What is the best cheap film camera for black and white photography?
Posted by brian | Posted in Black and White Photography Help | Posted on 07-26-2010
Tags: Best, Black, Camera, Cheap, Film, Photography, White
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I use an old Mamiya from the 70’s. You can get one on ebay for like $40 I think. I think pretty much any old SLR will due as long as you’re not too serious. But make sure it’s an SLR…
just get a chep film camera at target or walmart for like 10 bucks, then buy Black & White film. BINGO
Any 35mm SLR camera will do. There are lots on the Internet, but you can also check your local flea market or camera shop. The problem with cheap is that they are usually used and may not work well. Now if you mean inexpensive, you can get a SLR for about 100.00, a basic Nikon, or Canon will do fine. The best film for Black and White is Kodak 400 TX.
You leave a lot of unanswered questions. Are you looking to start a photographic career, or are you just looking to learn to process B&W film on your own? I would start with either a 35mm or a 120 camera. 35mm brands include Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, all good brands and models can be picked up at relatively low cost. 120 cameras include Mamiya, Yashica, Lubitel twin Lens varieties, or there are the 120 folders as well. All can be had on ebay for relatively low cost. If you are going to process and print your own film you can try a variety of films but I prefer the Ilford films and papers. There is more left in Ilford film and paper stock than any other manufacturer and they have a very good silver halide content too. I prefer Pan F and Delta 100 as my primary shooting films for B&W and process them in Ilfosol developer. Kodak TX 400 is B&W film that can be processed and printed in color film chemistry. You can use this as an option if you aren’t going to develop your own film. If you aren’t going to process your own then shoot test rolls and send them to different labs to see who gives you the best results before sending anything significant. You may want to look for a local lab too, but most folks do their own. Get a film developing tank and a wasted roll of film to practice loading film in the tank in the daylight until you can do it without looking. Then you will be ready to load your film in the dark. You can use a traditional darkroom, or use a film scanner and print digital B&W but traditional darkroom printing still beats digital B&W hands down! Good luck! Email me if you want more info!
if you’re looking for a cheap, fun film camera there’s no better bet than holga (see link). they use 120 film which usually needs to be special ordered/processed although it’s not any more expensive than 35mm film. drawback is that you need an actual camera shop to process and print the film. wal-mart, et al, can’t do it. but holga does make 35mm adapters and 35mm cameras which can be printed anywhere. they are very simple cameras to use and will help you learn the craft of photography. holga also makes a host of accessories (also cheap) to dress up the camera including fisheye lenses, split image filters, and color filters. hope this helps and good luck.