better curation. Right now, someone scrolling through it would find a lot of clutter. They wouldn’t see a carefully chosen collection of meaningful moments, the way my father’s archive shows his. That’s something I need to change.

Closing Thoughts - Why I Keep Shooting

“If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time” — Gabriella Lester

I enjoy everything about photography, from the process of exploring and looking for a composition to the collecting and cataloging of images—moments in time. These moments are not about nostalgia; they are about presence. And I hope that sometime in the future, they will provide a sense of nostalgia.

And what do I get out of shooting film again? The process of shooting analog does not really slow down the advance of time. But it does ask you to respect it.

✅ Where to Find Me

You can find more of my work on the web at: Simmons Photography

If you want to work with me, or inquire about licensing images: Contact Page

More of my work can be seen on Vero and Flickr.

🎒 The Gear Bag - Gear and Inspiration

Some links in this section are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share gear and resources I personally use or believe in.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• One of the most creatively inspiring books I’ve read in a while is Light, Space, and Time by David DuChemin. It’s not a typical photography book.

• If you are looking for a film camera, check out KEH. If you are adventurous, you can find bargains on eBay. But KEH sells gear that has been checked over, and they will tell you exactly what shape it’s in. I’m not sponsored by KEH, and I do not have any affiliate agreement with them. But I have purchased from them in the past, and they have been great to deal with.

✒️ Loose Ends

• If you’re visiting NY State Parks on a regular basis, I highly recommend the Empire Pass. The parks are a great destination for hiking trails and photo ops, so I normally visit often.

• If you are planning on exploring the St Lawrence River region, Wellesley Island State Park should be on your short list of places to stay, or at least to visit. This is one of my favorite State Parks in the St Lawrence region.