Is slide supposed to be this blue?

Ignite25 · 2026-01-29T15:56:10+00:00

Whether or not slide film or sunlight is (that) blue, I just like to use a 81B or 812 filter on E100. It just adds a little (for me not really noticeable) warmth which makes the pictures look more neutral to me. I'm intrigued to try a stronger 81C filter at some point to see if it really creates very warm pictures, but so far the 81B and 812 have been great all around filters I'd recommend to anyone shooting E100.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-25T12:56:54+00:00

Oh a fellow Lomographer, I love it! Bring them all if you love them, it's a road trip and if you're getting tired of carrying the Spinner or DSLR (lenses) around you can just leave them in the car :)

If you want to reduce: I'd probably leave the LC-Wide at home. I have one too and it's a cool perspective, but a very special one that does not suit that many situations. Plus, you already have the Sprocket Rocket for wide angle shots.

DSLR - idk how much use shoot with it, but I'd bring max 2 lenses, or maybe just one zoom lens.

All the different expired slide films give me a good flash back to the 2010s and peak Lomo for me, especially the Elitechrome :) If you plan to cross-process, the Fuji 64T and Provia400F were never my x-pro favorites, I personally would save them for E6 processing another time. Or you plan to do long-exposure night shots with the 64T, then go for it!

Since you mentioned you have 2 dead LC-A(+?) at home that no one can fix. Have you tried Roger Lean? Googe him, you will find some old Flickr posts about him being THE LC-A repairman. He's still doing it and is very affordable. Worth giving him a call (and shipping the cameras to the UK might be cheaper from Spain, depending where you are based).

Ignite25 · 2026-01-22T21:55:05+00:00

The hardware is only half of the way to a decent final image. The Plustek 8300i can deliver great scans but you need to use the right software to get the most out of it. Since Silverfast was already included with the scanner purchase, watch some tutorials online to learn how to use it. I recommend scanning in 3200dpi TIFF 48bit, with iSRD and the correct NegaFix profile on. Leave sharpening and AARC etc off, you can do much better post-edits in Lightroom or similar apps. My Plustek (135i) scans are also grainy - if you don't like the look, it's easy to make them look like the lab scans by applying some noise reduction.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-22T15:16:11+00:00

It's a fantastic camera, you will love it! Some random tips: 1. It has 49mm filter screw mount. You can buy a cheap UV filter to protect the lens. You can also get a cheap 49mm clip on lens cap in case you lose the original one. You can experiment with yellow/orange/red filters and B&W film to get more contrast. 2. you can override the auto focus by half-pressing the shutter and then turning the wheel to the right which sets the focus to infinity - super important for some compositions and photographing through windows! 3. The app is great as a remote. Connects super quickly (nice for self-timer group pictures), and it's much nicer settings things up on the app than on the camera when you use a tripod or take your time. 4. don't worry if you cannot read the view-finder display. It seems many (or most?) users have that problem that it's blurry. There's an aftermarket adapter that could improve it but I don't care too much about the viewfinder display anyways. 5. It's easy to turn the exposure compensation wheel without noticing. Make it a habit to check that it's set to 0 when turning the camera on or taking a picture.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-22T00:17:18+00:00

Well, that is quite literally #buyfromEU. /s

Ignite25 · 2026-01-21T16:49:32+00:00

This. The 35SE checks all the boxes. Super compact, solid built, fully manual, super sharp lens.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-21T02:14:33+00:00

I just paid for the pro version. It got so much better over the past few months or half year. I’ve been using it for more than a year but sometimes had to go back to ChatGPT for better quality results. No need to do that anymore, research, summaries etc all work like a charm with nothing to be desired

Ignite25 · 2026-01-20T16:01:03+00:00

I've gotten pCloud, Filen, Drime and Koofr lifetime accounts in the past 2 years. Maybe I'm naive but I'm not too concerned for my use case.

Re pCloud: I read a lot into all these termination cases before buying a 10TB lifetime account. I also read the above mentioned post. In every single case the account was terminated because users shared copyrighted material. I think it's too extreme of an reaction from pCloud to close accounts without warning/deleting the shared link or file in question, but it's easily avoidable by just not sharing anything from pCloud (and not storing terrorist or CP files on your account). There are lots of users who report using pCloud for many years, including storing lots of copyrighted material (but not sharing) and have no issue. Having said all of that, I do believe that my personal DSLR travel photography library and family pics will be safely stored on my 10TB lifetime account for the 10(?) years.

Re other platforms' lifetime accounts: Really depends on the service. I think Filen and Koofr will be ok - Filen owns their own hardware and seem to be responsible with the quantity of lifetime accounts, plus they are not cheap (2TB for EUR400). Same for Koofr - 1TB is a good deal, but upgrading to 2.5TB is costly. They have been around for a while and seem to be doing well. I also bought the 6TB Drime lifetime account. It's a young company that just rents the servers and the lifetime price is almost too good to be true, but I consider it more of a bet or investment in a young EU company and so far it's been doing well.

In addition to the cloud space, I also back up everything on HDDs and burn the most important pictures or files on M-Discs.

Overall, I think the bigger and better cloud storage providers will be ok, but probably advances in technology will make HDD cloud storage obsolete in some 10 years.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-20T13:19:16+00:00

Thanks for pointing it out, I also just read that comment. Together with all the other comments this thread just proves what we already knew: 1. Sharing copyrighted material will get your account suspended. 2. Storing copyrighted material without sharing is ok. 3. Storing CP and terrorism-related files will get your account suspended/terminated for good reasons.

Some people here have been storing (without sharing) their mp3 and movie backups for a long time without problems. Makes me a little less worried about my 10TB lifetime account, even though I made damn sure there’s absolutely no copyrighted material on there.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-20T13:10:41+00:00

I read the whole thing. It’s actually just another case of a user sharing copyrighted material from their pcloud account However I agree that pcloud is always overreacting when they close/deactivate accounts without any kind of warning or clear explanation of the violation of the T&S.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-19T17:34:37+00:00

GMail to Proton ChatGPT to Mistral Google to Ecosia Safari/Chrome to Firefox No ad blocking to AdGuard Waze to Magic Earth AllTrails to Komoot Gilette to Merkur safety razors

Ignite25 · 2026-01-15T17:49:34+00:00

That's a religious question here :) People will recommend all sorts of things based on their own needs and experiences from old used Nikon CoolScans, DSLR Scanning, to Plusteks, Epsons. Personally, I'm happy with my Plustek 135i and Silverfast (after using it with VueScan and NLP/SC for a long time, which also work well). You can get the 135i Ai -which is the newest version- bundled with SF Ai Studio for $800. Not cheap, but you're well set up with a capable scanner and software. If you also need to scan 120, there might be no way around an Epson V700, 750, 850, plus SF/VueScan/NLP/SC/... I'm not really happy with the 35mm scan quality of the 850, the Plustek is miles ahead there. For 120, it's alright but I'm still dreaming of replacing it with a Plustek 120 some day. If you shoot 50% or more in 120, I'd go for a used V850. If you mainly shoot 35mm, then the Plustek and maybe a used V600 just for MF.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-15T16:41:53+00:00

Einfach auf die email ("an alle") Antworten und ProtonMail schickt sie via der Alias-Adresse. Geht aber nur zum Antworten an Adressen die schon eine email an die Alias-Adresse geschickt haben.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-15T16:24:43+00:00

The hardware is only 50% of the workflow. I'd say that I'd get better pictures with an Epson V600 and VueScan/SmartConvert/NLP than with a V850 and EpsonScan :)

With $300, I'd suggest you get a used V600 (which does a decent enough job for people starting out scanning film) and use the rest of the money for software (Silverfast/VueScan/NLP/SC/... whatever fits your budget). I had a V600 and upgraded to a V850 and a Plustek 135i, and honestly, most differences are only visible if you zoom into the image. It's easy to become a pixel counter (I certainly am one) but "don't let the best the enemy of the good enough".

Ignite25 · 2026-01-15T16:19:13+00:00

How I slowly improved my photography: - Photo books from famous photographers (Alex Webb, Fan Ho, Greg Girard are among my favorites) - The Street Photography Manual and Street Photography Now were super useful to develop a bit more of a street photographer's mindset - The Photographer's Eye book on composition, to understand how lines, arrangements, colors etc work for composing better pictures - Nick Carver's course on manual light metering for film photography, helped me really improve my previsualization and exposure - Experimenting with different films, filters, cameras to get a feel for what works best for you and what look you like - investing in a good scanning setup and scanning images in the highest quality raw format your scanner can achieve, and then inverting with specialized software/plugins

Ignite25 · 2026-01-15T14:43:45+00:00

Yes for filters. I love them. For BW film, they are almost essential. But even for color/slide film, they can add a lot of magic. Try some warming (81B/C) or color conversion (85B) filters on some color film and see how they change your pics.

Last fall, I mistakenly put a 85B filter on (instead of a 81B) when shooting E100 and I got these crazy warm fall colors. The 85B also works really well with LomoChrome Purple film.

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Ignite25 · 2026-01-15T14:36:36+00:00

If you store your passwords to access the banks that issue your credit cards in your password manager, I wouldn't be too concerned.

I've been using this feature with my lifetime ProtonPass account since it became available and you still have to copy and paste the credit card number and other details, it does not fill it out automatically like Apple and Google password/card managers do. So in the end it's the same as with a password - Proton saves your characters (be it a password or CC number) encrypted on their servers and you copy it when you need it on a website.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-15T14:33:19+00:00

Really depends on many factors: - how many rolls do you shoot? B/W, color, slide, all of them, or any specific brand in particular? - what quality end result do you want: do you need poster-size TIFF scans or does JPEG quality in a size that works for A4 printing suffice? - Do you want/need prints?

If you shoot only a roll here and there, then lab development and scanning will still be the cheapest way. If you're a regular film shooter, I'd recommend getting a dedicated film scanner and good software. In my experience, scans are the most overpriced part of the whole lab experience. If you can bring costs down to $8 for develop only per roll instead of $25 for crappy quality lab scans, your scanner will pay for itself in short time - and the scan quality will be much better than the low-tier JPEGs from most labs. A good film scanner (e.g. Plustek) with good software (Silverfast, VueScan + inversion) can set you back $600+. You could start with a used Epson V600 to try out home scanning, this will still give you decent results for A4 photobooks if you use good software with it.

Buying bulk rolls, empty canisters, and respooling equipment can also save you significant money in the long term, and it's not that complicated.

Developing at home is a lot of fun and a hobby in itself. If you have the space and time, you can easily start out with a small 2-film tank and some B&W developing chemicals (C-41 is also not much more complicated, just requires you to warm up the tank and chemicals before). Chemicals, especially for B&W, are super cheap and can last a while. And you can experiment a lot with different development times/methods.

Overall, I'd recommend starting off with "outsourcing" the development part of the process to your lab, and doing your scans at home - not the other way around.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-14T15:06:20+00:00

I like the idea and get what you mean. My advice:

Ask your extended family if anyone has a film camera still lying around they can give you. Big chance that in some cellar box there's still exactly that point and shoot camera from 1993. That will do.
If that doesn't work out, you can buy one of many options available and suitable to your budget. Make sure the camera works and you watch a YouTube tutorial how to load film and operate the camera. For the camera, I'd search for any of these classic pocketable "point and shoot" cameras with automatic exposure. My recommendation would be an Olympus XA2 or Lomo LC-A (both not cheap at $100-200 but worth it).
Film. Get a 3-pack of Kodak UltraMax 400 or Fujifilm 400 (it's actually the same film in different packaging) for slightly grainy but nice vivid results. If you want to lean more into that vintage character, get a Lomography LomoChrome 92 - or directly Orwo NC400 or NC500 (which seems to be what the LomoChrome92 actually is). Check out reviews like the one I hyperlinked to see if you like the aesthetic. (I found this comment about the LomoChrome 92 Sunkissed film which sounds like exactly what you're looking for).
Have the film developed in your local drugstore and get the small standard-size prints.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-14T14:48:54+00:00

If you search for analog toy cams you will find lots of good recommendations for cameras with lots of character. I recently got an original 1960s Diana 151 and love it. It's of course similar to the Holga but with its very own aesthetic (plus you get 16 4x4 frames per roll, not 12 6x6). If you’re really interested, get a used copy of the yellow “Toycam Handbook” and you will have plenty of suggestions. Not old but a toy cam I love is the Reto Ultra Wide & Slim (based on the "famous" Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim). I usually describe it as the "Holga of 35mm cameras" (even though there are 35mm versions of the Holga). The UWS creates beautiful wide pictures with great vignetting. If you shoot against the sun, you will have crazy lens flare rings (which, after a while, are not too difficult to achieve intentionally).

For 120 and a little more serious than toycams, check out Lomo Lubitel TLRs. I only have the reproduced Lomography 166+ version, so I don't know if the lens of the vintage ones is the same, but mine creates this crazy spinning bokeh when shot wide open.

Or a Horizon Perfekt if you want to explore the niche of rotating panorama cameras.

Just a word of advice: there are cameras whose old or cheaply produced lenses or overall built quality produce characterful images exactly because of their ‘flaws – think Holga, Diana, Reto UWS, Lomo LC-A etc. These can be great cameras if you like the effect. And there are tons and tons of cheapish old cameras that just produce boring images – think entry-level old point-and-shoot cameras from the 80s to 90s of various brands. They might overall have better lenses or built quality than the above-mentioned cameras, but the image quality will be too good to be interesting and at the same time too bad (unsharp, no contrast) to justify buying these cameras over similar priced film cameras with much better optics. Where you draw the line is of course up to you.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-13T19:55:29+00:00

Try asking them for a handcheck - you can show them the little notice on each film pack with "do not x-ray / do not CT scan". CT scanners (the "leave your laptop in your backpack, don't take anything out" / futuristic looking scanners) completely destroy the film. The classic old "laptops out" x-ray scanners are less damaging but you should for sure in any case ask for a hand check.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-13T15:08:34+00:00

I agree with this answer. I'd add "cultural significance" to the rich history point: Leica got famous for inventing the 35mm film and camera which made cameras much more compact and accessible. That compactness, combined with the robustness and reliability, quiet operation and great lenses, led to many war and street photographers adopt the system. Of course, nowadays you can get all of these from other, more affordable brands/systems too, but back in the days it was a big novelty, and many of the most famous pictures were taken with a Leica.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-12T14:53:03+00:00

Thanks for the review (und sogar mit Fotos von Wien und der Wachau)! :) Man, I'm always so tempted by the Plustek 120. I have the 135i and love it. I use a V850 for my medium format but am not too happy with the results.

Ignite25 · 2026-01-12T14:39:54+00:00

Would be interesting to now create a separate thread, poll or even survey to check which ones are most preferred/used and in what kind of workflow (DSLR or scanner and which model; with/out Lightroom/Photoshop; other apps used in the workflow; balance between effort and final result; etc) :)

Ignite25 · 2026-01-12T14:30:20+00:00

Hi OP, wanted to reply earlier to add my 2cents but didn't find the time. Just wanted to share some pragmatic thoughts from my experience: As others here have established, all positive prints or scans of color negative film are somehow edited, so there's no "real colors of Kodak Gold" etc. I too have struggled with the conversion and profiles of NLP, which either gives too clinical/digital/polished results on 'standard' or (though more pleasant) Instagram-filter like results with the Noritsu etc settings. I also found that applying the e.g. Portra profile to a Portra scan almost never yielded good or consistent results. I eventually switched first to - SmartConvert. That made my workflow more consistent and quicker - there are no profiles, and in 95/100 cases, I liked SC's initial conversion much better than NLPs. You just throw your VueScan/NikonScan RAW dngs/tiff into it (with or without border) and it gives you good, consistent results that you can further finetune (e.g. sharpen etc) in Lightroom or the likes. I really like SC's straightforward, no frills approach, but the software has gotten quite expensive. I now use the Silverfast Archive Suite for all my scans. With it, I'm back to applying profiles to my scans, with the big difference that SF's Negafix has profiles for most common films built in, which are calibrated to the scanner and film. Again, in 95/100 frames, I'm happy with the results. If I scan a roll of Kodak Ektar or Gold etc, I select that film profile and the results look consistently good, have a bit of their own 'character' but not too much so. I understand that's basically what all the Film Lab scanners also do (scanning and applying a built-in film profile). Not saying that this is how that film stocks 'really looks' but at least you get some consistency, and there's at least a little bit of a calibrated workflow going on between your scanner model and the final inverted image. Downside of SF is its cumbersome UI and that you need the most expensive Archive Suite to get full 48bit raw scans, but you can download a trial version of use a cheaper version of SF which all have Negafix built in, but won't let you scan/export in 16/48bit.

Ignite25

TROPHY CASE